Andrew Robinson Stoney

[1] While Andrew Stoney-Bowes was a member of parliament for Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1780–4) and also High Sheriff of Northumberland,[2] he is perhaps best remembered for his marriage to Mary Eleanor Bowes, the Dowager Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne, during which, it was later shown, he was severely abusive towards his wife.

[3] Mary Eleanor Bowes, the widowed Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne, was engaged to her lover, George Gray, in the summer of 1776 when she met the outwardly charming but wily Anglo-Irish adventurer, Andrew Robinson Stoney, who manipulated his way into her household (using the governess of the children, Eliza Planta) and her bed.

Calling himself "Captain Stoney" – although he was, in reality, a lieutenant in the British Army – he insisted on fighting a duel in Mary's honour with the editor of The Morning Post newspaper which had published scurrilous articles about her private life.

When he discovered that she had secretly made a pre-nuptial agreement safeguarding her finances, he forced her to sign a revocation handing control to him.

Although the countess initially won public sympathy, Bowes eventually turned many against her – partly because of the libels he succeeded in putting about (buying shares in a newspaper for the purpose and publishing the 'Confessions' he had earlier forced her to write) – and partly because the general apprehension was that she had behaved badly in attempting to prevent her husband's access to her fortune.

Mary finally obtained her divorce at the High Court of Delegates on 2 March 1789 which revealed how Bowes had systematically deprived the countess of her liberty and abused her.

[citation needed] Andrew Robinson Stoney-Bowes died on 16 January 1810 in the Rules of the King's Bench Prison, Southwark, London.