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  • Wedlock5

    Penny Cunningham I have Just finished this fascinating book written by Wendy Moore, about the disastrous marriage of Lady Mary Eleanor Bowes an extremely rich heiress from the Georgian era.
    It tells the true story of her marriage to Andrew Stoney ( an officer on half pay in the Army). He was after her vast fortune. The marriage can only be described as horrendous. Mary was tricked into the marriage by Stoney on the pretext that he was about to die from wounds received in a sham duel fought over her. As he only appeared to have days left to live and out of a sense of duty Mary consented to the marriage (even though she was engaged to be married to someone else at the time!) Then low and behold Stoney had a miraculous recovery when the marriage was finalised .
    He changed from a seeingly honourable and kindly man into what can only be described as a psychopath, unbelievably cruel and conniving, and what is even more scarey he had the law on his side for the most part! As women of the time had very few rights, once married every thing they had reverted to their husbands control.
    He beat her constantly, paraded his numerous mistresses in front of her, witheld food and clothing from her, so she was half starved and hardly any better dressed than the lowest maid. He inherited her very large estate and ruined her lifes work (she was a well renowned botonist, and had wonderful gardens and grounds) He raped numerous servants engaged to look after the children and had so many illegitimate children he lost track of them! she endured 8 years of constant torment from him before a new maid was engaged called Mary Morgan who proved to be the greatest friend that Mary Eleanor could ever have had along with 3 other servants who helped her eventually to escape.
    Mary's ordeal was not over yet though, she was kidnapped and dragged through the countryside for 3 months which was nearly the death of her. It took a full 2 years of constantly looking over her shoulder and legal wrangling to finally get free of the monster she had married.
    The book was an excellently researched by the author and although contains a lot of notes and bibliography it is a very enjoyable read, giving you an insight into Georgian England, duels, divorce and so on. It shows us how far we have come in the past 200 years since then.
    I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the social history of this country, or even if you enjoy an fantastically good read. by Penny Cunningham

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