Emma was born in Portugal Street (now
Piccadilly), Hyde Park, London, the daughter of
Richard Edgcumbe, 2nd Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, and his wife, the former Lady Sophia Hobart. She married the earl on 17 July 1828 at
St George's, Hanover Square, London. In 1830 she was appointed a
Lady of the Bedchamber to
Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, queen consort of King
William IV of the United Kingdom, a position she retained until Adelaide's death in 1849. Her portrait was painted by
James Rannie Swinton during the 1840s. Following her husband's death in 1853, she was known as the Dowager Countess Brownlow. The earl's son having predeceased him, the title passed to his grandson, John William Spencer Brownlow Egerton-Cust, who died in 1867, and thereafter to John's younger brother,
Adelbert Brownlow-Cust, 3rd Earl Brownlow. She died at her home, Belton Lodge, in
Torquay, aged 80. ==Works==