‍NEWSPAPER reporters packed the Press Gallery as a shocking secret was exposed to a court and the headlines that followed turned a trial into the biggest high society sex scandal of the 18th century.

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‍The story of 24-year-old Sir Richard Worsley’s divorce from his adulterous wife, Lady Seymour Worsley, who lived at Harewood House, near Leeds, exposed a trail of obsession, revenge, debauchery and financial ruin for him 225 years ago.

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‍Londoners, hungry for sensation, poured into the courtroom. Carriages jostled in the narrow lanes; hawkers shouted the latest rumours to passersby and satirical cartoon prints of society beauty, Lady Seymour circulated in the streets as news sheets sold out.

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‍In the beginning, the public thought the couple a perfect marriage. But after she wed, Seymour had affairs with various members of the aristocracy and military, the court heard. Her husband, she discovered, preferred watching to doing, and paraded his wife as goods on offer, although during this time, the couple had a son, named Robert, who died young.

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‍Seymour’s biggest love was George Bisset, a close friend of Sir Richard and a captain in the Hampshire militia, and on November 19, 1781, a few months after her son’s death, she couldn’t bear the endless line of lovers any more and the pair eloped to the Royal Hotel in London.

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‍Sir Richard was furious and launched divorce proceedings, claiming £20,000 damages, worth £4.4 million today. In those times, a husband completely owned his wife. Bisset, by taking her, was a legal theft.

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‍Truth was that Sir Richard had only himself to blame, the court heard. He was just a voyeur, and she named every one of her 27 lovers to turn the tables in the case and blacken his name. Her husband, she claimed, only enjoyed seeing her have sex. He was obsessed with watching.

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‍The jury was told of one fateful afternoon when Sir Richard, his wife and Bisset, visited Maidstone baths, near the military base where they were staying.

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‍The gentlemen escorted Seymour to the women’s door before setting off to bathe in the men’s side. Once they had finished, they waited for Seymour beside the female entrance. “Seymour!’” Sir Richard shouted. “Bisset is going to get up and look at you!”

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‍Suddenly the captain’s face appeared at the window above the door to the ladies’ area. Sir Richard was holding him on his shoulders, so that his friend could enjoy his naked wife and her maid as they teasingly put on their clothing.

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‍The men exploded with laughter. Minutes later, Seymour joined them, the laughter of all three ringing out for all to hear. The jury also heard that Sir Richard practically encouraged Bisset to bed his wife. Aware of their relationship, he invited the officer to stay as a lodger.

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‍Lady Seymour Fleming, later Lady Worsley, had been one of the richest heiresses in England, with an inheritance worth more than £50,000. Sir Richard was ambitious and calculating and saw in her dowry a chance to elevate his political and social standing.

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‍But beneath the polished surface, cracks soon formed. Sir Richard was cold, possessive, and curiously voyeuristic. Servants said he often paraded his wife before other men. Newspaper cartoonists seized the moment, immortalising Sir Richard as a ridiculous cuckold. His honour was shredded before the nation.

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‍Details of the trial were turned into a best-selling book called ‘Lady Worsley’s Epistle.’ Letters of disgust streamed into the Morning Post and Morning Herald.

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‍Sir Richard never recovered. His political career faltered, his reputation lay in ruins. Instead of receiving £20,000 in damages, he was awarded just one shilling.

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‍Lady Worsley however, found a strange freedom in disgrace. She separated from her husband, lived openly with Bisset for a time, and travelled abroad where she found more lovers.

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‍PICTURE OF DIANA WE COULD NEVER FORGET

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‍WE LOVED Princess Diana, of course we did. But we knew how she would often taunt the Paparazzo for publicity. Here from the archives, she is pictured alone with her thoughts, looking soulful on the diving board of her lover Dodi Fayad’s family yacht Jonikal off Portofino, Italy, remember?

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‍The paparazzo used long-lens cameras from boats and cliffs to track her in the Mediterranean. Many were freelance photographers operating independently and shared agencies and specific shots like this one officially credited to international photo syndication agencies like Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images.

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‍This iconic photograph taken on August 24, 1997, of her wearing a turquoise Gottex swimsuit and looking out over the Mediterranean, is one of the last widely published images of her before her tragic death one week later on August 31. The Express used the picture on August 25.

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‍OLD NEWS IN BRIEF

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‍CORPSES FOR COMPANY

‍SERIAL killer Dennis Nilsen’s bathtub where he drowned his male victims and gave them a wash in the 1980s, is on show in Scotland Yard’s Black Museum. Nilsen, who died in jail, aged 72, would then dress them and sit with them for company chatting for weeks before boiling them and cutting them up in two flats in North London. He admitted 15 murders.

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‍FROM THE BOTTOM TO THE TOP

‍British Prime Minister John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, held office from 1762 to 1763. He was formerly Groom of the Stool for King George III, which meant he had to wipe his Royal Highness’s bottom.

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‍His duties were to assist the monarch with his toileting needs and personal hygiene when he used the ‘stool’ (a portable, cushioned royal toilet).

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‍The role wasn’t crap, it was prestigious because the Groom had private, 24/7 access to the King and during his most vulnerable moments and was a powerful stepping stone to becoming one of the monarch's closest political advisers.

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‍Days of wine and English roses … Jitterbugging GIs on the dance floor

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‍YANKS WEREN’T ALWAYS LOVED IN

‍A WORLD OF CIGS AND STOCKINGS

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‍FROM 1942 until the end of the Second World War, more than two million American troops passed through Britain while British lads were away in combat at the Front in Europe and Africa.

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‍The Testosterone Warriors set up bases in towns and villages bringing hope to the British public who had endured years of air raids, fear of invasion, food rationing and the loss of loved ones on the battlefields.

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‍The Yanks came armed with nylon stockings, chocolate, cigarettes, chewing gum and Coca-Cola. They offered joy and happiness to thousands of girls and women who were lonely for love. And the Press made a meal of it.

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‍Young English women and teenage girls became the focus of widespread public anxiety. Reporters, social workers, clergymen and moral welfare organisations, condemned them for seeking sexual fun with the Yanks. 

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‍Editors of local and national newspapers were bombarded with letters from anxious parents. There were endless stories of them finding love, sex and stockings at the dance halls, bars, camps and villages once the homes of their missing lovers. It would obviously happen and many expected it. The Red Cross even arranged jitterbug dance nights for them.

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‍The Yanks of course, quickly dominated the dating scene, attracting women with their cockiness, ‘Hollywood’ allure and lavish spending. Jokes about sexual encounters spread throughout the land … “heard the one about the new utility knickers? One Yank and they’re off!”

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‍Groups of girls would go “soldiering”, targeting the Yanks in force to see what they could get, especially perfume and cigarettes.

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‍The smell of doughnuts and hamburgers wafted over the parks and jukeboxes endlessly pumped out Glenn Miller’s wartime favourite ‘Chattanooga Choo Choo’.

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‍The Government was worried how our lads would react at the Front when the stories of romances got to them, many British fathers were suspicious of the GIs’ intentions with their daughters  and the pregnancy rate went up.

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‍British soldiers on leave clashed with GIs. There were bar fights and rows in streets, and this gave birth to the phrase that the Americans were "overpaid, oversexed, and over here".

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‍To make things worse the GIs were paid five times more than British ‘Tommys’ which meant they could be generous at the bar, in restaurants and at cinemas. A private in the British Army was paid 14 shillings a week, whereas a private in the US Army got £3 and 8 shillings. Their smartly tailored, glamorous uniforms, stood in stark contrast to the British troops’ baggy, plain serge battledress.

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‍But some of the girls said they found The Americans ‘coming on too strong’. Most GIs expected sex on the first date. There was even a rift in the towns and villages between women who dated GIs and those who didn’t.

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‍Those who did were often called ‘Yankee bags’ and ostracised. The dream romances so often portrayed in the Hollywood movies to the sounds of violins were often just ‘rumpy pumpy’ in the bicycle sheds, fields, alleyways and barns.

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‍The thought of impending death, however, kept many GIs who were waiting for D-Day from allowing their flirtations to develop into a deeper love. Their courtship held no promise of a happy ending.

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‍Others couldn’t fight the power of love and 70,000 British ‘brides’ sailed to join husbands in America after the war.

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‍TERRY MANNERS

‍22 June 2026

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