Constance Marten family: who is father Napier Marten, where is childhood Dorset home Crichel House?

After missing aristocrat Constance Marten and her sex offender boyfriend Mark Gordon were found in Brighton, a massive search has been launched for a two-month-old infant.

Since the baby was born in early January, the couple has been moving around the country paying for everything in cash and hiding their faces when on CCTV. After receiving a tip from a member of the public, Sussex Police officers finally found them on Monday (27 February) night around 9.30pm in Stanmer Villas, Brighton. However, the baby was not present, and there is no information on the health or status of the infant.

Marten hails from an affluent aristocratic family, and grew up in Crichel House, a Dorset estate, as part of an eminent family with links to the royals. But what exactly are her links to the royal family, and who is her father, Napier Marten? Here is everything you need to know.

Who is her father Napier Marten?

Constance’s father Napier Marten reportedly served as the late Queen’s page in the past, and his other connections to the royals are numerous. As a child Princess Margaret used to play with his mother, Mary Anna Marten, a British Museum trustee whose godmother was the late Queen Mother.

As a prominent archaeologist, she received an OBE in 1980, and nine years later, was named High Sheriff of Dorset. Toby Marten, her husband and Napier's father, was a lieutenant commander in the Royal Navy with further close links to the royals.

Mary and Toby eventually had six children including Napier; five daughters and one son. Napier became heir to the family's £115 million fortune, and attended Eton for his education.

As reported by the Evening Standard, Napier Marten currently lists his occupation on LinkedIn as founder and trustee of the Mirthquake Foundation, an organisation that provides grants to charities, organisations and people involved with the culture and welfare of cetaceans.

His interest in the ocean creatures reportedly began as part of an extraordinary “midlife awakening,” which involved a whale encounter that reportedly made him cry “almost nonstop” for seven days.

During this time, he left his small children at home (Constance was just nine-years-old at the time) and adopted a life of whale-watching, spiritual exploration and tree surgery in Australia after allegedly hearing a voice in his head instruct him to do so.

Napier recounted several life-changing incidents from the journey to Josephine Sellers, a psychotherapist who resides on the Crichel estate and whom he believes he first met four centuries ago in a previous life.

Speaking as part of an interview with Sellars, posted on a new-age YouTube channel called Awakening TV but since deleted, Napier said: “The next thing I know, I’m flying out into the ocean into the dark waters and swimming with the whales.

“I’m being pulled along by them and there is this conversation going on... It was a complete clearing out, a transmission of energy. These days of expansion unfortunately can’t be repeated, but when one’s in it, it is the most exciting part of your life.”

His spiritual journey left him feeling that everything in his life materially “was a completely empty shell”, and he eventually made it back to the UK - but not to his old life - reportedly living in a lorry and working as a chef. He passed his estate - which included the historic Crichel House which had been in the family for 400 years - on to his eldest son Max.

Where is Crichel House?

Constance Marten was raised in Crichel House, part of an 18th-century Georgian estate near the Dorset village of Moor Crichel in the county’s north-east.

A historian once referred to the estate’s 5,000 acres of parkland as “so immensely enlarged that it has the appearance of a mansion of a prince, more than that of a country gentleman”, and it encompasses some 50 cottages, four villages, a cricket club, and an ornamental lake.

Richard Chilton, a billionaire American hedge fund manager, purchased the home and 400 acres of its land from Max in 2013 for an estimated £34 million. The remaining assets were divided among Max Napier’s five sisters, and other heirs to the family fortune.

What has her mother said?

Earlier this month, Constance Marten’s mother Virginie de Selliers pledged to stand by her daughter and her grandchild in an emotional open letter, saying “You are not alone in this situation. We will support you in whatever way we can.”

In the first public statements made about her daughter’s disappearance, de Selliers said: “I know you well enough; you are focused, intelligent, passionate and complex with so much to offer the world. So many of your friends have come forward to say such positive things about you, assuring us of their warmest love and support for you and your family.”

Virginie and Napier Marten are thought to have separated, with Virginie remarrying and Napier relocating to a house in Teffont Magna, not far from the Crichel estate.

“You have made choices in your personal adult life which have proven to be challenging, however I respect them, I know that you want to keep your precious new-born child at all costs,” she added in her letter. “With all that you have gone through this baby cannot be removed from you but instead needs looking after in a kind and warm environment.

“I want to help you and my grandchild. You deserve the opportunity to build a new life, establish a stable family and enjoy the same freedoms that most of us have.”