Conville & Walsh

With the death of her coal magnate father when she was just 11, Mary Eleanor Bowes became the richest heiress in Britain. Beset by admirers and fortune seekers, Mary was nonetheless a highly intelligent young woman who pursued her own intellectual interests into adulthood. Yet just as she had resigned herself to a married life of dutiful domesticity, a charming young army hero blew onto the London scene: ‘Captain’ Andrew Robinson Stoney. Torn between her two lovers Mary was a rabbit caught in lamplight. So when Stoney then insisted on defending her honour in a duel, Mary was convinced that she had at last found true love. They married four days later. She was 26.

Sadly, the ‘Captain’ was not what he seemed. In reality, a scheming and debt-ridden lieutenant who had faked the duel solely to secure Lady Strathmore’s hand, his money troubles were so notorious that he would inspire the term ‘stony broke’. No sooner had he duped the Countess of Strathmore into accompanying him down the aisle, than he embarked on a relentless campaign of physical and mental torture. Repeatedly beaten, kicked, pinched, scratched, burnt and whipped, the Countess was denied visitors or letters, refused the food and clothing that she desired, and could only watch helplessly as her ancestral homes were neglected or sold, her beloved conservatories and hothouses were disposed of and her fortune was squandered. Servants saw her husband lock her in a cupboard, force her to eat potatoes until she was sick and threaten to kill her at knifepoint. Meanwhile, her husband – adopting the Bowes family name after their marriage – brought prostitutes into the house, raped the nursemaids and sired numerous illegitimate children.

The story of how she escaped (after eight years), commenced divorce proceedings, was recaptured by Stoney to be dragged accross snow-covered moors half way to Ireland, and eventually freed when a group of plucky villagers attacked her captor, is gripping. More extraordinary than this is that at a time when total subservience was demanded of wives by Georgian law, she exacted revenge by dragging him victoriously through the law courts. WEDLOCK will inject fresh blood into that market for histories of extraordinary Georgian women.