Moment actress Diane Morgan discovers shocking family secret about her four times great -grandmother – and jokes ‘I don’t know if I should be ashamed or proud’

Diane Morgan was left stunned after she discovered that her four times great -grandmother had five ‘illegitimate’ children with four different fathers.

The actress, from Bolton, appears in tonight’s episode of the BBC show Who do you think you are For more information about her ambiguous family history.

The 49-year-old described interest in her pedigree, but said that she was never good in compiling information on her computer.

During the show she said she wanted to learn more about her Scottish heritage after she discovered that part of her family is coming from a small village outside of Dumfries.

Diane met the Genealogue Emma Maxwell in a library in the Scottish city who told her that her large, great, great -grandmother Isabella Hope had given birth to five illegal children against the age of 30 – a term used to describe babies born out of marriage – of four different fathers.

She took Robert Robson, John McMurdo, James Ferguson and George Rome to the court in the 1840s for the non -financial support of their children and eventually won all her alimony money.

It was not uncommon for women to have illegal children in the Scotland countryside today, but few took their right to bring fathers to court to get their maintenance comforts back.

“She must have been pretty sure to continue with it,” Diane said about her large, great, great, great -grandmother.

“Other women the moment I can see them are put off by going to court and also its shame.”

When he found out that Isabella had a third child out of marriage and had successfully won her money for the third time, Diane added: ‘This starts to look like a career for her. I can’t believe this. ‘

Emma said, “This is a small village outside of Dumfries, everyone would know each other.”

Isabella – which was described as an ‘incorrect character’ in judicial documents – then had her two twins belonging to a fourth father, George Rome.

When Diane got the paperwork, she said: ‘Oh no! Dirty bugger. I don’t know what to really make of her. I don’t know if I should be ashamed or proud. ‘

Emma added: ‘She certainly tried to ensure that her children were cared for. And she was not intimidated either.

“These records really reveal an aspect of the history of women in Scotland, which is really fascinating and it was perhaps unexpected that women had this ability to do this, to go to court and to chase the father of their children.”

Isabella gave birth to Adam Robson, Elizabeth McMurdo, Jemima Ferguson and two non -ignored male twins.

Diane, thinking about a church that Isabella would probably have visited with her family, said: ‘I thought you would tell me that I was a family of Robert de Bruce or Robbie Burns, one of the Roberts. Instead, my great, great, great, great -grandmother is a bit of a Hussy.

‘But let’s give her the benefit of the doubt, she just couldn’t find the right man and there was not much to do here. She got some security for her children, I suppose not many women from that time would have done, right? Good for her. ‘

Meeting the curator Judith Hewitt of the local museum on St. Michael’s Graveyard, where she was told more about what the short life of Isabella was.

After the birth of five children, she then worked in the city as a servant to bring a wage while her mother took care of her children.

This job often concerned that she made frequent trips to the river to get water, causing the risk of catching bacteria such as cholera, because it was the same electricity where the city was dumped.

Dumfries had experienced disastrous effects of cholera in 1832 after the disease had demanded more than 400 lives.

The city then experienced a new outbreak 1848, six years prior to doctors who discovered that it was a bacterial disease spread by contaminated water. The locals blamed loose morality and the weather, because doctors were not sure where Cholera came from.

Isabella died at the age of 30 in the disease in December 1848 and left her five children.

She was buried in the cemetery of St. Michael and although there is a tombstone to mark those who died of the 1832 outbreak, there is no clear grave for those who died at the Gulf of 1848.

Judith said, “We know they bury dozens of people a day, but there is no memorial stone for that outbreak.”

Diane added: ‘I want to go outside and get a stone and set up. Not just for her, all for them all because I think they should have something. ‘

She was then curious to know if Isabella would be buried in a coffin, on which Judith said: ‘If people could not afford coffins, they might be buried in a Mortcloth, a piece of material that the parish owned. You would be placed in the grave wrapped in something that would be picked up later.

“Given her status and her finances, it is very likely that she would have had the funeral of that poor person.”

Before she left the cemetery, where her large, large, great great -grandmother was buried, Diane met the local photographer Graham Robertson, who told her that he was working on a project to remember those who died during the Cholera epidemic of 1948.

He plans to install a copper plate that is engraved with all the names of those who died in the church.

Diane said that she would ‘certainly’ make a new trip to Dumfries to visit the memorial plate if it is completed the following year.

‘Well, I thought I would leave here, really sad that my great, great, great, great -grandmother Isabella has no tombstone. But to see that what Graham has made, it is beautiful. It has given me peace that her name is there and that people will see it.

‘It is sad that she has had such a short life. But she packed a lot. ‘