John Dunn Gardner - Sarah, Marchioness Townshend

Sarah, Marchioness Townshend

Sarah and her husband had been married on 12 May 1807, at which time they were known as Lord and Lady Chartley, a courtesy title from his grandfather, the 1st Marquess Townshend. In September 1807, on the death of the 1st Marquess, the couple became the Earl and Countess of Leicester (also by courtesy). They separated a few months later, in May 1808, and she filed an ecclesiastical suit for annulment, alleging non-consummation. While the suit was still pending, Lady Leicester eloped with John Margetts, a brewer, and married him in a bigamous ceremony at Gretna Green in October 1809. Her first marriage was never dissolved, which became a legal problem for the succession of the Townshend peerage. In 1811 her legal husband became the 3rd Marquess Townshend, but after leaving him, she did not use his name for over a decade, calling herself Mrs. Margetts; and Margetts gave his name to their children. Sarah survived both Margetts (d. 1842) and Marquess Townshend (who died abroad in December 1855), remarrying a few weeks after her legal widowhood to James Lairder on 10 January 1856, and died on 11 September 1858.