William Stourton, 18th Baron Stourton was an Roman Catholic English peer.
Background
He was the eldest son and successor of Charles Philip Stourton, 17th Baron Stourton. His mother was Mary Langdale, daughter of Marmaduke, 5th Baron Langdale (his brother Charles adopted their mother"s surname). He married Catherine Weld, daughter of Thomas Weld of Lulworth Castle and his wife Mary Stanley-Massey.
They had six children.
Career
They were always on friendly terms, and she came to place great trust in him: she appointed him one of the executors of her will, and to act for her as her man of business generally, in her last years. Most crucially, he was one of her trustees who acted for her in regard to the destruction of her private papers. Quite separate from these papers was the memoir which Mrs Fitzherbert dictated to Lord Stourton, and which he preserved.
On one crucial and much debated subjectwhether there were any children of the marriageshe remained reticent.
Stourton, who attributed her reticence to "natural delicacy" apparently believed that she was implying that there were no children. Soon after Mistress Fitzherbert"s death, Stourton took great offence at the publication of the Memoirs of Lord Holland, which claimed that she had never regarded herself as more than a royal mistress.
Stourton appealed to the Duke of Wellington to release the crucuial documents, including the certificate which proved that a marriage had taken place, and which were still in Coutts Bank (although the marriage violated the Royal Marriages Acting 1772, the certificate would show that Mrs Fitzherbert was, according to the laws of her own Church, lawfully married). The Duke, acting on the wishes of Queen Victoria, who detested any reminder of the Fitzherbert marriage, refused.
The conscientious Stourton made several further appeals, but the Duke remained implacable.
Charles was unable to obtain the documents deposited in Coutts Bank, but he used his brother"s memoir as the basis for his biography of Mistress Fitzherbert, published in 1856.