The Rake and the Rich Widow (Part 2)
In a fake fight, Stoney pretended to have been “mortally injured”. Appealing to Mary’s romantic side, he begged her to grant him his dying wish: her hand in marriage. Moved, and figuring that the marriage would only last a few hours, Mary agreed to wed Captain Stoney, who was carried down the aisle on a stretcher. Soon after the vows were exchanged and the ceremony concluded, Stoney made a miraculous recovery. In those days, husbands had the right to control their wives’ finances, but Stoney discovered that a prenuptial agreement stood in the way. Undaunted, he forced Mary to revoke the prenuptial and hand control of her fortune over to him. Stoney then imprisoned Mary in their home, and began to squander her wealth like a drunken sailor on shore. Over the next eight years, he made his captive wife’s life a living hell. Not the best Tinder material.
Stoney abused Mary physically and emotionally, and assaulted and impregnated her maids. He brought prostitutes home, carried on numerous affairs, and fathered many illegitimate children. Mary finally escaped in 1785 and filed for divorce. Stoney was loathe to give up on his meal ticket. So he tracked Mary down and kidnapped her. He took her to northern England, where he tortured and threatened to kill her. He also forced her to ride around the countryside on horseback during an extremely cold winter, in the hope that she would sicken and die. She was eventually rescued when a hue and cry was raised. Afterwards, Stoney was tracked down and arrested. The divorce case resumed, and along with criminal charges against Stoney, captivated Britain for years. Stoney and his accomplices were convicted of abduction and sentenced to three years imprisonment, and Mary finally got her divorce in 1789.