CRIME AND MYSTERY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 85, 11 April 1925, Page 19

CRIME AND MYSTERY.

(By ARTHUR S. MAY.)

REAL MARRIAGE DRAMA

The Orphan Heiress—The Young Harrovian—Husband 52, Wife 18 —Criminal Proceedings At the Old Bailey Undue Influence —Rapacity nnd Fraud—Cake and Wine The Wedding Day—Regrets Come Late—A Warning to Girls.

Although consent does not make marriage, there can be no marriage without it. Consent must be real, the mere appearance of it is insufficient; but the story I am about to relate—concerning a girl who was too easily presuaded to marry a man she did not care for and afterwards, though she had ample resources and the strongest support of those in authority, was bound to her bargain—will show how hard it is to prove that consent was forced.

Most people -would have though Esther Field a lucky girl to have over £ 1000 a year. She was thirteen when her father died, and her brother was younger; an elder sister had died. John Brown, farmer, brewer, and proprietor of the Harcourt Arms at Pendley, near Tring, Herts, who had been engaged to the sister, was one of the executors, and although he was not their guardian, strictly speaking, he took charge of the children and saw to theis education. In the Schoolgirl Stage. Their father had been of about the same social standing as John Brown, but had made a considerable amount of money, so the boy went to Harrow, while the girl was sent to a school in Kensington and after that to Penzance. In the holidays they used to return to the house in which Brown and his wife lived at Tring, and they looked upon it as their home. In April, 1847, Esther came back there, preparatory to going to France to finish her education. At that time a suit had been instituted in Chancery for the administration of the will and the appointment of a formal guardian, and so she was technically a Ward of Court, which meant that the Court exercised control over her person and property until she became of age. Samuel, twin brother to John Brown, was living with him. Formerly he had been a butler in Wimpole Street, but now lie looked after the inn and occasionally did a deal in horses. On June 19, at Trinity Church, Marylebone, Esther was married to Samuel Brown. She was juat turned IS and he was 52. The marriage was by banns, the residence of both the parties appeared as Wimpole Street in the register, and Esther was etatcrl to be of full age. Enter the Vice-Chancellor. Five days afterwards she went to Hemel Hempstcad on a visit to the family of a solicitor named Smith, who had acted for her father and still acted for the executors. She was walking in the garden with bis son Montague, when he eald something of an affectionate nature which compelled her to tell him she was married already. Ho at once went to his father, who drew the story out of- her." She protested she had been intimidated into her marriage With Samuel and would never live with him. Mr. Smith placed the matter before the Vlce-Chancellor, who promptly committed Samuel to the Queen's Prison for the contempt, and directed that criminal proceedings should be instituted for falsification of the register. "I will not cay of this case," observed the Vice-Chancellor, "that it is the most disgraceful of the class which has ever come under my observation, but I have certainly never Been a case which in its results may be more deplorable as regards the principal party concerned, npr one in which it would be more difficult to find a single extenuating circumstance In the conduct of the male actor in the unhappy transaction." He expressed a strong hope that steps would be taken to annul the marriage and restore her property to the unfortunate victim. In due course the prisoner was brought up at the Old Bailey to stand his trial there. The Importance attached to the case was indicated by the attendance of the Attorney-General to conduct the prosecution, and the court was informed that the proceedings were taken by the authority of the Vice-Chancellor, and were preliminary to action elsewhere to set the marriage aside. It was the first instance of a prosecution for causing false particulars to be Inserted in a marriage register. Samuel pleaded not guilty, hut, of course, he was convicted, and after a remand to Newgate he was eventually sentenced to ali months in the House of Correction, Coldbath Fields. Appeal to Parliament. It was intended that Esther should have the privilege of a special Act of (Parliament declaring the marriage void, and a bill for that purpose was read a first .time in the middle of the following year. The procedure in euch cases very much resemtueu what takes place in an ordinary trial. Sir Fitzroy Kelly appeared for the Petitioner, Esther Field. He asserted that her marriage would have been annulled in Doctors' Commons on the ground of undue Influence if .the rules of evidence had allowed of her being called aa a witness there; ub they did not, It was necessary to come to Parliament for relief. He drew a picture of the position of the Parties: "Here she is at one side of the bar, an orphan, helpless, unprotected, and nnhappy, a young lady yet, innocent ana nndeflled, with her affections previously bestowed upon another; he stands at the other side of the bar, old enough to 'be her grandfather, who Ms persecuted and oppressed her, and availed himself of the opportunities of a guardian to gratify his base desire to possess her fortune. Is a •nan like that to be permitted to compel cohabitation, enjoy her fortune, and reap the reward of his rapacity and fraud?" Laughed at Proposal. Bather and her witnesses were then called before the assembled peers, and this Iβ the story they told: She looked on Samuel practically In the light of a guardian, and when he suddenly sprang a proposal of marriage upon her just before the Epsom races, in May, 1847, she laughed and told him she could not think of such a thing, for he was old enough to be her grandfather. He grew angry and threatened to do harm to hmieelf, or that he would shoot himself. He brightened her, so that she consented to Oarry him. Four days later she told him she was very unhappy, and did not like him; he Was too old a man, and she could not keep »er promise. & c charged her with being lond of Montague Smith, and, when she dW not deny it, he threatened what he would <lo to him. A day or so after that he said. He had intended to shoot himself the pre»lom night, and showed her the letter he. tad written for his brother to read after Bβ wm dead. He worried and alarmed her «11 «he jave way. ».!J c ? r i - lest he ehonla «aoot iaimeell tended to my consent," she eald. "I beH*red be WOTle do tarm to Montirne

Smith; I do not think I should have promised if I had not believed that." He told her .the marriage would take place the following morning by licence at St. <3eorge"s, Hanover Square. A Queer Wedding Day. The night before the wedding she slept very little. It .had been given out that Samuel was going to drive her to Chardelowes to see the gardens. She came down early and had breakfast with him, at leasi such breakfast as she had, and then went upstairs and saw John and his wile in their bedroom. 'Samuel brought the gig round and they drove to the railway station. On the way she told him again she could not marry him, aud he said, "Nonsense, nonsense. . They reached London, and went to the house where the church clerk lived, stayed a few minutes, and then proceeded with the clerk's wife in a cab to Trinity Church and were married. She repectea the usual words alter the minister: "I certainly gave my consent, though it was unwillingly given." After signing the registers they returned to the clerk's house for cake and wine, visited two or three shops, and then carried through ,the advertised programme by goins to Chardelowes. They got home about six o'clock, and John's wife was wondering why they were so late. Samuel said calmly, "We enjoyed the beautiful daj walking about the gardens." Excited and Bewildered. Things went on as if nothing had happened. She was accustomed to share her room with a child of seven, and she continued to do so. She was excited, bewildered, unhapny, and when the opportunity offered c" getting away from the house and going to Mr. Smith's she was glad to take it. When she was there her nerves were in snch a condition that a doctor had to attend her. But the clergyman, the clerk, and tv« clerk's wife put a different complexion on the matter. So far as they could see she was not agitated at all or even nervous when she came to be married. One of them said that she walked about the churcn with Samuel looking at the monuments and that they ate nearly all the luncheon She had had the entry in the registers read t» her In the vestry before she was asked to sign it, and never led the clergyman to think there was anything - wrong. She ought to have noticed it was not St. George's and that the statements as to her age and the place (where she resided were both false. One cannot help thinking that the ViceChancellor had been influenced by the fact that the man was a butler, and also by his age. The marriage was not suitable for au heiress of superior education. But .there was nothing to prevent her telling John and his wife she was being pestered by Samuel to marry him. 'She said ehe promised him not to, but if project was so distasteful to her no promise would have kept her silent. When she eald "Good-bye" to them in their bedroom on the fatal morning nothing could have prevented her fro».» breaking down. Had it been a real melodrama ehe could never have played her part In It with each consummate composure. She must have been attracted by him ai well as repelled, not displeased, by tne thought of an elopement, and only disillusioned when she walked In another garden with another lover. No one ever suggested that she was weak-minded. Release—On Terms. The House bad been in her favour at the start, but after hearing these witnesses they did not desire to hear the other side. It would require evidence of overpowering strength to make the contract void, anu they were of opinion that her consent had not been so far influenced by fear or the continuance of any persecution as to justify the interference of an Act of 'Parliament. The newspapers of the following day said this meant the handing over of Miss Field to her husband when he cmne out of prison. They reckoned without the Vice* Chancellor. It was a set-back for him, hut he still had hold of Brown. The ex-butler Was not released until he had executed a settlement which deprived him of any direct benefit from the marriage, and had also undertaken to abstain from holding any intercourse whatsoever with his lawful Wife. In May 2558 ithe Vice-Chancellor eald did not consider he was Justified in holdlm* him to the undertaking any longer, but iv ' November Esther made her will, and. in December she died. Her fate is a warning that any girl who goes through the marriage ceremony without complaint or apparent reluctance, will find it impossible to free herself again unless she is able to prove that her mind was so paralysed that it only gave expression to the will of the man.