The Lady In Red: An Eighteenth-Century Tale Of Sex, Scandal, And Divorce

by Hallie Rubenhold

  Worsley, Sir Thomas, 6th Baronet

  Worsley, Captain Thomas

  Worsley v. Bisset trial

  Worsley v. Worsley (Separation from Bed and Board case)

  Wrightson, Mr

  Wyndham, Charles

  Wyndham, M.P.

  Wynne, Judge William

  Yarborough, 1st Earl of

  Yarmouth

  York

  York, Duke of

  Yorkshiresee also names of places in Yorkshire

  Notes

  1 Statistics come from Joseph Massie’s ‘Estimate of the social structure and income, 1759–1760’, in Roy Porter’s English Society in the Eighteenth Century (1990).

  2 See Lawrence Stone, Road to Divorce, table 9.1

  3 Lawrence Stone’s Road to Divorce (1992) is one of the most authoritative texts on the subject of eighteenth-century divorce and criminal conversation. He identifies several key components in setting these sums.

  4 The verdict in this case means a favourable verdict for the person concerned.

  5 In a rarer version of this same scene, Gillray has rearranged the figures of Bisset and Worsley; Worsley is standing upright with his friend sitting on his shoulders. Both versions were published on the 14th of March.

  6 The author of the Epistle has never been identified but was most likely a Grub Street poet.

  THE LADY IN RED. Copyright © 2008 by Hallie Rubenhold. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

  www.stmartins.com

  First published in Great Britain as Lady Worsley’s Whim by Chatto & Windus, 2008.

  First published in Great Britain as Lady Worsley’s Whim by Chatto & Windus,

  a division of The Random House Group Limited

  eISBN 9781466827905

  First eBook Edition : July 2012

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Rubenhold, Hallie.

  [Lady Worsley’s whim]

  The lady in red : an eighteenth-century tale of sex, scandal, and divorce / Hallie Rubenhold.—1st U.S. ed.

  p. cm.

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  ISBN-13: 978-0-312-35994-2

  ISBN-10: 0-312-35994-2

  1. Worsley, Seymour Dorothy, Lady. 2. Worsley, Seymour Dorothy, Lady—Marriage. 3. Worsley, Richard, Sir, 1751–1805—Marriage. 4. Worsley, Seymour Dorothy, Lady—Trials, litigation, etc. 5. Aristocracy (Social class)—England—Biography. 6. Adultery—England—History—18th century. 7. Divorce—England—History—18th century. 8. Worsley, Richard, Sir, 1751–1805—Trials, litigation, etc. 9. Bisset, Maurice George, 1757–1821—Trials, litigation, etc. 10. Trials (Adultery)—England—London. I. Title.

  DA483.W67R83 2009

  942.2’80730922—dc22

  [B]

  2009003785

  First U.S. Edition: July 2009