Lot 1036 , Francis Osborne (1751–1799), marquess of Carmarthen and subsequently duke of Leeds; volume containing copy letters to and from his wife Lady Amelia D’Arcy (1754–1784) and others, concerning their separation and divorce,

° Francis Osborne (1751–1799), marquess of Carmarthen and subsequently duke of Leeds; volume containing copy letters to and from his wife Lady Amelia D’Arcy (1754–1784) and others, concerning their separation and divorce, 13 December 1778 – 15 May 1779; with verses by Amelia’s daughter Augusta Leigh (1783-1851), half-sister of Lord Byron, and her letter to Elizabeth Lamb, née Milbanke (1751-1818) Lady Melbourne, c.1816 On 29 November 1773 the marquess, who was to succeed his father as duke of Leeds in 1789, married Lady Amelia D’Arcy; they had two sons and a daughter, but the marriage ended in scandal in December 1778 when the marchioness became embroiled in an affair with Captain John ‘Mad Jack’ Byron (1757-1791). Shortly before Christmas they ran away to Rottingdean, where they were discovered in bed together by one of her husband's servants. Her husband’s petition for divorce was granted on 31 May 1779, and Amelia married Byron in London on 9 June 1779. They went on to have three children; the youngest, Augusta Byron (1783-1851) went on to marry George Leigh. Amelia died in London in 1784.
Deprived of his wife’s income of £4000 a year by her death, Captain Byron went to Bath in search of another rich wife, and settled on Catherine Gordon. She was one of the three surviving daughters of George Gordon, twelfth laird of Gight, Aberdeenshire. They had one child: the poet George Byron, Lord Byron (1788-1824).
The volume contains 30 letters from the marquess to his wife with six replies, one to George III, and three to his mother-in-law Mary, viscountess Holderness. It seems possible that the copies were made in connection with the divorce, which was effected by a Private Act of Parliament on 31 May 1779 (19 Geo. III, c. 90). Also included is a print showing ‘the abandoned wife’ [Amelia, marchioness of Carmarthen, 1754-1784] and ‘The seducing Captain’ [John ‘Mad Jack’ Byron (1757-1791)], published by A Hamilton junior near St John’s Gate, January 1 1780. Also included are two verses by Augusta Leigh, half-sister of Lord Byron, and her letter to Elizabeth Lamb, née Milbanke (1751-1818) Lady Melbourne, c1816.
Carmarthen correspondence
Carmarthen’s opening letter of 13 December 1778 entreats Amelia not to leave their house in Grosvenor Square until ‘some proper, decent place of residence’ can be found. He suggests a stay of a few months at a convent in Antwerp, and hopes for her calm consideration – ‘Your sense is most excellent, but passion hitherto has proved to both our miseries the bane of mutual happiness. … For God’s sake put reason in the scale against passion’. The same day he informed the king (whom he had served since 1776 as a lord of the bedchamber) of his wife’s ‘imprudent conduct’, stating that he nevertheless intended to be of service to ‘this unfortunate woman’. For the rest of the year the letters deal with the dispatch of Amelia’s jewels, clothing and other possessions, including pictures by Myers and [Samuel] Cotes, to her mother Lady Holderness at Hertford Street, where she and the couple’s children had sought refuge; on 19 December Carmarthen wrote that his wife was ‘firmly persuaded to remain with him [John Byron], though sincerely wishing she could keep up appearances as far as possible, till she is unfortunately at her own disposal’. He proposed that a settlement be negotiated by their representatives rather than ‘squabbled for by our counsel in court’, and made clear that he would not claim ‘even one farthing damages’. Amelia replied that ‘nothing can be farther from my thoughts or intention than any altercation in a court’, and that she was content to leave the matter of her allowance to her representatives Mr [John] Dunning (1731-1783, ODNB) and Mr Woodcock, ‘and any gentleman of the law you please to name on your part’.
At an early stage in the correspondence, Amelia informed her husband that she was pregnant with Byron’s child, and wished to expedite the divorce so that the baby was not born illegitimate. Her mother consulted Lord Mansfield (‘he ever was a favourite of my mother’s)’, to whom Amelia attributed the opinion that ‘the law would oblige you to keep it’. On 24 December Francis replied ‘I cannot conceive there can be the smallest idea of not leaving the child with you, for as I cannot own or claim it, of course it remains I fancy with the mother’. The question of the child’s legitimacy was again raised in February, when Francis wrote ‘I believe our having lived together so lately will make it impossible to prevent the lawyers calling it mine; however I suppose though I may be forced to maintain it, I shall be at liberty to let it stay with you, which I mean to do notwithstanding what other people may suggest on the subject. You wish to keep it, and I am sure I can have no desire to see it’. The couple’s own children were now with Francis, who assured Amelia ‘I can never think of depriving you of ever seeing your sweet children again; how to contrive it I cannot just now tell, but fancy it must be deferred till after the conclusion of our present business’. In the last letter to be preserved, he writes ‘I think your own house might not be quite a proper place, as I imagine they should not see Mr B now, or the child in future; I therefore think some third place will be best. The expenses of your lying in I certainly am ready to pay’. They need not have worried – the daughter, Sophia Georgina Byron, was born in July 1779 but soon died – she was buried at Twickenham on 18 September.
In the course of the negotiations both Francis and Amelia become increasingly exasperated by her mother Lady Holderness, who soon becomes represented in their letters by a dash rather than by name. On 14 January 1779 Amelia wrote from Chiselhurst ‘I had yesterday a visit from my mother which has half distracted me, you are the only friend I have left, and think what must be my dreadful situation to apply to you whom I have so much injured for the only comfort I can receive’. Francis in turn wrote that ‘The unfortunate violence of ____ renders any conference extremely disagreeable, however [much] we may agree on essentials. … I think some of her ideas upon the subject improper, if not absurd.’
In January there was a further exchange of jewellery, Amelia returning some pieces given to her by the queen. Discussion turned to the settlement to be made upon her, and the future interest in Hornby Castle in Yorkshire, at which Amelia expressed a vehement objection to living. Like many couples in similar circumstances, they blamed the intervention of lawyers for complicating negotiations which they considered might better have been conducted by themselves. Francis’s initial offer of £1500 a year, equivalent to the jointure in their settlement had he died in his father’s lifetime, was finally settled at £2100.
The correspondence was conducted throughout in the most cordial and affectionate manner, bearing out the opinions of his contemporaries, quote in Dictionary of National Biography, who commended his amiable manners and personal integrity, with a sweet temper and an excellent understanding, happily cultivated’.
Augusta Leigh verses and letter
Augusta Maria Leigh (née Byron; 26 January 1783 – 12 October 1851) was the only surviving daughter of John ‘Mad Jack’ Byron (the poet’s father by his first wife Amelia, the divorced wife of Francis, marquess of Carmarthen). Augusta's mother died within a year of her birth and she was initially brought up by her grandmother Lady Holderness, who died when Augusta was 18. In 1807 Augusta married her cousin, Lt. Colonel George Leigh (1771–1850). Although, as Leslie Marchand stated, ‘the extant evidence that Byron had sexual relations with Augusta does not amount to legal proof’ their relationship ‘cannot be explained sensibly in any other terms’ (Marchand, Portrait, 148n.) That Byron was the father of Augusta’s daughter Medora, born in 1814, is a recurrent theme of speculation. There is some evidence to support the incest accusation. A few days after her birth, Byron went to his sister’s house Swynford Paddocks in Cambridgeshire to see the child, and wrote to his confidante Lady Melbourne ‘Oh! but it is “worth while”, I can't tell you why, and it is not an “Ape” and if it is, that must be my fault; however, I will positively reform. You must however allow that it is utterly impossible I can ever be half so well liked else-where, and I have been all my life trying to make someone love me and never got the sort I preferred before.’
For evidence of Augusta Leigh’s attempts to sell her house, Six Mile Bottom in Cambridgeshire, in the summer of 1816, see Lord Byron and his times, chapter 9: https://lordbyron.org/monograph.php?doc=LdLovel2.Astarte&select=ch9

Letter from Augusta Leigh to Elizabeth Lamb, née Milbanke (1751-1818) Lady Melbourne; is just leaving town; Lady Melbourne’s preference to call on her; ‘We have sold our place, which was so necessary a measure that I must be glad of it – but I cannot help dreading a removal and being sorry to leave my Home’; Sunday evening, [1816]
Verses in the hand of Augusta Leigh, ‘The dark winter time’ and ‘The mother’s lullaby’, on paper watermarked J WHATMAN 1831
Envelope formerly containing the verse and letter, endorsed ‘Letters to be burnt unopened in the event of my death A M Leigh’.

Green Morocco Riviere binding (stamped Bound by Riviere and Son, hence after 1880) with gilt decoration, very slightly scuffed on spine; all edges gilt.
Provenance: Cecil Edward R Clarabut (1906-1992), 1974; purchased (lot 103 in an undated catalogue) by Doris Elizabeth Langley Moore (1902-1989), Byron scholar and a founding vice-president of the Byron Society in 1971; Alex Alec-Smith Books, 1995; Mrs Barbara Jackson, Surrey.
£800-1,200

Sold for £1,900