The eldest son, Viscount Brackley, and his younger brother Thomas, died aged 11 and 7 respectively, along with their private tutor, in a fire which destroyed the family's London home of Bridgwater House.[1] Both boys were buried on 14 April 1687 at Little Gaddesden, Hertfordshire.[2] This left a younger brother, Scroop, as the heir to the earldom.
Following her husband's death, Jane was known by the title "Dowager Countess of Bridgewater". In 1724 a controversy arose over the distribution of property in her will, causing her daughter Elizabeth to instigate a court case.[3]
^G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume II, page 313.