# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Longworth, Maria Theresa

​LONGWORTH, MARIA THERESA (1832?–1881), authoress, and plaintiff in the Yelverton case, born at Cheetwood, near Manchester, about 1832, was youngest child of Thomas Longworth, silk manufacturer, whose business place, and at one time residence also, was in a large house at the corner of Quay Street and Longworth Street, Manchester. Her mother died when she was very young, and she was educated at an Ursuline convent school in France. On her return to her father's house at Smedley disagreements with him on religious subjects arose, and she spent much of her time with a married sister in France, or on visits to friends. In the ​summer of 1852, while crossing the Channel with some friends, she was introduced to William Charles Yelverton, afterwards fourth viscount Avonmore [q. v.], and a correspondence between them began. In 1855 she served as a nurse with the French sisters of charity during the Crimean war, and again met Yelverton at the Galata Hospital, when she accepted his proposal of marriage. The engagement was distasteful to Yelverton's relations, and was for a time suspended. But the friendship was ultimately renewed, and on 12 April 1857 Yelverton read aloud the church of England marriage service at Miss Longworth's lodgings in Edinburgh. They were afterwards married by a priest at the Roman catholic chapel at Rostrevor in Ireland, and then lived together both in that country and in Scotland. On 26 June 1858, while she was in Edinburgh, Yelverton formally married the widow of Professor Edward Forbes [q. v.]. On 31 Oct. 1859 Miss Longworth, claiming to be Yelverton's wife, sued him for restitution of conjugal rights in the London probate court, but her petition was dismissed. In 1861 an action was brought in Dublin by Mr. Thelwall, in whose house she had been living, to recover from Yelverton money supplied to her. This action lasted from 21 Feb. to 4 March 1861, and the validity of both Scottish and Irish marriage was established in the Irish court. In July 1862 on appeal the Scottish court of session annulled the marriage, and the judgment was affirmed by a majority of the House of Lords 28 July 1864, although Lord Brougham declared in the lady's favour. Her attempt to reopen the case at Edinburgh in March 1865 failed, and the House of Lords on 30 July 1867 supported the Scottish court. Finally her appeal to the court of session, 29 Oct. 1868, to set aside the judgment of the House of Lords was rejected. Much sympathy was shown to her in this long and unsuccessful struggle, and a subscription in her behalf was raised in Manchester. She spent her later years in travel, and died at Pietermaritzburg, Natal, in the autumn of 1881.
Her slender fortune was spent in the litigation, and she largely supported herself by writing. The following are her chief works:
* ‘Martyrs to Circumstance,’ 2 vols. London, 1861, 8vo.
* ‘The Yelverton Correspondence, with Introduction and Connecting Narrative,’ &c., Edinburgh, 1863, 8vo.
* ‘Zanita: a Tale of the Yo-semite,’ New York, 1872, 8vo.
* ‘Teresina Perigrina, or Fifty Thousand Miles of Travel round the World,’ &c., London, 1874, 8vo.
* ‘Teresina in America,’ 2 vols. London, 1875, 8vo.
[Reports of the Yelverton Marriage Case; Annual Register; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
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