The House of Lords convicted the Duchess of Kingston of bigamy, and she left England with the Duke's fortune

Elizabeth Chudleigh, maid of honour to the Princess of Wales, secretly married the naval officer Augustus Hervey at Lainston, near Winchester, on 4 August 1744. They hid it so she could keep her court post. In 1759, when Hervey looked likely to become Earl of Bristol, she had the marriage written into the Lainston parish register. By 1769 both wanted out. A church court declared her a spinster on 11 February 1769, and on 8 March she married Evelyn Pierrepont, 2nd Duke of Kingston. His will of 5 July 1770 left her his land for life and his personal property outright, on condition that she stay a widow. He died on 23 September 1773. His disinherited nephew Evelyn Meadows had her indicted for bigamy. The House of Lords tried her over five days, 15 to 22 April 1776. Each peer who voted said "guilty"; the University of Nottingham counts 119. She pleaded privilege of peerage and escaped branding. On the day a writ to stop her leaving the kingdom was issued, she crossed to Calais in an open boat. She kept the Duke's money, bought an estate near St Petersburg and another near Paris, and died in Paris in 1788. Only then did the estates pass to another nephew, Charles Medows, who took the name Pierrepont and became 1st Earl Manvers. That earldom ended in 1955^†. In 2026 Thoresby Hall, the Kingston seat, is a Warner hotel.