Britains first black marchioness Emma Weymouth is a billionaire oil heiress, London socialite, St

Publish date: 2024-08-14

The former Emma McQuiston, a London-born socialite brought up in exclusive South Kensington, married Ceawlin in 2013. Emma moved into Longleat House, the Thynn family seat which Ceawlin had taken over the management of from his father in 2010, and the couple had two sons, John and Henry.

The 9,000-acre Longleat estate in Wiltshire, southwest England, is famous for its safari park created by Ceawlin’s grandfather. Emma has already become involved in running the estate including conservationism and setting up food ventures. So who is the new Marchioness of Bath?

Emma is Britain’s first black marchioness

She’s the daughter of Nigerian billionaire oil tycoon Oladipo Jadesimi and English socialite Suzanna McQuiston.

The Marchioness of Bath first met her husband when they were children

Emma’s half-brother Iain McQuiston is married to Ceawlin’s aunt Lady Silvy, and according to the British magazine Tatler, Emma met her future husband when she was a bridesmaid aged four at their wedding. “I would see Ceawlin at Christmas, Easter and family get-togethers,” she told Tatler [in 2013.] Romance did not spark however until the pair ran into each at London members’ club Soho House decades later.

Lady Bath is good friends with the late Sir David Tang’s son

“Edward Tang and I met on our first day at UCL [University College London] and stuck together for our three year history of art course,” she wrote for Vogue where she is a contributing editor. “We have remained firm friends ever since. Ed is godfather to [my eldest] son, John.”

She’s a keen cook

“I have always loved entertaining and creating culinary experiences for others,” she wrote on her lifestyle blog, Emma Weymouth. On becoming Viscountess Weymouth she developed Emma’s Kitchen, set within the Victorian kitchens in the basement of Longleat and researching the estate’s long history of recipes. She has also launched food festivals at Longleat.

The Marchioness is also adept at Chinese food

“Emma liked to bring me back to her family’s house and feed me,” Edward Tang told Vanity Fair. “Things like Sunday roasts and desserts from scratch but also Chinese food, a daring thing to attempt around someone with my background. And she passed with flying colours.”

She’s the first titled celebrity to appear on the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing  

Last year the then Viscountess Emma Weymouth joined Strictly – the equivalent of Dancing with the Stars show in the US – upon which she told the BBC website: “I’m really, really looking forward to the onslaught of glitter”.

The marchioness works out every morning

“I usually wake up around 6.45am and I start the day with interval training or some Tabata or on my Peloton bike,” she told The Daily Telegraph newspaper.

She’s hands-on looking after the animals at Longleat

“There’s really no typical day when it comes to managing Longleat,” she told Vogue. “I might be building out our conservation programme for endangered red pandas, or giving the rhinos a bath in the Wiltshire mud – their absolute favourite.”

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