Lady Henrietta Berkeley (c. 1664–1706) was an English aristocrat notorious for having an affair with her older sister's husband. It began in 1681 when Berkeley was not yet an adult and was discovered by her mother the following year. Berkeley was removed to the family seat at Epsom then escaped and went into hiding in lodging houses in London, under the protection of her lover. Her father George Berkeley, 1st Earl of Berkeley decided to prosecute her suitor Ford Grey, 1st Earl of Tankerville in a trial which became a sensation in 1682.
Lady Henrietta Berkeley | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Lady Henrietta Berkeley (1807) | |
| Born | Henrietta Harriett Berkeley c. 1664 |
| Disappeared | 1682 Epsom |
| Status | Found in London later that year |
| Died | 1706 London |
| Nationality | English |
| Known for | Adultery with sister's husband |
| Partner | Lord Grey of Warke |
| Parents |
|
| Family | Sisters included Lady Arabella and Lady Mary Berkeley |
At the court of the King's Bench, Berkeley claimed to have left home with Grey of her own free will and also to have married William Turner, who was Grey's servant. After a scuffle with her father outside court, she was briefly imprisoned with Turner for her own safety. When Grey was implicated in the Rye House Plot the following year, the couple fled to Cleves, with Turner in their entourage. At the time, Berkeley was pregnant and it is not known if she returned to England with Grey for the Monmouth Rebellion in 1685, although it is known that she died in London decades later in 1706.
Scandal
Lady Henrietta Berkeley was born to Lady Elizabeth and George Berkeley, 1st Earl of Berkeley in 1664 or later.[1] She was one of six daughters and there were also two sons.[2] At some point in 1681, Berkeley began an affair with Ford Grey, Lord Grey of Warke, who was married to her older sister Lady Mary.[1] Berkeley was a virgin and an unmarried minor. The affair was discovered by her suspicious mother, Lady Elizabeth, in 1682, when she sent another sister (Lady Arabella) to check for evidence in Berkeley's room at Berkeley House (now Devonshire House) in London. A letter was discovered in which Berkeley had written "My sister Bell did not suspect our being together last night; for she did not hear the noise. Pray come again Sunday or Monday; if the last, I shall be very impatient".[3]
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Lady Elizabeth banned the lovers from seeing each other and took Berkeley to the family seat at Durdans in Epsom, outside London. Unfortunately, Lady Mary was also there and she invited her husband to visit, not knowing about his adultery. Lady Elizabeth had been too mortified to tell either Lady Mary or Earl of Berkeley about the scandal and therefore was forced to host Grey for several days. When he finally left, Berkeley escaped from the house the same night and followed him back to London.[1]
In the following weeks, Berkeley stayed at various lodging houses in London and her family set a reward of £200 (equivalent to about £40,087 in 2023) for anyone who could enlighten them as to her whereabouts. A note announcing the reward in the September 1682 London Gazette described her as "a young lady of a fair complexion, fair haired, full breasted, and indifferent tall".[3] Grey told her parents that he was still in contact with her but refused to tell them where she was.[1]
Trial
| The trial of Lord Grey of Warke and others | |
|---|---|
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| Court | King's Bench |
| Full case name | The Trial of Ford Lord Grey of Werk, Robert Charnock, Anne Charnock, David Jones, Frances Jones, and Rebecca Jones, at the King's Bench, for a Misdemeanor in debauching the Lady Henrietta Berkeley, Daughter of the Earl of Berkeley, AD 1682 |
| Decided | 1682 |
| Transcripts | Cobbett's Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason and Other Crimes and Misdemeanors from the Earliest Period [1163] to the Present Time [1820][4] |
| Court membership | |
| Judge sitting | Sir Francis Pemberton |
The Earl of Berkeley then decided to sue Lord Grey and his accomplices for conspiring to debauch his daughter. The prosecution charged Grey with "inveigling the Lady Henrietta Berkeley away, and causing her to live an ungodly and profligate life, carrying her about from place to place, and obscuring her in secret places, to the displeasure of Almighty God, the utter ruin of the young lady, the evil example to others, offending against the king's peace, his crown and dignity".[5]
At the court of the King's Bench, when the jury were about to retire to consider the case, Berkeley sensationally announced that she had left her home of her own free will and declared that she was now the wife of a William Turner, who happened to be a servant of Grey. The Lord Chief Justice, Francis Pemberton, told her "You have injured your own reputation, and prostituted both your body and your honour, and are not to be believed".[1] When the court broke up, Berkeley's father endeavoured to take his daughter away, but she resisted.[1] Swords were drawn and in order to break up the scuffle, the judge decided Berkeley and her alleged husband were to be detained in the prison below the King's Bench for their own safety. They were subsequently released.[3]
Grey was found guilty by the jury but received no punishment, as other events took precedence. After he was involved in the Rye House Plot of 1683 to assassinate both King Charles II of England and his brother (and future king) James, Duke of York, Grey was arrested then managed to escape when his guard fell asleep. The now pregnant Berkeley fled with him to the Netherlands in June, their entourage including William Turner. In July, Grey was indicted in his absence for high treason.[6] It is known that they travelled to the Duchy of Cleves (then part of Brandenburg-Prussia), afterwards nothing can be said for certain about Berkeley's movements.[1] She may have returned to England or she might have carried on living in Europe.[1] Grey returned to England as a leader of the unsuccessful Monmouth Rebellion in 1685, then obtained a pardon from King James II, regaining his honours and later becoming 1st Earl of Tankerville.[6]
Death and legacy
Berkeley died on 10 August 1706 in Tonbridge, Kent. Although it is not clear if they were still lovers, Grey who died in 1701, had left her a life annuity of £200 (equivalent to about £41,000 in 2023). She left a sum of £370 (equivalent to about £78,329 in 2023) in her will, of which £100 went to her niece Elizabeth Germain.[1]
Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister was a contemporary novel which drew on the events of the scandal and was published anonymously from 1684 onwards. It is believed to have been written by Aphra Behn.[1] Later, in the 19th century, George William MacArthur Reynolds wrote that Berkeley "unfortunately sacrificed her good name and affections of doting parents at the instigations of a consummate scoundrel".[5]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Berkeley, Lady Henrietta [Harriett]". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/68002. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ "Berkeley, George, first earl of Berkeley". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/2209. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ a b c "Berkeley, Lady Henrietta". Epsom & Ewell History Explorer. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
- ^ Howell, Thomas Bayly (1811). Cobbett's Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason and Other Crimes and Misdemeanors from the Earliest Period [1163] to the Present Time [1820]. R. Bagshaw. p. 129. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
- ^ a b Reynolds, George William MacArthur (1849). Reynolds's Miscellany of Romance, General Literature, Science, and Art. J. Dicks. p. 622. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
- ^ a b "Grey, Ford, earl of Tankerville". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/11531. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)