DELAVAL (Sir Francis Blake)

The Trial of Sir Francis Blake Delaval Knight of the Bath at the Consistory Court of Doctors commons, For Committing Adultery with Miss Roach, alias Miss La Roche, alias Miss Le Roche. This Trial was instituted by Lady Isabella Delaval, wife of Sir Francis Blake Delaval, and Daughter of the Earl of Thanet. To which is added, the trial of George Fitzgerald, Esq

London: Printed for the Proprietors, and sold by C. Etherington, No. 137, Fleet-Street; G. Lister, No. 46, Old Bailey; and all the Booksellers in Town and Country. - This Trial was Published at the earnest solicitation of many Ladies in the amorous Ton. [1782]. FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. 8vo (in 4s), 198 x 130 mms., pp. [iv], 68, later dull orange wrappers; underlined throughout. The publication of these two trials [written sources unspecified] some thirty years after they took place is accounted - if we accept it at face value - by the lengthy preface signed by one 'S.B.' ''The ladies who have committed matrimonial faux pas, have been so unmercifully handled in a variety of late publications, that I am determined to stand forth their champion...among all the trials for infidelity...care has been taken not to insert a single one that has been instituted against the men - the ladies only have been exposed...how illiberal, unjust, and partial are such proceedings?' The anonymous writer goes on to develop his theme, which may or may not be tongue in cheek, for he dedicates the work to Ann Cately 'once a pupil to the hero of the following history ' - she being Delaval's earlier catch from the stage, and, unlike him, still alive when this was published. George Fitzgerald was, it seems, no better than Delaval where women were concerned, and married to Lady Mary, later named Hervey after their separation, he the profligate, she the devout friend of John Wesley. ESTC T53447 locates copies in BL, NLS, Dublin Honourable Society of King's Inn ; Harvard, Texas, Yale.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 10290

Catalogue: Adultery

Keywords: adultery marriage prose

GEORGE IV. WILKINS (W. H.):

Mrs. Fitzherbert and George IV.

London, New York, Bombay, Longmans, Green, and Co., 1905. FIRST EDITION. 2 volumes. Large 8vo, pp. xxi [xxii blank, xxiii "Corrigenda," xxiv blank], 350; ix [x blank], 340, frontispiece in each volume, 30 illustrations in volume 1, 25 illustrations in volume 2, original purple cloth with rearing horse in gilt on each front cover; spines very faded.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 3834

Catalogue: Adultery

Keywords: adultery biography prose women