Pointless’ Alexander Armstrong in family scandal with | UK News

Pointless host Alexander Armstrong absolutely anticipated to find some reasonably grand ancestors when he appeared on the BBC family tree show Who Do You Think You Are? in 2010. However, nothing may have ready the daddy of 4 for the scandal he uncovered, which concerned the homicide of a Baron.

“I’ve been called posh a lot of my life,” he admitted originally of his search. “And we grew up on the edge of quite a grand family, but as second cousins, you know, the junior wing.”

He additionally admitted to his spouse that he suspected there might be some darkish secrets and techniques lurking in his family’s background.

“The trouble is, the only bits of the family that you know are obviously the bits that, conspicuously. the family wants us to know about. Maybe they were caught up in some scandal,” he contemplated

His royal connections had been shortly established. He seems to be a descendant of William the Conqueror, who was the primary Norman King of England after defeating the Anglo-Saxon forces of Harold Godwinson on the Battle of Hastings.

He can be distantly associated to William Armstrong, founder of Cragside, whose family nonetheless owns Bamburgh Castle. He has ties to the sixth Earl and second Marquess of Worcester, Edward Somerset, who was one of the monarchy’s greatest supporters during the Civil War in 1642.

A family member who labored in a royal family seems to be probably the most intriguing department of his tree, although, as her son turns into embroiled in a homicide scandal.

It transpires that his six-time great-grandmother, Mary Boughton (1714-86), was a bedchamber girl to Queen Charlotte in an period when this was an enormously prestigious place.

Delving additional into her life at Shropshire Archives he discovered correspondence, which indicated stress between her sons Edward and Charles.

“He is neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring,” Mary wrote to Charles about “indolent” Edward, who at one level was more than £14,400 in debt to his youthful brother. This was a colossal sum in that period.

Despite his obvious shortcomings, Edward ended up inheriting a baronetcy from a cousin, and foul play was suspected in the death.

The cousin in query, Sir Theodosius Boughton, was apparently poisoned, and Edward described the death as “wonderful news” in a letter.

Captain John Donnellan, brother-in-law to Theodosius, was convicted of the homicide however there was a query mark as as to whether Edward was in truth accountable.

Edward’s luck seemingly did nothing to assuage his rivalry with his brother Charles, and a few hours earlier than his death, he disinherited his sibling in favour of his illegitimate daughter.

Although Charles, who had married effectively and was awarded his own baronetcy, inherited his brother’s title, he wasn’t left Edward’s property. The snub seems to have value Sir Charles a peerage though that missed alternative barely places a dent in Alexander’s aristotic credentials.