Summary of Laura Thompson's Heiresses

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Book Preview: #1 Mary Davies was born in London in 1665. She was the heiress to what would become some of the most valuable land in the world. She was married at the age of twelve to a Cheshire landowner nine years her senior.

#2 Mary’s great-great uncle, Hugh Audley, was a lawyer who made his fortune as a usurer. He died in 1662, and six months after the birth of his daughter, Mary, he left a muddled inheritance of unfinished building works and debts.

#3 The heiress-chasing business was beginning to get out of hand in the brutally carefree Restoration era. In 1665, the poet and libertine Lord Rochester absconded with an heiress named Elizabeth Malet.

#4 The best man was the one who helped facilitate the groom’s seizure of the bride. Kidnapping was a live threat, but it was also a deadly game. The heiress, often characterized as a plain girl, was a willing elopee; the man who snatched her was her perverse salvation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Mar 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669357414

IRB Media

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Insights on Laura Thompson's Heiresses

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Mary Davies was born in London in 1665. She was the heiress to what would become some of the most valuable land in the world. She was married at the age of twelve to a Cheshire landowner nine years her senior.

#2

Mary’s great-great uncle, Hugh Audley, was a lawyer who made his fortune as a usurer. He died in 1662, and six months after the birth of his daughter, Mary, he left a muddled inheritance of unfinished building works and debts.

#3

The heiress-chasing business was beginning to get out of hand in the brutally carefree Restoration era. In 1665, the poet and libertine Lord Rochester absconded with an heiress named Elizabeth Malet.

#4

The best man was the one who helped facilitate the groom’s seizure of the bride. Kidnapping was a live threat, but it was also a deadly game. The heiress, often characterized as a plain girl, was a willing elopee; the man who snatched her was her perverse salvation.

#5

The Grosvenor family, who acquired their wealth through marriage to Mary Davies, were the first to make a bid on her behalf. They paid a deposit of £5,000, but could not raise the £3,000 of land demanded by Mrs Tregonwell.

#6

The obituary continued with an oblique nod to the role of the heiress in augmenting the fortunes of the aristocracy. It noted that the honors of some of the most distinguished families in the country are only derived from maternal ancestors.

#7

The life of Mary Davies spanned one of the most extraordinary periods in English history. She was born in 1632, five years after the restoration of the monarchy, and she died in 1730, when London was dealing with the aftermath of civil war, regicide, and the Cromwell interregnum.

#8

Margaret was a wealthy woman who had the ability to collect the best specialists and create a notable museum, open to the public. She was also a member of the Blue Stockings, a group that promoted the importance of education among women.

#9

The two women, Margaret, Duchess of Portland, and Mary Davies, were so alike in their inheritances. Margaret was protected in every way, but she also had inner resources. She had a curiosity that penetrated the blandness of privilege, and she looked beyond it.

#10

Mary was extremely lucky in her husband, Sir Thomas Grosvenor, with whom she was not obliged to live