Andrew Robinson Stoney

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Andrew Robinson Stoney (later styled Andrew Robinson Stoney Bowes) was an Irish adventurer who married Mary Eleanor Bowes, the Countess of Strathmore, one of the ancestors of Queen Elizabeth II. She became known as "The Unhappy Countess" due to the tempestuous relationship, which ended in scandal. The story of Stoney Bowes and the Countess of Strathmore was fictionalized by William Makepeace Thackeray in The Luck of Barry Lyndon.

Mary Eleanor Bowes, the daughter of George Bowes of Streatlam and Gibside, was well-educated for her time, and in 1769, she published a poetical drama entitled The Siege of Jerusalem (1769). She was also a leading botanist. She became engaged at eighteen to John Lyon, the 9th Earl of Strathmore. As her father's will made clear that her husband should assume his wife's family name, the Earl obtained approval of Parliament for the name change. The wealthy couple had five children: Anna Maria Lyon, John Lyon-Bowes, 10th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, George Bowes-Lyon, Thomas Bowes-Lyon, 11th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, and Maria Jane Lyon (c. 1774 - 22 April 1806).

The Countess's husband was often abroad and, "to amuse herself" (Marshall), she wrote her verse drama, The Siege of Jerusalem (1769). The Earl showed little interest in his wife except as a breeder of children, and she perhaps understandably took comfort elsewhere and by the time of his death was pregnant by a lover, George Gray, of whom little is otherwise known. On March 7, 1776, Lord Strathmore died at sea on his way to Portugal, from tuberculosis.

Upon her first husband's death, given their combined fortunes, Countess Bowes became one of the richest heiresses in the Kingdom of Great Britain. She had promised marriage to Gray but was seduced by Stoney, who had -- to win her heart (and her fortune) -- led the Countess into believing that he had written articles to clear her name after a newspaper had reported on her scandalous behaviour. He claimed he had even invited the newspaper's editor to a duel which the latter lost. In fact, he had himself written the articles that criticised her, as well as those defending her; and the duel between Stoney and the newspaper's editor was probably staged. Supposedly wounded in the duel, he almost fainted at the altar during his marriage to the Countess on January 17, 1777. After the marriage, Stoney took his wife's surname and was styled Andrew Robinson Stoney Bowes.

In was widely beived that Stoney Bowes had already caused the death of a previous wife, Hannah Newton, in order to assume her inheritance. After his marriage he behaved brutally to the Countess. He attempted to relieve her of her fortune, which however he was largely prevented from accessing. Among other outrages he imprisoned her in her own house, and forced her and one of her daughters to go into exile in Paris. They returned after a writ had been served on him.

The couple's son, William Johnstone Bowes, was born on May 8, 1782. In 1785, the Countess managed to escape from her husband and filed for divorce. Stoney Bowes abducted her with the help of a gang of accomplices, carried her off to the north country, threatened to rape her, gagged and beat her, and carried her around the countryside on horseback in one of the coldest spells of the coldest winter of the century. The country was alerted; Bowes was eventually arrested and the Countess rescued.

Several trials followed - of Stoney Bowes for abduction, and of the various men who had assisted him. The trials were sensational, and the talk of London. Public sympathy was not extended to the Countess - partly because of the libels Stoney Bowes succeeded in putting about (he bought a newspaper for the purpose); partly because the general apprehension was that she had behaved badly in attempting to prevent her husband's access to her fortune. There had also been an affair between her and the brother of one of the lawyers, which became public knowledge, and - Stoney Bowes alleged - an affair with her footman. The divorce was finalised in a trial which revealed how Stoney Bowes had systematically deprived the Countess of her liberty and abused her. The divorce was granted on March 3, 1789.

After 1792, the Countess lived quietly in Purbrook Park in Hampshire. She died in April 1800 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Her tombstone is in the Poets' Corner. Stoney Bowes died in prison, on June 16, 1810. Their son, Lt. William Johnstone Bowes, died at sea in the Indian Ocean in February 1807 at age 24 while serving with the Royal Navy.

Many years later, Thackeray learned of Stoney Bowes' life story from the Countess' grandson and used it in his novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon.

[edit] References

• Arnold, Ralph, The Unhappy Countess (1957)
• Foot, Jesse, The Lives of Andrew Robinson Bowes, Esq., and the Countess of Strathmore, written from thirty-three years professional attendance, from Letters and other well authenticated documents (1810)
• Marshall, Rosalind K.. “Bowes, Mary Eleanor, countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne (1749–1800).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. 18 Nov. 2006.
• Parker, Derek, The Trampled Wife (2006)