The Dishonourable Duchess Who Would Scandalise Georgian Society
In a filtered world of Kardashians and social media influencers, Elizabeth Chudleigh, the self-styled ‘Duchess of Kingston’ was the epitome of the modern-day celebrity and was a woman who would scandalise and raise eyebrows amongst the Georgian society.
In 1776, Elizabeth Chudleigh was the first woman to be tried and convicted of bigamy in Great Britain. Such was the notoriety of this courtroom spectacle that thousands of tickets were sold to witness the five-day trial that took place in Westminster Palace with even eight months pregnant Queen Charlotte in attendance.
Thousands of onlookers ferociously shoved one another to get a view of the spectacle with people paying a guinea just to peek through the window to catch a glimpse of the bigamist social beauty. But why was this 56-year-old widow the centre of a media storm described as “a festival for the whole nation” by feverish crowds in the heart of the capital?
Born March 8, 1721, Elizabeth Chudleigh was raised in a military family with ties to the monarchy. Charming her way into court as a “maid of honour” to Princess Augusta, wife of the Prince of Wales, Elizabeth immediately caused a sensation with her lustrous beauty and “blue eyes like stars” and received the kind of column-grabbing adulation that a selfie-taking socialite would court today.
Notorious for her topless masquerade costumes, fainting in public and melodramatic antics, Elizabeth would commit perjury by beginning an improper liaison with Evelyn Pierrepont, 2nd Duke of Kingston while she was still married to her husband, Augustus John Hervey, whom she had married in secret to maintain her place and social standing as a maid of honour to the Princess of Wales.
The 2nd Duke of Kingston was a prominent figure in the fashionable society of his day, famed also as an early excavator of The Roman Baths. As a young man, the Duke was reputed to be “the handsomest man in England” and was one of the most sought peers on the marriage market. So, it would come as a shock to the Georgian elite when he abruptly took up with Elizabeth, who was separated but still legally married to her husband, the marriage of which she had torn out of the church register after bribing a clerk to say nothing of the recording of the marriage and its existence.
About a decade younger than her Duke lover, the controversial couple would cohabit unmarried for close to 20 years before marrying in 1769. The Duke of Kingston, who had long been in ill health, died on 23 September 1773, bequeathing Elizabeth his entire landed estate, on the condition that at her death or remarriage, it would go to Kingston’s family.
The Duke of Kingston's estate included The Hall (known then as Kingston House) which Elizabeth would use as a holiday home.
However, the Duke of Kingston's relatives fought to undermine the will by contesting the validity of Elizabeth’s marriage. And to make matters worse, Elizabeth's separated husband would reappear and request a formal separation after becoming the 3rd Earl of Bristol.
Elizabeth's bigamous concealment would find her being indicted in the House of Lords amidst a frenzied whirlwind of disgrace in which 119 Lords declared their 'Guilty' verdict.
Claiming the privilege of peerage upon her guilty verdict, Elizabeth fled to Europe to avoid the punishment of bigamy which in the 17th century was the burning of the hand, seen as a 'mark of infamy' for life. While not suffering physical punishment for her crime, Elizabeth would lose her name, title and marriage to the late Duke of Kingston.
The uninhibited Duchess, whose bigamy trial had captivated Britain would live her later years in St. Petersburg and Paris. Despite her fall from the English elites, Elizabeth would still attend lavish parties and live extravagantly beyond her means, even making friends with the pope in Rome and the empress of Russia, Catherine the Great, who gifted the disgraced bigamist an estate in Estonia.
The most notorious woman in England died in 1788, at the age of 67, allegedly from a burst blood vessel after a furious fit of temper after learning that a property she had purchased from the Duke of Kingston’s fortune was repossessed.
Maybe a fitting end to an extraordinary woman whose life was a controversial distraction of grandeur and sensationalism.
The Kingston Room
The Hall’s newly refurbished ‘Kingston’ room is aptly named after the self-styled Duchess of Kingston and is a fitting tribute to one of the most talked about women in Europe and former resident of this historic Grade I-listed Jacobean mansion.
Situated on the second floor of the property, the self-contained Kingston room features framed illustrations of the dishonourable Duchess in her scandalous Greek princess Iphigenia flesh-coloured gown.
A brightly coloured floral heritage wallpaper wraps around the room providing guests with a gorgeously cosy feel. Especially lovely within this room is the sitting area with a restored sofa and chair, rescued and lovingly reupholstered. Also featured in the room is a restored carriage trunk from Stephen Moulton in the late 19th century, recently discovered in the servant's quarters of the house.
Guests are invited to enjoy the charming iron-framed super king-size bed, featuring softly curving lines and delicate mouldings offering the deepest and most comfortable mattress for the best night’s sleep. The room is additionally furnished with a hardwood mahogany-stained two-door wardrobe alongside a warm elm vintage writing desk. Guests can soak up the natural light which floods through the 17th century-stained glass windows overlooking the pond quadrant garden stained-glass windows.
In the evening, why not take a luxuriating soak in our deep roll-top slipper bath in the exquisitely refurbished adjoining bathroom which also features a walk-in gold rainfall shower, and gold furnishings finished in a deep blue tiled finish.
A gorgeous room fitting for a most scandalous yet remarkable lady.
