Francis Malbone House 392 Thames Street, built ca. 1758. Image from the NHS Collections.
As we enter a new season of Downton Abbey, we follow the worries of Lord Grantham and his badly needed infusion of American money to keep the house, a topic quite familiar to Newport heiresses. Oddly enough, the subject of inheritance is not limited to the sets and sound stages in the hills of Berkshire. The genuine owner of the estate where Downton Abbey is filmed, Highclere Castle, George Reginald Oliver Molyneux (b. 1956) is the eighth Earl of Carnarvon and also descends from the Stanhope family, Earls of Chesterfield.
On 14 August 1783 Sir Henry Edwyn Stanhope, captain of HM Frigate Mercury, married Miss Margaret Malbone at Trinity Church. He was “stationed” at Newport and fell in favor with the Loyalist Francis Malbone family of Thames Street. Sir Henry later became a Vice Admiral of the Royal Navy, Baronet and a predecessor of the Earls of Chesterfield. After the Revolution, the couple retired to Stanwell House in Middlesex.