The Lady In Red: An Eighteenth-Century Tale Of Sex, Scandal, And Divorce (35 page)

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Authors: Hallie Rubenhold

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Also by Hallie Rubenhold
 
The Covent Garden Ladies
The Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies, 1793
(editor)
At the end of this long journey many people deserve gratitude and recognition for their assistance.
First, the unflagging patience, expert advice and kind support offered to me by three wise women: my agent Claire Paterson, my editor Jenny Uglow and my publisher Alison Samuel at Chatto have carried me though this writing experience. I am also grateful to Parisa Ebrahimi for her assistance. Similar sentiments and a debt of gratitude should be expressed to Tina Bennett at Janklow in New York and my editor at St Martin’s, Charlie Spicer, who believed in this story from the start.
Over the past three years I have pestered a good deal of people in a number of archives. Richard Smout, Christine Broom and the team at the Isle of Wight Record Office have helped me tremendously, as have Lisa Snook at the Worcester Record Office, Deborah McVea at the Bentham Project, Hazel Cook at the Kensington Central Library and the indefatigable Alison Kenney at the City of Westminster Archives. The staff at the Lincolnshire Archives, the Lambeth Palace Archives and the British Library’s Rare Books & Music Reading Room also deserve my sincere thanks.
Many others have offered their expertise. I have Stephen Brumwell to thank for providing me with information about the militias and the British military during the War of American Independence. R.S. Taylor Stoermer’s advice about the last days of Lord North’s government was also invaluable, as was Simon Chaplin’s correct identification of Lady Worsley’s physician.
I’m also grateful for the input of Wendy Moore, Christopher Jessel at Farrer & Co., Ivor Coward at the British Consulate in Venice, Father John Ryder at All Saints Godshill, Vic Barrett at Sea Cottage, Lord Teynham at Pylewell, and Jill Toovey for her assistance with the Croome Court papers, now at the Record Office in Worcester.
Where the creation of this book is concerned there are three exceptional people who may be named as its godparents. In March 2006, I invited a trio of strangers into my home for lunch. Over a lasagne and several bottles of wine the Worsley Society was born. Ann O’Conor has been overwhelmingly generous with her time, support and the Worsley books in her collection. Richard Grenville Clark’s insights and the work in his unpublished MA dissertation helped to form my initial thoughts on the Worsley case. Last and certainly not least, the brilliant Karen Lynch has been instrumental in assisting me to form a picture of Lady Worsley. A personal interest in the subject matter meant that she had already blazed a trail to many of the sources long before I began my research. These three people have demonstrated to me that research needn’t be a closed, jealous pursuit but collaborative, cooperative and fulfilling. Their friendship and expertise has sustained me in this endeavour.
Finally, I could not possibly have completed this work without the love and assistance of my family and especially my patient, supportive husband to whom this book is dedicated.
Because issues of financial worth play such a large role in this book I felt it was important to try to convey an idea of eighteenth-century values by converting sums into approximate modern equivalents.
I have used two approximate measures which I have applied to eighteenth-century values according to their type: land or product/labour. I have relied on the work of the economic historian Gregory Clark at the University of California at Davis for my figures for Britain’s GDP in the 1770s (see his paper, ‘The Secret History of the Industrial Revolution’, 2001).
The first approach is a ‘proportion based comparison’. This looks at the estimate of gross domestic product in the 1770s and establishes the fraction of domestic product represented by £1,000 in the decade beginning in 1770. Having established the fraction of GDP represented by £1,000 in 1770, the 2006 GDP figure can be divided by that fraction in order to identify the current level of economic output required in 2006 to allow an individual in the present decade to be as relatively well off today as a person having £1,000 disposable income in 1770.
The second approach is an ‘expenditure based approach’. This identifies a commodity common to the 1770s and the present. In this case, I’ve taken the cost of labour. According to Clark, the average daily male wage in the 1770 was approximately 17.5 pence, meaning that £1 (240 pence) purchased the labour of approximately 14 men. The average annual wage in the UK in 2006 was £23,700 (Office of National Statistics). Allowing for the shorter
working week, this results in an average daily wage of £91. The cost of the labour of 14 people for one day equals £1,274 at current prices. If amounts are multiplied by a factor of 1274 we arrive at figures which permit a contemporary value to be placed on the eighteenth-century figures.
As the sources in this book have not been foot-noted, I have arranged the bibliography to assist those who might want to research specific aspects of the Worsleys’ lives or their criminal conversation trial and separation. The bibliography is broken into several categories and sub-headings and also includes a list of general material consulted.
SIR RICHARD WORSLEY
ARCHIVAL AND UNPUBLISHED MATERIAL
British Library: Correspondence to or from Sir Richard Worsley
Add. MSS: 27915 (f. 13), 30873 (f. 146), 30874 (f. 62), 34886 (f. 400), 37935c, 37060 (f. 72, f. 77), 41192 (f. 18), 46501 (f. 79, 114), 46825 (ff. 64–83b), 51315 (f. 66), 61867 (f. 178)
Hoare’s Bank Archives: Banking Records of Sir Richard Worsley:
Volumes 1774–1805
Lincolnshire Archives: Worsley Papers
: 1 Worsley 14–17, 23, 24, 27, 31, 38, 39, 42, 44, 53; 1 Worsley 55/7, 55/8, 55/11–14, 16–42, 55/44, 55/46–8; 1 Worsley 56, 59, 61
 
Isle of Wight Record Office:
Swainston Papers (Barrington Family)
: SW/812, SW/794a–b, SW/794d–e
Worsley Family Papers:
JER/WA/3/9/56, JER/WA/33/25, 33/36, 33/44–9, 33/52, JER/WA/35/23–4, 35/25a&b, 35/28, 35/26–9, 37/22–31, 38/1, 38/3, 38/6–8, 39/4–6, JER/WA/AppV/12
 
Public Record Office, Kew
PCC Wills:
Sir Richard Worsley, Sir Thomas Worsley
Foreign Office Papers:
Correspondence as Minister-Resident in Venice
FO/81/9–14 (1793–1805)
Probate Inventory:
Prob 31/1002/374
Court of Chancery
: C/12/612/34
Worsley
v
. Worsley
, C/12/618/40
Worsley
v
. Lady Worsley
, C/12/149/6
Countess d’Amey
v.
Worsley,
C12/643/20
Poor of the Isle of Wight
v.
Worsley
 
Shropshire Archives: Attingham Collection:
Letters from Lady Bruce to Lady Berwick, 112/23/3/22/1–11
CONTEMPORARY PUBLICATIONS
Almon, John (ed.),
The Correspondence of the Late John Wilkes
(1805)
Anon.,
An Epistle from Lady W——y to Sir R——d W——y
(1782)
Anon.,
The Abbey of Kilkhampton or Monumental Records for the Year 1780
(1780)
Anon.,
The Abbey of Kilkhampton, an improved edition
(1788)
Anon. (Sir Richard Worsley),
The Answer of S——r R——d W——y, Bt. to the Epistle of L——y W——y
(1782)
Anon.,
The Genuine Anecdotes and Amorous Adventures of Sir Richard Easy and Lady Wagtail
(1782)
Anon.,
The Memoirs of Sir Finical Whimsy and His Lady
(1782)
Anon.,
The Whim!!!, or the Maid-Stone Bath, a Kentish Poetic
(1782)
Anon.,
Variety, or Which is the Man?
(1782)
Craven, Lady Elizabeth,
A Journey through the Crimea to Constantinople
(1789)
Marshall,
Catalogue of Five Hundred Celebrated Authors of Great Britain, Now Living
(1788)
Savage, James
The Librarian
(1808)
Wilkes, John (ed.)
A Collection of All the Hand-bills, Squibs, Songs, Essays, etc. Published during the late Contested Election for the County of Hants. between the Right Honourable Sir Richard Worsley, Bart. and Jervoise Clarke Jervoise
(Winchester, 1780)
Worsley, Sir Richard,
A Catalogue Raisonné of the Principal Paintings, Sculpture, Drawings etc. at Appuldurcombe House
(1804)
Worsley, Sir Richard,
Museum Worsleyanum; or, A Collection of Antique Basso Relievos, Bustos, Statues, and Gems; with Views of Places in the Levant taken on the Spot in the Years 1785–6–7
, Vol. 1 (1798)
Worsley, Sir Richard,
Museum Worsleyanum; or, A Collection of Antique Basso Relievos, Bustos, Statues, and Gems; with Views of Places in the Levant taken on the Spot in the Years 1785–6–7
, Vol. 2 (1824)
CONTEMPORARY NEWSPAPERS AND JOURNALS
Anon., ‘The Cuckold’s Reel or; a Dialogue between the Matrimonial Advocate, the Atlas Cornuto, and Admiral Easy’,
Rambler’s Magazine
, March 1783, p. 105
Anon.,
The Britannic Magazine; or Entertaining Repository of Heroic Adventures, 1794–1807
, vol. 12, p. 96
Anon.,
Monthly Register
, July 1803, p. 150
Anon., ‘Obituary of Sir Richard Worsley’,
Gentleman’s Magazine
, vol. ixxv, pt. ii (1805), pp. 781–2, 874–5
Juvenis, ‘On the Marriage of Sir Richard Worsley, Bart of Appuldurcombe in the Isle of Wight to Miss D.S. Fleming, of Harewood in the County of York’,
Hampshire Chronicle
, 9 October 1775, p. 4
GENERAL MENTIONS AND GOSSIP 1775–1805
The Annual Register
Bon Ton Magazine
European Magazine
Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser
Hampshire Chronicle
Leeds Intelligencer
Leeds Mercury
London Chronicle
London Gazette
Monthly Review
Morning Chronicle
Morning Herald
Morning Post
Public Advertiser
Rambler’s Magazine
St James’ Chronicle
Sussex Weekly Advertiser
Whitehall Evening Post
World
PUBLISHED SOURCES
Boucher, James E., ‘The Worsleys of the Isle of Wight’,
Letters Archaeological and Historical
(1896)
Bowring, John (ed.)
The Works of Jeremy Bentham
, vol. 10 (New York, 1962)
Boynton, Lindsay,
Appuldurcombe House
(1990)
Boynton, Lindsay, ‘Sir Richard Worsley and the Greek Revival’, in
Ancient History in a Modern University
, ed. T.W. Hillard et al., vol. 1 (Cambridge, 1998)
Boynton, Lindsay, ‘Sir Richard Worsley and the Firm of Chippendale’,
Burlington Magazine
, vol. 110, no. 783 (June 1968)
Christie, Ian R.,
The Correspondence of Jeremy Bentham, 1781–88
, 5 vols (1971)
Cross, Anthony,
By the Banks of the Neva: Chapters from the Lives and Careers of the British in Eighteenth Century Russia
(Cambridge, 1997)
Ingamells, John,
A Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy, 1710–1800
(1997)
Lewis, W.S.,
Horace Walpole’s Correspondence
(New Haven, Conn., 1937–80)
Mannings, David,
Sir Joshua Reynolds
, 2 vols (2000)
Morritt, J. B.S.,
A Grand Tour: Letters and Journeys, 1794–6
, ed. G.E. Marandin (1985)
Prothero, Rowland E. (ed.)
The Private Letters of Edward Gibbon
, 2 vols (1897)
Radice, Betty (ed.)
Memoirs of My Life by Edward Gibbon
(1984)
Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts,
Report on Family and Estate Papers of The Worsleys
(1895)
Smith, A.H.,
A Catalogue of Antiquities in the Collection of the Earl of Yarborough at Brocklesby Park
(1897)
Worsley, Henry Arthur Mant,
Family, Baronets of Appuldurcombe, 13th–19th centuries
, no. 84/9 (1984)
Worsley, Henry Arthur Mant,
The Pedigree of the Family of Worsley Completed to date and in Continuation of that Appearing in ‘Berry’s Hampshire Genealogies’
(1895)
Worsley, Sir Richard,
The History of the Isle of Wight
, ed. R.M. Robbins (1975)
LADY SEYMOUR DOROTHY WORSLEY (NÉE FLEMING)
ARCHIVAL AND UNPUBLISHED MATERIAL
Isle of Wight Record Office: Worsley Family Papers:
JER/WA/35/23–24, 35/25a&b, 35/28
Hammond Papers:
HG/2/110 a&b, 2/107, 2/8–9, 2/69–71, 2/86, 2/76
Kensington Central Library, Local Studies Archive: Brompton Estate Papers:
MSS 2694, 2695, 2696, 2698, 2701, 2702, 2733, 2738, 2739, 2753, 2767, 2774, 2779, 2782 (10), 2790 (5), 2818, 2819, 2830, 2834, 2840
Nottinghamshire Archives: Foljambe Family Papers:
157/DD/FJ/11/1/3/427–8, 157/DD/FJ/11/1/4/33–4, 157/DD/FJ/11/1/4/43–4
Public Record Office, Kew
PCC Wills:
Lady Seymour Dorothy Fleming, Sir John Fleming, John Lewis Fleming
Sheffield Archives: Spencer Stanhope Muniments
Sp/St 60635/4
Grenville Clark, Richard, ‘Contrasting Notions of Female Propriety in Late Eighteenth Century England, c. 1780–1800’, unpublished MA dissertation, University of Greenwich, 1987
Harewood House,
Maids and Mistresses
(exhibition guidebook, 2004)
Lynch, Karen,
Some Lascelles Ladies
(essay accompanying the exhibition ‘Maids and Mistresses’ at Harewood House, 2004)
CONTEMPORARY PUBLICATIONS
Anon.,
A Fifteen Days’ Tour to Paris
(1789)
Anon.,
A Poetical Address from Mrs Newton to Lady W——y
(1782)
Anon.,
An Epistle from Lady W——y to Sir R——d W——y
(1782)
Anon.,
The Abbey of Kilkhampton or Monumental Records for the Year 1780
(1780)
Anon.,
The Abbey of Kilkhampton, an Improved Edition
(1788)
Anon. [Sir Richard Worsley],
The Answer of S——r R——d W——y. Bt. to the Epistle of L——y W——y
(1782)
Anon.,
The Devil Divorced or the Diabo Whore
(1782)
Anon.,
The Genuine Anecdotes and Amorous Adventures of Sir Richard Easy and Lady Wagtail
(1782)
Anon.,
The Life of Dick En——l——d, alias Captain En——l——d of Turf Memory
(1792)
Anon.,
The Memoirs of Sir Finical Whimsy and His Lady
(1782)
Anon.,
Variety, or Which is the Man?
(1782)
Anon.,
The Whim!!!, or the Maidstone Bath, a Kentish Poetic
(1782)
Anon.,
The Whore. A Poem Written by a Lady of Quality
(1782)
Hartley, J.,
History of the Westminster Election, Containing Every Material Occurrence from its Commencement on the 1 st of April to the Final Close
(1784) Pindar, Peter,
The Lousiad
(1785)
CONTEMPORARY NEWSPAPERS AND JOURNALS
Anon., ‘Anecdote of Mrs N——t——n and Lady W——s——y’,
Rambler’s Magazine
, May 1783, pp. 60–2, 101–2
Anon., ‘Obituary of Sir Richard Worsley’,
Gentleman’s Magazine
, vol. ixxv, pt. ii (1805), pp. 781–2, 874–5
Anon., ‘The Court of Scandal or The New Female Coterie’,
Rambler’s Magazine
, June 1783, pp. 270–1
Anon., ‘The Most Fashionable Votaries of Venus’,
Rambler’s Magazine
, April 1783
Anon. ‘Spa Intelligence’,
Rambler’s Magazine
, August 1785, p. 359
Robertson, Thomas, ‘Cytherian Discussions’,
Rambler’s Magazine
, July 1783, pp. 248–50
 
(from January 1782 to December 1784 regular updates of Lady Worsley’s activities can be found in:)
Morning Herald
Morning Post
Rambler’s Magazine
(from 1783)
 
Newspapers and Journals: General Mentions
Annual Register
Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser
Hampshire Chronicle
European Magazine
Leeds Intelligencer
Leeds Mercury
London Chronicle
London Gazette
Monthly Review
Morning Chronicle
Public Advertiser
St James’ Chronicle
Sussex Weekly Advertiser
Town and Country Magazine
Whitehall Evening Post
World
PUBLISHED SOURCES
Bleackley, Horace ‘Lady Worsley’,
Notes and Queries
, 11 S. I (1 January 1910), pp. 14–15
Cave, Kathryn (ed.)
The Diary of Joseph Farringdon
, vol. 8 (New Haven, 1982),
Chitty, Joseph et al.,
A Practical Treatise on the Law of Contracts Not Under Seal
(1855)
Clark, Lorna J. (ed.)
The Letters of Sarah Harriet Burney
(Athens, Georgia, 1997)
Elliott, Grace Dalrymple,
Journal of My Life During the French Revolution
, ed. Richard Bentley
Greening, Henry,
Chitty’s Treatise on Pleading and Parties to Action
(1876), Appendix to vol. 1, p. 473,
Turtle
v.
Worsley
Historical Manuscripts Commission,
Carlisle Manuscripts
(1897), Appendix pt. v. p. 536
King, A. Hyatt (ed.),
The Reminiscences of Michael Kelly
(New York, 1968)
Lewis, W.S.,
Horace Walpole’s Correspondence
(New Haven, Conn., 1937–80), vol. 25, pp. 228, 245–6
Mannings, David,
Sir Joshua Reynolds
, 2 vols (2000)
Penny, N. (ed.)
Reynolds
(1986)
Rizzo, Betty (ed.)
The Early Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney, 1780–1781
, vol. 4 (Montreal, 2003)
Ruvigny, Melville H.,
The Nobilities of Europe
(2000)

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