By Ali Scott, author of A Heart’s Secret
The Regency era was full of interesting characters—people who attracted admiration or gained notoriety. Diving into the seedy underbelly of Regency London, one finds a world of survivors and opportunists, those whose moral compasses are set to whichever direction gave them the greatest return. Their stories have captured my imagination, and, although the characters and events of A Heart’s Secret are fictional, fragments of these real people's lives are woven into my book.
Harriette Wilson: The Vengeful Courtesan
'I shall not say why and how I became, at the age of fifteen, the mistress of the Earl of Craven.’ So begins the memoir of Harriette Wilson, one of Regency London’s most notorious courtesans. Even Jane Austen knew of Harriette—Lord Craven was the patron of Cassandra Austen’s fiancé, and in Jane’s correspondence with her sister, they observe that he has ‘a Mistress now living with him at Ashdown Park’, this ‘little flaw’ being ‘the only unpleasing circumstance about him’.
Harriette Wilson’s family were educated and well-connected, but they were not fully respectable. Wilson’s father, John Dubouchet, was Swiss; a dashing raconteur and self-proclaimed scholar who told wild anecdotes of his childhood in the Catone de Berne. Her mother Amelia was illegitimate, born of a seduction between a schoolgirl and a country gentleman. Amelia was raised by the Cooks, a childless couple that ran a successful stocking cleaning business. Their neighbour, Lady Ferras, took an interest in young Amelia, and, until the age of fourteen, Harriette’s mother mixed within polite circles. Amelia’s reckless marriage to the ‘wild, rakish’ John Dubouchet caused much upset. To assuage concerns over his foster daughter’s conduct, Mr Cook gave half of his business to Amelia and her new husband and set up a home for them in Mayfair. It was in this world that Harriette was born in 1786.
A woman of education, confidence and wit, Harriette’s upbringing in Mayfair meant that she was familiar with the upper classes, which gave her a misplaced sense of belonging to this aristocratic world. At fifteen, she decided to leave her childhood home and establish herself as Lord Craven’s mistress, a connexion formed through her elder sister’s sexual relationship with Lord Craven’s brother. Harriette and her elder sisters were part of the demimonde, a world of dubious morality, where a woman could make her fortune as a sexual celebrity. A courtesan was different to a prostitute: a courtesan offered more than sex; their conversation and company was highly desirable. A prostitute might charge £1 for their services, but Harriette Wilson would charge £50 for simply an introduction.
Her life as Lord Craven’s mistress began to bore her—she speaks in horror of his preference to wear an ugly cotton nightcap to bed. She soon cast him aside, seeking the protection from other gentlemen, enjoying the wealth her new lovers brought. She would write letters of introduction to prominent men, even audaciously penning a flirtatious note to the Prince Regent himself: ‘I am told that I am very beautiful, so, perhaps, you would like to see me…’ Desire also shaped in her choices; chancing upon the handsome Lord Ponsonby, she does not even know his name when she remarks that, ‘He is a sort of man I think I could be wicked enough to say my prayers to. ’
But the life of a courtesan depends heavily on their desirability and their ability to extract money from men willing to pay for their company. Over time, Harriette’s popularity waned, and she began to be perceived as troublesome and greedy. Never one to sit around idly, Harriette was persuaded to write her Memoirs, lampooning those men with whom she had intimate knowledge.
Harriette’s memoirs caused a sensation—there were more than thirty editions printed in the first year alone. She also was able to extract money from those wishing to suppress their name from appearing in her book. Her publisher, Joseph Stockdale, wrote to the Duke of Wellington (who was Britain’s prime minister and was supposedly Harriette’s lover ‘of six winters’) stating: ‘[In] Harriette Wilson’s Memoirs, which I am about to publish, are various anecdotes of Your Grace which it would be most desirable to withhold, at least such is my opinion.’
Famously, Wellington replied: ‘Publish and be damned,’ seemingly not caring who read Harriette’s unflattering description that ‘in the evenings, when he wore his broad red ribbon, he looked very much like a rat-catcher.’
Despite the wealth she enjoyed throughout her life, Harriette’s gamble to publish her memoirs did not pay off and she never regained her former status. As she approached the end of her life, she turned to the Catholic faith. Yet old habits die hard, and as she lay dying, she wrote to her former lovers to request that they pay her medical bills and funeral expenses. On her death certificate, she is listed as Hariotte Du Bochet, ‘a woman of independent means.’
Theodore Hook: A man of letters, schemes and practical jokes
The infamous Berners Street hoax began at five o’clock in the morning on the 27th of November 1810. A sweep arrived to clean the chimneys of No 54, only to be turned away. A few moments later, he was joined by another sweep and then another, until there were twelve in total. Next came wagons, heavy with coal from the Paddington wharfs, soon followed by upholsterers’ carts, then deliveries of piano-fortes, organs, linen jewellery, and enough furniture to stock the entire street. Cooks bearing wedding cakes, dray-man with beer barrels, undertakers, medical men, attorneys, clergymen, and artists soon entered the fray. At noon,
forty fishmongers presented themselves, with as many butchers, all eager to sell their produce. And as a finale, the Lord Mayor arrived, ‘state carriage, cocked hats, silk stockings, bag wigs and all’ in search of Mrs Tottenham, a lady of fortune, whose name had been used on thousands of invites sent across the capital. And watching the chaos from a house opposite was the man behind it all: Theodore Edward Hook.
Hook was born in London on 22 September 1788. His father was an organist and composer; as a schoolboy, Hook wrote the lyrics to his father’s comic operas, and he later became known for his ability to improvise humorous songs on the piano on the spot. He was a prolific writer and playwright, whose works described what life was like in fashionable English high society to those outside of it. Witty and a bon-viveur, Hook soon became a favourite of the Prince Regent, who procured for him the position of accountant-general to Mauritius in 1813. This job ended in disaster, when Hook was accused of theft after £12,000 went missing from the accounts. He was bankrupted after his trial, and returned to writing after his imprisonment for negligence.
Hook has also been immortalised in works of literature; he is believed to be the inspiration for Thackery’s Mr Wagg and Disraeli’s Lucian Gay. For many years, he was the editor of the ‘John Bull’ newspaper, and was known for his witty observations and quick puns. For example, when talking to some ‘man with whom a bibliopolist dined the other day, and got extremely drunk’ he swiftly replied, ‘"Why, you appear to me to have emptied your wine-cellar into your book-seller."’
According to the Guinness World Records, he is also credited with receiving the world's first picture postcard—most likely sent by himself to himself in 1840. Known as the Penny Penates, the hand-coloured postcard depicts post office scribes sitting around a gigantic inkwell. It is
thought Hook was making fun of the workers who would have handled the postcard. As the only known postcard with a Penny Black stamp, Penny Penates sold for over £31,000 ($44,000) at an auction in 2002. One can only wonder what Theodore Hook would have made of the sum, as he died in poverty in Fulham in 1841.
These are the stories that have shaped A Heart’s Secret. In this variation, Elizabeth is wrenched from her sheltered country existence and thrust into London society; her eyes are forced open to the harsh realities of life outside her family sphere. At her side is Darcy, whose life is equally at the mercy of unscrupulous individuals willing to exploit society’s need for gossip. For as Jane Austen said, “There are secrets in every family, you know.”
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Images Sources: all public domain
Harriette Wilson: Portrait engraved by Cooper, from original drawing by Birch
Berners Street Hoax: Alfred Concannen (color), William Heath (B&W)
Theodore Hook (artist unknown, circa 1810)
Henry Heath, La Cote Debouche
References:
Wilson, Frances. The Courtesan's Revenge: The Life of Harriette Wilson, the Woman Who Blackmailed the King
