Margaret Bentinck, Duchess of Portland
Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland was the richest woman in Great Britain of her time, styled Lady Margaret Harley before 1734, Duchess of Portland from 1734 to her husband's death in 1761, and Dowager Duchess of Portland from 1761 until her own death in 1785.
Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland by Christian Friedrich Zincke, 1738
Portrait c. 1744 by Thomas Hudson
John Lightfoot (biologist)
The Reverend John Lightfoot was an English parson-naturalist, spending much of his free time as a conchologist and botanist. He was a systematic and effective curator of the private museum of Margaret Bentinck, Duchess of Portland. He is best known for his Flora Scotica which pioneered the scientific study of the plants and fungi of Scotland. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society for his scientific work.He was an excellent scholar in many branches of literature; but after the study of his profession, he addicted himself chiefly to that of botany and conchyliologie [sic]. He excelled in both.
Title page of Flora Scotica, 1777, by the Reverend John Lightfoot
The Roman cameo glass "Portland Vase" from about AD 25 is the most famous object in the collection that Lightfoot curated.
Lobelia dortmanna from Lightfoot's 1777 Flora Scotica, painted by Moses Griffith and engraved by Peter Mazell