Lady Hutt

Nine years after 1800 "Lord Strathmore ... fell for Mary Milner, a 22-year-old maid who worked at his Yorkshire hunting lodge, Wemmergill Hall. Living together at Streatlam Castle, the earl treated Mary as his wife and when she gave birth to their son, baptised John Bowes, in 1811, he instantly acknowledged him as his heir. With his health precarious, the earl married Mary on 2 July 1820 in a last-minute effort to legitimise their son. The following day Lord Strathmore died. Yet although John Bowes duly inherited Gibside and Streatlam, by virtue of his father's will, his claim to the Strathmore ttile and Scottish estate was immediately challenged by his father's younger brother, Thomas. Backed by the redoubtable James Farrer, John's claim was based on the principle in Scottish law that his parents' marriage legitimised him retrospectively. Yet Uncle Thomas, as sharp as his namesake, successfully argued in the House of Lords that since the tenth earl had not lived in Scotland his son must abide by the English principle that, despite his parents' marriage, he remained illegitimate" - Wendy Moore , 'Wedlock' (London: Phoenix, 2010).