A house painter's daughter claimed to be a royal princess, and a jury ruled her proofs forged in 1866 without hearing the Crown's full reply

Olivia Wilmot was born in Warwick on 3 April 1772, the daughter of a house painter. She married the marine painter John Thomas Serres in 1791 and separated from him in 1804. In 1817 she petitioned the king, saying she was the daughter of Henry, Duke of Cumberland, brother of George III. In 1820 she said she was his legitimate daughter by a secret marriage on 4 March 1767, and called herself Princess Olive of Cumberland. She was rebaptised as Olive in September 1821. She produced a will of George III, witnessed by Chatham and Dunning, that left £15,000 to "Olive, the daughter of our brother of Cumberland". In June 1823 Home Secretary Robert Peel told the Commons her claims had no basis, and a motion for an inquiry failed. Her husband's 1825 will disowned her claims. She died within the rules of the King's Bench debtors' prison on 21 November 1834. Her daughter Lavinia Ryves took up the claim. In 1844 a Chancery suit against the Duke of Wellington, as George IV's executor, failed. In June 1866 she petitioned for a declaration that her mother was the legitimate daughter of the Duke. About 70 documents were produced. After the Solicitor General, Sir Roundell Palmer, spoke for the Crown, the jury unanimously found the signatures forged. Lavinia died at Haverstock Hill on 7 December 1871. No court has recognised the claim.