Josephine Ruxburgh
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| Portrayed by Phyllida Law | |
| Full Name | Josephine Frances Ruxburgh, Dowager Viscountess of Ruxburgh |
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| Associated Noble House(s) | Viscountcy of Ruxburgh |
| Date of Birth | 3rd June 1734 |
| Father | Charles Brandon |
| Father's Rank | Baron |
| Mother | Harriet Brandon, neé Barnsted |
| Mother's Rank | Dowager Baroness |
| Town Residence | 8 Portman Square |
| Year of Debut | 1752 |
| Dowry | £5000 |
| Year of Marriage | 1754 |
| Spouse | Ira Ruxburgh |
| Spouse's Rank | Viscount |
| Year of Widowhood | 1788 |
| Issue | Richard Ruxburgh, Henrietta Ruxburgh |
Lady Ruxburgh is the grandmother of Mr. Ira Wilson, and the great-grandmother of the young Miss Roberta Wilson. She is currently residing in Portman Square with them.
Josephine is an NPC created by Elinor.
Family
- Husband: Ira Ruxburgh, Viscount Ruxburgh (deceased). Born 1728, died 1788, aged 60.
- Son: Richard Ruxburgh, Viscount Ruxburgh (deceased). Born 1755, died 1811, aged 56.
- Daughter: The Honourable Henrietta Ruxburgh (disowned, deceased). Born 1758, died 1786, aged 28.
- Son-in-Law: Mr Robert Wilson (deceased). Born 1755, died 1786, aged 31.
- Grandson: Mr Ira Wilson. Born 1780, is 31 years old.
- Great-grandaughter: Miss Roberta Wilson. Born 1804, is 7 years old.
Background
Josephine married Ira Ruxburgh very much for his title rather than anything else. He was certainly not the kind of man she had envisioned herself spending the rest of her life with, but he was rich and titled and had expressed an interest in her. He was a controlling man from a Navy family, and ordered her around like she was somebody on one of his father's ships. Nevertheless, she bit her tongue and carried on, producing two children and running the household with an astounding eye to detail.
Her children were never the people their father wished for them to be; Richard kind and shy and - as she discovered one day in the stables when he was fifteen - destined to be a bachelor for life, Henrietta a strong and willful young woman who took little pleasure in her own status. The year she turned twenty-one, 1779, Henrietta eloped with a footman from one of her friends' estate. Ira was enraged, as she had broken off an unofficial engagement with an Earl who was a friend of his, and disowned her. In 1801, aged forty-six, her son returned from a trip to the Continent not with the beautiful young woman she had desperately hoped for, but with a handsome young Italian artist, Lorenzo Ricchetti, aged seventeen, who lived with him until his death in 1811 and continues to reside in the house on Portman Square.
Josephine loved her children no matter their foibles, and discreetly assisted with Richard's lifelong hunt for his sister. Though she was heartbroken last month to learn of her daughter's death so many years prior, she has once more called upon the iron determination that is so evident in her grandson, and has tasked herself not only with the fight for the reinstatement of the Viscountcy, but also with the societal education of her grandson and great-granddaughter.