A MATRIMONIAL MAZE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 38, 13 February 1904, Page 5 (Supplement)

A MATRIMONIAL MAZE.

■PECULIAR BIGAMY. CASE. LONDON, January 8. If yonr father became your father-in* law, your mother-in-law your step-mother, your wife your step-sister, and two otter men bad married your wife, what wou'd you do? Personally I think I should take a trip to a land af-ar off and leave the problem of my domestic relationships to be solved by someone else. William Gamble Rediiead, a Stepney tobacconist, has through the machinations of the King's Proctor discovered himself to be in the domestic tangle recited, and his wife (if she is his wife) is being procceaed against for bigamy. 'i>ne evidence in the case is very remarkable. It appears that in 1597 Redhead proceeded against hi 3 wife for divorce, citing one Henry Foster, as co-respondent. He got his decree nisi, 1 and imagined that this ended his connection with his faithless spouse. She also Imagined ttiat she was free again and married Foster in iher maiden name of Martin. Till May, IDOO. the couple lived together at Custom House, und then Foster went to South Africa. When he returned he found his '•wife , ' had been occupying her grasswidowhood in the capacity of housekeeper , , to a farmer named Barrett at Sedge Ftn, in Suffolk She had by this time discovered that as the decree nisi in the Redhead divorce had not been made absolute until after her marriage with Foster, that cere--mony was illegal. This aspect of the case was presented to Foster, who agreed to treat his marriage to Mrs Redhead as void. Later, (however. Che lady tola him that Redhead was dead, so he suggested a sec- • ond appearance with her at the altar. By r this time, however, she and Barrett hud decided that they would make an ideal- ■ couple, so Foster was given his conge and Barrett tooK Mrs Redhead to wife. Meanwhile, Redhead, wiho was very much alive, had discovered that his decree nisi was not an entire quittance of his matrimonial debt and had applied to have it made absolute. The Queen's Proctor, howeier, intervene* with the result that the decree already made was quashed, and Mrs Redhead was not even "half divorced from her husband. Prior to this Mrs Redhead's mother, be* lieving Redhead dead, had married Mr Redhead, sen., so when Redhead, jun., re-ap-peared in his family circle he found the complications aforementioned. In order te ■ discover how far he is "involved" with Mn Redhead, Foster (has now instituted proceedings for bigamy against her, and thm woman has been committed for trial. It is hinted that during his supposed freedom Redhead also "married" again, and'if thla is so the unfortunate jury "who try th* case will have the pros aad cons of seven different attempts at matrinwDE to co»* giderj