His wife left him a year later, not having produced any issue, and having accused him of being impotent and of having had homosexual relations with his Italian secretary.

[3] Sarah sued for annulment in the ecclesiastical courts (which was never granted) and very shortly afterwards in 1809 eloped to Gretna Green with another man, namely John Margetts, a brewer from St. Ives, to whom she was thus married bigamously, which union was invalid in law.

Following this scandal, Leicester was disinherited by his father for bringing disgrace to the family (although he could not affect the descent of the peerages[4]), and he moved abroad.

The legal position was that since Sarah's marriage had never been annulled, any children she bore would be deemed the progeny of Townshend and thus eligible to succeed him in his estates and titles.

He was later a Member of Parliament and a major landowner in Cambridgeshire, as heiress of his mother, and finally after being de-legitimised adopted the name "John Dunn-Gardner".

The marquis took no steps to dissolve the marriage, and his brother had no means to dispute the legitimacy of the so-called Earl of Leicester, because no property depended on the title.

In the end the bill received royal assent on July 12, 1843 entitled "An Act to declare that certain persons therein mentioned are not children of the Most Honourable George Ferrars, Marquis Townshend" (6 & 7 Vict c. 35) and declaring that "the said several children of the said Sarah Gardner, Marchioness Townshend, hereinbefore respectively mentioned, are not nor were, nor shall they or any of them, be taken to be or be deemed the lawful issue of the said George Ferrars Marquis Townshend" (According to Francois Velde, one child, being a minor and having no legal guardian, was exempted from the act's provisions).