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Lot 175
Williams (Charles). The Female Agent, published Walker, March 1809, etching with contemporary hand colouring with eighteen lines of verse below the caricature, small margins, 330 x 230 mm, mounted, together with Williams (Charles). Mother Carey's Chickens.These birds have lately been seen hovering above the Horse Guards, circa 1808, etching with contemporary hand colouring, slight marginal fraying, 250 x 385 mm (Qty: 2)Both caricatures show Mrs. Mary Ann Clarke, the one time mistress of Frederick The Duke of York. The scandal revolved around the alleged involvement of the Duke of York, the king's second son and commander-in-chief of the army, in the sale of army commissions by his former mistress with the implication that this had taken place with the Duke's tacit approval. . Mrs Clarke had been dropped by the Duke in 1805 but her silence had been purchased with an annual pension paid by the Duke - out of the civil list - but he stopped the allowance in 1808. In an act of revenge Mrs. Clarke freely admitted to having trafficked in military appointments in return for money, and arguing that the Duke had been complicit in these transactions. An attempt by Gwyllym Wardle - a radical M.P. - to lauch an inquest into the case and ultimately to bring down the Duke failed but the case became increasing complex when it was revealed that Mrs. Clarke had been paid £10,000 and given an annuity of £400 by the government in return for the Duke of York’s love letters and the destruction of her prepared memoirs. In a final act of revenge Clarke managed to persuade an upholsterer, Francis Wright, to sue her chief prosecutor, Wardle, for non-payment of a bill for furniture for her new London house. The case came before Kings bench on 3rd July 1809,and it emerged for the first time that Wardle had probably bought Mrs. Clarke’s hostile testimony against the duke with a promise to pay for the furnishing of her house. The jury found for Mrs Clarke and Wardle was ordered to pay £1,095 for the furniture and £1,194 in legal costs. The public scandal led to Wardle's downfall and he eventually had to flee to the continent to escape his creditors.
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