Habgood versus Habgood in Chancery

This is the true story of a series of catastrophes which befell the Habgoods of London and Latton between 1800 and 1890, including the acquisition of a large fortune by a London businessman, his suicide in 1803, the inheritance of the fortune by three orphan children, seduction, bankruptcy, imprisonment, bigamy, polygamy, ownership of a factory producing drugs, elopement with an heiress, more imprisonment, strong indications of murder, authorship of a book now considered to be of historic importance, the acquisition of another fortune, the purchase of a private bank, election to Parliament, an article in The Times accusing the MP of owning a brothel, the insolvency of the bank, riots in the streets, a possible suicide, eviction from a manor house, more bankruptcy, more bigamy, and finally death in a workhouse.  Much of the villainy was perpetrated by George Muskett, MP for St Albans, and also by William Milburn, a trader with the East India Company, who wrote a book about the countries of the east.