We shall never know what more he might have done for her in future years but, alas for Mary Eleanor, she lost her beloved father when she was only eleven years old. George died on the 17 th of September 1760, at the age of fifty-nine, leaving his only child in the care of her mother. At this very young age, she immediately became one of the richest heiresses in the kingdom. This made her a highly attractive prospect as a wife, of course, but it also made her vulnerable. She could not marry until she gained her majority, but it is no surprise to learn that precisely on her 18 th birthday she was indeed married, to John Lyon, the 9 th Earl of Strathmore. John Bowes, the founder of The Bowes Museum, was the grandson of that union. Linda Nolan 'cries her eyes out' as she shares a heartbreaking cancer update and admits her fears that this Christmas could be her last ROBERT JOBSON: It's time for Harry and Meghan to speak out and distance themselves from these ill-informed and lurid allegations Charli XCX sparks engagement rumours to The 1975 drummer George Daniel after she shares snap of herself wearing a glittering diamond ring

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Stoney bedded and impregnated the wet nurse - once even sleeping with her in the same bedroom as his wife.Educated, devoutly religious and with a strong sense of propriety, Mary Morgan was appalled by the abuse she witnessed.

The 30 house price hotspots of 2023: Coastal county in North West and Scottish seaside haven top this year’s list Foot, Jesse, The Lives of Andrew Robinson Bowes, Esq., and the Countess of Strathmore, written from thirty-three years professional attendance, from Letters and other well authenticated documents (1810) Bowes, Mary Eleanor, countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne (1749-1800) was born on 24 February 1749, the only child of George Bowes MP (1701-1760), of Streatlam Castle and Gibside, co. Durham, and his second wife, Mary ( d. 1781), heir of Edward Gilbert, of St Paul’s Walden in Hertfordshire. Her father, a landowner and successful businessman, brought her up at Gibside House, near Rowlands Gill, where she was educated. Mary Eleanor was a very intelligent young lady and with her fathers upmost support she indulged her knowledge which was very unlikely for a woman in the 18th century. By her own account she could read fluently at the age of four, had a gift for languages, and took a great interest in botany. They fled to the North, with the police and Mary’s supporters in hot pursuit. For ten days of unimaginable hardship, Stoney and his cohorts tried to persuade Mary to surrender her body and mind.

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If it wasn’t for her personal choices and tragedies in her life, Mary Eleanor, once described by surgeon and family doctor Jesse Foot as ‘the most intelligent female botanist of the age,’ (The Lives of Andrew Robinson Bowes Esq and the Countess of Strathmore, 1810) may have realised her potential as a natural historian and been entered into the history books for her contributions to the natural sciences. However, it wasn’t to be and she triumphed in a much more important way. She succeeded in being the first woman to secure a divorce and keep her land. Stoney Bowes and his accomplices were found guilty of conspiracy to abduct Mary and he was sentenced to three years in prison. Meanwhile, the divorce case reached the trial stage at the High Court of Delegates. In an interim judgment, Stoney lost the battle to retain control of the Bowes fortune during the pendency of the case. The divorce case itself remained pending until Mary died in 1800, at which point it became infructuous. Stoney Bowes was released from prison upon Mary's death, and unsuccessfully attempted to have her will invalidated. After he lost that case, he was sued by his own lawyers for their expenses. Unable to pay these debts, he came under prison jurisdiction (in that era, bankruptcy was punished with prison), although he lived outside the prison walls with his mistress, Mary 'Polly' Sutton. He died on 16 June 1810. Molly-Mae Hague 'tells Tommy Fury to ditch his partying pals' after removing her engagement ring when footage of him living it up on holiday went viral

After his marriage to the Countess, he behaved brutally towards her in a sustained catalogue of abuse, including physical, mental and financial abuse. When he discovered that she had secretly made a pre-nuptial agreement safeguarding her finances, he forced her to sign a revocation handing control to him. Among other outrages, he imprisoned her in her own house, and forced her and one of her daughters to go into exile in Paris. They returned after a writ had been served on him. At the same time, he raped the maids, invited prostitutes into the home and fathered numerous illegitimate children. Margot Robbie joins Michelle Williams,Penelope Cruz and Natalie Portman on the red carpet at the Gotham Independent Film Awards Netflix fans hail underrated thriller which boasts higher IMDb rating than The Crown, Happy Valley and Twin Peaks

Author

Fiona Curran’s commission for Gibside, Your Sweetest Empire is to Please reflected her ongoing interest in historical landscape, ownership and gender politics as well as drawing on Mary Eleanor Bowes’ enthusiasms for plant collecting. Fiona's work at Gibside centred on the creation of a new sculptural folly, situated next to the ruined Orangery, and based on the design of 18th Century seed carrying caskets, used by plant collectors to transport their finds. For images and to read more about the inspiration for the artwork visit Fiona’s commission blog, Undisciplined Women. Rachael Lennon married her wife in a medieval hall in Northumberland four years after same-sex marriages became legal. It was a June day in 2017, and it rained until just before 2pm, when the wedding began. But hadn’t it really begun, in a way, when her parents got married, or her grandmother, or in 1840, when Victoria’s white wedding to Albert defined a “traditional” wedding in the West for decades to follow, or six years earlier when Anne Lister and Ann Walker married through taking communion together, or in the Middle Ages, when the Christian church first monopolised what a marriage should be? Lennon’s wedding, as all weddings are, came loaded with romance, tradition, expectations of transformation and the weight of centuries of history. Angelina Jolie is seen for the first time since being accused of 'playing games' with ex-husband Brad Pitt