Hi Annette
I'm a retired academic historian who is currently researching the 'Langworthy Marriage' for a projected book and thought we might share information. By the sound of it, you already have the full story? If not, I'm more than happy to share my material (i.e. the full text, accompanying newspaper reports and wider information about W.T. Stead, the late-Victorian journalist who championed Mildred's case and wrote the story in the Pall Mall Gazette.)
For my part, I'm keen to explore Mildred's family history and hope you might be able to help me? You mention, for example, that you have a photo of her mother, who played an active role in the drama, and letters from her brothers who emigrated to Australia.I would like to write an early chapter on her family background in Ireland.
There are two sequels to the main story that you may not have come across.
Firstly, eleven years after winning her case against Langworthy and receiving record damages, Mildred and her daughter, Gladys, turned up in Paris with Langworthy himself! There was lots of speculation at the time that they had somehow reconciled but Stead thought that Mildred was lured there by Langworthy who wrote telling her he was ill and asking her to join him. It was 1898. They booked into the Grand Hotel and were seen together. Then their daughter was sent back to England and shortly afterwards, Mildred was found dead in Langworthy's bed. Her body was spirited away and cremated, leaving something of a mystery surrounding her death, and as soon as her body left the bedroom, Langworthy took out a pistol and shot himself. It's very melodramatic.
Secondly, Gladys, their daughter, was looked after by her grandparents, Elizabeth and William Long, and in 1906, married Charles Richard Molesworth, 10th Viscount Molesworth of Swords. I'm hoping to make contact with her descendants to see if they have any records and would of course share them with you, should I get permission.
But in the meantime, can we collaborate on piecing together her family history in Ireland?
Hoping you can help,
Tony Nicholson