Regency Crime and Punishment: A Scottish Bigamist

Globe – Monday 05 December 1808

John William Henry Dalrymple, the 7th Earl of Stair (1784-1840), inherited the Earldom from his cousin who died without issue. Dalrymple himself would also die without issue, in Paris, and be succeeded by a cousin, but it was not from a lack of marriage.

In fact, John became quite famous for being a bigamist. In 1804, while stationed in Edinburgh in the Dragoon Guards, he had some kind of hand fasting or non-ceremonial marriage with Johanna Gordon, daughter of Charles Gordon of Cluny. Reaching his majority, twenty one, in 1806 he then left his regiment to return to England in August 1806 to retrieve a considerable inheritance from his late mother. When later questioned, the General said had he known his son had left the regiment, he would have disinherited him.

In September of 1806, John left England for the continent.

In May of 1808, John was married to Miss Laura Manners (Stair, J. W. H. D., Scott, W., Dodson, J. (1811). A Report of the Judgment, Delivered in the Consistorial Court of London, on the Sixteenth Day of July, 1811. Ireland: J. Butterworth.). Laura was the daughter of John Manners, a member of Parliament and the grandson of the 2nd Duke of Rutland and Lady Louisa Tollemache (later 7th Countess of Dysart). Lady Louisa Manners was also a popular hostess who I mention in Masquerade Balls in Regency Britain and who was also the mother of the very bad man, Lord Huntingtower I talk about here: Regency Villains: Lord Huntingtower

The marriage to Laura was nullified by the court decision in Dalrymple v. Dalrymple, and his marriage to Johanna dissolved in 1820.

This was a very scandalous and widely reported case:

Pilot (London) – Wednesday 17 July 1811