Seymour Dorothy Fleming

From Wikipedia:

Seymour Dorothy Fleming (5 October 1758 – 9 September 1818) was an 18th-century British noblewoman, notable for her involvement in a separation scandal. She was the younger sister of Jane Stanhope, Countess of Harrington, who was noted for being a "paragon of virtue".

Life

She was the younger daughter and coheir of the Irish-born Sir John Fleming, 1st Baronet (d. 1763), of Brompton Park, Middlesex, and his wife, Lady (Jane) Coleman (d. 1811). Her father and two of her sisters died when she was 5 and she and her elder sister, Jane, were then raised by her mother. Her mother remarried in 1770 to a rich sexagenarian born in Barbados, Edwin Lascelles, 1st Baron Harewood.
At the age of 17, Seymour Fleming married Sir Richard Worsley, 7th Baronet of Appuldurcombe House, Isle of Wight, on 20 September 1775, and assumed the title of Lady Worsley until his death. She was rumoured to have been worth £70,000 upon her marriage, but in truth only brought £52,000 to the union. The couple had one legitimate child, a son, Robert Edwin who died young. Lady Worsley bore a second child, Jane Seymour Worsley in August 1781, fathered by Maurice George Bisset but whom Sir Richard claimed as his own to avoid scandal. Badly suited to one another, the couple's marriage began to fall apart shortly after it began. Lady Worsley was rumoured to have had 27 lovers and in February 1782, Sir Richard brought a criminal conversation case for £20,000 against one of them. In November 1781, Lady Worsley ran off with a captain in the South Hampshire militia by the name of George M Bissett. Bisset had also been Sir Richard's closest friend and neighbour at Knighton Gorges on the Isle of Wight. Although Sir Richard looked to have a strong case against Bisset it was undone by the shocking revelations of the criminal conversation trial, which included testimony by a number of Lady Worsley's lovers and her doctor, William Osborn, who related that she had suffered from a venereal disease which she had contracted from the Marquess of Graham. It was later proven that Sir Richard had displayed his wife naked to George Bisset at the Bath house in Maidstone. This evidence destroyed Sir Richard's suit and the jury awarded him only 1 shilling in damages. Eventually, George Bisset left Lady Worsley when it became clear that Sir Richard was seeking separation rather than divorce (meaning Seymour could not re-marry until Richard's death). Seymour was forced to become a professional mistress or demimondaine and live off the donations of rich men in order to survive, joining other upper-class women in a similar position in The New Female Coterie.[1] She had two more children; another by Bisset after he left her in 1783 whose fate is unknown, and a fourth, Charlotte Dorothy Hammond (née Cochard) who she sent to be raised by a family in Belgium. Lady Worsley was later forced to leave for Paris in order to avoid her debts. In 1788 she and her new lover the Chevalier de Saint-Georges returned to England and her estranged husband entered into articles of separation, on the condition she spend 4 years in exile in France. She was trapped in France 8 months before the expiration this exile by the events of the French Revolution and so she was probably imprisoned during the Reign of Terror, meaning she was abroad on the death of her and Sir Richard's son in 1793. Early 1797 saw her quietly return to England, and she then suffered a severe 2-month illness. Due to the forgiveness of her mother, her sister and her sister's husband, the Earl of Harrington, she was then able to move into Brompton Park, the home that was hers but which the laws on property ownership prevented her from officially holding. On Sir Richard's death in 1805 her £70,000 jointure reverted to her and just over a month later, on 12 September, she married John Lewis Cuchet at Farnham. Also that month, by royal licence, she officially resumed her maiden name of Fleming, and her new husband also took it. After the armistice of 1814 ended the War of the Sixth Coalition the couple moved to a villa at Passy, where she later died in 1818.

Bibliography

Rubenhold, Hallie (2008). Lady Worsley's Whim. London: Vintage Books.

References

Jump up ^ Rubenhold (2008) pp.171-183

External links

"Worsley, Sir Richard". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/29986. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.), with information on his wife http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=47510 http://holmesacourt.org/d3/i0001304.htm http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetail... (French) www.odoc.com http://harewood.org/explore/art/artwork/lady-worsley/

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The true story of the scandalous Lady Worsley will be broadcast for the first time in the BBC's The Woman in Red, starring Natalie Dormer

It was the tale that scandalised 18th-century high society, featuring an outrageous court case, one passionate woman, and love affairs galore. Now, the BBC is to broadcast the true story of Lady Seymour Worsley for the first time, bringing the audacious details of the “woman in red” to life on screen. Natalie Dormer, star of Game of Thrones and The Hunger Games, is to take the part of Lady Worsley, the wife whose very virtue was put on trial in a 1782 court case that shocked the country. Described as “passionate and courageous”, she had chosen to leave her husband, Sir Richard Worsley, to elope with his best friend Captain George Bisset. The affair went on to be played out in scandalous details in the courts after Sir Richard brought a £20,000 case against his former friend for defiling his “possession”: his wife.

The story, meticulously researched by historian Hallie Rubenhold, was the talk of the time, with numerous pamphlets dedicated to the intrigue and gossip about the virtue of all involved. It has since fallen from common knowledge, until coming to light again in Rubenhold’s 2008 book compiled from contemporary letters, newspapers and court records. Dormer, who has previously starred in The Tudors for the BBC, said she is “thrilled” to be playing a woman “so ahead of her time”, as producers hail the “truly brave woman who bucked convention to be with the man she loved”. The Woman in Red, which will be broadcast on BBC Two after the watershed, will detail the lives of the spirited young heiress born Seymour Dorothy Fleming and her husband, an MP and 7th baronet, as well as their unusual domestic arrangements. It will begin with the court case that brought it all to light, including Lady Worsley’s dozens of rumoured lovers, Sir Richard’s voyeuristic tendencies and the strange relationship between the three as they socialised in aristocratic England. At the time, Sir Richard had attempted to win £20,000 from Bisset, under the principle of "criminal conversation"; the premise that a wife was one of her husband’s possessions and had been defiled. Eventually, the cuckolded husband received just one shilling. He will be played by Shaun Evans, formerly of Endeavour and The Lost Weekend, with Aneurin Barnard playing Bisset. Natalie Dormer, who plays Lady Worsley, said: “I am thrilled to be playing a woman who was so ahead of her time. Though our story is set in the 18th century, it challenges and explores the issues still fully relevant today of freedom and equality. To be home in London shooting with such a talented ensemble in front and behind the camera is a real treat”.

Kim Shillinglaw, controller of BBC Two, said: “It is an almost unbelievable tale of a woman - Lady Seymour Worsley - whose audacity and risk-taking stood against the currents of her time, and I’m delighted to have attracted such strong talent both on and off screen to make it.” Eleanor Greene, the show’s executive producer, added: “It’s a privilege to tell this incredible story for the BBC, about a truly brave woman who bucked convention to be with the man she loved.” The Woman in Red, a 90-minute one-off drama for BBC Two, will be directed by Sheree Folkson, written by David Eldridge. Airing in 2015, it was originally inspired by a painting of Lady Worsley, now at Harewood House, Yorkshire, which shows her wearing a bright red riding habit.