Eliza Stephens
Eliza Stephens was an English governess. She worked for the English aristocrat Mary Eleanor Bowes as a governess and companion and was instrumental in helping Andrew Robinson Stoney become Bowes's second husband. It is possible she had an affair with Stoney and carried his child when she married Reverend Henry Stephens, tutor to the Bowes children, shortly after meeting him. Eliza and Henry received a £1,000 payment and a £200 annuity after the Stoney–Bowes marriage. Henry became a curate in Ponteland, and Eliza assisted Stoney in keeping Bowes's daughter Mary from seeing her until Bowes won a divorce in 1789.
After Henry's death around 1790, Eliza's brother Joseph Planta helped her find employment as a governess in Russia. She worked for Countess Catherine Shuvalova, a lady-in-waiting to the empress Catherine the Great. Stephens's daughter Elizabeth married Mikhail Speransky, who would become an advisor to Tsar Alexander I of Russia, in 1798. Elizabeth died in 1799 soon after giving birth to her daughter, Elisabeth Bagréeff-Speransky. Stephens lived with Bagréeff-Speransky and other family in various places in the Russian Empire until 1815, when she died in Kyiv.
Early life and family
Anna Elizabeth "Eliza" Planta was born on 6 February 1757, to Andrew Planta, pastor of the German Reformed congregation at the Savoy Chapel in London, and his wife Margarete Scartazzini de Bolgiani. Her Swiss-born father had previously served as pastor of the Italian-speaking Reformed congregation in Castasegna, Switzerland. He was also an educator of Prince Alexander at the Ansbach court of Charles William Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, before coming to London in 1752. He worked as an assistant librarian at the British Museum from 1758 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1770. Several of Eliza's sisters worked as governesses and educators for noble families. Her older sister Elizabeth became governess of eight-year-old Mary Eleanor Bowes in 1757. Another sister, Frederica, was governess and English teacher of the daughters of George III and Queen Charlotte. After Frederica's early death, her sister took over her positions. Their only brother, Joseph Planta, served as principal librarian at the British Museum.The Plantas were multilingual. At home, they spoke Romansh. Frederica was known to know seven languages including Latin and Greek, Joseph was known to speak Romansh, English, French, German, and Italian in his youth and later also not just Latin, Greek and Hebrew, but also Dutch and Spanish and some medieval languages. Eliza herself was fluent at least in English, French and Italian. They likely also had some musical education, and Eliza is known to have played the harpsichord. During Leopold Mozart's 1765 journey to London with his family including his son Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the Mozart family was entertained by Andrew Planta at Montagu House. Leopold Mozart noted in his travel diary that he had met Planta and his family.
Employment by Mary Eleanor Bowes
Mary Eleanor Bowes was the only child of the wealthy coal owner and politician George Bowes and his second wife, Mary Gilbert. Mary Eleanor was widely educated, reading voraciously in several languages. In 1757, Eliza's father, Andrew Planta, was engaged as Mary Eleanor's French teacher, and Elizabeth Planta, Eliza's elder sister, was employed as her governess. After the death of George Bowes in 1760, Mary Eleanor became heiress of a vast fortune. Her mother left London and returned to her home in St Paul's Walden Bury, and the upbringing of Mary Eleanor was left to her aunt Jane Bowes, her governess Elizabeth Planta, and various teachers. In 1767, Mary Eleanor married John Lyon, the 9th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, who took her last name. Elizabeth Planta became a lady's companion to Mary Eleanor's mother Mary Bowes, returning to Mary Eleanor's employ as governess of her children in 1774.In January 1776, John Bowes went on a journey to Portugal. Soon after his departure, Mary Eleanor started an affair with George Gray, a Calcutta-born Scottish entrepreneur. John did not reach his destination and died of tuberculosis in March 1776. By April, Mary Eleanor was pregnant with Gray's child. She induced a miscarriage using an abortifacient that she later described as a "black inky kind of medicine" and aborted two further pregnancies during 1776. Besides her lover, Bowes also had a circle of friends regularly visiting at her Grosvenor Square house that included Joseph Planta and the botanist Daniel Solander, who had accompanied Joseph Banks on the first voyage of James Cook. Other members of this circle were James Matra, who was another companion of Cook, and his brother, Perkins Magra, a captain in the British Army.
In July 1776, Bowes dismissed Elizabeth Planta from service with a generous payment of, possibly to stop her from discussing the affair and the resulting pregnancies and abortions with Bowes's mother or with the Lyon family. Elizabeth's younger sister Eliza Planta was then hired as the new governess for the children of Mary Eleanor Bowes, and she quickly became an important and trusted companion to her mistress. When Bowes and Gray became formally engaged in St Paul's Cathedral in August or September 1776, Planta served as one of the witnesses.
In the second half of 1776, Andrew Robinson Stoney arrived in London. Stoney was a Protestant from a prosperous English family settled in Ireland and was an officer in the British Army. His first wife had died in March 1776, and Stoney had inherited £5,000 and taken control of her estate in County Durham. Stoney's life story was later adapted by William Makepeace Thackeray as that of the anti-hero in The Luck of Barry Lyndon. He was later described as a "schemer" who had come to London with the purpose to seduce and marry the wealthy Bowes. Stoney was probably introduced to Bowes's social circle by his friend, Perkins Magra. He soon turned Planta into an ally, and according to Bowes's biographer Wendy Moore, he may also have been Planta's lover. Planta was expected to inform Stoney of Bowes's interests and undertakings, to uncover her weaknesses and generally further his cause, in order to make Bowes end her relationship with Gray. One of Stoney's ploys included a visit to a fortune-teller that Planta proposed to Bowes, who reacted with enthusiasm. According to Jesse Foot, who was Stoney's surgeon, friend, and later his biographer, the fortune-teller had been "tutored to his wishes". Searching for advice about her own romantic situation, Bowes pretended to be a grocer's widow and asked whether she "should marry a brewer or a sugar-boiler". The fortune-teller's response to this question has not been recorded, but likely indicated the advantages of Stoney over Gray.
Marriage to Henry Stephens
In November 1776, Bowes hired Reverend Henry Stephens as tutor for her children. He was introduced to her by Magra and Matra; according to Bowes's biographer Wendy Moore, probably on the initiative of Stoney who was keen to further his own interests. Stephens soon after allied himself with Stoney. He was a widower who had debts of a few hundred pounds. Planta and Stephens married very quickly and eloped ten days after their first meeting, infuriating the Planta family. They were married in Scotland in November or December 1776, with the wedding announced in the Monthly Miscellany in December 1776. According to Moore, Eliza was pregnant at the time of the wedding, and Bowes encouraged her to use an abortifacient. Moore suggests the father of the child was Stoney. It is unclear whether Henry Stephens was aware of his wife's pregnancy at the time.Starting in December 1776, The Morning Post published several letters attacking Bowes's morals and her libertine lifestyle. On 13 January 1777, Stoney duelled with the newspaper's editor Henry Bate in defence of Bowes's honour and was seemingly mortally wounded. He was pronounced to have only a few days left to live, and married Bowes on 17 January 1777. The same evening, she made a present of £1,000 to Eliza. This money may have been intended to cover Henry Stephens's debts, as recompense for the position as a minor canon he had given up when entering the household, or as hush money so Henry and Eliza would keep quiet about Bowes's own pregnancy. Very soon after, Stoney made a full recovery; the letters, the duel and the medical opinions on his expected death had all been an elaborate fabrication. When Stoney went to Newcastle in February 1777 with his new wife in order to contest a parliamentary by-election for the Newcastle constituency, Bowes's four younger children stayed behind in London with Henry Stephens, while Eliza accompanied the couple, staying with them at Gibside. A witness later claimed to have seen Stoney leave Eliza's bedroom at 5 o'clock one morning after the election, suggesting their affair was still ongoing. The Stephenses continued to look after the Bowes children until April 1777, when they left the family's employment and departed quickly. After spending ten days in France, Henry and Eliza left for Stoney's estate at Colepike Hall near Lanchester, County Durham. According to Moore, Eliza's child was born there later in 1777. Bowes later wrote in her Confessions, "had I known as I do now, I would... have ntreated you to turn her out of the house directly;... and had I known Mr. Stephens,... I should have thought only with horror of his ever being near my sons, or in my house." It is not quite known what caused Bowes to write in such terms about her previously intimate friends; it is possible that this was Stoney's doing, but he and the Stephenses later reconciled their differences. From 1778, Eliza Stephens received an annuity of £200 from the Stoney-Bowes family.
Eliza and Henry Stephens had five known children: Jane Elizabeth, Francis William, Henry Planta, Marianne Margt, and George Andrew Planta. Stoney became increasingly abusive and controlling of his wife, who esacaped from him in 1785. Stoney then hid Bowes's daughter Mary from her mother by sending her to live with Eliza Stephens. By the time of the trial between Stoney and Bowes in February 1789, Henry Stephens had assumed the post of curate at Ponteland, Northumberland. Eliza and Henry both were witnesses for Stoney and against Bowes in this trial, accusing her of adultery with her footman. Bowes won a divorce in March 1789. Afterwards, Eliza attempted to reconcile with Bowes and informed her about her daughter Mary's location and helped to remove her from Stoney's influence. Henry Stephens died in 1789 or 1790.