Bessie Surtees’ elopement is well known. Here are three interesting weddings which are less well known, centred round Guisborough in Cleveland.
The above two sisters, Anne and Mary Chaloner were very beautiful. Their portraits were painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds and hang in Harewood House, Yorkshire. Anne and Mary were the daughters of William and Mary Chaloner of Guisborough Hall in Cleveland. The Chaloner family had connections with Guisborough since the time of Henry V111 as Sir Thomas Chaloner bought the land after the dissolution of the monasteries.
Anne Chaloner
Anne Chaloner was born in 1742. She married Edward Lascelles in St. George’s Church, Hanover Square in 1761. Edward Lascelles was a land owner, art collector, and MP for Northallerton between 1761 and 1796. In 1812, he became 1st Baron Harewood. He was an extremely wealthy sugar plantation owner of immense estates in the West Indies. Edward Lascelles had been born in Barbados in 1740 and by 1799 he was worth £2.9 million pounds, a massive amount of money. Together Edward and Anne Lascelles had six children, four daughters and two sons. Happy marriage number one.
Mary Chaloner
Mary Chaloner, Anne’s younger sister, was born in in 1743. Their father William died in 1752 at the age of only 38. As Anne appeared happily married their widowed mother decided it was time for Mary to marry as well.
John Hale was born in 1728, fifteen years older than Mary. He became a soldier at the age of 14 and rose through ranks to become General. Although he came from a noteworthy family, his father being Sir Bernard Hale of KIng’s Walden, he was not wealthy like Edward Lascelles.
General Hale was stationed in Yorkshire with his Dragoon’s Regiment. Whilst there, in September 1761, he had a brief visit to Mrs Chaloner’s home in Guisborough Hall. There he met eighteen-year-old Mary Chaloner and he instantly fell in love with her. He found her beautiful, sweet-tempered and so understanding, so they must have talked together for some time and probably met again later. He could not get her out of his mind. In the following May, General Hale wrote a letter to Mary whilst on board the ‘Namur’ near to Hispaniola in the West Indies. He declared his love, writing that, “I loved you to folly and extravagance. Forgetting the disadvantages of my Person and the disparity of my age, without a single pretension to such a blessing, I formed and eagerly pursued the vain prospect of making you mine.”
In the letter General Hale told Mary that her mother was opposed to the match as she considered such a marriage would be “inconsistent with the interest and happiness of her daughter.” Mrs Chaloner probably thought that General Hale was much older than Mary and hadn’t the financial means to support her., so he had accepted her decision. But he couldn’t get Mary out of his mind and had decided sail to foreign parts. He was about to leave the army and the letter finishes with;
“A few days may possibly finish my Career, and, perhaps I am now taking my last leave of you, but whilst I live, I must adore the assemblage of everything amiable in Miss Chaloner, and in death alone I can cease to be her most passionate admirer.” (Lewin Letters Vol. 1 page 14)
How could Mary resist such a declaration? She probably showed the complete letter to her mother, her mother relented and they were married;
“John Hale Esq of St James Westminster Bachelor and Mary Chaloner of this Parish and a minor with consent of her mother her Guardian were married in this Church by Licence of A.B. Canterbury 11th June 1763.”
Mary and John had 22 children, 19 of them survived. Mary had to educate them herself as there was no money to educate all these children. They seemed to be fond of teach other even when much older, although Mary died in 1831 aged only 56, supposedly worn out by childbearing, but who could have resisted that love letter?
The fourth wedding
Mary Hale wrote letters. One such was to her daughter-in-law Elizabeth living with Mary’s son John in Quebec. Mary had some gossip, gossip about her niece who she refers to as Miss Lascelles. She wrote;
“At present indeed the whole family of Harewood have had enough talk about with a thousand “I daresays” and “I wonder”, etc., etc., for lo! and behold, Miss Lascelles, of famous fat memory, has thought proper to elope with a young man who was either enamoured of her extensive person, or more probably with her prospective fortune.” (Lewin Letters page 83)
There appear to be almost echoes of Jane Austen in this writing. Mary Hale was hardly subtle when she described Mary Ann Lascelles’s person as being extensive. It was almost said as with a sign of disgust, especially when linked with the idea that Mary Ann’s new husband had only married her for her ‘prospective fortune.’
The young man in question was Richard York. Richard’s father Whittel was originally called Sheepshanks, but in 1795 was granted a Royal Licence and Authority by the King to change his surname to York. Mrs Dale in her letter knew this and appeared to deride the fact that Richard had previously been known as Richard Sheepshanks. Yet, Whittel York was a successful merchant in Leeds. Unlike Mrs Dale’s own large family that could not be afforded an education, Richard York had been well educated.
Despite this, Richard was certainly of a much lower social status then Miss Lascelles. Mary Ann kept a diary showing records of the people they associated with. One entry includes;
“Walked with Mama and Emily to Lady Sebrights. Papa, Mama, Ned and I dined at Lord and Lady Mulgrave’s, Prince William, Lord and Lady Harrington, Lord and Lady Falconburg, Lord Henry, Mr. Maling and Col Phipps dined there. We took Emily and went up to Lady Ridley’s.”
These were hardly the circles in which Richard York moved. The Lascelles were totally against their daughter marrying him. Mary Ann did not need their permission to marry, so she decided to elope with Richard and marry him anyway. What appears to be most scandalous was that Mary Ann, very early one morning, actually opened the door herself, that was a servants’ function, carried a bundle of clothes under arm, definitely not what a titled young lady should do, and walked into the street unaccompanied before making her way off the London to marry Richard by licence at St. George’s Church, Hanover Square. They did have one son a year later. Poor Mary Ann was in labour for four days so there were no more children, or was it because Mrs Hale was correct? Richard may have been interested in Mary Ann’s prospective fortune. Hope not.
The marriages are complete. Now follows the divorce and another way to get rid of your wife!
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