A nationwide hunt came to an end when Gabriel Thornton, an old countryman, pulled on the bridle of a horse tearing through Neasham. The rider, Andrew Robinson Stoney Bowes, pointed his pistol at Gabriel’s head and was about to pull the trigger when Christopher Smith, the village constable, knocked Bowes off his horse and freed the lady who, wearing only a nightdress, was tied to the saddle. She was Bowes’ estranged wife, Lady Mary Eleanor Strathmore.
Eleven days earlier Bowes, the MP for Newcastle, had kidnapped Lady Mary in London’s Oxford Street and had carried her on horseback to Streatlam Castle – between Darlington and Barnard Castle – where he had tried to force her to drop her divorce case.
With rescuers closing in, Bowes had tied her to his horse and set off on a mad chase around the Pennines. They covered at least 180 miles in eight days, and once, possibly twice, Bowes had stopped in a solicitor’s house next to the Sun Inn, in the centre of Darlington. From there, he had charged towards Sockburn, but Gabriel spotted him, with the muddy and bloodied lady tied on the back wearing a man’s greatcoat.
Arrested, Bowes was divorced by Lady Mary and he spent the rest of his days in a debtors’ prison. When Constable Smith died in 1797, his widow received an anonymous envelope containing £5 – apparently from the Strathmore family.
(‘Memories’, The Northern Echo, 2000)