Frances de la Tour Who Do You Think You Are?

Actress Frances De La Tour first rose to fame

in the late 1970s as Miss Jones in the hit sitcom Rising Damp.

Miss Jones!

Mr Rigsby!

Ohhh!

After 40 years, Frances is still playing formidable roles in theatre,

film and television - most recently in the BBC's comedy Big School.

So if I catch you one more time without alcohol on school property,

I'll have no option but to suspend you.

Now get out!

I've always wanted to do this programme,

basically because of my children and my grandchildren,

so they've got a record.

There you are. I used to play with these.

That little teddy...

Tamison, who we call Tammy, she's 40, she looks about 12.

She's absolutely beautiful.

And Josh was born three and a half years after Tammy,

he travels the world, he's in conservation.

# London's burning, London's burning. #

We all live very close to each other.

I've lived in Tufnell Park area in, in London, for about 28 years.

We know a little bit about great-grandfathers

and great-grandmothers, but very little,

so I'm hoping this journey will help me to understand.

I don't know an awful lot.

Well, these are some really nice family photos.

This one...is my parents.

Dad looking very elegant.

And that's my grandfather in the background, and my grandmother

in a faded old mink and a hat, which you can't really see.

And this is Mum. She's beautiful.

And that's him, my father, around the same age.

It's a lovely portrait. That's very, very him.

This, er, nose, is my grandfather's nose.

So this is a De La Tour nose.

My parents divorced when I was eight, I think.

I think he had a few affairs and lived his own life a bit.

Made Mum a bit unhappy, so...

I don't remember him around very much.

I mean, I loved him to bits.

And this is Simon, me and Andy.

'My siblings.'

Me, Simon and Andrew, I think, are actually quite alike.

We all have the same humour, where you don't have to say anything.

Rather like my father,

Simon's had a very keen interest in the family history.

DOORBELL RINGS

-My darling bros.

-Well, guess who this is.

-Oh, no!

-Guess who!

'I don't think Andy knows more than I knew, particularly about the family.'

I brought a bit of sun, summer sunshine with us.

'But my grandfather did a wonderful book and a family tree,

'gave it to my brother, my eldest brother, Simon, when he was 21.'

What have you got there?

A few little things to... You'll see.

How lovely to see you, come in.

You sit there, Simon, and you sit there, Andy.

My older brother, Simon, and my little baby brother, Andrew.

And the much and the much, much younger brother,

-on this side of the table.

-Not so much of the much!

'Andy lives quite near me. He lives sort of Highgate way.

'Simon lives in Normandy.'

Simon, you brought this archive all the way from Northern France, right?

In here is this marvellous family tree that Grandad Percival did.

'De La Tours are quite well-recorded.

'When one of them left France to come here as an emigre, really, um,

'it was pre-revolution.

'De La Tour means "of the tower," but I think we were Delaval De La Tour.'

Those are Dad's siblings and there's Dad... Where's Dad?

-There's Dad here.

-Dad's there. Charles Frances Delaval De La Tour.

That's right.

'I can't tell you about Delaval because I don't know enough about it,

'so I'm hoping that Simon will help me to understand.'

What is the connection with the Delavals?

The Delaval connection intercept with Percy's father,

-our great-grandfather.

-Right.

Edward, Edward Frederick.

Oh, yes, well, there...

-That's the picture of him. Yeah, they're the two pictures of him.

-OK.

-Edward Frederick that we've got here.

-Yes.

-And Edward Frederick married, um, Edith Jadis.

-Right.

And Jadis is a descendent from the Delaval family.

The name Delaval was passed down

from the oldest son to the oldest son.

Tracing her family tree back three generations,

Frances has discovered that the name Delaval was introduced

to the male line of the De La Tours by her great-grandfather, Edward.

He took it from the family of his wife Edith Jadis,

a descendant of the Delavals.

Um, so that's Edith Jadis there.

And then so their father...

-Yes.

-..is John Jadis.

-Yes.

-And then it goes through to the previous...

Her grandfather, then, would be Henry Jadis.

Oh, I'm with you.

-But Henry Jadis'...

-Father...

-Do we want to get to this?

-Yes.

-Yeah, cos this is interesting, isn't it?

-Yes, Henry Jadis' father...

-What's his name?

-..which is a great-great-great-great-grandfather,

is John Godfrey Maximillian - very grand - Jadis,

who married Sophia Ann Delaval and, in brackets, Honourable.

The earliest reference to a Delaval on her grandfather's family tree

is Frances' great-great-great-great-grandmother,

the Honourable Sophia Ann.

Now that's what we wanted to get to,

was the connection with Delaval, in brackets, Honourable.

And if you are an honourable, your father would have been a lord.

But I'm keen to know about her

and, actually, more about the Delavals,

but maybe more will unfold. Very good.

So there's obviously signs of, er, aristocracy in there and...

-There is.

-Or pretentions of, anyway.

Pretention of in those generations.

So these, they were mixing rather well, though.

Yes, they were mixing.

They were keeping the blood blue.

So you've got that bit of aristocracy floating around,

and here's John Godfrey Maximillian Jadis' son,

also married into the aristocracy, which is Lady Gardner nee Adderley.

Well, the masked lady.

And the very fact that Percy, our grandad,

wrote it like that.

It's like he found that interesting enough not to just say that

Henry Jadis married Maria Elizabeth Adderley.

He wanted to add that she was also Lady Gardner.

-Who is Lady Gardner?

-Who is?

Actually, this is a very good point.

This is a very good point because he could have just said

Henry Jadis married Maria Elizabeth Adderley.

Right.

Well, I think that's really fascinating to find out who...

This is the mysterious lady. This is the lady in black.

Maria Elizabeth Lady Gardner, nee Adderley,

there's a little mystery in her,

and she was my great-great-great-grandmother.

Yeah, that's quite fascinating who this woman was.

To find out more about Maria,

Frances is meeting genealogist Laura Berry.

You must be Laura?

Yes. Hello, Frances.

Lovely to meet you.

-Nice to meet you. Come on.

-Here we are.

So, after we looked at the family tree, I wrote down

a little small version of it, just so I could understand it more.

My grandfather could have just put,

"Henry Jadis married Maria Elizabeth Adderley",

so the fact that he's put in "Lady Gardner" suggests that maybe

she was married before.

Anyway, that intrigued me to know.

I can tell you I have found Maria's marriage here to a Mr Gardner.

Look at this. Isn't it wonderful? Yes.

So this is a Register of Marriages... Who am I looking for...?

So you've got if you scroll down here, yeah,

-we'll see a list of surnames.

-Yes, there's a Gardner.

"Captain Allan Hyde Gardner marries Miss Maria Elizabeth Adderley."

So that explains that.

So she was married to him, yes.

And it says there she was Miss Maria Elizabeth Adderley,

so we know this is her first marriage.

-I have a picture here...

-Yes.

..of her husband, Captain Alan Hyde Gardner.

-Very dashing, isn't he?

-He is, isn't he?

He was actually the son of Baron Gardner, although Alan

didn't inherit that title until quite a few years down the line.

-Oh, I see, yes.

-So, at this point, Maria is just plain Miss Adderley

and then Mrs Gardner.

Miss. And he's quite young there, isn't he? You can see.

He is so young,

but actually Maria was even younger because we know from other records

that she was perhaps as young as 15 or 16 when this marriage took place.

-Oh, my gosh, that's very... So that's a child really, isn't it?

-Mm, it is.

But, um, perhaps it could possibly have been an arranged...

An arranged marriage.

..society marriage because this man is clearly on an upward career path.

-Yes, exactly, yes.

-And Maria is the stepdaughter of an Earl, so...

Yeah, yeah. Well-matched for starting a marriage and a life together,

and then becoming more titled or, you know, more honoured and...

Yes, an upward career.

-So it was so it was a good, um, suited marriage.

-Yes.

Maria is perhaps, you know, living the life of a typical society wife.

Um, she would have been going to tea parties and card parties.

-Yes. Recitals.

-Mm.

Theatre. But not very fulfilled in her marriage terms...

-No.

-..because he's away.

Alan's in the Navy, so he's spending a lot of time away at sea.

So there he is, away doing his duties, and she's living

the life of a society girl, but clearly from the family tree record,

that marriage didn't last very long because...

because she married...

my great-great-great-grandmother, this woman, married a Henry Jadis.

-So...

-Well, yes, I was a bit confused at this to start with

because it was possible, could he have died at sea?

He's a naval captain, perhaps, I wasn't sure.

But having dug around in the archives a bit,

the next document I found did date from nine years after the marriage.

In from The Scots Magazine, 1805.

"In the Court of King's Bench, on the 2nd March, Captain Gardner

"of the Navy, son of Admiral Lord Gardner, obtained a verdict

"against Mr Jadis..." who was my great-great-great-grandfather,

"..for criminal conversation with his wife."

For criminal conversation with his wife. "Damages..." £1,000, is that?

-What's that? Yes.

-£1,000.

"They were laid at £20,000."

That's a hell of a lot of money.

It is, isn't it? It is.

Now, I love this. Criminal conversation.

So, in other words, he was overheard or...? No.

What does it mean? Were they plotting to steal something?

It does make you want to know, doesn't it?

Mm, it does, yeah.

Cos now it is intriguing

because it's opened up a whole can of worms here, hasn't it?

This is my great-great-great-grandmother.

We're quite near.

It's like a thriller, isn't it? Cos then you want to know.

Frances has come to the Parliamentary Archives

at the Palace of Westminster,

which hold legal scrolls dating back to 1497.

To find out more about what went on between Maria

and Henry Jadis, she's meeting historian professor Joanne Bailey.

So what is a criminal conversation?

A criminal conversation action was a lawsuit where a husband

could sue his wife's lover.

So, if you have a look here at this document,

you'll be able to find out more.

Right.

"So the said Henry,

"on the First Day of March in the year of our Lord 1803

"at London, he made an assault upon one Maria Elizabeth Gardner,

"then and there and still being the wife of the said Alan Hyde,

"and then and there, debauched, lay with and carnally knew her..."

Oh, it's a little bit of how's your father going on there!

"..whereby the said Alan Hyde for a long space of time has wholly lost

"and been deprived of the comfort, fellowship,

"aid and assistance of his said wife."

That's an incredible sort of indictment and also, um, a kind of

support for him, that he can actually take to court saying, "I have lost.

"I have been cuckolded. I have lost my reputation. I want justice."

Yes, exactly.

That is trying to pin the blame on the lover, in this case Henry,

-for seducing the wife.

-Yes, for seducing.

The blame isn't the finger isn't being pointed

-so much at the wife as the lover, yes.

-That's right.

So, for Alan Gardner, he's also interested in his honour.

Until the mid-18th century, gentlemen,

like Alan Hyde Gardner and Henry Jadis,

would often have settled matters of honour through a duel.

But by the early 19th century, men were using the courts

to restore their reputations.

Women like Maria were treated as property, with their value

determined by their social status.

I want to show you this, this lovely satirical cartoon here,

which you'll see from its title,

Crim Con Temptations With The Prices Affixed,

cos criminal conversations were usually shortened to crim cons.

-Crim con. That is criminal conversation.

-Indeed, yes.

-Temptations.

-Yes.

So what they're saying is what they're worth in society's terms.

"I am but a servant for all work,

"then be rest assured no more than one shilling damages."

I am...very lowest of the low, almost.

And then this rather pompous woman seems a bit lardy,

-but she's showing a leg.

-Yes.

Surely 1,000 cannot be called excessive damages.

Er, and now a rather big lady with a huge muff...

hand muff.

-I mean, they're caricatured, they're ridiculed...

-Yes.

..in one sense by exhibiting them like this,

but, nevertheless, men beware.

So I remember when we looked at the little thing saying that there

was this criminal conversation, that there was an award made

or there was a demand, as it were, for £20,000,

which was just...unbelievable amount of money then, but he got 1,000.

Yes. There are lots of reasons for that lower award.

As the case is reported, there is a degree of ambivalence about Maria.

-Ah, so that does come through in the case?

-Yes.

So perhaps not quite as virtuous as she might have been.

Therefore, that will have also lowered the damages awarded.

So, I'm just assuming now, that there was some sort of divorce

or something, and she went off with her lover.

But we don't know, we don't really know for sure what happened...

either immediately or a few years down the line.

What we know is that Alan also sued Maria.

Sued her as well.

So the key to the next stage will be court records.

In terms of Gardner's position in society, he would not be a man

if he was publicly cuckolded and didn't get some reward from it.

But, um, it's very difficult to feel terribly sorry

for the privileged who are damned because they're so privileged,

and particularly if it's set up

against a woman from the same background,

so, in other words, equally privileged,

but gets nothing if something goes wrong in her life.

From that point of view,

it would be very interesting to find out what happens to her.

Frances has come to Mayfair,

where Maria lived with her husband Alan Hyde Gardner.

She's meeting historian Hannah Greig.

What we have with us here is a copy of court documents

and, in particular, the evidence that was given by Maria's maid,

-Susannah, to the court saying...

-They know everything.

They do know everything, as we will see from the document.

Yes, yes.

In 1805, right.

"The deponent." Is that her?

-Yes, so that's Susannah, the maid.

-That's Susannah.

"The deponent was, as usual, in her needlework

"in Mrs Gardner's said bedroom.

"She was much surprised by the said Henry Jadis

"and Maria Elizabeth Gardner coming upstairs together

"into the said bedroom from the drawing room,

"and particularly so at the said Maria Elizabeth Gardner

"then sending the deponent downstairs to bring some milk."

OK so far. Seems quite innocent.

And then it goes on.

"In about ten minutes after leaving the said bedroom,

"she carried some milk into the drawing room,

"where she then found her said mistress..."

Plot thickens.

"..and the said Mr Jadis.

"Then the deponent then immediately went upstairs into the said

"Mrs Gardner's bedroom and then found that the bed therein

"was tumbled as if two persons had been laying thereon."

She doesn't miss anything, does she, this maid?!

"The deponent said that she has no manner of doubt they had

"the carnal use and knowledge of each other's bodies on the said bed."

They might have had a romp.

It doesn't actually say they had sex, does it?

Well, I suppose it implies it.

It implies it.

I mean, she appears to have got rid of the maid...

-Yes, yes.

-..for a period of time and retreated to the bedroom

with Henry Jadis, where the bed has become tumbled.

"And during the time the said Captain Gardner

"was absent on the said voyage to the West Indies,

"she told the deponent that she was pregnant by the said Mr Jadis

"and she further said that so long as there was a chance of the said

"Mrs Gardner being delivered of the child with which she was pregnant

"in due time, that it might be considered

"as the child of her said husband."

-So she confides in Susannah that she's pregnant...

-That's right.

..and pregnant with Henry Jadis, who she's been seeing regularly at home.

That's right.

And so what seems to be initially happening is that she is trying to

persuade her husband and persuade the household that the child

is his, it's the husband's,

-so a legitimate offspring of the marriage.

-Exactly.

So in a situation like this, it might be quite common that

the wife would feign that she was -

if she could with the timing of it - that the child was her husband's.

Well, she is taking a big risk.

We know that Alan and Maria

last saw each other at the end of January 1802.

The maid's testimony reveals that, as the pregnancy went on,

Maria became worried that the dates might not tally

and so changed her story.

In the late summer of 1802, she convinced her husband

that her swollen appearance was the effect of obstructions

and that she wasn't pregnant after all.

She finally gives birth in the earliest weeks of December, 1802.

So, sort of, we're looking at ten, perhaps ten and a bit months

between the last marital meeting and the birth of the child.

So if you just read from here.

"So in the night she, the said Maria Elizabeth Gardner,

"was delivered secretly and totally unknown to the said

"Captain Hyde Gardner, and every other person in the house,

"except the deponent and a Mrs Burns, of a male child.

"As soon as the child had been dressed

"and the things got ready, she, the said Mrs Burns,

"carried the said child

"secretly out of the said house to be nursed by Mrs Bailey."

Pretty convenient, isn't it?

Have the baby, have some secret people around you.

It's terrible, really, isn't it?

You would give the baby to... Immediately, the moment it's born...

Yeah.

..to somebody, to take to somebody,

probably been paid to look after the baby.

I was just wondering why it wasn't possible for her

to just go off with Jadis and have the life she wanted to have.

Well, I suppose we might presume if she's in love with Henry Jadis,

why doesn't she just run off into the sunset?

But in fact, in the 18th century, she has very few options.

When a woman married, she gained status and security,

but all of her property and wealth became her husband's.

Maria was entirely financially dependent on Alan Hyde Gardner.

I mean, so many of all those women

whose stories were, if it didn't work out with the husband,

if there was a problem, if there was a lover, if there was an issue,

if she left, she may as well throw herself under a train.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Almost.

There seemed to be no choice, that's the thing.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-Yeah. Oh, my goodness.

Well, at this stage, of these proceedings,

Captain Alan Hyde Gardner still thinks his marriage is intact.

Well, he subsequently is informed by a footman some months later

that an affair has been taking place in his household.

This is potentially a complete thunderbolt into his life.

His only responsibility as a member of the peerage is to produce

an heir himself who will inherit his estate, his bloodline

and define the security of his family's future,

and that's suddenly put at risk by the production

of this illegitimate son and his knowledge about his wife's affair.

So Alan is going to start proceedings

in order to get divorced.

In the early 19th century,

divorce was only an option for the aristocracy and the very rich.

It was expensive and every divorce case

required a private act of Parliament to be passed.

When Alan Hyde Gardner petitioned to divorce his wife Maria,

he added a bastardisation clause,

so that Maria's child would be declared illegitimate

and have no right to inherit his title or estate.

It sounds like he's got an open and shut case, really,

in terms of what you imagine Parliament would think in those days.

They would go, "Yes, this is absolutely outrageous

"and we must give him his due."

That would be my immediate, um, conclusion of the result.

I may be completely wrong.

Well, that's obviously what Alan is hoping for, you know,

and that's obviously...

His key motivation here is this issue about the son.

-Yes, yes, exactly.

-The divorce itself has passed through Parliament

because it's very clear that Maria has had an adulteress relationship.

-Yes.

-But the bastardisation clause is actually removed from

the final divorce document.

And when the petition is reviewed in Parliament,

the Lord Chancellor actually looks very carefully

at the dates of the pregnancy

and suggests there's room for doubt about whose child it is.

Which there is, yes, on the months and all that, yes, yes.

Yeah, and it seems to have been the potential that the son

could have been the legitimate offspring of Alan Gardner.

Which would make him... would worry him enormously,

Mr Gardner, because...leaving it like that, that son could be his,

unless proved otherwise, he's entitled to Mr Gardner's estate.

Seems to be that Maria fell in love with Jadis.

My sympathies tend to be more with her

because of what she went through,

particularly the giving up of a child the moment it's born

because it doesn't basically suit the husband.

Who does he belong to?

And what, you know, what's to become of him?

Alan Hyde Gardner divorced Frances' great-great-great-grandmother

Maria in 1805, leaving her free to marry her lover, Henry Jadis,

that same year.

Frances has come to St Peter's Church in Iver, Buckinghamshire,

to meet genealogist Anthony Marr,

who's been searching for more information on Maria and her first son.

-Mind the step.

-Thank you.

So why are we in this rather beautiful church?

This is a church that Maria would have known.

Her stepfather was the Earl of Buckinghamshire

and his sister lived very close by.

She would very, very much have known this church.

Well, the last thing I discovered is that

my great-great-great-grandmother, Maria Elizabeth,

had this child and we know there was a bastardisation case.

The actual argument about this went on for many years.

-The son has been brought up by Henry and Maria as their child.

-Yes.

They married soon after the divorce came through in 1805.

-Oh, they did, yes, yes.

-They went on to have other children

and this son was brought up as part of the family.

But certainly in 1825, he chanced his arm, perhaps,

and I'll show you some details of that in a newspaper article.

Era.

"The Gardner peerage case came before the House of Lords in 1825."

Well, quite a long time after all the things we were discovering.

"Alan Legge Gardner, the son of Lord Gardner by his second wife,

"petitioned to have his name inscribed as a peer

"on the Parliament Roll.

"The peerage was however claimed by another person,

"Henry Fenton Jadis..." Ah-ha!

"..who alleged that he was the son of Lord Gardner

"by his first and subsequently divorced wife."

Oh, goodness me.

"The decision of the House was that this claimant was illegitimate

"and that the title should descend to the son of the second Lady Gardner."

It's very well-described, isn't it?

So 20 years after the events of the divorce

and the initial court cases, this issue is still going on

and Maria's being dragged through having to relive it all again,

I suppose.

Why would he want to claim entitlement from...?

I can only speculate on the draw of peerage title, wealth, perhaps.

And I wonder if that was supported by his mother...

-We don't know.

-..and Jadis? Whether they said, "Yes, give it a go."

Or whether they said, "Oh, don't go there."

What were those family discussions like

and were they arguing or were they in agreement about the way to proceed?

But it is interesting, 20 years on and here we are.

And all comes from the fact that this issue was never resolved

at the time and left hanging.

So what we don't know is was she...? Did it give her the sense of,

"I'm going to see this through", or...who knows?

I'm speculating now as to her state of mind and her state of heart.

Maria died aged 50.

Goodness me.

Henry Jadis left a permanent memorial to his wife.

"This little tribute of the fondest affection to the memory

"of Maria Elizabeth, the wife of Henry Jadis,

"who died on the fourth December, 1831 is inscribed by her husband,

"whose days of happiness gone forever

"by the bitterness of his sorrows."

God, there's such feeling there, isn't there? Such feeling.

"Her gentle love for his children, her fearful sufferings

"and resignation, these are the tender

"and mournful recollections pressing upon his weary heart."

So he really... He loved her, didn't he?

-Very modern, in a way.

-Yeah.

Isn't it? When you think when that was,

that he's as a man that perhaps as a 20th century would say,

this is hell and, you know,

and particularly your role as a woman is not good in this society,

and I'm going to stand by you,

and this is going to haunt us probably all our life,

but may not deter our happiness.

But I'm going to protect you and support you.

He seemed, er, very much in love with her.

They really tell the story of what they've gone through

-as a couple together, don't they?

-Yes.

Thank you very much for the information.

It's very moving.

I'm sure that plaque that her husband wrote for her says it all,

that she suffered all her life.

They were obviously beloved of each other, loved each other,

and she died quite young at the end of it all.

It's just a very moving story.

Well, when I was looking at the family tree that my brother

brought over that my grandfather had made,

we had at the top Sophia Anne Delaval, in brackets, Honourable.

I really want to know all about her and really what her story was.

If we want to understand more about ourselves,

we have to start with her.

The Honourable Sophia Anne Delaval, mother of Henry Jadis,

is Frances' great-great-great-great-grandmother.

She is the first Delaval to appear on the family tree

drawn up by Frances' grandfather.

I am now on the trail of Sophia Delaval,

but I will put in her married name,

which is Jadis, and see what comes up.

Um, must be that button.

We have Sophia Jadis here.

This is a burial record and it gives us County Lincolnshire Parish,

Doddington-Pigot, date 2nd August, 1793.

Anyway, one result,

so we have to take it from there, presumably in Doddington.

Frances knows that Sophia Anne had the title Honourable.

She's heading for Doddington Hall,

the main house in the village of Doddington in Lincolnshire.

Ah, look at this house! It's monumental.

Look at that.

Dying to find out more and if my family had anything to do

with living here, in which case, why aren't I?!

Good afternoon, Frances.

Hello. This is very exciting.

I'm James Birch.

James, OK.

-Welcome to Doddington.

-Thank you. Wow!

-What a beauty.

-Well, thank you.

Incredible. So this is your home?

-Well, yes.

-And why isn't it mine?

It's a long story.

But, in particular, one of the last of the Delaval females

had an affair with my wife's ancestor and she gave it to him.

How amazing.

There we go.

So, um, shall we go inside and see what there is?

In the late 18th century,

the Delaval family were wealthy industrialists.

They were also landed gentry, owning four estates across the country.

James Birch has been searching the Delaval family archives

for any information on Sophia Anne, also known as Sophie Anne.

..in the archives. Now we don't have a huge amount about Sophie Anne,

but we do have two letters that refer to Sophie Anne,

around the sort of 1778 period.

-I think it's to her sister from Sophie Anne herself.

-OK.

"My Dear Hussey, you're all too good to me.

"You may think what you please of me,

"but you never shall find that I forget the great goodness

"of tenderness that I have felt for this most horrid misconduct of mine."

Mm, well, what was that?

Well, I have to say, I wish I knew but I don't.

As with many of these sort of incidents,

it's written out of the history,

so we have no idea what this relates to.

The other possible clue is the second letter to Sir John Delaval.

John Delaval was her father

and it's from one of his employees, and there again in 1778,

and I think that possibly is linked to the first letter in some way.

"My wife and I are heartily sorry

"to hear of Miss Delaval's rash marriage

"and heartily feel for your Honour and my Lady Hussey Delaval,

"the affliction you must have had on the occasion."

Goodness me.

There's a lot of upset feelings around here.

There has been a rash marriage

and it obviously was something that was shocking.

I long to hear what the drama was all about...

in this beautiful house.

There was a great disapproving of Sophia's rash marriage.

This horrid misconduct,

maybe that's just an overall view of

how a girl should or shouldn't behave,

or maybe it was something more drastic,

but something awful's happened.

And all this seemed to have happened in 1778,

and it would be good to find out.

Frances has come to the parish church on the Doddington Estate

to look for any records of Sophia

in the Registers of Births, Deaths and Marriages.

It starts in 1695.

So what we want is 1778, marriages...

1726, ah, here we are. No, that's Christenings.

Turn over again. Just going to go by the dates now.

1752. Ah, take my glasses off so I can look a bit closer.

So I've come to the date I want and I'm looking for a marriage.

1778, January 19th, but it says baptism, not a marriage.

Sophia... There's something crossed out.

Sophia Delaval, but that's crossed out,

and on top, underlined, is Devereaux.

Henry, son of Henry Devereaux,

Esquire of Bordeaux,

it looks like, in France, different name.

Devereaux. The plot thickens.

I need to look at my little family tree that I wrote rather roughly.

Um, so we're talking about Sophia Anne Delaval here,

marries John Godfrey Maximillian Jadis.

They have a son called Henry Jadis.

Devereaux doesn't seem to come into it.

Devereaux has been wiped out of the history books, it seems.

But she died a Jadis because I saw from the computer,

when I was looking it up, that the burial records tell us

that she was a Jadis, she was married to this man here.

So was she actually married to Devereaux?

Was it just a liaison? And they had a child.

I need to know more about Devereaux,

whether... What his existence was and why they were so upset,

but I am interested to know why she then married a Jadis.

So, that was the chaos.

Frances has returned to Doddington Hall to try to unravel

the truth behind the baptism of Sophia's son, Henry.

She's meeting historian Sarah Richardson.

Oh, how lovely. Look at that!

So this could have been the drawing room that Sophia sat in.

Yeah, absolutely. I think it's highly likely

that she spent a great deal of her time in here.

Funny feeling, isn't it, to think that she walked these floors?

Oh, my goodness me.

I've just seen the baptism record, and the name Delaval is crossed out,

and Devereaux has been put next to Sophia Anne

when she's having her child baptised, Henry.

So I just wondered why the Delaval was crossed out.

Clearly, there's been a deliberate insertion of Devereaux.

We've looked into the origins of a Henry Devereaux in Bordeaux

and there's no record of him at all.

Oh!

So there seems to be an implication that this marriage doesn't exist.

All we know is she has turned up in Doddington with a son.

So is that why she's put that in at that point,

is to prove that the child was not illegitimate?

What's important for the family's social standing is that there is

a husband around, so that's why they create this fictional Mr Devereaux.

So I just wanted to show you my family tree that I scribbled,

and we have here Henry Jadis.

So the Henry Jadis we have here

is in fact that child that was baptised, so it has Henry Devereaux.

I don't know how soon after...

the baptism of her son she married John Jadis.

So this is really the first evidence that we have,

a couple of years later,

about John Jadis, which is a bill from Thomas Greene,

who's a lawyer to Sophia's father, Sir John Hussey Delaval.

"February 6th, attending with Mr Jadis on Proctor

"in Doctors Commons to have licence regularly made out

"as they propose being married in the morning.

"February 7th, attending early on Secretary at the War Office to

"make myself certain Mr Jadis was the person he represented himself to be."

So what was Jadis' background?

Well, from other sources, we do know that he was in the army.

He was an ensign,

so he was the lowest of the sort of commissioned officers,

clearly sort of far below Sophia's social standing and station.

If we look at what her sisters are doing at the same time,

they're all being married off into the aristocracy, basically.

She has very few options.

She's a single mother, she has a young child...

She's clearly not going to be able to marry well.

Yes, again, I discovered that in this wonderfully ordered house

and where everything is just so, that everything isn't just so.

Cos people are people and love comes into it

and, you know, there's waywardness.

So did this marriage work out?

We have another letter that Sir John, the father,

is writing to his land agent.

It's a draft one, so I'm going to warn you it's difficult to read.

And what's key about this letter is the crossings out and insertions.

"I am extremely sorry to inform you that poor Sophie has acquainted me

"and my family of her determination to part from Mr Jadis..." Oh.

"..upon account of a long series of very bad treatment."

And then he's crossed out what he then said.

Yeah, and I think the crossings out here are...

Are really important. That he does not...

but he does not accuse her...

or blame her, except by saying when he

behaved to her as he should not have done, he had always drank too much.

Well, that's extremely sad, isn't it?

Because she had married a drunk.

So where did Sophia go? What happened to her?

What did she do?

Well, we have letters that show that, a year after the separation,

she'd moved to London.

The separation on its own is another scandal that has hit the family

because Sophia is now a woman living on her own with a child.

Basically socially ostracised and her father's in a state,

and... So what happens? What happens next?

Oh, I hope she doesn't rush off with her child

to the end of a cliff or something

because she's obviously... It's just her and her child.

It's bad enough in this day and age, women are still ostracised.

Very sad. I'd like to know what happens.

Well, the next sort of piece of information that we have

about Sophia comes from this bill.

It just says...

That's the name Mr Fussell.

"Mr Fussell, Apothecary." It's a chemist, that's what he is.

1790. December 5th.

This is a bill for the Honourable Mrs Jadis.

So she's purchased something for £57.9 shillings,

which is a lot of money.

Oh, what has she bought?

Oh, God, I don't know.

She's going to do something horrible.

Sophia's predicament is just heart-breaking.

To be an unmarried mother with a child,

from a family that was very high in the social strata of things...

There was lots of aristocrats around

and she would have let the family name down,

so it's a horrible situation to be in.

I'd like to find out about the apothecary bill,

why she spent so much money at the chemist.

I can't imagine.

But I think there's maybe something strange afoot there.

I can't think what it is.

Frances has returned to London

to visit an original 18th-century apothecary store.

She's meeting medical historian Tom Quick.

The last thing I saw was a really large bill for over £57

and I wondered what she would have been buying for that kind of money.

-Well, we have these bills from 1790 and 1791.

-Right.

So if you'd just like to take a look at those.

OK. 32 ounces of...

So it's laudanum?

Yes, yes. Yeah.

Is that a kind of...? Was that for depression or something like that?

-What was it for?

-Laudanum was a tincture of opium,

so it would be opium soaked in wine or spirits.

It was a very versatile drug, laudanum, opium in general,

so people would recommend it for pain,

but they would also recommend it for what they called diseases

-or problems with the nervous system.

-Yes.

Today, opium is used to make heroin. But back in the 18th century,

it was widely prescribed as a medicine in the form of laudanum.

It was used for a whole range of ailments, from a simple cough,

to toothache, to gynaecological pain, and it was highly addictive.

She may have started out with perhaps taking

something of this size.

Right, yes. And then a light ounce of the same,

and then a quarter of the same. Ten quarts.

Eight ounces, 20 ounces, a pint here.

And actually very frequently as well, you know.

-So we have...

-Oh, these are of course the dates, yes.

January 7th, lots of laudanum, February 7th,

April, May, June, July, a quarter of laudanum.

God! August.

So that's... Well, that's six... Over six months.

Oh, my God, she's completely drugged with it.

So do we know how she proceeded from here?

Well, there are a few other items on these bills.

Um, oh, a "specific lotion." What's that?

It's a very vague phrase, I know,

but it was actually often used by physicians as a sort of

a means of talking about treatments for venereal disease.

Oh, God!

So she could have had... Well, any venereal disease or syphilis, even.

Yes. One of the most common diseases, for example,

of people who joined the army would have course have been syphilis -

-it was incredibly rife.

-Oh, my god!

So she could have... He could, her husband could have had it.

Potentially. She started out taking the laudanum

to ameliorate some sort of pain and...

Yes. Let alone the state of mind.

So it's a combination of a great deal of things, yeah.

What happened to her?

Well, we do have this document from 1793.

OK.

Just says... This is, I think, maybe her father, has got a bill,

a funeral bill for Sophia.

Yeah.

So it killed her?

This opium and...or if it was the, you know,

any kind of form of syphilis or anything.

So she killed herself, basically. It was like a slow death.

"July 26th, died, 1793" -

so that's Sophia's date of death.

Is there a detail of the funeral?

Yes, if you turn to the next page.

OK.

Oh, my God, look at this.

-This is all one bill?

-Yes.

£316.9 shillings and threepence,

so that is an enormous amount of money.

That's thousands now, isn't it? And then it goes on.

For a hearse and four horses for ten days,

for a mourning coach and four horses.

I mean, this is like a state funeral with a plate, gilt plate

with inscription engraved.

That's £59, just that page.

And then it goes on and on.

Oh, it's kind of making me feel a bit ill, actually, now.

All the expenses of this funeral were paid by her father.

-He was obviously...

-Yes, they seem to have been.

..full of guilt and concern, but also it looks like a kind of cover

as well of no admittance to the life she actually led or how she died.

I hate the hypocrisy of it. Guilt covered up by gelt!

She had basically died from the poison,

and one could say from circumstances she had no control over,

so there can be no moral judgment on her.

It's a sad end to a girl who had made some wrong choices in her life.

One could also say that the expense of the funeral,

what the father spent on her,

it's like saying the final picture of this woman

will be a beautiful one

so that our family name can retain its reputation.

The picture of her father seems to be one of a desperate man.

He's covering up Sophie's life.

I don't know, I can sense that there's been such trouble

in the family that it must reflect on him.

I'd like to find out.

What an amazing place.

Frances is travelling to Northumberland,

to Seaton Delaval, the family's main residence.

Amazing.

She's come to meet Helen Berry...

-Hello, Frances.

-You must be Helen.

..an expert on the Delaval family.

-Nice to meet you.

-Welcome to Seaton Delaval Hall.

So, Frances, what I'd like to do is show you a portrait of Sophia,

-your ancestor.

-Yes.

-And she has the whole of life ahead of her.

-Yeah.

-It's terribly optimistic.

-I know. I think it's gorgeous.

-Isn't she lovely?

-And she's so sweet and seems confident, doesn't she?

She has a rather cheeky face, and rather sweet and young

and full of hope. Particularly sad, obviously,

when you know what happened to her life.

Any family resemblance, maybe, do you think?

Maybe in the mouth.

I think in the mouth, yes.

Well, let's go along and have a look at her famous father

-that you've heard a little bit about.

-Right, OK.

So this is actually Sir John Hussey Delaval himself. Lord Delaval.

I thought he'd be sterner looking

because that's what I'm getting from the whole drama

of what we've been learning about him, the family and Sophia.

Um, so I don't know what to think about him, really,

because I don't know what was in his heart,

and I don't know other than the obvious thing of posh families

covering up tragedies that don't suit their image.

So, yes, I'd like to see, hear more about him.

Well, if I tell you that he inherited this amazing house

in 1771, in very unusual circumstances...

-Oh, right, OK.

-..and he was in fact a younger son.

Oh, he was, yes.

So I want to introduce you to someone now

-who was actually his elder brother.

-OK.

-So shall we go and have a look at the portrait?

-Yes. Can't wait.

So, Frances, this is Sir Francis Blake Delaval,

the elder brother of Sir John.

This is a man with a story and the circumstances are very unusual.

So the thing about Sir Francis was he loved a party.

Here we are in the saloon in Seaton Delaval Hall.

I rather like this, yes.

And this of course was the venue for magnificent parties.

All of these parties were very costly

-and the money had to come from somewhere...

-Yeah.

..so the brother, Sir John, started to get a bit worried.

Also Sir Francis was a gambler. In an age when gambling was popular,

he really took it to the max.

This is a letter, and it's by Sir John Hussey Delaval,

and he's writing to his wife, Susannah, expressing his concern

about the amount of debt that his brother Sir Francis is getting into.

Hm-hm. "I arrived, my angel, here yesterday about three.

"I think it will be the means of preventing my brother's ruin

"as I hope we shall be able to secure him from any attempt

"that may be concerted against him."

He eventually runs up £45,000 worth of debt,

which is about £3.5 million in today's money.

Oh, my god, yes.

They're having to raise a huge amount of money.

So actually, in 1756, Sir John

and his siblings got up a private Act of Parliament which enabled them

to raise a mortgage of £45,000 to pay off Sir Francis' debts.

So the effect of this act is actually that Sir John is now

the head of the family and Sir Francis has been

replaced by his younger brother, and that was incredibly unusual.

-Yes.

-He actually succeeded in increasing the family's fortune,

paying off his brother's debts

and really setting them back on course financially.

-Yeah.

-He saves the day, really.

He does. Well, he saves his family.

I wonder whether that casts Sophia's funeral in a different light.

Yes, I never thought that he didn't care at all,

I just thought he did care, and he had to also be concerned

about the reputation of his family, which comes first, I suppose.

I'm trying to understand the times in which they lived

and what pressures that put on them,

and what pressures that puts on, you know, the aristocracy now.

But, you know, my heart doesn't lie in it

because it's so removed from how I live and what I believe in

and what family is to me,

because what is primary is their position in society.

But it's nice at least to be in touch with a part of you,

and particularly a part that my father was so -

and my grandfather - were so keen on passing down.

I think they were rather proud of that aristocratic background.

I think it's really nice to have made an entrance

and opened a gate into more information.

In other words, it isn't an end,

you know, the curtain hasn't come down.

It's like we've done an act and we've got a few more acts to go.