A TEETOTAL RAINBOW

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue 7366, 18 January 1902, Page 3 (Supplement)

A TEETOTAL RAINBOW

A WIDOW'S QUEER DELUSION.

The testamentary dispositions of the late Mrs Catherine Worsley, sometime ' of "Mizpah," Am Anaub, Mount Lebanon, Syria, who died at the age of 80, in February, 1899,' leaving property worth about £40,000, hu\c been the subject of Probate Court enquiry during the past week.As usual, the parties objecting to Mrs Worsley 's will alleged that sne was not quite right in her head when she v/iiJed away her property to strangers in blood, and the other side maintained she was. Certainly there wort* very reasonable grounds for dour ting the lady's sanity during her later years at any rate.

The history of the case is interesting. Mrs Worsley had for a great many years suffered tortures from neuralgia, which she described as her "octopus." Thinking that a warmer climate would suit her compaint, she and her husband, -an ex-army, chaplain, determined to go to S3*ria. They took with them Richard Webb, who f- r many years had acted as coachman to Mrs Worsley, and finally settled down at Am Anaub, Mount Lebanon, and took the house "Mizpah." The testatrix, who took a great interest in religious teaching in schools, found that in the schools t!i ere children were taught Christian principles, but were not baptised. She therefore started a school where the children should be baptised, and was assisted by Webb, who became a proficient Arabic scholar. Differences arose between Mr Webb and Mrs Worsley, and he moved to Jaffa, where he started the business of a driver, driving visitors from Jaffa to Jerusalem. Unfortunately, on on< of his journeys he "fell amongst thieves," who stripped him of everything he had,. and left him half dead. He was found by a good Samaritan, carried to Jerusalem, anci after a time Mrs. Worsley, holding that God Almighty had punished him, again took him into her service. Subsequently Webb came to this country

for the purpose of raising funds for the advancement of Christianity in Syria. Eventually he returned to Syria, and was employed at some waterworks at Jieyrout, Mrs Worsley corresponding* with. him. In June, 1b97, she made a will in Arabic, leaving Mr Webb the "'legal" overseer" of tne landed property. By the will now in question he was maue residuary legatee. She left her settled property for the home to Mr Vincent, as trustee, to receive the income and to forward it to Webb, ■whom she appointed manager of the home. The unsettled property, amounting to about A.500U, was left to some of her relations.

Mr Inderwick; who opposed the will, showed that though in certain matters Mrs Worsley was quite capable of managing her affairs, she had certainly some first-class delusions about Webb. From her correspondence she appeared to have been under the impression that there was some "spiritual contact" Detweenher and Webb. She thought Webb had been appointed by Providence to look after the interests of the natives on Mount Lebanon; that there was a covenant; and • that a rainbow was seen, under which she and Webb travelled; that she had been seen on one side of the rainbow and Webb on the other, and that sometimes they were side by side in the middle of the rainbow. She believed that they were bound together by a spiritual and religious bond, and she could not. do anything without him.

Counsel read a letter, written by Mrs Worsley, in which she described a marvellous rainbow, which descended over the trap in which she was driving, and travelled with it for over half a mile. At last the trap came to a public house. She looked to see if the rainbow would pass over it; but the rainbow went up a lane benind the public house. Mrs Worsley looked upon the rainbow as a sign of God's special protection over her, and regarded it as the bond between*herself and Webb. *

The case was eventually settled out of court on terms not disclosed.