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Author: Bowes, Mary Eleanor

Biography:

BOWES, Mary Eleanor (1749-1800: ODNB)

The Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne, she was a direct ancestor of the present King Charles III. Her one published book, The Siege of Jerusalem, was written in 1769 and privately printed in 1774. Some accounts give the date of publication as 1769 and it may have circulated in manuscript before being printed. She was the only child of George Bowes (d 1760), MP and coal baron, and his second wife Mary Gilbert, an heiress. She was born on 24 Feb. 1749 and spent her early years at Gibside House, County Durham, where she was well-educated. On her father’s death she inherited his great wealth and moved to Grosvenor Square, London, with her mother. She became engaged to John Lyon, ninth earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, but by the time of the marriage on 26 Feb. 1767 at St. George’s, Hanover Square, she had realised they had nothing in common. They had five children but John Lyon, who had tuberculosis, was often away. During this period she wrote The Siege of Jerusalem and she also had at least one affair. For a time after Lyon’s death on 7 Mar. 1776 she lived quietly and pursued her botanical interests. While expecting another man’s child, she married an unscrupulous army officer, Anthony Robinson Stoney, at St. James’s, Piccadilly, on 17 Jan. 1777. (He was known as Bowes after the marriage.) Furious when he realised that she had signed a trust securing her fortune from him, he had the deed revoked and began to abuse her. She eventually escaped to a boarding house in Holborn from where, on 10 Nov. 1786, he had her abducted and taken north to near Darlington. She was eventually rescued and he was fined and sentenced to prison. Her fortune restored to her, she divorced him and lived quietly until her death on 28 Apr. 1800. According to her wishes, she is buried in Poets’ Corner in the south transept of Westminster Abbey. (ODNB 24 June 2023; Mary Eleanor Lyon Bowes, The Confessions of the Countess of Strathmore [1793])

 

Other Names:

  • Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne
 

Books written (1):

London: [privately printed], 1774