Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council

Wedlock

By Wendy Moore

WEDLOCK is the remarkable story of Mary Eleanor Bowes, one of Britain's richest young heiresses, and her marriage to Andrew Robinson Stoney. Mary married the charismatic Stoney within a week of meeting him but nothing was as it seemed. Stoney was broke, and his pursuit of the wealthy Countess a calculated ploy. Once married to Mary, he embarked on years of ill treatment - seizing her lands, beating her, terrorising servants, introducing prostitutes to the family home, kidnapping his own sister. But finally after many years, a servant helped Mary to escape. She began a high-profile divorce case that was the scandal of the day and was successful. But then Andrew kidnapped her and undertook a week-long rampage of terror and cruelty until the law finally caught up with him.

So many characters, it's difficult to keep track of who is who.  The book takes a long time to set the scene for future events but is worth continuing.  Mary Eleanor's battle to regain her life, her freedom and her wealth from her unbelievably wicked and cruel husband, leaves the reader amazed at her tenacity and courage, where a woman's position in law was appalling.  It's remarkable that it was only in 1991 that rape in marriage was recognised in law. 7/10 

The amount of research involved was considerable and daunting.  The number of notes provided, if used, would have delayed the reading of the book and created loss of concentration.  The book provided an excellent social history of the period and good characterisation.  It was extremely interesting but marred by its length and concentration on the cruelty of Andrew Robinson Storey.  The lack of justice in females of that period was highlighted and although I knew that women did have a rough time, I didn't realise how hard it was.  I would have enjoyed it more had it been halved and there hadn't been so many diversions eg. other law cases. 7/10 

I was very interested in this biography and thought it would be a fast read but it is one that requires a lot of attention.  This is because the author has researched exhaustively, so that the book is packed with characters, in Mary Bowes own family and household and in the wider society and the legal men involved in the various law suits.  Mary's stamina, that helped her to survive, compelled me to read to the end.  Like a novel, one must know what happened 'in the end'.  The detail inevitably involved in such a complicated, dramatic life contributes to the building of a picture of Georgian Britain which many history books would not communicate so vividly. 8/10