"MRS. GORDON BAILLIE."

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9030, 17 April 1888, Page 5

"MRS. GORDON BAILLIE."

"REMARKABLE DISCLOSURES. AN AUDACIOUS ADVENTURESS. EXTRAORDINARY CAREER OF * CRIME, BIGAMY AND FRAUD, [FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.] London, March 9. The great sensation of the hour is the revelations which have been made concerning the life and doings of tho lady who has been so prominent in London society during the past four years under the style of Mrs. Gordon Baillio, the Crofters' Friend. This lady will of course be remembered in New Zealand, seeing that she visited that country only so recently as last year, and, according to what wo hear, conducted herself there in very much the same fashion as she did in this country—that is, pushing herself into prominence in every pos ible way, imposing on many by a display of wealth and her undoubted mental and personal attractions, and exciting the suspicions of the incredulous few. Her object in going out to the colonies was ostensibly to secure land on which to make a settlement of Scotch crofters. In Victoria and Tasmania she seems to have worked upon the susceptible feelings of Mr. J. L. Dow, the Victorian Minister of Lands, and Bishop Sandford of Tasmania, whilo in New Zealand, on the other hand, Sir Julius Vogel seems to have regarded her with some degree of suspicion, and to have hardened his heart against her fascinations. Accordingly, when she returned home, in an account of an interview with her, reported by tho Pall Mall Gazette, on January 9, she declared that Victoria and Tasmania were the only two places in Australasia suitable for the emigration of crofters, and pronounced strongly against New Zealand and Sir Julius Vogel. She had visited some land offered her by the late Mr, Macandrew, of Dunedin, but had found it utterly unsuitable for herjpurposes, and was, moreover, resolved to have nothing to do with a colony ruled over by so unsympathetic a person as the gentleman who then held the post of Premier. When sho had got back to this country, Mrs. Gordon Baillio continued her interest in the affairs of the crofters. She gave out, and the statement was confirmed by paragraphs which appeared in tho files of the Melbourne journals, that sho had socured a grant of something like 75,000 acres of land in Gippsland, on which she meant to make a crofter settlement. She obtained access to Lord Lothian, the Secretary of State for Scotland, and had several interviews with him, in the course of which she made an urgent appeal to him for State aid to assist the crofters to emigrate. She was not successful in this, for Lord Lothian had no power to pledge the Government, and distinctly informed her that he knew it would be hopeless to approach Mr Goschen, the Chancellor of tho Exchequer, on the subject. Shortly afterwards Mrs. GordonBaillie went to Edinburgh, whore she interested herself actively in the cases of the crofters who had been imprisoned for the riots at Aignish and Clashmore, in the Island of Lewes, and obtained permission from the Lord Provost to visit in prison two female crofters who had been sent to gaol for their share in the disturbances. She also visited Professor Blackie, of Edinburgh, and captivated that staid and judicious man almost as completely as she did Mr. Dow or Bishop Sandford. To this hour the Professor maintains that he has never known a woman who talked more sense. Her manners were faultless, and her bearing that of a lady. Such an extraordinary combination of head and heart and nand he had never met with, and he verily believes that "she would have deceived the devil himself." One cannot help pausing hero to ask whether it be a compliment or otherwise to His Satanic Majesty to represent him as being in no way the superior of a Scotch professor in general astuteness, knowledge, of the world, and insight into character. Mrs. Gordon Baillie spent some days in Edinburgh, moving in good society, and seeking to interest influential local persons in the Crofter question, and then for some reason which has not transpired she left the city very hurriedly. She appears to have been anxious to get away alone and unnoticed, but a lady whose acquaintance she had made in Edinburgh accompanied her to the railway station, and observed with some surprise that despite her boasted wealth, she travelled third-class, a thing which ladies who have estates in the Highlands and are possessed of large resources do not usually do. Mrs. Gordon Baillie appeal's to have remarked her friend's surprise, and explained that she was only travelling third-class as far as one of the intermediate stations, where she would change into a first-class compartment. After she had quitted the city, from somo reason or other, suspicion as to her began to be aroused. The Edinburgh Evening Dispatch decided to commence an investigation into her antecedents, and entrusted this work to Inspector McEwan and Detective William Frew. The dry matter-of-fact report of these gentlemen reads far more startling than many a romance. The lady styling herself Mrs. Gordon Baillie, tho Crofters' friend, is, say the detectives, the daughter of a Dundeo washerwoman, and her real name is Mary Ann Bruce Sutherland. Prior to the year 1860, she was an evening teacher in the model lodging-houso of Dundee. In that year, however, she left Dundee, went to London, and>eibsequently on to the Continent. In 1872 sho was in Rome, under the name of Miss Bruce Sutherland. She drove about Rome in an open cab, accompanied by a boy of about ten or twelve years of ajre, whom she represented as her brother, but who is believed to have been her son, and a page in buttons. While in Rome she made the acquaintance of the Rev. Alexander Williamson, now of West St. Giles, Edinburgh, but then of Broughty-Ferry, near Dundeo. He wag on a visit to that city. Mr. Williamson describes her as being at the time "a good-looking lady, in fact, rather a fascinating lady." To him she represented herself as naving come to Rome to establish a seminary for young ladies, in which they were to be taught English and Protestant Christianity. Her scheme, she said, was under the patronage of Lord Shaftesbury and other eminent philanthropists. Mr. Williamson says that she lived in a fine villa in Rome, and moved in the best English society there. But unpleasant reports began to get about concerning her. She soems to have been in the habit of driving up to shops, making purchases, and then suddenly remembering that she had forgotton her purse, would request the loan of ten, fifteen, or twenty francs. After remaining in Rome three or four months her position became uncomfortable through the shopkeepers clamouring for their debts. One man, a butcher, went to see her, and threatened to "do" for her if she did not pay him. Thits threat alarmed her so she gave him his money and got rid of him. Then she suddenly left Rome, leaving tho unfortunate page behind her. The lad wus in a pitiable plight, being ignorant of the language, and amongst strangers. His case, however, attracted the attention of some Scotch and English gentlemen, who raised a subscription and sent him home. From Rome Miss Bruce Sutherland proceeded to Florence, where she pursued similar ttictics to those practised at Rome. Amongst other things she obtained a loan of several hundred francs from a banker, who seems, however, to have been half conscious that he was being imposed upon. Leaving Florence, she next turned up at Paris, where she negotiated a loan on a bank, through tho name of a leading English physician. Towards the end of 1872 she was back again in Dundee, She hired a house, and commenced to run up bills on the tradespeople. Her plan of operations was similar to that adopted in Rome and Florence. She hired a stylish-looking pony and trap, drove round to the shops, ordered goods, and then stated that she had forgotten her purse. In Dundee, however, she came to grief. She was prosecuted on numerous charges of fraud, found guilty, and sentenced to nine months' imprisonment. While in prison her photograph was taken, and is said to be still recognisable as that of Mrs. Gordon Baillie. While in Dundee, before her imprisonment, she had interested several prominent citizens in a scheme for establishing schools in Switzerland, and had also identified herself with the temperance movement.

After her discharge from gaol, in September, 1873/ Miss Bruce Sutherland

disappeared, or at all events no trace of her can be found until 1876. In this year she is found in Scotland, and is said to have victimised a number of tradespeople in Edinburgh, one jeweller alone suffering to the extent, it is alleged, of nearly £200. At this time she dropped the name of Bruce Sutherland, and assumed that of Miss Annie Ogilvie Bruce. While in Edinburgh she made the acquaintance of a gentleman connected with the Press, who gave her an introduction to a journalistic friend in London. In 1878 she is found in the metropolis, and she appears to have extended her acquaintance amongst the Press so successfully that a long notice appeared of her in the Theatre of August, 1878. The London journalist to whom she had been introduced by the Edinburgh newspaper man took her to his house, whore she became acquainted with his wife, and allowed her to visit his house and to become a friend of his wife. The opportunities thus afforded were not misused. Miss Ogilvie Bruce used the name of this journalist to obtain credit amongst the tradespeople of the locality in which he lived. She took a furnished house in St. James's Terrace, Regent's Park. Here she lived for three or four months, and when creditors became pressing she disappeared. The London journalist in question had been completely misled by her, and was as much astonished as anyone else when sho again performed the role of the vanishing lady. In 1877 a report appeared in the Times of a magisterial inquiry into a number of charges against a Miss Kate Miller, who was accused of having, together with a Miss or Mrs. Bruce, not in custody, defrauded trades-people of goods to the amount of soveral hundred pounds. During the course of the investigation it transpired that some of the creditors had represented their difficulties to a gentlemen who was known to have been connected with Miss Bruce, and he informed them that, inasmuch as he had parted with something like £5000 to that lady in one year, he did not see his way to making any further pecuniary advances on her behalf. It was also stated that Miss Bruce had represented herself as the daughter of an Earl—a character in which she seems to have posed in Australia, and had declared that she was about to be married. A certificate of marriage was produced, showing that at the Registrar's Office, Marylebone, on November 1, one Annie Ogilvie Bruce was married to Thomas White, one of the witnesses to the ceremony being Kate Miller, the woman then in custody. This White, or Whytc, was proved to be a professional gentleman who appeared on tho stage under the name of Knight Aston. At the present moment there is a man named Frost —Robert Percy Bromby Frost, said to be a nephew of the late Bishop Broniby, of Tasmania—who claims to be Mrs. Gordon Baillie's husband, and somo of the newspapers are inclined to think that Mr. Frost and Mr. Knight Aston are identical personages. Bub this can hardly be so, because she has frequently been seen in London in company with a man named Frost at the time when we know, from the files of the Australian newspapers, that Mr. Knight Aston was singing in the colony. The probability, therefore, seems to be that Mr. Knight Aston is one of her husbands and Mr. 11. P. B. Frost another. This latter gentleman was at one time engaged on the staff of the Pall Mall Gazette, and this circumstance perhaps accounts for her having, while in Edinburgh, told the treasurer of the Crofters' Defence and Relief Fund that her husband was partproprietor of the organ of social sensationalism.

From 1577 she appears to have been lost sight of until 18S3 or 1884, when she is known to have been in London, and was industriously perusing the files of the Australian papers, avowedly to obtain information concerning the doings and whereabouts of Mr. Knight Aston, whom she represented as having deserted her. It was then for the first time, as far as we are aware, that she began to figure as Mrs. Gordon Baillie. Her account of herself then was that she was the owner of an estate in the Highlands of the value of about £800 a-year, that she was the only child of her parents, who were dead ; that she had made something of a misalliance with Mr. Knight Aston, with whom she fell in love and eloped with at the age of eighteen. Her property, she stated, was in the hands of trustees, who allowed her the interest for the maintenance of herself and her children of whom she had three, all girls. She expressed herself desirous of going on the stage, but said that her flinty-hearted trustees would not hear of it, and threatened if she took such a step, to Btop her allowance and undertake the education and maintenance of her children themselves. She was very fond of distributing portraits of herself—cabinet sizo and taken by a Bond-street artist— amongst her friends. This was rather a daring thing to do, because, after her previous adventures in the neighbourhood of Regent's Park, one would have thought she would have been fearful of being recognised. At this time there was no mention of the crofters ; but towards the end of ISB4 that question began to attract attention, and Mrs. Gordon Baillie then blossomed out into the crofters' friend. A three-quarter length sketch of her in Tarn o' Shanter hat and tartan plaid appeared in the windows of a Bond-street photographer, with the words underneath " Mrs. Gordon Baillie, Skye, 1854." This sketch, however, was not very much like her; but the cabinet one, tin which she was taken in a gorgeous evening dress, is a very correct likeness. In November of 1884 she went down to Skye, and aroused the enthusiasm of tho crofter population by presenting John Macpherson, who, on account of having got into trouble with the police was called the " Glendale Martyr," with her grandfather's sword. In a letter accompanying tin's antiquarian relic she informed Macpherson that the ancestral instrument of slaughter was to be used "for defence, not defiance—in defence of home and family." The spectacle of the doughty Macpherson standing in front of his humble home brandishing aloft Mrs. GordonBaillie's grandfather's eword, and bidding the haughty myrmidons of territorial despotism to do their worst, is one upon which the imagination would like to dwell. In her tour in Skye she was accompanied by Mr. R. P. B. Frost, who is described as of the English Land Restoration League, Duke-strect, Adelphi, London. Mr. Frost at this time was a bitter opponent of emigration, but probably his wife converted him.

From thie time onwards Mrs. Gordon Baillie posed very much before the public as the Crofters' Friend. She continued to live in London, and had, I believe, an address in Brook-street. She also gave out that an uncle had diod and left her a small estate in Staffordshire, at Barton-under-Needwood, not far from Burton-on-Trent. Many of her journalistic acquaintances were pressed to go down and stay there for a few days, but whether any of them accepted the invitation Ido not know. She must then have had a plentiful supply of ready money, bocause sho spent over £300 over the freehold of the house, purchased a horse for £95, and acted the Lady Bountiful towards the children and poor of the parish and neighbourhood in a way that completely deceived tho resident gentry. At this time Frost was living with her as her cousin.

In 1886 she announced to her frionds that she was going out to New Zealand and Australia to select land on which to make a settlement of tho Scotch crofters. Before her departure she seems to have been somewhat pressed for cash, and I have hoard that she endeavoured to raise a loan of £100 on her wardrobe. She went out to the colony in the lonic, but whether under an assumed name or not I do not know. Mr. Frost appears to have preceded her in the Doric. with the details of her Australasian career you are more familiar than are we on this side.

jflfMrs. Gordon-Baillie returned to England atthebeginning of the present year, and took up her qxiarters at the Langham Hotel. She caused it to become widely known that she had secured a grant of 75,000 acres in Gippsland, on which she meant to found a Crofter settlement. As I have mentioned, she had soveral interviews with the Marquis of Lothian, the Secretary of State for Scotland, and then, some time between the 4th and 14th of February she made the disastrous journey to Edinburgh, where she came into communication with Professor Blackie and the Provost of the city. Since leaving Edinburgh she was seen at Euston Station, where a man, believed to be Frost, met her, and from that moment all trace of her has been lost.

Another Scotch paper throws a little additional light on her parentage. This journal states that her mother, the Dundee washerwoman, was the daughter of a carter at Poterhcad, and was in the habit of travelling about the district in company with a

man named Sutherland, who carried on tho business of a travelling sausage-seller. The girl, however, although she bore the name of Sutherland, is said to have been ah illegitimate daughter by another man. The Earl of Moray, whom she honours with her paternity, is a nobleman of over seventy years of age, unmarried. Hie family name, however, is neither Bruce, Ogilvie, nor Sutherland, but Stuart. The question which will occur to most people on reading the foregoing narrative, is where did the money come from during the last few years of this lady's history to support her in her furnished apartments at the West End, and to keep up the style in which she lived, for there is no suggestion —save in one minor instance in not paying a cabman—of her being in any way snort of money, or having to resort to petty sordid shifts to keep going. The answer may be given in the two proverbs, that a fool and his money are soon parted, and there is no fool like an old fool. The old fool in this case was Sir Richard Duckworth King, Bart., who died lasfc year at the age of 84. He became acquainted with Mrs. GordonBaillie some years ago, and was so infatuated with her that he offered her his hand. Unfortunately Mr. Knight Aston stood in the way, though the baronet does not appear to have been made acquainted with the fact of this gentleman's existence. When she refused hie hand he consoled himself by placing his purse at her disposal, and she made such good use -of her opportunities that the foolish old gentleman is said to have parted with something like £18,000. When nis supply of ready cash temporarily failed she drew upon him, and then discounted the bills at ruinous.rates of interest. After her departure for Australia, he found so many of these bills coming in upon him that he was forced to put his affaire into bankruptcy in order to see really what were his liabilities on account of tho fair adventuress.

The exposure seems to have come upon both herself and Mr. Frost—who, by the way, managed a short time ago to fail for about £130,000, and is now an uncertificated bankrupt—quite unexpectedly. 16 is believed that they were living in apartments in the West End when the crash came, and it is known they had a house at Broadstairs where Mrs. Baillie's four children were living. The news of the expose soon spread to this locality. The servants packed up their traps and went away, the governess telegraphed to her father, who came and fetched her from the place, and the four unfortunate little children were left to themselves. The workhouse authorities intervened and took them to the workhouse. Mr. Frost, however, heard of this, and last Sunday went down to Broadstairs, fetched them out of the workhouse, and brought them back to London.

It is needless to say that fresh details concerning the career of this extraordinary adventuress keep cropping up ; but I have given in the foregoing narrative all the salient features of her history. I may mention that the boy who was with her in Rome in 1872 seems to have completely disappeared from her history.