Summary of Laura Thompson's Heiresses

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 Mary Davies was born in London in 1665. She was the heiress to what would become some of the most valuable land in the world. She was married at the age of twelve to a Cheshire landowner nine years her senior. #2 Mary’s great-great uncle, Hugh Audley, was a lawyer who made his fortune as a usurer. He died in 1662, and six months after the birth of his daughter, Mary, he left a muddled inheritance of unfinished building works and debts. #3 The heiress-chasing business was beginning to get out of hand in the brutally carefree Restoration era. In 1665, the poet and libertine Lord Rochester absconded with an heiress named Elizabeth Malet. #4 The best man was the one who helped facilitate the groom’s seizure of the bride. Kidnapping was a live threat, but it was also a deadly game. The heiress, often characterized as a plain girl, was a willing elopee; the man who snatched her was her perverse salvation.