Elizabeth Wiseman

After her first marriage left her as a woman of property she found that she was a commodity which her own brother was keen to see married to advantage irrespective of her views.

Another potential marriage to Sir John Thorold was also put aside and Roger North took it upon himself to gather together the letters written by him and his brothers about the case.

There was a case at the Court of Arches and Robert Spenser and Charles North were required to recant their version of the events.

In 1690 her husband, who supported the usurped James II, was in the tower and she wrote to Queen Mary for permission to live with him there.

Her case with Robert Spencer is the scholarly subject of Mary Chan's book, Life into Story: Courtship of Elizabeth Wiseman, in 1998.