The last Echo Memories of the year signs off with a heart-warming love story about a lowly Darlington lass who took up with the Prime Minister's son, and whose daughter married into the Royal family

ONCE upon a time, in a small market town called Darlington, there lived a humble postmaster's daughter.

In fact, so humble was she and so huge was her family that as soon as she reached a decent age, her poor father, impoverished by the burden of feeding so many small mouths, sent her away to London to see if the streets were really paved with gold.

And for her, they were. But this is not just a rags to riches story; it is a tale of rags to royalty.

Her name was Dorothy Mary Clement - Mary to her friends - and she'd been born around 1715 in Durham City. Her father, Hammond Clement, had moved to Darlington to become postmaster at the old Post House which once stood in Post House Wynd.

So, in the year 1730, when she was a tender 15 years old, we find Mary far away from home, working as an apprentice milliner in Mrs Rennie's linen warehouse in Carlton House, Pall Mall. Mrs Rennie's was a highly respectable establishment where society gentlemen could procure everything they required for their fashionable wardrobe.

When Edward Walpole, the son of Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole, had finished his tour of the Continent - so striking a figure was Edward that the Italians referred to him as simply "the handsome Englishman" - he returned to London and took up residence in Pall Mall.

He would call at Mrs Rennie's warehouse and chat to the pretty young girls behind the counter. Over time, wise old Mrs Rennie noticed that he seemed to be favouring one girl in particular, more than the rest. Naturally, this girl was the prettiest of them all. She was Mary Clement.

Worried by what she was seeing, Mrs Rennie summoned Mr Clement from Darlington. She told him that his daughter was on the verge of losing her honour in the most scandalous of fashions, a scandal that could also be the downfall of none other than the son of the Prime Minister.

Mr Clement resolved on the spot to remove Mary from the "vortex of temptation" that was London.

Mary was called into Mrs Rennie's parlour where her father informed her that he was carrying her back to Darlington where, if she was lucky, she might form a more appropriate liason with a local tradesman.

Quietly, and sadly, Mary appeared to agree and left the parlour to go to her room to collect all her worldly goods in preparation for the long journey northwards. Or that's what Mr Clement and Mrs Rennie thought.

Mary had other ideas. She dashed out of the back of the warehouse without either cloak or hat, and rushed across Pall Mall to Edward's residence. His butler, who saw her flustered state, admitted her to Edward's rooms where the table was set for dinner.

In great agitation, she waited for 19-year-old Edward to return. When he did, he greeted her with a loud, joyful exclamation: "You, here?"

Whatever other words passed between them were private, but the simple truth of the matter is that Mr Clement returned to Darlington (where he died on February 3, 1733) empty-handed, and Mary sat down that night at the head of Edward's table, an exalted position that she never left.

But Prime Minister Sir Robert was not happy. He didn't mind his son dallying with such a lowly maid because that is how gentlemen entertained themselves in those days, but he could not entertain the prospect of such a miserable marriage. However much Edward pleaded, Sir Robert always threatened that if such a match were made "he would not only deprive Edward of his political interest, but he would exert it against him".

And so, out of wedlock, Mary bore Edward four children. It was an open secret that when Sir Robert died, Edward intended to make an honest woman of Mary and she would become Lady Walpole - but tragically, in 1739, shortly after the birth of her fourth child, Mary died.

Edward showed his loyalty to her by taking no other woman and devotedly bringing up the children.

The three eldest girls - Laura, Maria and Charlotte - blossomed into the most beautiful and accomplished women in the kingdom. But the base nature of their birth meant that they could never be accepted into high society.

Until, in 1758, the Honourable and Reverend Frederick Keppel, the brother of the Earl of Abemarle, fell head over heels in love with Laura and took her as his wife. It was a good match for Laura, for Frederick became the Bishop of Exeter, and she and her sisters were now able to move in higher circles.

Then Lord James Waldegrave took the plunge. There were fewer more important personages in the kingdom than he, for he was the Governor and Privy Purse to his Majesty King George III, a Knight of the Garter and a member of the Privy Council. He took a shine to Maria, the fairest of the three Clement sisters, and in 1759 he married her.

The following year, the youngest sister, Charlotte, also made an excellent match, marrying Lord Huntingtower, the heir to the Earl of Dysart's fortune.

The fortunes of Mary Clement's son, who was but a babe when she died, are not so well chronicled. His name was Edward. He joined the Army, fought bravely overseas, and rose to the rank of colonel but is believed to have died young.

But our attention returns to Maria, the Countess of Waldegrave, and the most beautiful of the Clement sisters. She bore Lord Waldegrave three children but, four years after they were married, his lordship died of smallpox.

Maria went into a long and dignified period of mourning, but emerged with her beauty intact. She caught the eye of no less than William Henry Hanover, Duke of Gloucester, the brother of King George III who was, briefly, third in line to throne.

So, on September 6, 1766, the daughter of Mary Clement, the milliner's apprentice from Darlington, married the brother of the king of England amid much pomp and ceremony.

And they did indeed live happily ever after.

Maria had three more children. Sophia Matilda was the first in 1773. Caroline Augusta Maria was the second in 1774 but didn't live to see her second birthday. And William Frederick, the second Duke of Gloucester, who was born in 1776 in Tedoli Palace in Rome and who, on July 22, 1816, in the Private Chapel in Buckingham Palace, married his cousin Princess Mary, the 11th child of George III.

Maria herself died on August 22, 1807, aged 71. The granddaughter of the Darlington postmaster was buried in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle - the last resting place of all members of the British Royal family where, this year, she was joined by the Queen Mother.