- Aged 13 Sue Williams discovered a family secret
- Over many years, she traced the family tree to find out more
- Sue went on to write a historical fiction novel called The Duke’s Secret
Here Sue, 66, from Sydney, NSW shares her story in her own words.
Looking at my father as he revealed the family secret, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
‘You know we’re descended from the Duke of Wellington, don’t you?’ Dad said.
‘My great-great-great-grandmother was born to a maid in his household, and he was popularly believed to be the father.’
I was stunned. The Iron Duke, as he was known, was once celebrated as ‘the hero of the world’ for stopping Napoleon and his French army from conquering the whole of Europe. Queen Victoria even described him as ‘the greatest man this country ever produced.’
But he was married.
‘It was an unhappy marriage,’ my father said.
‘He married his childhood sweetheart after not seeing her for 12 years while he’d been away at war, and she turned out to be different from how he remembered. And he became a notorious womaniser.’
‘Dad would throw in more tantalising facts.’
My father first told me the story when I was about 13 and had started studying history at school.
As I dug deeper over the years, Dad would also occasionally throw in more tantalising facts.
It seems the maid, Mary Ann Marshall, a poor girl from an impoverished part of London, had caught the eye of her boss, the philandering first Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley.
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They gave into their passion when she was 30 and he was 40, just before he left in 1807 to take part in the Peninsular War in Europe. They had a baby girl, Elizabeth.
That daughter, so my father told me, had later refused to marry the son of a friend of the duke – a lord that her father had earmarked for her, and ran off with the household’s butler instead. It destined all of us who came afterwards to live far from a life of riches!
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I came to Australia in 1989, my brother came a few years later, and my parents followed us both in 2000.
Much later, when I became an author of historical fiction, I started thinking again about the story my father had told me.
It had all the elements – pride, prejudice, passion, betrayal, war and peace – of any thumping great novel. So I decided this was the book I would have to write.
I was determined to tell the story both through the eyes of Mary Ann, and from the viewpoint of a contemporary Australian woman descendant – based, loosely, on me – seeking out the truth of the connection.
My first step was to trace our family tree and, sure enough, there was Mary Ann Marshall at the top, recorded in the census as living at the duke’s London mansion, Apsley House, just off Hyde Park.
Furthermore, there was the record of her daughter, Elizabeth, with the father never named.
It was strange. Back in those days, if a female servant fell pregnant, she’d usually be sacked on the spot and turned out onto the streets. Instead, the duke allowed both Mary Ann and her daughter to stay.
‘The dates all lined up.’
Then I checked and double-checked all the dates of everything that was said to have happened – they all lined up.
I travelled to the UK, went to the British Library and attended university archives across England and Scotland to view their records. All present and correct again.
Next, I followed the duke’s footsteps, from his native Dublin to London, and all through Europe, visiting every site where he fought major battles, in France, Portugal and Spain. I stayed in Belgium, too, where the final showdown with Napoleon took place at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 – the bloodiest conflict the world had ever seen in a single day, with around 50,000 soldiers killed, wounded and captured.
I also went to see his mansion in Paris, where he served as the ambassador, and helped carve up Europe after the Napoleonic Wars.
Then there were all his London residences, including Number 10 Downing Street, when he served for two periods as the prime minister, as well as Apsley House, a glittering palace stuffed with the spoils of war – gold and silver presented to him by European kings and princes grateful to be free of Napoleon.
I even traced Elizabeth’s movements – she later went to work at Kew Palace – home of the hit TV series Bridgerton – after her marriage to the butler, William Williams, the name given to every first-born son since, including my father.
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It was an incredible adventure, and it’s astonishing to think we’re related to one of the best-known families in the world, with the ninth Duke of Wellington, Charles Wellesley, best friends with King Charles and Queen Camilla. He carried a crown at the coronation in 2023, his son is a godson of the King, and his Prussian princess wife is a great-great-great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria.
While I love writing historical fiction, this book has a very special place in my heart.
‘I can’t believe you’ve done this,’ my father, now 95, said when I placed the first copy of The Duke’s Secret into his hands.
As tears trickled down his face, I knew it was the most precious gift I could ever have given him.
