John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland, and Sarah Ann Child, the daughter and heiress of Robert Child, the owner of Osterley Park and principal shareholder in the banking firm Child & Co, married at Gretna Green in 1782.
Child’s parents were deeply unhappy with the match and cut Sarah out of their will, leaving their fortune to her second son or eldest daughter, thereby ensuring that the Fane heir (and by extension the Fane family) did not gain.
On Saturday last passed thro’ Ferrybridge, on a matrimonial trip to Gretna-Green, the Right Hon. the Earl of Westmorland, with Miss Child, daughter of Robert Child, Esq; banker in London; a young lady about 18 years of age, whose fortune will undoubtedly be upwards of half a million. The Earl gave each Postillion a guinea, and the Hostler at each stage 10s 6d.
Leeds Intelligencer, Tuesday 21 May 1782
On Saturday Morning died suddenly, at Ringsgate, near Margate, Robert Child of Osterley Park, Esq. [aged 43]. By his Will, we hear, he has given all his Estates, both Real and Personal, to Mrs. Child, Mr. Lovedace, Mr. Dent, Mr. Church, and Mr. Keyfall, his Partners, in trust, for the purpose of paying all his Partnership Debts, and for carrying on the Business, as usual, at the House at Temple Bar, and has made them Executors of his Will.
Mr. Child has died worth £14,000, per Ann. in landed Property, exclusive of his Seat at Osterley Park, which is deemed the most superb and elegant Thing of its Kind in England. His Share of the Profits in the Banking Business has never been eliminated at less, for some Years, than £30,000 per Ann. which immense Addition he possessed also the Right of bequeathing in common with his other Property.
Mr. Child has never seen his Daughter since her Matrimonial Excursion with Lord Westmoreland, and it remains therefore doubtly whether he had adopted any Measure hostile to her Interests, or not. The Cause of the Continuation of the Quarrel arose entirely from the hauteur of his noble Son in-law, who perhaps entertained too high a Nation of the Dignity of the Peerage, and peremptorily refused ever Appearance of Concession.
Mr. Child, by his Will, has left £6000 a Year to his Widow, and £2000 a Year to Lady Westmoreland; likewise £12,000 a Piece to each of her Ladyship’s younger Children down to the 12th, except the second, to whom he has left the Residue of his Fortune, which is imagined will be nearly equal to that particularly devised.
Manchester Mercury, Tuesday 6 August 1782
On the conclusive settlement of Mr Child’s affairs, Mrs. Child has for her life £26,000 per annum. Lady Westmorland’s inheritance for the time being is £2000. At the death of her mother this inheritance is augmented to £4000 a year. The second son of the Earl of Westmorland is the heir oto the rest of the £26,000 per ann. And in case no issue should be surviving, then, and then only, the whole of this immense fortune reverts to Lady W. For the present the entire property is conveyed in trust for securing the firm of the banking-house.
Leeds Intelligencer, Tuesday 1 April 1783
Extract of a letter from Aikenbury-hill, in Huntingdonshire.
Friday morning, ten o’clock
“I left London last night at ten o’clock on business, in to Nottinghamshire, and am got thus far in my road. We have had the strangest rout and pursuit upon the road all night that I ever heard of. The parties are the Earl of Westmorland running away with Miss Child the Banker’s daughter. They left London about 12 o’clock last night in a post-chaise and four, two friends, or servants in a second post-chaise and four, and two servants on horse-back, riding along-side the first chaise, all loaden.
The pursuers are Miss Child’s father, and another gentleman, in a post-chaise and four, and two servants. The gentlemen in the chaise are about two hours behind the fugitives; but the two servants came up with and endeavoured to pass Lord Westmorland, and his people (in order to buy up the chaises) about two miles, on the other side Baldock, from London.
“Lord Westmorland’s people suspecting their intention, stopped the two servants, and a severe conflict ensured: – they pulled Child’s men off their horses, and fired their pistols into the bowels of one of the horses, which killed him on the spot. Being about to use the other horse in the same way, Child’s people consented to stop, and quit the pursuit. The other horse lies dying with fatigue.
“All the horses at Newark were also taken, so that no probability remains of any interruption to the match. What Mr Child’s motives could be in objecting to a connection with a man of Lord Westmorland’s excellent character is not very intelligible, but there is at present every reason to believe, that his Lordship will succeed in taking what the old gentleman so absurdly refused to give.”
In confirmation of the above, Mr Child was stopped at Newark, and Lord Westmorland, without interruption, succeeded in his marriage at Gretna Green, and is returned to London. Miss Child is about 18 years of age, whose fortune will undoubtedly be upwards of half a million. The Earl gave each postillion a guinea, and hostler 10s 6d.
Newcastle Courant, Saturday 25 May 1782
Lord Westmorland’s Equipage is getting ready: and his Lordship intends setting out for Ireland in the Course of a Fortnight.
His Lordship gives his Farewell Dinner to the Officers of the Post Office next week; and on Monday Se’ennight his last Levee, previous to his Departure for Ireland.
Lady Westmorland does not immediately accompany his Lordship, her Ladyship being so far advanced in her Pregnancy, as to render such a Voyage precarious under such Circumstances.
If Lady Westmorland should be delivered of a Boy, by the Will of his Grandfather, Robert Child, Esq. he will have the best Part of that very large Fortune; and if her Ladyship should have no other Son, her Family Estate merges in that of the Westmorland’s, and goes to the Heir at Law.
Oxford Journal, Saturday 21 November 1789
[Robert] Elliot’s most romantic clients were the Earl of Westmoreland and Miss Child, who eloped in 1782. The father of the young lady was the famous London banker, whose great fortune, and the prospect of marrying it, dazzled the Earl quite as much as the beauty of his daughter and heiress. She fell in love with the noble suitor, whose proposal did not, however, commend itself to the banker. “Your blood, my lord, is good,” said he, “but money is better”; and he refused his consent. But the disappointed suitor was not disheartened, and the lovers eloped in a four-horse chaise; his canny lordship having arranged beforehand for relays of horses all the way: prudently, at the strategic point of Shap, hiring every horse to be found there. Mr. Child, enraged, lost no time in following. Using every effort that money could procure, he at last came up with the fugitives changing at High Hesket; and, leaping from his chaise, drew a pistol and shot one of the leaders of their conveyance. At the same moment, one of the Earl’s servants ran behind Mr. Child’s carriage and cut the leather braces suspending the body. The Earl and his love proceeded with three horses, with the father pursuing. Not for long, however, for presently the body fell over, and pursuit became a laggard and hopeless rearguard. One hundred guineas was the fee paid to the fortunate Elliot by the Earl. Mr. Child died within a year of the affair; it is supposed from disappointment and anger at his daughter’s disobedience. Rowlandson has, in his caricature, “Filial Affection,” drawn a more or less close commentary upon this incident. The banker took excellent care that neither of them should have his money, which he devised to any issue of the marriage. Lady Westmoreland died n 1793, leaving six chldren, and the Earl married again, at which one is instinctively revolted.
The elder daughter of Lord and Lady Westmoreland, Lady Sophia Fane, inherited the fortune, and married the Earl of Jersey; and their daughter, the Lady Adela Corisande Maud Villiers, followed the example set by her grandparents; eloping in 1845, at the age of seventeen, with the youthful Captain Ibbetson, of the 11th Hussars. It was a November night when the ardent pair flitted from the lady’s home in Middleton Park, Bicester. They did not patronise Elliot, but went to Gretna Hall. They reached Mr. Linton’s establishment on the 6th, and were duly married, as the surviving register shows. Lady Adela died fifteen years later, but Captain Ibbetson survived until 1898.
Charles G. Harper, The Manchester and Glasgow Road: This Way to Gretna Green, Volume 2, p 245. Chapman & Hall, 1907
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