Noble Blood - The Plot to Undo Mary Eleanor Bowes, Part 1

Episode Date: February 20, 2024

When Mary Eleanor Bowe's first husband died, he left her a letter warning her that, "A living man have no interest to mislead. A living man may." He could not have possibly predicted just how deceitful Mary Eleanor's next husband would be. CW: spousal abuse, pregnancy termination. Support Noble Blood: — Bonus episodes, stickers, and scripts on Patreon — Noble Blood merch — Order Dana's book, 'Anatomy: A Love Story' and its sequel 'Immortality: A Love Story'See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Will Ferrell's Big Money Players and IHart Podcast presents soccer moms. So I'm Leanne. Yeah. This is my best friend, Janet. Hey. And we have been joined at the hips since high school.

Absolutely. A redacted amount of years later, we're still joined at the hip. Just a little bit bigger hips. This is a podcast. We're recording it as we tailgate our youth soccer games in the back of my Honda Odyssey. With all the snacks and drinks. Why did you get hard seltzer instead of beer? Oh, they hit a bogo. Well, then you got them. Listen to soccer moms on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of IHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. Hey, this is Dana Schwartz, host of Noble Blood. Just a few quick reminders before the episode. If you want to support the show, we have a Patreon. Patreon.com slash Noble Blood Tales, where there's merch, where I upload episode scripts, and where I do a weekly podcast watching the television show Rain, which is about Mary Queen of Scots. It's a lot of fun. Join us, support the show there. There's also links to show merch and to my books in the episode description. And one quick note before this episode, this episode contains fairly graphic depictions of domestic violence. There are also terminated pregnancies. So,

if either of those topics are particularly sensitive for you, this one might be an episode to skip. In April 1776, Mary Eleanor Bose received a letter from her husband, Earl John Strathmore. One month earlier, he had left their sprawling estate in the Scottish countryside on a trip to Portugal, and upon opening the letter, Mary Eleanor expected to hear good tidings. But this letter revealed dark news. Her husband was dead. He had died of tuberculosis, and this letter contained his final words to his now widow. While you might be expecting something vague or sweet, his letter instead revealed how contentious and challenging their marriage had become. The Earl of Strathmore wrote, quote, as this is not intended for your perusal till I am dead, I hope you will pay a little more

attention to it than you ever did to anything I said to you while alive. I freely forgive you, all your liberties and follies, however fatal they have been to me, as being thoroughly persuaded they were not the produce of your own mind, but the suggestions of some violence. interested monster. Back in the early days of their courtship, the Earl of Strathmore had been tall and elegant, nicknamed, quote, the beautiful Lord Strathmore,

with a dignified, if standoffish, heir. Meanwhile, Mary Eleanor had been just 16 years old, and well known for being one of the richest heiresses in the country, if not all of Europe. She had no shortage of suitors, but the beautiful Lord Strathmore caught her eye. She, like many 16-year-old girls, couldn't help but be drawn to someone so handsome, and also mysterious and aloof. Her family had some reservations about the match, since the Strathmore family had accumulated

a number of debts over the decades, which would potentially even put Mary Eleanor's for in jeopardy. Still, Mary Eleanor was charmed by the Earl of Strathmore and a little excited to rebel against her family's expectations. She told her mother that she would marry either the Earl of Strathmore or no one at all. Her family reluctantly accepted and Mary Eleanor married him in 1769. But if there ever had been a honeymoon period after the wedding, it was over quickly. The next seven years of marriage were cold and unromantic. The Earl of Strathmore gambled, drank, and cheated on his wife, contracting syphilis along the way, all while Mary Eleanor attended to their five children and their vast estate. Mary Eleanor prided herself on her

loyalty to her husband in spite of his dalliances, but by 1776 she was fed up with it and initiated an affair of her own. She met a man named George Gray, who, from their very first meeting, paid her near constant attention, which was a welcome far cry from her distant husband. Though resentment mounted in the marriage and indiscretions piled up, divorce was difficult and highly uncommon and could have destroyed both of their reputations. So the marriage only ended when the Earl died at the age of 38 in 1776. But the Earl's final letter complicated Mary Eleanor's justified feelings of freedom and relief once her husband was gone.

Even though in the letter he dismissed her ambitions to write as feudal and accused her of being prejudiced against him and his family for their debts, he said he was holding back his true feelings, writing that he wasn't, quote, tempted to say an ill-natured thing for the sake of sporting a bon mo. Instead, in his final letter, the Earl of Strathmore wanted to give his wife, some advice. From beyond the grave, the Earl cautioned Mary Eleanor to choose her next partner wisely, writing, quote, a dead man can have no interest to mislead, a living man may. Those words would unfortunately prove prophetic. Unlike many women trapped in loveless marriages,

Mary Eleanor had been given a second chance at a new life, relatively young, giving her plenty of time to potentially find a new husband who might share her interests and respect her intelligence. After all, as the richest woman in Britain, she could pretty much have any man she wanted. Even the reckless gambling habits of her late husband hadn't put a dent in her vast coal fortune.

She was the heir to somewhere between 600,000 and 1,040,000 pounds. But money cannot save you from bad judgment, and unfortunately, as Mary Eleanor's late husband predicted, she would ultimately be faced with a man with every intent to mislead her. I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is Noble Blood. Mary Eleanor barely set aside time to mourn her late husband before launching into enjoying her new single life. Although her newly single life was not quite as single as she let on,

she already had a lover, George Gray, who she had started seeing when her husband was still very much alive. Unlike the late Earl of Strathmore, Gray, was a devoted, attentive lover, visiting Mary Eleanor every day and sitting at her bedside every evening. Even though she entertained his affections and did have a sexual relationship with him,

Mary Eleanor seemed to put Gray in the 18th century equivalent of the friend zone, saying that she felt nothing for him, quote, that exceeded friendship. As a wealthy single woman, Mary Eleanor was also free to pursue her intellectual interests unencumbered. Mary Eleanor's late husband had resented her intellect and viewed her interests as fruitless dalliances, distracting her from her true task of tending to the household and caring for their young children. Her husband had been particularly dismissive of her interest in,

Botany. Mary Eleanor was one of few women working as a botanist in Britain at the time. A colleague described her as, quote, the most intelligent female botanist of the age, and she built hothouses and gardens across her vast estates, where she cultivated exotic plants from around the world. But the late Earl of Strathmore thought that plant pollination was too sexually suggestive for a woman's delicate sensibilities. After her husband's death, she supplemented her solo botanical study by hosting salons. While Mary Eleanor was denied entry into the All-Male Royal Botanical Society, she gathered the greatest botanical minds of the day under her roof for hours of lively

discussions about the latest discoveries. But not everyone was happy to see her living a life of freedom. The same colleague that described Mary Eleanor as the most intelligent female botanist of the age also said that, quote, her judgment was weak, her prudence almost none, and her prejudice abounded, and that she lived in a, quote, house of folly. Marie Eleanor did not particularly want to get married again. She told Gray, her friend slash lover, that after her dismal marriage to the Earl of Strathmore, she would never, quote, engage herself so indissolubly again.

But even Mary wondered if she would receive comeuppance for her fairly reckless, brazen affair with George Gray. She had already gotten pregnant by him a few times, knowing that having a child out of wedlock would destroy, her reputation, she had abortions, which were expensive, dangerous, and unreliable. Each time she took what she described as a, quote, black, inky kind of medicine. We don't know exactly what was in it, according to her it looked and tasted as if it might have contained copper. If that didn't work, she'd add a large glass of brandy seasoned with a handful of black pepper. even though these abortions in Mary's case were effective, each one seemed like a bad omen to marry.

Her luck, she believed, would only last so long. Society could only tolerate so much of her freedom, and soon she knew she would have to settle down. Into this picture entered a charming Irish soldier named Captain Andrew Robinson Stoney. He was a known figure in the coffee house scene of the late 18th century, living above St. James Coffee House, a quick walk from where Mary Eleanor lived in Grovesner Square. Stony had a number of qualities that Mary Eleanor found attractive. He was 5'10, which was tall at a time when the average height was 5 foot 5. He was also handsome and impeccably dressed. He owned over 9 foot 10, which was tall at a time when the average height was 5 foot 5. He was also handsome, he was also handsome and impeccably dressed. He owned over 9, he was also handsome, he was 90 shirts, according to his valet, very great Gatsby. And unlike her aloof late husband and her lover whom she saw more as a friend, Stony was passionate and romantic. Sometimes his gentlemanly, well-mannered temperament gave way to expressions of intoxicating, overwhelming ardor. He wrote

flowery letters, left big tips, and gave lavish gifts. Plus, Mary Eleanor had a particular weakness for Celtic man. Stony was Irish, and her first husband and Gray were both Scottish. Stony sent a letter of interest in July of 1776, just a few months after Mary Eleanor's husband had died. Unlike the formal address that she was used to, he signed the letter with a simple, it is for you, and he arrived at her doorstep to hand-deliver it.

With a powerful combination of flattery and alluring informality, Stony wrote, quote, I have taken some liberties for which your ladyship can find no excuse unless you apply to the powerful pleading of inclination. For such freedom, I wish to make every apology, but I cannot get the better of a passion which has taken the intense possession of my heart. We don't have Mary's reply, but Stony would brag about Mary's equally flowery letters when he was at a coffee shop in Bath, which suggests that she responded in kind.

Two of Mary's closest friends, a woman named Eliza Planta and a man named Captain Magra, were both big fans of Stony. One day, Mary, Eliza, and Magra went to a fortune teller to get their fortunes read. They snuck off to a dingy building near Newgate Prison and sat in a cold, dark waiting room for seven hours. They passed the time making up poems together and writing them on the wall in a lead pencil. In one of the poems, according to historian Wendy Moore,

Mary wrote some lines denouncing matrimony. Mary also passed the time chatting with the others in the waiting room, pretending to be a grocer's widow with ten children named Mrs. Smith. When finally she got to speak with the fortune teller, she mentioned her struggle deciding on a husband, and the fortune teller spoke highly of a tall Irish soldier, Even Magra, a skeptic, was convinced of this fortune teller's skill. While the stars seemed to align around her new relationship with Stony,

Mary didn't really think of him as a serious option. She was still in a relationship with Gray, which was getting increasingly intense. She had gotten pregnant yet again, but this time her abortion wasn't working, Seeing that she had no choice but to get married, Mary proposed to Gray, which at the time was considered legally binding. They had even exchanged rings at St. Paul's Cathedral one night, as Mary Eleanor promised to marry none but him. Meanwhile, Mary Eleanor was getting smeared in the press, putting extra pressure on her engagement. as the richest and most eligible heiress in Britain, she was a known tabloid figure, and she was very familiar with laughing off articles about her libertine lifestyle.

But her feelings were genuinely hurt when an anonymous article, signed from a conscious stinger, appeared in the morning post on December 12, 1776. The letter accused her of insults. her late husband's memory with her affairs, accused her of cheating on her husband while he was still alive, and abandoning her children. A response appeared in the next issue, defending Mary's reputation, but even that more positive letter seemed ridiculing, even sarcastic, arguing for her, quote, agonizing and heartfelt sorrow at her late husband's death, which, ever was a very much ever. everyone knew was a stretch.

The quote-unquote more complimentary letter also portrayed her as a mercurial, gileless pansy, being manipulated by men seeking to exploit her vast fortune. Throughout December and January, these anonymous letters went back and forth, alternately condemning Mary for being a cunning seductress and bad mother, and then shooting down those accusations

with a defense that Mary Eleanor was merely an innocent fool. The court of public opinion seemed to be closing in on her, a fear only exacerbated by her pregnancy. Stony was incensed by these letters in the newspaper. He approached the editor of the Morning Post, Reverend Henry Bate, demanding to know who besmirched Mary Eleanor's reputation. Bate replied that the letters were, anonymous, so he didn't know the authors. Unsatisfied with that response, Stony challenged Bate to a duel

to defend Mary Eleanor's honor. Stony and Bate met at Adelphi Tavern one night, which was a bit at typical, as duels were typically conducted at dawn and in more private locations than bustling city taverns. But the shadowy locale spoke to Stony's sense of urgency. He wouldn't even wait until the next morning to defend his beloved. Adhering to dual conduct, both men drew pistols, and Bate insisted that Stony fire first. Stony missed shooting Bates' hat, and Bate missed two, the bullet merely tearing Stoney's coat. The men then drew swords, and in the ensuing fight, Stony got slashed several times all over his body. According to a well-regarded surgeon and multiple witnesses, these injuries were life-threatening. He was rushed to the hospital,

blood staining his clothing. The next morning, Mary Eleanor rushed to Stony. bedside. Stony, seemingly moments from death, proclaimed that he would only die happy if he married Mary Eleanor. Doctors said that the wounded soldier only had a few days left to live, so she would probably be a widow once again anyway. And it seemed heartless to deny this man his dying wish after he had sacrificed his life for her. So despite the legally binding promise that she had made to gray, she accepted Stony's marriage proposal, and three days later, the two were married at St. James's church. Stony gave his vows from a makeshift bed, wincing in pain, but the two were happily wed. The duel was something right out of Mary Eleanor's most romantic of fantasies.

Back when she was still married to the Earl of Strathmore, she had written a five-act tragic play, in which two men dueled for the honor of a maiden. And if this were a romance, perhaps the story would end here. The widow and the gallant soldier married, headed toward their happily ever after. But the story does not end here. Stony recovered from his purportedly life-threatening injuries.

making this hasty marriage a fact of Mary Eleanor's life now. As it turns out, this dashing Irish captain had some skeletons in his closet. Nearly every aspect of their courtship, from the fortune teller to the duel to his status in the British Army, would turn out to be a lie. These revelations would nearly destroy Mary Eleanor, and transform their seemingly picture-perfect romance into a nightmare. Perhaps Mary Eleanor's romance with Stony felt ripped from fiction because, in some ways, it was. The Captain Andrew Robinson Stony that Mary Eleanor fell in love with was almost a complete fabrication from the beginning,

starting with the Captain part. It turned out that Stony was not a captain. captain. He was barely even in the British Army. In November 1764, when Stoney was 17, his uncle secured him a position as an ensign, the lowest rank of officer, as a favor to Stony's father, who was looking to instill in his son some much-needed discipline. Stony was fired the following year for flouting rules, gambling, sleeping around, and erupting in anger. As another favor, he was allowed to rejoin the army in 1767, where he was stationed in Newcastle. But he managed to avoid ever going into battle by courting the affections of Hannah Newton,

an heiress with a vast coal fortune, and securing her hand in marriage. Once married, he quit the army and spent his days gambling, shopping, and cavorting with his various military buddies. The only commitment he seemed to pursue with any consistency was making his new wife Hannah's life a living hell. While Hannah's own voice is lost in the historical record, none of her letters or writings survive, witnesses' accounts fill in some of the harrowing details of how Stony treated her. Once he locked Hannah in a cupboard.

in just her underwear and kept her there for three days, giving her one egg a day for sustenance. Another account recalls him throwing her down the stairs. His justification for his abuse was that Hannah had not yet given him an heir, which he needed in order to have complete control over Hannah's fortune, as that would legally allow him to maintain his rights to the Newton estate, through his own lifetime, regardless of what happened to Hannah. But she continued to have miscarriages and stillborns throughout their marriage,

as her own health failed, likely compounded by Stoney's abuse. She died March 1776 during childbirth, and the baby died alongside. her. After Hannah's death, rumors about Stony's violence towards his wife abounded. A letter from a colleague in Newcastle alleged that he had shortened her days, while an anonymous pamphlet, published in 1777, argued that he should be tried for murder. Stony had only just collected the 5,000 pounds Hannah left him in her will

before he headed off to London in search of another wealthy bride. Luckily for him, Mary Eleanor Bowes, the wealthiest woman in Britain, had recently become a widow. It wouldn't be easy for

Stoney to win Mary Eleanor's heart. It seemed an impossible feat for an unknown soldier, saddled with rumors of violence against his first wife, especially since Mary Eleanor was already involved with George Gray. But those obstacles only made Stony even more determined to seduce and destroy Mary Eleanor. After making his way to London, Stony's first challenge was embedding himself in Mary Eleanor's social circle.

He knew Captain Perkins Magra, one of Mary Eleanor's closest friends. as an old pal from the army, and Stony recruited him as an ally in his plot to win Mary's heart. Magra served as Stony's wingman through the process, picking up a dashing scarlet uniform and frock suit for Stony to wear, and introducing Stony to Mary Eleanor's governess, Eliza Planta. Stony plied Planta with flattery and bribes, and she even became his lover, in addition to his spy, in the beau's household. Eliza would report back to Stony about Mary's vulnerabilities and interests so that Stony could woo her. From Eliza, Stony learned about Mary Eleanor's beloved cats and favorite daughters, both of which he was careful to praise. In one letter, Stony even wished he were one of Mary Eleanor's cats

so that he could, quote, be stroked and caressed by her. Stony made sure Eliza Planta and Captain Magra talked him up to Mary Eleanor and dispelled any unfortunate rumors about his relationship with his late ex-wife. Stony even had the three of them meet with the fortune teller, who he coached on what to say. The entire episode, the seven-hour wait time, Captain Magra's supposed cautious skepticism, the fortune teller's premonition that a tall Irish soldier would be the right match, was all orchestrated by Stony. But even that hadn't been enough to win Mary Eleanor's hand in marriage. She still considered him a dalliance from her real affair with George Gray.

So Stony played dirty. He approached an old friend, Reverend Henry Bait, editor of the Morning Post and fellow Army veteran, and they created an elaborate plot to win Mary Eleanor's heart. In exchange for a hefty bribe, Bate agreed to help craft and then publish anonymous letters admonishing Mary Eleanor for her crimes, as well as the ones supposedly, quote, defending her reputation. It's almost mind-bending how evil all of this is.

While Stoney was privately writing Eleanor flowery letters about how great of a mother she was, he was also denouncing her licentiousness and her neglecting her children in letters published in the morning post, The letters he published that defended her were in some ways even worse. They blamed her for the lies because she shouldn't have fallen prey to them so easily. And he was doing all of this by bribing the press and bribing Mary Alinor's closest confidence with money he had claimed from his wife's death, which itself was likely in part a result of his abuse. In early 1777, Stony and Bate sent the final steps of their plan in motion. They decided to stage a fake duel for Mary Eleanor's honor to appeal to her romantic sensibilities.

They went to the Adelphi one night and bribed three witnesses, including a doctor, to attest to the brutality of the duel and the severity of Stony's. injuries. Stony gave himself a few fake cuts to complete the illusion, and he painted his face white, so he seemed like he was in dire condition. A large blood stain on Stony's waistcoat might have been faked with pig's blood. He dramatically collapsed into a chair as medics placed smelling salts under his nose to resuscitate him. He fainted two more times in case the first fainting spell wasn't convincing enough. When Mary came to visit him the next morning, at his sickbed, he delivered a flowery speech, pausing to wince in fake pain as he begged for

Mary Eleanor's hand in marriage. His ploy worked. They were married just three days later. After Stoney made a miraculous recovery from his supposedly life-threatening injuries, people had some suspicions about whether the duel had actually happened. George Gray, Mary Eleanor's spurned lover, and whose child Mary Eleanor was currently pregnant with, had particular reservations. At first, he believed the story. He was actually the first one to visit Stoney in bed after the duel, and Gray thanked him for his bravery in defending Mary Eleanor's honor. After Gray realized that his bride and fortune were stolen out from under him, he began to voice his doubts, but his qualms were dismissed as the protests of a sore loser.

A few months later, the newly married Mary Eleanor stumbled on a curious letter sitting out on a a table addressed to Stony from Reverend Henry Bate. Bate was complaining in the letter to Stoney that he hadn't been paid yet, and he was threatening him with a real duel, or he would publicly expose the entire scheme. With that, Mary Eleanor realized that she had been duped, her fairy tale romance with Andrew Robinson Stoney was nothing more than a fabrication at her expense. But this was only the first stage of Stony's plan,

and now he was moving on to the second. He would ruin Mary Eleanor's life and take control of her fortune, exactly as he had done with his first wife, Hannah Brown. On the first anniversary of their wedding, January 17, 1778, Andrew Robinson Stoney told Mary Eleanor that he intended to make every day of her life more miserable than the last. Over the previous year, he had already been making good on that promise. Pretty much immediately following their wedding, Mary Eleanor saw her lover transform from a

passionate, devoted gentleman into an exacting, hot-headed tyrant. Stony began his marital reign of terror by taking control of every aspect of Mary Eleanor's existence. He forbade her from speaking any language other than English, even though Mary was multilingual. If she put on a bonnet he disliked, he would rip it off her head and cut it to shreds. He ordered a carriage to trail her wherever she went and a valet to report back to him on whatever she did. He read all of the letters she received as well as her responses. Planned outings were canceled at the last minute if Stony disliked Mary's outfit. Visitors to the house were turned away unless he approved. She was forbidden from visiting her gardens and

hot houses, fully separated from her passion for botany. Soon all of this escalated into physical violence. He pinched, kicked, and slapped her, and threatened to kill her if she told any of her friends or servants what he was doing. Mary Eleanor was forced to blame herself for the many bruises, cuts, and black eyes that Stony gave her, fabricating stories about running into doors or falling down the stairs. Servants and housekeepers inevitably witnessed his abuse. but they were forced to keep quiet out of fear of losing their jobs. Like many abusers, Stony blamed Mary Eleanor for his violence. He was enraged by Mary Eleanor's pregnancy by Gray,

and even more enraged at the fact that Mary had secretly signed a pre-nep a few days before she married Stoney that forbade him from accessing any of her fortune. She hadn't suspected Stony of any wrongdoing at that time. She had actually created those documents with Gray in mind and did so in order to protect her children from her first marriage and secure their inheritances. Ironically, when Stony found out about the pre-nup,

he thought that he was the victim of an elaborate hoax, rather than the other way around. Stony quickly maneuvered to rest control of his wife's fortune from her pre-num, forcing her to revoke the deeds which prevented him from accessing her estate. He also curtailed her relationships with her immediate family, including her five children from her first marriage, because he mandated exactly who she could see and for how long. As Stony's abuse intensified,

Mary Eleanor's confident, plucky, and intelligent demeanor were seated. She became subdued, submissive, fearful, gaunt, and dishevelled. Stony forbade her from speaking or permitted her only to say yes or no. And so guests assumed that she was rude or crazy or dumb. Unfortunately, and I'm just warning you now, the abuse just continues to become more and more heartbreaking. A little over a year into their marriage, Stony forced Mary Eleanor to write a list of her, air quote, crimes, titled The Confessions of the Countess of Strathmore, as evidence that justified the abuse she endured. The list contained nearly a hundred pages

detailing, quote, everything she ever did, said, or thought that was wrong, and quote, including her affairs, teenage romances, abortions, and even friendships. The education that her father had carefully provided her, and that had inspired a lifetime of curiosity, was recast as evidence of her inherent worthlessness. In her confessions, Mary Eleanor condemned. her father for not instilling in her enough religious fervor to prevent her wrongdoings. Meanwhile, Stony only gained power both inside and outside the marriage. Stony used his new proximity to wealth and his wife's connections to pursue political power.

He served as higher sheriff of Durham in 1780 and was elected MP for Newcastle later the same year, year, serving until 1784 when he lost his election. It was that election in 1784 that would indirectly set in motion Mary Eleanor's escape. Stressed about securing his re-election, Stony was less exacting and monomaniical about household manners. So when he needed to hire a new maid for Mary Eleanor, he sought a recommendation from a colleague in parliament. He ended up hiring a woman named Mary Morgan, who was educated and just two years younger than Mary Eleanor. Unlike many of the other workers in the Bowes household, Mary Morgan had a small source of private income from the money her husband had left behind after his death.

She had been working in Georgian High Society to supplement that income, so that meant she was less dependent on Stony and less fearful of his wrath. Shortly after she was hired, Mary Morgan accompanied Mary Eleanor on a trip to Paris, where she first became suspicious of her new mistress's husband. Stony had forbidden Mary Eleanor from looking out of the window of her hotel room, and he forced her to keep her face covered when she went outside. Stony also instructed. Stony also instructed Mary Morgan to keep a chair against the door to trap Mary Eleanor inside her room. One night, Mary Morgan stumbled upon Mary Eleanor bleeding profusely from her ear. Blood was covering her face and neck. Stony claimed that the wind had blown open a window and struck his wife

in the face, but Mary Morgan knew that that story seemed far-fetched. When Stoney left, the room, Mary Morgan pressed Mary Eleanor on it, who finally revealed that Stony had clawed her in the face after he caught her looking out the window. Mary Eleanor had never admitted his abuse to anyone, let alone to someone like Mary Morgan, who sympathized with her and believed her. This small step was crucial. After years of enduring Stony's abuses alone, Mary Eleanor finally had someone on her team. But things were only getting worse. While Stony was hell-bent on withering away Mary Eleanor's life,

he had not actually attempted to end it. He needed Mary Eleanor to care for two young children. There was Mary, who was Gray's daughter, born in 1777, and a son, William, born in 1782, who was, was Stony's child. But as little William and Mary got older, Mary Eleanor began to fear for her life. Stony talked about wanting to strangle her, threatened her at knife point, and he took out a series of insurance policies on her life. It had been almost eight years at this point since they got married, and his first wife, Hannah, had died just eight years after they had been married.

married, a grim echo of what could be Mary's fate. One night, Stony implored her to take Lodinum and fake a suicide attempt, threatening that if she didn't, she would be kept from her children. Stony poured an entire vial of Loddenum in a glass of water by Mary Eleanor's bedside, well above the recommended dose. Mary was nervous, saying, perhaps there is a further design in this than you have acquainted me with, but I fear not to die, for I have long been weary of life.

And if you will promise me to take care of Mary, I will drink it off. She drank the entire glass at Stoney's insistence. She pretended to announce her suicide while Stony fake cried. Mary Morgan rushed over, calling a doctor and giving Mary Eleanor something to make her vomit. Still, Mary Eleanor was bedridden in a stupor for four days. Stony used this false, quote, suicide attempt to try and get her locked away in an asylum, and he gave her a letter in December that confirmed this plan explicitly. Now knowing that her life was absolutely in danger, Mary Eleanor began to plot her escape.

She sent Mary Morgan to meet with a barrister in secret to see if she would be legally protected if she fled. And the barrister, very careful not to offer encouragement, said that Mary Eleanor could qualify for legal protection if she had evidence of her husband's abuse. But it would not be easy. She would almost certainly lose her fortune, and she might never see her children again. On February 3, 1785, Stony was out to dinner, and the plan was set in motion. Mary Morgan distracted two housekeepers

who were set to keep an eye on Mary Eleanor with a conversation about trends in millinery. Meanwhile, another housemaid, in on the scheme started a debate with the footman. Mary Eleanor, wearing a servant's cloak and a maid's bonnet, scurried down the stairs and out through the basement, borrowing a few guineas from her maids and bringing with her none of her belongings. Accompanied by another maid, Anne, Mary Eleanor went north towards Oxford Street, waiting for a carriage that would take them away. But the moment they got into the getaway carriage, they saw another carriage heading their way, Stony's carriage.

The housekeepers, realizing that Mary Eleanor had escaped, had alerted Stony, and he hurried to track Mary Eleanor down. His carriage passed by Mary Eleanor's, even getting within a few feet, but he did not notice her inside. With stony out of sight and no time to waste, Mary Eleanor and Anne rushed to the barrister, who consulted with her for 15 minutes to confirm her legal right to escape. Then Mary Eleanor snuck to a secret apartment hidden in an alleyway that Mary Morgan had secured for her. After nine years of enduring, harrowing, life-threatening abuse, Mary Eleanor was finally free. In a letter she left behind for Stoney, she wrote, quote,

Farewell, I forgive, but we'll never see you again. I can add no more as you have long ceased to treat me in any respect as a wife or a friend. But even though Mary had escaped, she wasn't free. It was incredibly difficult to end a marriage in Georgian England. The only way to exit a marriage legally without one spouse dying was in an ecclesiastical court, a court run by the Church of England. If a spouse claimed that their partner committed particularly egregious adultery, cruelty, or heresy,

the church might permit the pair to divorce and may even entitle both parties to financial remittance. But this was an extremely long, difficult, and expensive process, particularly for women. Between 1670 and 1857, two-thirds of the plaintiffs in ecclesiastical divorces were men. And even though Mary Eleanor had been born with nearly every advantage, beauty, wealth, education, smarts, and was raised to see herself as an equal of the men she interacted with, marriage had transferred that power to her husband. husband. Her husband inherited her fortune and parlayed her famous name and connections into a

political career, and he now had a cadre of powerful government figures and army buddies at his disposal. The witnesses to his abuse were housekeepers who were on his payroll, and so were unlikely to back Mary Eleanor in a divorce trial. But this didn't deter Mary Eleanor. While Stony may have duped Mary Eleanor into marriage, in the end he was more wrong about her than she was about him. He thought of her as a mark that he could ply with sweet nothings before seizing her assets and either nearly or completely killing her. But her spirit would not so easily be destroyed.

Even after nine years of being beaten and starved, she knew somewhere deep down that she deserved more. Stony may have been dogged in marrying Mary Eleanor, but little did he know that Mary Eleanor would be just as dogged in her attempt to get out of the marriage. And so on February 28, 1785, Mary Eleanor filed for divorce from Andrew Robinson Stoney. But the story doesn't end here.

This decision would set off a series of trials and retrials that would drag on for decades and become a media sensation with both Mary Eleanor and Stony endlessly picked apart in the tabloids. The marriage may have lasted a little over nine years, but the divorce would change the course of marriage itself for centuries going forward. All this and more in part two of the story to come. That's part one of the story of Mary Eleanor Bowes, but keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear a little bit more about how Andrew Robinson Stoney inspired a novel and much later a film about his quest for Mary Eleanor's Hand.

Will Ferrell's Big Money Players and IHeart Podcast presents soccer moms. So I'm Leanne. This is my best friend Janet. Hey. And we have been joined at the hips since high school. Absolutely. Now a redacted amount of years later, we're still joined at the hip. Just a little bit bigger hips, wider. This is a podcast. We're recording it as we tailgate our youth soccer games in the back of my Honda Odyssey.

With all the snacks and drinks. Sidebar. Why did you get hard seltzer instead of beer? Oh, they had a bogo. Well, then you got it. Do you want a white collar or something here? Just hit it. Oh, what are y'all doing?

Microphones? Are you making a rap album? Oh, I would. Oh, I would. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. I would buy it. Cuts through the defense like a hot knife through sponge cake.

That sounds delicious. Oh, you're lucky I'm not a drug addict. You're lucky I'm not an alcoholic. You're lucky I'm not a killer. I love this team and I'm really trying to be a figure in their lives that they can rely on. Oh. Listen to soccer moms on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Will Ferrell's Big Money Players and IHeart Podcast presents soccer moms.

So I'm Leanne. Yeah. This is my best friend Janet. Hey. And we have been joined at the hips since high school. Absolutely. Now a redacted amount of years later. We're still joined at the hip.

Just a little bit bigger hips, wider. This is a podcast. We're recording it as we tailgate our youth soccer games in the back of my Honda Odyssey. With all the snacks and drinks. Sidebar. Why did you get hard seltzer instead of beer? Oh, they had a bogo. Well, then you got it.

Do you want a white collar or something here? Just hit it. Oh, what are y'all doing? Microphones? Are you making a rap album? I would buy it. Cut through the defense like a hot knife through sponge cake. That sounds delicious.

Oh, you're lucky I'm not a drug addict. You're lucky I'm not an alcoholic. You're lucky I'm not a killer. I love this team and I'm really trying to be a figure in their lives that they can rely on. Oh. Listen to soccer moms on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 1841, Mary Eleanor's grandson, John Bowes, welcomed a visitor to his home at Streethlam Castle, a young writer named William Thackeray. While they hung out, Bowes told Thackeray the incredible story of how his grandmother, Mary Eleanor, had been trapped in this very castle 50 years earlier by her husband, who had duped her into a marriage under false pretenses.

After the trip, Thackeray wrote to his publisher, I have, in my trip to the country, found materials, or rather a character, for a story that I'm sure must be amusing. This story became a novel called The Luck of Barry Lyndon, published in October 1843 and serialized in Fraser's Magazine throughout 1844. The book was revised several times, but it follows Barry Lyndon, who, like Andrew Robinson Stoney, was an Irish soldier who liked to drink, gamble, and sleep around before managing to dupe and seduce a wealthy heiress, Lady Lyndon.

After Barry Lyndon mistreated her for several years, Lady Lyndon manages to extract herself from the marriage, and Barry Lyndon ultimately ends the novel in jail. While the novel reproduces the events around Andrew Stoney and Mary Eleanor's relationship pretty faithfully, Thackeray imagined a different past. Barry Linden, unlike Andrew Stoney, actually went into battle. Around 130 years later, the director, Stanley Kubrick, was looking for a new project. He had been working on a script about Napoleon that wasn't going anywhere.

He thought about adapting Thackeray's Vanity Fair, but figured it might be too complicated to fit into a single feature, and so he turned to Barry Lyndon instead. While Kubrick's film is fairly faithful to the novel, the tone is extremely different. Thackeray's novel is a farce narrated unreliably by Barry himself, as he attempts to create a self-aggrandizing account of his schemes, abuses, and misdeeds. Meanwhile, the movie attempts to be more, quote, objective, as Kubrick puts in an interview around the time the film came out. They carefully reproduced costumes from the period and used special lenses that had actually been developed for NASA so that they could film interior scenes by candlelight. Thackeray called his novel The Luck of Barry Linden, a novel without a hero. And Kubrick called his version of Barry Linden, a film with, quote,

neither a conventional hero nor a conventional villain. Barry Linden, while definitely not a hero, is a little bit more of a lovable rogue than the cruel, abusive, murderous stony. Sometimes fiction paints things in a more palatable hue. Barry Lyndon is the story made glossy by Candlelight. Noble Blood is a production of IHeart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky. Noble Blood is created and hosted by me, Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and researching by Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Mira Hayward, Courtney Sender, and Lori Goodman. The show is edited and produced by Noamie Griffin and Rima Ilfitton.

K. Ali with supervising producer Josh Thane and executive producers Aaron Manky, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from IHeartRadio, visit the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Will Ferrell's Big Money Players and IHart Podcasts presents Soccer moms. So I'm Leanne. Yeah. This is my best friend, Janet. And we have been joined at the Hipsons High school. Absolutely. A redacted amount of years later, we're still joined at the hip. Just a little bit bigger hips.

This is a podcast. We're recording it as we tailgate our youth soccer games in the back of my Honda Odyssey. With all the snacks and drinks. Why did you get hard seltzer instead of beer? Oh, they hit a bogo. Well, then you got it. Listen to soccer moms on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.

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