William Henry Chetwynd (17 September 1811 – 5 July 1890) was a son of

Sir George Chetwynd, 2nd Baronet George Chetwynd (1783-1850), of Brocton Hall, near Stafford and Grendon Hall (demolished, 1933), near Atherstone, Warwickshire, was an English politician. He was born the eldest son of Sir George Chetwynd, 1st Baronet of Brocton, Staffordshir ...

. He lived at Longdon Hall,

Rugeley Rugeley ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Cannock Chase District in Staffordshire, England. It lies on the north-eastern edge of Cannock Chase next to the River Trent; it is situated north of Lichfield, south-east of Stafford, nort ...

, in

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

and was involved in a sensational divorce case in 1865. He had married Blanche Chetwynd-Talbot, daughter of Rev. Hon. Arthur Chetwynd-Talbot and the niece of

Henry Chetwynd-Talbot, 18th Earl of Shrewsbury Henry John Chetwynd-Talbot, 18th Earl of Shrewsbury, 18th Earl of Waterford, 3rd Earl Talbot, CB, PC (8 November 1803 – 4 June 1868), styled Viscount of Ingestre between 1826 and 1849 and known as The Earl Talbot between 1849 and 1858, was a ...

, in 1854: he was 42 and she was 18. In 1865 she brought a successful action for divorce under the

Matrimonial Causes Act 1857 The Matrimonial Causes Act 1857 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act reformed the law on divorce, moving litigation from the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts to the civil courts, establishing a model of marriage ...

accusing him of cruelty and adultery, he counter-claiming that she had also committed adultery, fornication and incest. Their children were put in the care of William's elder brother

Sir George Chetwynd, 3rd Baronet ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

. Chetwynd married for the second time in 1875 Mary Parkin, daughter of James Parkin. He died in 1890 at his home, Longdon Hall, Brocton, Staffordshire and was buried at nearby Colwich.

References

* Michael Diamond, ''Victorian sensation'', Anthem Press (2003) , pp. 124–126 * Allen Horstman, ''Victorian divorce'', Taylor & Francis (1985) , pp. 92–93 {{DEFAULTSORT:Chetwynd, William Henry 1811 births 1890 deaths People from Rugeley People from the Borough of Stafford Younger sons of baronets