Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised, Hey, this
Speaker 1: is Danish sport's host of Noble Blood. Just a few
Speaker 1: quick reminders before the episode. If you want to support
Speaker 1: the show, we have a Patreon Patreon dot com slash
Speaker 1: Noble Blood Tales, where there's merch, where I upload episode
Speaker 1: scripts and where I do a weekly podcast watching the
Speaker 1: television show Rain, which is about Mary, Queen of Scott's.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of fun. Join us support the show there.
Speaker 1: There's also links to show merch and to my books
Speaker 1: in the episode description and one quick note before this episode.
Speaker 1: This episode contains fairly graphic depictions of domestic violence. There
Speaker 1: are also terminated pregnancies, so if either of those topics
Speaker 1: are particularly sensitive for you, this one might be an
Speaker 1: episode to skip. In April seventeen seventy six, Mary Eleanor
Speaker 1: Bowse received a letter from her husband, Earl John Strathmore.
Speaker 1: One month earlier, he had left their sprawling estate in
Speaker 1: the Scottish countryside on a trip to Portugal, and upon
Speaker 1: opening the letter, Mary Eleanor expected to hear good tidings,
Speaker 1: but this letter revealed dark news. Her husband was dead.
Speaker 1: He had died of tuberculosis, and this letter contained his
Speaker 1: final words to his now widow. While you might be
Speaker 1: expecting something vague or sweet, his letter instead revealed how
Speaker 1: contentious and challenging their marriage had become. The Earl of
Speaker 1: Strathmore wrote, quote, as this is not intended for your
Speaker 1: perusal till I am dead, I hope you will pay
Speaker 1: a little more attention to it than you ever did
Speaker 1: to anything I said to you while alive. I freely
Speaker 1: forgive you all your liberties and follies, however fatal they
Speaker 1: have been, to me, as being thoroughly persuaded, they were
Speaker 1: not the produce of your own mind, but the suggestions
Speaker 1: of some vile interested monster. Back in the early days
Speaker 1: of their courtship, the Earl of Strathmore had been tall
Speaker 1: and elegant, nicknamed quote the Beautiful Lord Strathmore, with a dignified,
Speaker 1: if stand offish air. Meanwhile, Mary Eleanor had been just
Speaker 1: sixteen years old and well known for being one of
Speaker 1: the richest heiresses in the country, if not all of Europe.
Speaker 1: She had no shortage of suitors, but the Beautiful Lord
Speaker 1: Strathmore caught her eye. She, like many sixteen year old girls,
Speaker 1: couldn't help but be drawn to someone so handsome and
Speaker 1: also mysterious and aloof Her family had some reservations about
Speaker 1: the match, since the Strathmore family had accumulated a number
Speaker 1: of debts over the decades, which would potentially even put
Speaker 1: Mary Eleanor's fortune in jeopardy. Still, Mary Eleanor was charmed
Speaker 1: by the Earl of Strathmore and a little excited to
Speaker 1: rebel against her family's expectations. She told her mother that
Speaker 1: she would marry either the Earl of Strathmore or no
Speaker 1: one at all. Her family reluctantly accepted, and Mary Eleanor
Speaker 1: married him in seventeen sixty nine. But if there ever
Speaker 1: had been a honeymoon period after the wedding, it was
Speaker 1: over quickly. The next seven years of marriage were cold
Speaker 1: and unromantic. The Earl of Strathmore gambled, drank, and cheated
Speaker 1: on his wife, contracting syphilis along the way, all while
Speaker 1: Mary Eleanor attended to their five children and their vast estate.
Speaker 1: Mary Eleanor prided herself on her loyalty to her husband
Speaker 1: in spite of his dalliances, but by seventeen seventy six,
Speaker 1: she was fed up with it and initiated an affair
Speaker 1: of her own. She met a man named George Gray,
Speaker 1: who from their very first meeting paid her near constant attention,
Speaker 1: which was a welcome far cry from her distant husband.
Speaker 1: Though resentment mounted in the marriage and indiscretions piled up,
Speaker 1: divorce was difficult and highly uncommon, and could have destroyed
Speaker 1: both of their reputations, so the marriage only ended when
Speaker 1: the Earl died at the age of thirty eight in
Speaker 1: seventeen seventy six. But the Earl's final letter complicated Mary
Speaker 1: Eleanor's justified feelings of freedom and relief once her husband
Speaker 1: was gone. Even though in the letter he dismissed her
Speaker 1: ambitions to write as feudal and accused her of being
Speaker 1: prejudiced against him and his family for their debts, he
Speaker 1: said he was holding back his true feelings, writing that
Speaker 1: he wasn't quote tempted to say an ill natured thing
Speaker 1: for the sake of sporting a bon mow. Instead. In
Speaker 1: his final letter, the Earl of Strathmore wanted to give
Speaker 1: his wife some advice from beyond the grave. The Earl
Speaker 1: cautioned Mary Eleanor to choose her next partner, wisely writing quote,
Speaker 1: A dead man can have no interest to mislead living man.
Speaker 1: May those words would unfortunately prove prophetic. Unlike many women
Speaker 1: trapped in loveless marriages, Mary Eleanor had been given a
Speaker 1: second chance at a new life relatively young, giving her
Speaker 1: plenty of time to potentially find a new husband who
Speaker 1: might share her interests and respect her intelligence. After all,
Speaker 1: as the richest woman in Britain, she could pretty much
Speaker 1: have any man she wanted. Even the reckless gambling habits
Speaker 1: of her late husband hadn't put a dent in her
Speaker 1: vast coal fortune. She was the heir to somewhere between
Speaker 1: six hundred thousand and one million, forty thousand pounds. But
Speaker 1: money cannot save you from bad judgment, and unfortunately, as
Speaker 1: Mary Eleanor's late husband predicted, she would ultimately be faced
Speaker 1: with a man with every intent to mislead her. I'm
Speaker 1: Danas Schwartz and this is noble blood. Mary Eleanor barely
Speaker 1: set aside time to mourn her late husband before launching
Speaker 1: into enjoying her new single life. Although her newly single
Speaker 1: life was not quite as single as she let on,
Speaker 1: she already had a lover, George Gray, who she had
Speaker 1: started seeing when her husband was still very much alive.
Speaker 1: Unlike the late Earl of Strathmore, Gray was a devoted,
Speaker 1: attentive lover, visiting Mary Eleanor every day and sitting at
Speaker 1: her bedside every evening. Even though she entertained his affections
Speaker 1: and did have a sexual relationship with him, Mary Eleanor
Speaker 1: seemed to put Gray in the eighteenth century equivalent of
Speaker 1: the friend zone, saying that she felt nothing for him
Speaker 1: quote that exceeded friendship. As a wealthy single woman, Mary
Speaker 1: Eleanor was also free to pursue her intellectual interests unencumbered.
Speaker 1: Mary Eleanor's late husband had resented her intellect and viewed
Speaker 1: her interests as fruitless dalliances, distracting her from her true
Speaker 1: task of tending to the household and caring for their
Speaker 1: young children. Her husband had been particularly dismissive of her
Speaker 1: interest in botany. Mary Eleanor was one of few women
Speaker 1: working as a botanist in Britain at the time. A
Speaker 1: colleague described her as quote the most intelligent female botanist
Speaker 1: of the age, and she built hothouses and gardens across
Speaker 1: her vast estates where she cultivated exotic plants from around
Speaker 1: the world, but the late Earl of Strathmore thought that
Speaker 1: plant pollination was too sexually suggestive for a woman's delicate sensibilities.
Speaker 1: After her husband's death, she supplemented her solo botanical study
Speaker 1: by hosting salons. While Mary Eleanor was denied entry into
Speaker 1: the all male Royal Botanical Society, she gathered the greatest
Speaker 1: botanical minds of the day under her roof for hours
Speaker 1: of lively discussions about the latest discoveries. But not everyone
Speaker 1: was happy to see her living a life of freedom.
Speaker 1: The same colleague that described Mary Eleanor as the most
Speaker 1: intelligent female botanist of the age also said that quote
Speaker 1: her judgment was weak, her prudence almost none, and her
Speaker 1: prejudice abounded, and that she lived in a quote house
Speaker 1: of folly. Marie Eleanor did not particularly want to get
Speaker 1: married again. She told Gray her friend slash Lover, that
Speaker 1: after her dismal marriage to the Earl of Strathmore, she
Speaker 1: would never quote engage herself so indissolubly again. But even
Speaker 1: Mary wondered if she would receive come uppance for her
Speaker 1: fairly reckless, brazen affair with George Gray. She had already
Speaker 1: gotten pregnant by him a few times. Knowing that having
Speaker 1: a child out of wedlock would destroy her reputation, she
Speaker 1: had abortions which were expensive, dangerous, and unreliable. Each time
Speaker 1: she took what she described as a quote black, inky
Speaker 1: kind of medicine. We don't know exactly what was in it.
Speaker 1: According to her, it looked and tasted as if it
Speaker 1: might have contained copper. If that didn't work, she'd add
Speaker 1: a large glass of brandy, seasoned with a handful of
Speaker 1: black pepper. Even though these abortions, in Mary's case, were effective,
Speaker 1: each one seemed like a bad omen to marry her luck,
Speaker 1: she believed would only last so long. Society could only
Speaker 1: tolerate so much of her freedom, and soon she knew
Speaker 1: she would have to settle down. Into this picture entered
Speaker 1: a charming Irish soldier named Captain Andrew Robinson Stoney. He
Speaker 1: was a known figure in the coffeehouse scene of the
Speaker 1: late eighteenth century, living above Saint James Coffee House, a
Speaker 1: quick walk from where Mary Eleanor lived in Grovesnor Square.
Speaker 1: Stoney had a number of qualities that Mary Eleanor found attractive.
Speaker 1: He was five foot ten, which was tall at a
Speaker 1: time when the average height was five foot five. He
Speaker 1: was also handsome and impeccably dressed. He owned over ninety shirts,
Speaker 1: according to his valet, very great Gatsby. And unlike her
Speaker 1: aloof late husband and her lover, whom she saw more
Speaker 1: as a friend, Stoney was passionate and romantic. Sometimes his gentlemanly,
Speaker 1: well mannered temperament gave way to expressions of intoxicating, overwhelming ardor.
Speaker 1: He wrote flowery letters, left big tips, and gave lavish gifts. Plus,
Speaker 1: Mary Eleanor had a particular weakness for Celtic man. Stoney
Speaker 1: was Irish, and her first husband and Gray were both Scottish.
Speaker 1: Stoney sent a letter of interest in July of seventeen
Speaker 1: seventy six, just a few months after Mary Eleanor's husband
Speaker 1: had died. Unlike the formal address that she was used to,
Speaker 1: he sign the letter with a simple it is for you,
Speaker 1: and he arrived at her doorstep to hand deliver it.
Speaker 1: With a powerful combination of flattery and alluring informality, Stoney
Speaker 1: wrote quote, I have taken some liberties for which your
Speaker 1: ladyship can find no excuse unless you apply to the
Speaker 1: powerful pleading of inclination for such freedom. I wish to
Speaker 1: make every apology, but I cannot get the better of
Speaker 1: a passion which has taken the intense possession of my heart.
Speaker 1: We don't have Mary's reply, but Stoney would brag about
Speaker 1: Mary's equally flowery letters when he was at a coffee
Speaker 1: shop in Bath, which suggests that she responded in kind.
Speaker 1: Two of Mary's closest friends, a woman named Elijah Planta,
Speaker 1: and a man named Captain Magra, were both both big
Speaker 1: fans of Stony. One day, Mary, Eliza, and Magra went
Speaker 1: to a fortune teller to get their fortunes read. They
Speaker 1: snuck off to a dingy building near Newgate Prison and
Speaker 1: sat in a cold, dark waiting room for seven hours.
Speaker 1: They passed the time making up poems together and writing
Speaker 1: them on the wall in a lead pencil. In one
Speaker 1: of the poems, according to historian Wendy Moore, Mary wrote
Speaker 1: some lines denouncing matrimony. Mary also passed the time chatting
Speaker 1: with the others in the waiting room, pretending to be
Speaker 1: a grocer's widow with ten children named Missus Smith. When
Speaker 1: finally she got to speak with the fortune teller, she
Speaker 1: mentioned her struggle deciding on a husband, and the fortune
Speaker 1: teller spoke highly of a tall Irish soldier. Even Magra,
Speaker 1: a skeptic, was convinced of this fortune teller's skill. While
Speaker 1: the stars seemed to align around her new relationship with Stony,
Speaker 1: Mary didn't really think of him as a serious option.
Speaker 1: She was still in a relationship with Gray, which was
Speaker 1: getting increasingly intense. She had gotten pregnant yet again, but
Speaker 1: this time her abortion wasn't working. Seeing that she had
Speaker 1: no choice but to get married, Mary proposed to Gray,
Speaker 1: which at the time was considered legally binding. They had
Speaker 1: even exchanged rings at Saint Paul's Cathedral one night, as
Speaker 1: Mary Eleanor promised to marry none but him. Meanwhile, Mary
Speaker 1: Eleanor was getting smeared in the press, putting extra pressure
Speaker 1: on her engagement. As the richest and most eligible heiress
Speaker 1: in Britain, she was a known tabloid figure and she
Speaker 1: was very familiar with laughing off articles her libertine lifestyle,
Speaker 1: but her feelings were genuinely hurt when an anonymous article
Speaker 1: signed from a conscious stinger appeared in the Morning Post
Speaker 1: on December twelfth, seventeen seventy six. The letter accused her
Speaker 1: of insulting her late husband's memory with her affairs, accused
Speaker 1: her of cheating on her husband while he was still alive,
Speaker 1: and abandoning her children. A response appeared in the next
Speaker 1: issue defending Mary's reputation, but even that more positive letter
Speaker 1: seemed ridiculing, even sarcastic, arguing for her quote agonizing and
Speaker 1: heartfelt sorrow at her late husband's death, which everyone knew
Speaker 1: was stretch. The quote unquote more complimentary letter also portrayed
Speaker 1: her as a mercurial, guileless pam being manipulated by men
Speaker 1: seeking to exploit her vast fortune. Throughout December and January,
Speaker 1: these anonymous letters went back and forth, alternately condemning Mary
Speaker 1: for being a cunning seductress and bad mother, and then
Speaker 1: shooting down those accusations with a defense that Mary Eleanor
Speaker 1: was merely an innocent fool. The court of public opinion
Speaker 1: seemed to be closing in on her, a fear only
Speaker 1: exacerbated by her pregnancy. Stoney was incensed by these letters
Speaker 1: in the newspaper. He approached the editor of the Morning Post,
Speaker 1: Reverend Henry Bate, demanding to know who besmirched Mary. Eleanor's reputation.
Speaker 1: Bate replied that the letters were anonymous, so he didn't
Speaker 1: know the authors. Unsatisfied with that response, Stoney challenged Bait
Speaker 1: to a duel to defend Mary Eleanor's honor. Stoney and
Speaker 1: Bait met at Adelphi Tavern one night, which was a
Speaker 1: bit atypical as duels were typically conducted at dawn and
Speaker 1: in more private locations than bustling city taverns, but the
Speaker 1: shadowy locale spoke to Stoney's sense of urgency. He wouldn't
Speaker 1: even wait until the next morning to defend his beloved
Speaker 1: Adhering to dual conduct, both men drew pistols, and Bait
Speaker 1: insisted that Stoney fire first. Stoney missed, shooting Bait's hat,
Speaker 1: and Bait missed two, the bullet merely tearing Stoney's coat.
Speaker 1: The men then drew swords, and in the ensuing fight,
Speaker 1: Stoney got slashed several times all over his body. According
Speaker 1: to a well regarded surgeon and multiple witnesses, these injuries
Speaker 1: were life threatening. He was rushed to the hospital, blood
Speaker 1: staining his clothing. The next morning, Mary Eleanor rushed to
Speaker 1: Stoney's bedside. Stony seemingly moments from death, proclaimed that he
Speaker 1: would only die happy if he married Mary Eleanor. Doctor
Speaker 1: said that the wounded soldier only had a few days
Speaker 1: left to live, so she would probably be a widow
Speaker 1: once again anyway, and it seemed heartless to deny this
Speaker 1: man his dying wish after he had sacrificed his life
Speaker 1: for her. So, despite the legally binding promise that she
Speaker 1: had made to Gray, she accepted Stoney's marriage proposal, and
Speaker 1: three days later the two were married at Saint James's Church.
Speaker 1: Stoney gave his vows from a makeshift bed, wincing in pain,
Speaker 1: but the two were happily wed. The duel was something
Speaker 1: right out of Mary Eleanor's most romantic fantasies. Back when
Speaker 1: she was still married to the Earl of Strathmore, she
Speaker 1: had written a five act tragic play in which two
Speaker 1: men dueled for the honor of a maiden. And if
Speaker 1: this were a romance, perhaps the story would end here.
Speaker 1: The widow and the gallant soldier married headed toward there
Speaker 1: happily ever after, But the story does not end here.
Speaker 1: Stony recovered from his purportedly life threatening injuries, making this
Speaker 1: hasty marriage a fact of Mary Eleanor's life Now. As
Speaker 1: it turns out, this dashing Irish captain had some skeletons
Speaker 1: in his closet. Nearly every aspect of their courtship, from
Speaker 1: the fortune teller to the duel to his status in
Speaker 1: the British Army, would turn out to be a lie.
Speaker 1: Revelations would nearly destroy Mary Eleanor and transform their seemingly
Speaker 1: picture perfect romance into a nightmare. Perhaps Mary Eleanor's romance
Speaker 1: with Stony felt ripped from fiction because in some ways
Speaker 1: it was the Captain Andrew Robinson Stoney that Mary Eleanor
Speaker 1: fell in love with. Was almost a complete fabrication from
Speaker 1: the beginning, starting with the captain part. It turned out
Speaker 1: that Stoney was not a captain. He was barely even
Speaker 1: in the British Army. In November seventeen sixty four, when
Speaker 1: Sotny was seventeen, his uncle secured him a position as
Speaker 1: an ensign, the lowest rank of officer, as a favor
Speaker 1: to Stony's father, who was looking to instill in his
Speaker 1: son some much needed discipline. Stoney was fired the following
Speaker 1: year for flouting rules, gambling, sleeping around, and erupting in anger.
Speaker 1: As another favor. He was allowed to rejoin the army
Speaker 1: in seventeen sixty seven, where he was stationed in Newcastle,
Speaker 1: but he managed to avoid ever going into battle by
Speaker 1: courting the affections of Hannah Newton, an heiress with a
Speaker 1: vast coal fortune, and securing her hand in marriage. Once married,
Speaker 1: he quit the army and spent his days gambling, shopping,
Speaker 1: and cavorting with his various military buddies. The only commitment
Speaker 1: he seemed to pursue with any consistency was making his
Speaker 1: new wife, Hannah's life a living hell. While Hannah's own
Speaker 1: voice is lost in the historical record, none of her
Speaker 1: letters or writings survive, witnesses accounts fill in some of
Speaker 1: the harrowing details of how Stoney treated her. Once he
Speaker 1: locked Hannah in a cupboard in just her underwear and
Speaker 1: kept her there for three days, giving her one egg
Speaker 1: a day for sustenance. Another account recalls him throwing her
Speaker 1: down the stairs. His justification for his abuse was that
Speaker 1: Hannah had not yet given him an air, which he
Speaker 1: needed in order to have complete control over Hannah's fortune,
Speaker 1: as that would legally allow him to maintain his rights
Speaker 1: to the Newton estate through his own lifetime regardless of
Speaker 1: what happened to Hannah, but she continued to have miscarriages
Speaker 1: and steelborns throughout their marriage as her own health failed,
Speaker 1: likely compounded by Stoney's abuse. She died March seventeen seventy
Speaker 1: six during childbirth, and the baby died alongside her. After
Speaker 1: Hannah's death, rumors about Stoney's violence towards his wife abounded.
Speaker 1: A letter from a colleague in Newcastle alleged that he
Speaker 1: had shortened her days, while an anonymous pamphlet published in
Speaker 1: seventeen seventy seven argued that he should be tried for murder.
Speaker 1: Stoney had only just collected the five thousand pounds Hannah
Speaker 1: left him in her will before he headed off to
Speaker 1: London in search of another wealthy bride. Luckily for him,
Speaker 1: Mary Eleanor Bows, the wealthiest woman in Britain, had recently
Speaker 1: become a widow. It wouldn't be easy for Stoney to
Speaker 1: win Mary Eleanor's heart. It seemed an impossible feat for
Speaker 1: an unknown soldier saddled with rumors of violence against his
Speaker 1: firs wife, especially since Mary Eleanor was already involved with
Speaker 1: George Gray. But those obstacles only made Stoney even more
Speaker 1: determined to seduce and destroy Mary Eleanor. After making his
Speaker 1: way to London, Stoney's first challenge was embedding himself in
Speaker 1: Mary Eleanor's social circle. He knew Captain Perkins Magra, one
Speaker 1: of Mary Eleanor's closest friends, as an old pal from
Speaker 1: the army, and Stoney recruited him as an ally in
Speaker 1: his plot to win Mary's heart. Magra served as Stoney's
Speaker 1: wingman through the process, picking up a dashing scarlet uniform
Speaker 1: and frocksuit for Stoney to wear, and introducing Stoney to
Speaker 1: Mary Eleanor's governess, Eliza Planta. Stoney plied Planta with flattery
Speaker 1: and bribes, and she even became his lover in addition
Speaker 1: to his spy in the Bow's household, Eliza would report
Speaker 1: back to Stoney about Mary's vulnerabilities and interests so that
Speaker 1: Stoney could woo her. From Eliza, Stoney learned about Mary
Speaker 1: Eleanor's beloved cats and favorite daughters, both of which he
Speaker 1: was careful to praise. In one letter, Stoney even wished
Speaker 1: he were one of Mary Eleanor's cats so that he
Speaker 1: could quote be stroked and caressed by her. Stony made
Speaker 1: sure Eliza Planta and Captain Magra talked him up to
Speaker 1: Mary Eleanor and dispelled any unfortunate rumors about his relationship
Speaker 1: with his late ex wife. Stony even had the three
Speaker 1: of them meet with the fortune Teller, who he coached
Speaker 1: on what to say the entire episode, the seven hour
Speaker 1: wait time, Captain Magra's supposed cauvicious skepticism, the fortune teller's
Speaker 1: premonition that a tall Irish soldier would be the right
Speaker 1: match was all orchestrated by Stoney, But even that hadn't
Speaker 1: been enough to win Mary Eleanor's hand in marriage. She
Speaker 1: still considered him a dalliance from her real affair with
Speaker 1: George Gray, so Stoney played dirty. He approached an old friend,
Speaker 1: Reverend Henry Bate, editor of The Morning Post and fellow
Speaker 1: army veteran, and they created an elaborate plot to win
Speaker 1: Mary Eleanor's heart. In exchange for a hefty bribe, Bates
Speaker 1: agreed to help craft and then publish anonymous letters admonishing
Speaker 1: Mary Eleanor for her crimes, as well as the ones
Speaker 1: supposedly quote defending her reputation. It's almost mind bending how
Speaker 1: evil all of This is while Stoney was privately writing
Speaker 1: Eleanor flowery letters about how great of a mother she was,
Speaker 1: he was also denouncing her licentiousness and her neglecting her
Speaker 1: children in letters published in the Morning Post. The letters
Speaker 1: he published that defended her were in some ways even worse.
Speaker 1: They blamed her for the lies, because she shouldn't have
Speaker 1: fallen prey to them so easily. And he was doing
Speaker 1: all of this by bribing the press and bribing Mary
Speaker 1: Eleanor's closest confidence with money he had claimed from his
Speaker 1: wife's death, which itself was likely in part a result
Speaker 1: of his abuse. In early seventeen seventy seven, Stoney and
Speaker 1: Bait sent the final steps of their plan in motion.
Speaker 1: They decided to stage a fake doule for Mary Eleanor's
Speaker 1: honor to appeal to her romantic sensibilities. They went to
Speaker 1: the Adelphi one night and bribed three witnesses, including a doctor,
Speaker 1: to attest to the brutality of the duel and the
Speaker 1: severity of Stoney's injuries. Stoney gave himself a few fake
Speaker 1: cuts to complete the illusion, and he painted his face
Speaker 1: white so he seemed like he was in dire condition.
Speaker 1: A large bloodstain on Stoney's waistcoat might have been faked
Speaker 1: with pig's blood. He dramatically collapsed into a chair as
Speaker 1: medicks placed smelling salts under his nose to resuscitate him.
Speaker 1: He fainted two more times in case the first fainting
Speaker 1: spell wasn't convincing enough. When Mary came to visit him
Speaker 1: the next morning at his sick bed, he delivered a
Speaker 1: flowery speech, pausing to WinCE in fake pain as he
Speaker 1: begged for Mary Eleanor's hand in marriage. His ploy worked.
Speaker 1: They were married just three days later. After Stoney made
Speaker 1: a miraculous recovery from his supposedly life threatening injuries, people
Speaker 1: had some suspicions about whether the duel had actually happened.
Speaker 1: George Gray, mary Eleanor's spurned lover and whose child Mary
Speaker 1: Eleanor was currently pregnant with, had particular reservations. At first,
Speaker 1: he believed the story. He was actually the first one
Speaker 1: to visit Stoney in bed after the duel, and Gray
Speaker 1: thanked him for his bravery in defending Mary Eleanor's honor.
Speaker 1: After Gray realized that his bride and fortune were stolen
Speaker 1: out from under him, he began to voice his doubts,
Speaker 1: but his qualms were dismissed as the protests of a
Speaker 1: sore loser. A few months later, the newly married Mary
Speaker 1: Eleanor stumbled on a curious letter sitting out on a
Speaker 1: table addressed to Stoney from Reverend Henry Bate. Bate was
Speaker 1: complaining in the letter to Stoney that he hadn't been
Speaker 1: paid yet, and he was threatening him with a real
Speaker 1: duel or he would publicly expose the entire scheme. With that,
Speaker 1: Mary Eleanor realized that she had been duped. Her fairytale
Speaker 1: romance with Andrew Robinson Stoney was nothing more than a
Speaker 1: fabrication at her expense. But this was only the first
Speaker 1: stage of Stoney's plan, and now he was moving on
Speaker 1: to the second. He would ruin Mary Eleanor's life and
Speaker 1: take control of her fortune, exactly as he had done
Speaker 1: with his first wife, Hannah Brown. On the first anniversary
Speaker 1: of their wedding January seventeenth, seventeen seventy eight, Andrew Robinson
Speaker 1: Stoney told Mary Eleanor that he intended to make every
Speaker 1: day of her life more miserable than the last. Over
Speaker 1: the previous year, he had already been making good on
Speaker 1: that promise pretty much. Immediately following their wedding, Mary Eleanor
Speaker 1: saw her lover transform from a passionate, devoted gentleman into
Speaker 1: an exacting, hot headed tyrant. Stoney began his marital reign
Speaker 1: of terror by taking control of every aspect of Mary
Speaker 1: Eleanor's existence. He forbade her from speaking any language other
Speaker 1: than English, even though Mary was multilingual. If she put
Speaker 1: on a bonnet he disliked, he would rip it off
Speaker 1: her head and cut it shreds. He ordered a carriage
Speaker 1: to trail her wherever she went, and a valet to
Speaker 1: report back to him on whatever she did. He read
Speaker 1: all of the letters she received, as well as her responses.
Speaker 1: Planned outings were canceled at the last minute. If Stony
Speaker 1: disliked Mary's outfit, Visitors to the house were turned away
Speaker 1: unless he approved. She was forbidden from visiting her gardens
Speaker 1: and hot houses, fully separated from her passion for botany. Soon,
Speaker 1: all of this escalated into physical violence. He pinched, kicked,
Speaker 1: and slapped her, and threatened to kill her if she
Speaker 1: told any of her friends or servants what he was doing.
Speaker 1: Mary Eleanor was forced to blame herself for the many bruises, cuts,
Speaker 1: and black eyes that Stoney gave her fabricating stories about
Speaker 1: running into doors or falling down the stairs. Servants and
Speaker 1: housekeepers inevitably witnessed his abuse, but they were forced to
Speaker 1: keep quiet out of fear of losing their jobs. Like
Speaker 1: many abusers, Stoney blamed Mary Eleanor for his violence. He
Speaker 1: was enraged by Mary Eleanor's pregnancy by Gray, and even
Speaker 1: more enraged at the fact that Mary had secretly signed
Speaker 1: a prenup a few days before she married Stoney that
Speaker 1: forbade him from accessing any of her fortune. She hadn't
Speaker 1: suspected Stony of any wrongdoing at that time. She had
Speaker 1: actually created those documents with Gray in mind, and did
Speaker 1: so in order to protect her children from her first
Speaker 1: marriage and secure their inheritances. Ironically, when Stoney found out
Speaker 1: about the prenup, he thought that he was the victim
Speaker 1: of an elaborate at hoax, rather than the other way around.
Speaker 1: Stony quickly maneuvered to rest control of his wife's fortune
Speaker 1: from her prenum, forcing her to revoke the deeds which
Speaker 1: prevented him from accessing her estate. He also curtailed her
Speaker 1: relationships with her immediate family, including her five children from
Speaker 1: her first marriage, because he mandated exactly who she could
Speaker 1: see and for how long. As Stoney's abuse intensified, Mary
Speaker 1: Eleanor's confident, plucky and intelligent demeanor were seeded, she became subdued, submissive, fearful, gaunt,
Speaker 1: and disheveled. Stony forbade her from speaking or permitted her
Speaker 1: only to say yes or no, and so guests assumed
Speaker 1: that she was rude, or crazy or dumb. Unfortunately, and
Speaker 1: I'm just warning you now, the abuse just continues to
Speaker 1: become more and more heartbreaking. A little over a year
Speaker 1: into their marriage, Stony forced Mary Eleanor to write a
Speaker 1: list of her air quote crimes, titled the Confessions of
Speaker 1: the Countess of Strathmore, as evidence that justified the abuse
Speaker 1: she endured. The list contained nearly one hundred pages, detailing
Speaker 1: quote everything she ever did, said, or thought that was
Speaker 1: wrong and quote, including her affairs, teenage romances, abortions, and
Speaker 1: even friendships. The education that her father had carefully provided
Speaker 1: her and that had inspired a lifetime of curiosity, was
Speaker 1: recast as evidence of her inherent worthlessness. In her confessions,
Speaker 1: Mary Eleanor condemned her father for not instilling in her
Speaker 1: enough reliegeous fervor to prevent her wrongdoings. Meanwhile, Stoney only
Speaker 1: gained power both inside and outside the marriage. Stoney used
Speaker 1: his new proximity to wealth and his wife's connections to
Speaker 1: pursue political power. He served as Higher Sheriff of Durham
Speaker 1: in seventeen eighty and was elected MP for Newcastle later
Speaker 1: the same year, serving until seventeen eighty four when he
Speaker 1: lost his election. It was that election in seventeen eighty
Speaker 1: four that would indirectly set in motion Mary Eleanor's escape.
Speaker 1: Stressed about securing his reelection, Stoney was less exacting and
Speaker 1: monomaniacal about household manners, so when he needed to hire
Speaker 1: a new maid for Mary Eleanor, he sought a recommendation
Speaker 1: from a colleague in Parliament. He ended up hiring a
Speaker 1: woman named Mary Morgan, who was educated and just two
Speaker 1: years younger than Mary Eleanor. Unlike many of the other
Speaker 1: workers in the Bow's household, Mary Morgan had a small
Speaker 1: source of private income from the money her husband had
Speaker 1: left behind after his death. She had been working in
Speaker 1: Georgian high society to supplement that income, so that meant
Speaker 1: she was less dependent on Stoney and less fearful of
Speaker 1: his wrath. Shortly after she was hired, Mary Morgan accompanied
Speaker 1: Mary Eleanor on a trip to Paris, where she first
Speaker 1: became suspicious of her new mistress's husband. Stoney had forbidden
Speaker 1: Mary Eleanor from looking out of the window of her
Speaker 1: hotel room, and he forced her to keep her face
Speaker 1: covered when she went outside. Stoney also instructed Mary Morgan
Speaker 1: to keep a chair against the door to trap Mary
Speaker 1: Eleanor inside her room. One night, Mary Morgan stumbled upon
Speaker 1: Mary Eleanor bleeding profusely from her ear. Blood was covering
Speaker 1: her face and neck. Stony claimed that the wind had
Speaker 1: blown open a window and struck his wife in the face,
Speaker 1: but Mary Morgan knew that that story seemed far fetched.
Speaker 1: When Stony left the room, Mary Morgan pressed Mary Eleanor
Speaker 1: on it, who finally revealed that Stoney had clawed her
Speaker 1: in the face after he caught her looking out the window.
Speaker 1: Mary Eleanor had never admitted his abuse to anyone, let
Speaker 1: alone to someone like Mary Morgan, who sympathized with her
Speaker 1: and believed her. This small step was crucial after years
Speaker 1: of enduring Stoney's abuses alone. Mary Eleanor finally had someone
Speaker 1: on her team, but things were only getting worse. While
Speaker 1: Stoney was hell bent on withering away Mary Eleanor's life,
Speaker 1: he had not actually attempted to end it. He needed
Speaker 1: Mary Eleanor to care for two young children. There was Mary,
Speaker 1: who was Gray's daughter, born in seventeen seventy seven, and
Speaker 1: a son, William, born in seventeen eighty two, who was
Speaker 1: Stoney's child. But as little William and Mary got older,
Speaker 1: Mary Eleanor began to fear for her life. Stoney talked
Speaker 1: about wanting to strangle her, threatened her at knife point,
Speaker 1: and he took out a series of insurance policies on
Speaker 1: her life. It had been almost eight years at this
Speaker 1: point since they got married, and his first wife, Hannah,
Speaker 1: had died just eight years after they had been married,
Speaker 1: a grim echo of what could be Mary's fate. One night,
Speaker 1: Stoney order her to take laudanum and fake a suicide attempt,
Speaker 1: threatening that if she didn't, she would be kept from
Speaker 1: her children. Stoney poured an entire vial of laudanum in
Speaker 1: a glass of water by Mary Eleanor's bedside, well above
Speaker 1: the recommended dose. Mary was nervous, saying, perhaps there is
Speaker 1: a further design in this than you have acquainted me with.
Speaker 1: But I fear not to die, for I have long
Speaker 1: been weary of life. And if you will promise me
Speaker 1: to take care of Mary, I will drink it off.
Speaker 1: She drank the entire glass. At Stoney's insistence, she pretended
Speaker 1: to announce her suicide while Stony fake cried. Mary Morgan
Speaker 1: rushed over, calling a doctor and giving Mary Eleanor something
Speaker 1: to make her vomit. Still, Mary Eleanor was bedridden in
Speaker 1: a stupor for four days. Stony used this false quote
Speaker 1: suicide attempt to try and get her locked away in
Speaker 1: an asylum, and he gave her a letter in December
Speaker 1: that confirmed this plan explicitly. Now knowing that her life
Speaker 1: would absolutely in danger, Mary Eleanor began to plot her escape.
Speaker 1: She sent Mary Morgan to meet with a barrister in
Speaker 1: secret to see if she would be legally protected if
Speaker 1: she fled, and the barrister, very careful not to offer encouragement,
Speaker 1: said that Mary Eleanor could qualify for legal protection if
Speaker 1: she had evidence of her husband's abuse, but it would
Speaker 1: not be easy. She would almost certainly lose her fortune,
Speaker 1: and she might never see her children again. On February third,
Speaker 1: seventeen eighty five, Stoney was out to dinner and the
Speaker 1: plan was set in motion. Mary Morgan distracted two housekeepers
Speaker 1: who were set to keep an eye on Mary Eleanor,
Speaker 1: with a conversation about trends in millinery. Meanwhile, another housemaid,
Speaker 1: in on the scheme, started a debate with the footman.
Speaker 1: Mary Eleanor, wearing a servant's cloak and a maid's bonnet,
Speaker 1: scurried down the stairs and out through the basement, borrowing
Speaker 1: a few guineas from her maids and bringing with her
Speaker 1: none of her belongings. Accompanied by another maid, Ann, Mary
Speaker 1: Eleanor went north towards Oxford Street, waiting for a carriage
Speaker 1: that would take them away. But the moment they got
Speaker 1: into the getaway carriage, they saw another carriage heading their way,
Speaker 1: Stoney's carriage. The housekeepers, realizing that Mary Eleanor had escaped,
Speaker 1: had alerted Stoney, and he heard worried to track Mary
Speaker 1: Eleanor down. His carriage passed by Mary Eleanor's, even getting
Speaker 1: within a few feet, but he did not notice her inside.
Speaker 1: With Stoney out of sight, and no time to waste.
Speaker 1: Mary Eleanor and Anne rushed to the barrister, who consulted
Speaker 1: with her for fifteen minutes to confirm her legal right
Speaker 1: to escape. Then Mary Eleanor snuck to a secret apartment
Speaker 1: hidden in an alleyway that Mary Morgan had secured for her.
Speaker 1: After nine years of enduring harrowing, life threatening abuse, Mary
Speaker 1: Eleanor was finally free. In a letter she left behind
Speaker 1: for Stoney, she wrote, quote, farewell, I forgive but will
Speaker 1: never see you again. I can add no more as
Speaker 1: you have long ceased to treat me in any respect
Speaker 1: as a wife or a But even though Mary had escaped,
Speaker 1: she wasn't free. It was incredibly difficult to end a
Speaker 1: marriage in Georgian England. The only way to exit a
Speaker 1: marriage legally without one spouse dying was in an ecclesiastical court,
Speaker 1: a court run by the Church of England. If a
Speaker 1: spouse claimed that their partner committed particularly egregious adultery, cruelty
Speaker 1: or heresy, the Church might permit the pair to divorce,
Speaker 1: and may even entitle both parties to financial remittance. But
Speaker 1: this was an extremely long, difficult and expensive process, particularly
Speaker 1: for women between sixteen seventy and eighteen fifty seven, two
Speaker 1: thirds of the plaintiffs and ecclesiastical divorces were men. And
Speaker 1: even though Mary Eleanor had been born with nearly every
Speaker 1: advantage beauty, wealth, aguascation, smarts, and was raised to see
Speaker 1: herself as an equal of the men she interacted with,
Speaker 1: marriage had transferred that power to her husband. Her husband
Speaker 1: inherited her fortune and parleyed her famous name and connections
Speaker 1: into a political career, and he now had a cadre
Speaker 1: of powerful government figures and army buddies at his disposal.
Speaker 1: The witnesses to his abuse were housekeepers who were on
Speaker 1: his payroll and so were unlikely to back Mary Eleanor
Speaker 1: in a divorce trial, but this didn't deter Mary Eleanor.
Speaker 1: While Stony may have duped Mary Eleanor into marriage, in
Speaker 1: the end, he was more wrong about her than she
Speaker 1: was about him. He thought of her as a mark
Speaker 1: that he could ply with sweet nothings before seizing her
Speaker 1: assets and either nearly or completely killing her. But her
Speaker 1: spirit would not so easily be destroyed. Even after nine
Speaker 1: years of being beaten and starved, she knew somewhere deep
Speaker 1: down that she deserved more Stony may have been dogged
Speaker 1: in marrying Mary Eleanor, but little did he know that
Speaker 1: Mary Eleanor would be just as dogged in her attempt
Speaker 1: to get out of the marriage. And so on February
Speaker 1: twenty eighth, seventeen eighty five, Mary Eleanor filed for divorce
Speaker 1: from Andrew Robinson Stoney. But the story doesn't end here.
Speaker 1: This decision would set off a series of trials and
Speaker 1: retrials that would drag on for decades and become a
Speaker 1: media sensation, with both Mary Eleanor and Stony endlessly picked
Speaker 1: a part in the tabloids. The marriage may have lasted
Speaker 1: a little over nine years, but the divorce which changed
Speaker 1: the course of marriage itself for centuries. Going forward. All
Speaker 1: this and more in Part two of the story to come.
Speaker 1: That's Part one of the story of Mary Eleanor Bows.
Speaker 1: But keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear
Speaker 1: a little bit more about how Andrew Robinson Stoney inspired
Speaker 1: a novel and much later a film about his quest
Speaker 1: for Mary Eleanor's hand. In eighteen forty one, Mary Eleanor's grandson,
Speaker 1: John Bows, welcomed a visitor to his home at Streathlam
Speaker 1: castle a young writer named William Thackeray. While they hung out,
Speaker 1: Bows told Thackeray the incredible story of how his grandmother,
Speaker 1: Mary Eleanor, had been trapped in this very castle fifty
Speaker 1: years earlier by her husband, who had duped her into
Speaker 1: a marriage under false pretenses. After the trip, Thackeray wrote
Speaker 1: to his publisher, I have, in my trip to the country,
Speaker 1: found materials, or rather a character, for a story that
Speaker 1: I'm sure must be amusing. This story became a novel
Speaker 1: called The Luck of Barry Lyndon, published in October eighteen
Speaker 1: forty three and serialized in Fraser's magazine throughout eighteen forty four.
Speaker 1: The book was revised several times, but it follows Barry Lyndon, who,
Speaker 1: like Andrew Robinson Stoney, was an Irish soldier who liked
Speaker 1: to drink, gamble, and sleep around before managing to dupe
Speaker 1: and seduce a wealthy heiress, Lady Lyndon. After Barry Lyndon
Speaker 1: mistreated her for several years, Lady Lyndon manages to extract
Speaker 1: herself from the marriage, and Barry Lyndon ultimately ends the
Speaker 1: novel in jail. While the novel reproduces the events around
Speaker 1: Andrew Stony and Mary Eleanor's relationship pretty faithfully, Thackeray imagined
Speaker 1: a different past. Barry Lyndon, unlike Andrew Sotny, actually went
Speaker 1: into battle. Around one hundred and thirty years later, the
Speaker 1: director Stanley Kubrick was looking for a new project. He
Speaker 1: had been working on a script about Napoleon that wasn't
Speaker 1: going anywhere. He thought about adapting Thackeray's Vanity Fair, but
Speaker 1: figured it might be too complicated to fit into a
Speaker 1: single feature, and so he turned to Barry Lindon instead.
Speaker 1: While Kubrick's film is fairly faithful to the novel, the
Speaker 1: tone is extremely different. Thackeray's novel is a farce, narrated
Speaker 1: unreliably by Barry himself as he attempts to create a
Speaker 1: self aggrandizing account of his schemes, abuses, and misdeeds. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: the movie attempts to be more quote objective. As Kubrick
Speaker 1: puts in an interview. Around the time the film came out,
Speaker 1: they carefully reproduced costumes from the period and used special
Speaker 1: lenses that had actually been developed for NASA so that
Speaker 1: they could film interior scenes by candlelight. Thackeray called his
Speaker 1: novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon a novel without a hero,
Speaker 1: and Kubrick called his version of Barry Lyndon a film
Speaker 1: with quote neither a conventional hero nor a conventional villain.
Speaker 1: Barry Lyndon, while definitely not a hero, is a little
Speaker 1: bit more of a lovable rogue than the cruel, abusive,
Speaker 1: murderous stony. Sometimes fiction paints things in a more palatable hue.
Speaker 1: Barry Lyndon is the story made glossy by candlelight. Noble
Speaker 1: Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild
Speaker 1: from Aaron Manke. Noble Blood is created and hosted by
Speaker 1: me Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and researching by Hannah Johnston,
Speaker 1: Hannah Zwick, Mira Hayward, Courtney Sender, and Lori Goodman. The
Speaker 1: show is edited and produced by Noemi Griffin and rima
Speaker 1: Il Kahali, with supervising producer Josh Thain and executive producers
Speaker 1: Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams and and Matt Frederick. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.