She retired and married an older landowner, Temple West, in 1831. When he died in 1839 she moved in from the provinces and took a house at 29 Half Moon Street in London.[1]
She married Sir William Molesworth, 8th Baronet after a one-month engagement on 9 July 1844. His family were not keen given her lack of background and that she was maybe too old to deliver an heir.[1] Sir William had enjoyed the support of Harriet Grote and her husband,[2] but Harriet broke with him over his marriage.[1] An ambitious and scheming character in Dickens' Bleak House was said to be based on Molesworth.[3] She became known as a hostess inviting notable people to stay at Pencarrow House in Cornwall including Charles Dickens, Sir Arthur Sullivan and Emperor Napoleon III.[4]
George Byng, 7th Viscount Torrington was her companion after she became a widow. When she died she left her fortune to Byng's nephew and heir, as she was estranged from her dead husband's family.[1] However she still remembered her last husband and in 1869 she had the Molesworth Mausoleum constructed at Kensal Green Cemetery.[4]
Molesworth continued to be a society hostess for thirty years until she died in Eaton Place on 16 May 1888.[1]
