From the Sunday Telegraph
The Marquess of Northampton, one of Britain's weathiest and most colourful aristocrats, has been accused of obtaining illicit tape recordings of telephone calls made by his wife in a divorce battle over his £120 million fortune.
He is one of Britain's wealthiest and most colourful aristocrats.
Dubbed the Mystic Marquess for his fascination with Freemasonry and ancient mysticism, The 7th Marquess of Northampton has been married five times, endured four divorces and is now embarking on his fifth.
He has two vast and hugely expensive stately homes to maintain, and possesses a hoard of Roman treasure, worth £100 million but so contentious it cannot be sold.
But the latest controversy to dog the peer may be the most damaging and costly yet.
For Lord Northampton stands accused of obtaining illicitly taped telephone calls between his estranged wife Lady Pamela and her 86-year-old father in a divorce battle over his estimated £120 million fortune.
In a bizarre twist, it is his father-in-law's partner, a hairdresser and beautician from Middlesex, who is accused of making the secret tapes and passing them on to the marquess.
A close friend of Lord Northampton has told The Sunday Telegraph that the 65-year-old peer is "extremely upset" by the collapse of his fifth marriage.
After four failed marriages, he had thought that Lady Pamela was "the love of his life", said the friend.
The phone taping case is deeply embarrassing for Lord Northampton, who now faces having to explain his actions before a High Court judge.
Lady Pamela, his fifth wife whom he married in 1990, stands to receive as much as £20 million in compensation for their 20-year marriage.
The contents of the taped conversations are subject to a series of strict court orders and cannot - for now at least - be made public by any of the parties involved in the complex divorce and breach of confidence cases.
But The Sunday Telegraph has learnt that Suzanne Shipwright, who has lived with Lady Pamela's father James Haworth for more than 20 years, made the recordings last autumn and then passed them to Lord Northampton, apparently indignant at their contents.
Lord Northampton, born Spencer Compton and known as 'Spenny' to friends, issued divorce proceedings on 25 November last year after hearing the recordings.
In a counter law suit Lady Pamela and Mr Haworth are suing both Miss Shipwright and Lord Northampton for damages, claiming breach of confidence.
Strangely, despite being on opposing sides, Mr Haworth and Miss Shipwright apparently remain a couple, sharing a bungalow in Surrey with Mr Haworth.
A friend of Lord Northampton told The Sunday Telegraph: "Spenny is extremely upset that what he thought was a happy marriage has come to a sudden end. He had thought that Pamela was the love of his life."
The friend stressed that unlike his previous marriages, Lord Northampton had no plans to find a sixth wife on the rebound.
"Spenny has been faithful to his wife throughout their marriage and there is no one else in his life," insisted the friend.
The friend added: "He realised there was no future to the marriage when he was made aware of the nature of the conversations between Pamela and his father in law during last autumn.
"With real sadness Spenny felt he had no other choice than to start divorce proceedings last November. Spenny has told me the tapes came to him as a bolt from the blue and he certainly didn't commission their recording."
As recently as 2006, he publicly praised Lady Pamela in front of a gathering of freemasons in New York for the "advice, love and support I receive from Pamela, who shares with me a passion for the Craft as well as some of the highs and all of the lows associated with my role as Pro Grand Master of English Freemasonry".
Miss Shipwright, 62, effectively Lady Pamela's common law stepmother although only three years older, continues to live with Mr Haworth. Mr Haworth is hard of hearing and routinely makes his telephone calls with the speaker phone at full volume in order to conduct conversations. That made the calls easy to record.
Miss Shipwright, who ran Suzanne's Hair and Beauty salon in Staines in Middlesex, offering 'laser skin resurfacing' among other treatments, refused to comment last week.
Mr Haworth, a retired land agent, said: "It will all play out in court. I don't want it to play out on my doorstep."
His lawyers have accused Lord Northampton of "fishing for information" useful in the divorce case while Lady Pamela's divorce barrister, the eminent QC Bruce Blair, told a judge that she was "horrified by the disgracefully obtained information".
Lady Pamela, 59, who like the majority of Lord Northampton's wives is blonde and glamorous, is travelling abroad, while awaiting a divorce payout that will keep her in the luxury to which she has become accustomed over the past two decades.
He has employed the Queen's solicitors Farrer & Co in an attempt to preserve his estate intact for future generations. Among his assets are two stately homes - Compton Wynyates, the Compton family home since 1204, and Castle Ashby, which he hires out for weddings and other occasions.
The former England rugby captain Will Carling married there before fatefully embarking on an affair with Princess Diana. His country estates in Warwickshire, Northampton and Surrey cover 18,500 acres.
Lord Northampton also has at least one London home on an exclusive square as well as properties in Islington in north London, which includes a conference centre in a mansion which has been in the Compton family since 1599.
He is also director of the Canonbury Masonic Research Centre, of which Lady Pamela is also a director. The centre "supports the study of freemasonry and mystical and esoteric traditions".
Other family assets - including paintings and medieval manuscripts - have been sold off over the last two decades with the money said to have been ploughed back into the upkeep of the stately homes. In 1985, two years after his divorce to wife number three Rosie, he sold The Adoration of the Magi by the 15th century artist Andreas Mantegna for a then world record £8.1 million despite howls of protest on its export to the Getty Museum in California.
Lady Pamela's divorce lawyers are likely to argue that the Sevso Treasure should also be thrown into calculations of the marquess' wealth.
The treasure trove, consisting of 14 large decorated silver vessels and plates, is considered one of the greatest collections of Roman antiquities.
It is said to be locked away in a bank vault because it cannot be sold due to disputes over its provenance.
Lord Northampton bought it in the 1980s and became embroiled in a series of ownership battles and even a police investigation.
Despite being cleared of all wrongdoing and finally given full possession in 1993, Lord Northampton has been unable to find a buyer willing to take the risk of purchasing it because of fears of future legal cases.
Lord Northampton and the future Lady Pamela - she was previously married to a wealthy American financier - met through mutual friends. The couple were married in 1990. Guests at the time would have been excused wondering if it would last.
Between 1967 and 1988, the marquess cemented his reputation as a playboy by marrying four times in relatively quick succession.
His fourth wife Fritzi, a German model, was known as Lady Fourthampton while the marriage to wife number two - his former secretary Annette Smallwood - lasted about 20 months.
One report in 1976 suggested Lady Annette had taken off her shirt in a smart restaurant in London and crawled under tables to "liven things up".
His first marriage in 1967 was to Henriette Bentinck, the daughter of the former Dutch ambassador to London.
The marquess, then working for Barings bank, was just 21 and Miss Bentinck only 18.
"I was going to be an actress," she said at the time, "But he won't let me - modelling and the theatre are both out, he says. However I love him better than acting so it's all right."
The couple had two children - including an heir born in January 1973. By October 1973 the couple were divorced and by the following year he had married Annette Smallwood, who at the time was secretary of KIDS, a charity for deprived children which he had set up.
By 1977, that marriage was over and Rosie Dawson-Damer was named in the divorce petition as the other woman. Marriage number three lasted six years until 1983 when Lady Rosie moved out of Compton Wynyates.
It was claimed at the time the breakdown in relations was not helped by Lady Rosy's keenness for hunting which was not thought to be compatible with Lord Northampton's decision to abandon shooting and become a vegetarian.
"I have an affinity for Buddhism although I am not becoming a Buddhist," he said in an interview at the time. Despite sugegstions on the internet that he is Britain's wealthiest Buddhist, Lord Northampton remains an Anglican and is no longer a vegetarian.
In 1985, he married Fritzi Erhardt, the former wife of Viscount Cowdray's heir. They divorced in 1988. At the time his fourth marriage collapsed, he declared: "I have always been told I would have at least five wives." The prophecy was to come true when he married Lady Pamela at a registry office in Stratford-upon-Avon on Dec 10, 1990.
Lawyers for Lady Pamela declined to comment on the case as did legal representatives for Lord Northampton at Farrer & Co.
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