Mary (Milner) Hutt Dowager (abt. 1791 - 1860)

Born about 1791 in Gainford, Durham, England

Wife of John Bowes — married 2 Jul 1820 (to 3 Jul 1820) in St George Hanover Square, London, England

Wife of William Hutt KCB PC — married 16 Mar 1831 in St George Hanover Square, London, England

Died 5 May 1860 at about age 69 in London, England

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Biography

with grateful thanks, in part, to Wikipedia (RO)

Mary MIlner was born about 1791 in Gainford, a rural locality in the southern part of County Durham, England. Her father John Milner became, at some point, a gardener in the employ of John Bowes, 10th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, at that nobleman's palatial residence of Gibside Hall near Gateshead, and so young Mary accidentally found herself a small appendage to a grand household.

Mary was extremely pretty, and as she grew to womanhood caught the attention of the noble Earl himself, who was unmarried. This was not a case of an aristocrat taking advantage of a servant-girl. The Earl adored lovely women and after several affairs, fell truly in love with Mary. The couple lived together and on 29 June 1811, aged about twenty, Mary gave birth to a son who was baptized John Bowes. In 1817 the Earl made a will in which he left his son or reputed son, John, all his English estates, worth £21,000 a year.

Three years later he became very ill and at 4 a.m. on Saturday 1 July 1820, he sent for a friend and said that he wished to marry Mary Milner, and asked him to obtain a special license. The Archbishop of Canterbury refused it, but the friend obtained it through Doctor's Commons the same day. Next morning at 8.00 a.m. the Earl was carried from his bed-room by four men servants, placed in a sedan chair and taken to St George's Church, Hanover Square. The Dean of Carlisle, who was to perform the ceremony, told the Earl, dying though he was he must get out of the sedan chair and stand and kneel at the altar rails at the precise moments when the service demanded it. Aided by his friends the ceremony was carried out and he signed the register.

Immediately a letter was sent, by a man on horseback, to tell the son, John Bowes, away at school, that he was now Lord Glamis; a title he held for only one day. His father died at 2.00 the next morning and the boy's legitimacy was challenged. He did not succeed to the title, but his mother became the Countess Dowager of Strathmore, a title she held for the rest of her life.

Meanwhile, her son John was in need of schooling, and it chanced that with the help of introductions she appointed as his tutor a young Cambridge graduate, William Hutt, who was happy to take on this job 'pro tem', though in the longer term had his eye on a career in politics. Mary's acquaintance with Hutt developed into a close friendship, and the couple married in London on 16 Mar 1831.

Mary retained the right to reside at Gibside Hall, where she was now the Lady Strathmore in residence. After the split inheritance dispute following the death of the Earl in 1820, it belonged to his legitimated son John Bowes until John's death (he is buried in the Gibside chapel), whereupon under the entail it reverted to his cousin the 13th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. Meanwhile, however, It was the main residence of John Bowes' mother Mary, by then Dowager Countess of Strathmore, and her second husband William Hutt, until the latter's death in 1882, which was the last time it was permanently occupied by the family. After that the property fell into ruins, as the Strathmores preferred other homes.

Mary herself died in London in 1860.

Sources

• City of Westminster Archives Centre - Westminster Marriages - St George Hanover Square : John Bowes, of Streatham Castle, and Mary Millner. married 1820
• City of Westminster Archives Centre, Westminster Marriages : St George Hanover Square : William Hutt & Mary Dowager, married 1831
• Census 1851 : https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:SGVQ-CQ6
• GRO INDEX : Deaths Jun 1860 HUTT Mary St Geo Han Sq 1a 158
• http://thepeerage.com/p229.htm#i2284