MATRIMONIAL FRAUDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8670, 12 September 1891, Page 2 (Supplement)

MATRIMONIAL FRAUDS.

The, real name of the culprit who was lately convicted at the Old Bailey as Henry Fison Burgess, arid sentenced to seven years' penal servitude 'for bigamy and robbery, is James Fison James, but he had many aliases, being known as Henry Fison Burgess and Herbert Watson. He is now GO years of age, and will be remembered in a largo number of towns both in England and Australia, where he imposed upon many trusting friends. Some of his curly photographs show him in a military uniform as a cornet player ; he was, howover, by trade a confectioner and baker. In early life he was one of 'the cooks on board the Ariadne, and he served in that capacity when the Prince of Wales went in that vessel for the cruise up the Mediterranean. lie was also an auxiliary in the band. On his return to this country he married a highly-respectable young girl, but she died six months afterwards; and he then resided at llfracombe far a short time.

HOW PRISONER WAS CAUGHT. The convict's last victim was a lady-like young person from Bath (Miss Ellen Elizabeth Snook), whom he fraudulently married and then obtained from her by false pretences a sum of £247. Her acquaintance with tho prisoner commenced through answering a matrimonii advertisement which appeared in a newspaper on the loth of February last. The advertisement ran as follows :—

"A respectable mechanic, with a little money saved, wishes to meet with respectable domestic, same position. Address, full particulars anil photo.: li., 10, C Koad, Wandsworth.".

She came to London at the prisoner's request and saw him on April 4, and became engaged to him, and then he visited her friends, ami they were married before tho registrar at Lady Huntingdon's chapel, Bath. They spent their honeymoon at Bournemouth, and then came to London to look for a business. The prisoner advertised ,in the Daily Chronicle for one, and had a number of replies. He examined the books of many applicants, and showed great tact in investigating the businesses lie went after. They were about taking a baker's business in D street, Old Kent Koad, and she drew her money from the bank, and let him have £247. Under the pretence then of going to see his sister, he left her penniless in the streets, ant! she had to pledge her umbrella to get back to her lodgings at Paddington.

Tin; SECOND wife's STORY. Six weeks after the death of his first, wife, James, through a mutual friend, obtained an introduction to a young widow of 31. who had been the wife of Mr. Jewitt, ,a well-known artist and engraver in the Strand. She afterwards obtained a situation at the Sambrook Hotel in Basinghall-si-rfeet, as cashier and book-keeper, where she had been seven years when the prisoner became acquainted with her. He came from Jlfracombe several times to see her, and, professing to be violently in love, told her that if had a splendid home and business at lifracombe, which lie was obliged largely to entrust to a housekeeper ; and as it was a suitable wife he wanted, ho tried to persuade her into an immediate marriage. She, however, refused such an earl}' nuptial, and though she accepted his offer she said that she should not be married to him till a respectful time had elapsed. "Things have changed now," said his wife, who is a highly respectable person 48 years of age, residing at Canterbury, " but he has had a long run, and a long career of crime; and though in one way I am sorry for his fate, it is quite time he was stopped. I, unfortunately, was married to him in IS7I at the district church, St. Michael, city, after a nine months' engagement. Many gentlemen who used to come to the hotel will remember me a3 being the book-keeper there. I hud a. good home and many valuables, but when I got to his home at" lifracombe I soon found out that I had been deceived and entrapped. His home and furniture and business were all mortgaged, and in three weeks' time he commenced a course of systematic cruelty, and lie never rested till he gob off me what I had too. In the '20 years which have gone by since then I have suffered terrible hardships; and I have had to labour and do needlework till I was nearly blind to support myself and family ; but what little I did get I got by hard work, bub the money he has had I am sorry to say he got by all kinds of sharping. After he got into difficulties at Ilfracombe he came to London and we had a shop in the Amhurst Road, Kentish Town ; and from there he went to Stoke Newington and opened a business. Then lie saw a situation advertised for a managing baker to the Ash ford Baking Company at Ashford, in Kent. He applied for it ttiid got it. While living there we were doing very well, but another trouble came, for the directors found his books unsatisfactory, and dismissed him without notice. He then brought an action against the company for wrongful dismissal, but lost it, and bought a baker's business at Canterbury for £30, and subsequently sold it for £100. When people came to stay a few days he would engage a lot of lads and people to buy bread and keep coming in when he was sold out. One man that he took in in that way afterwards brought an action against him, and the judge ordered my husband to refund him £40. Then he ran away with £S0 in his pocket, and a gold watch and chain worth £20 more. Proceedings were taken against him for desertion, but no one could find him. One day after that I received a letter written on half a sheet of notepaper, but no address, in which he said that he had gob some work again, and would come shortly and make some arrangement. I knew nothing at this time, or in 1884, of him being connected with any matrimonial frauds ; bub I sent a letter to him through his aunt, who had his address, telling him the terrible distress I and his children were in. The next letter which 1 received from him was from San Francisco, in which he told mo that he had been travelling through Queensland with a circus; bub if he could only get back to England he would come and live with us again and act better for the future. In another letter he talked of committing suicide. I afterwards received a letter from him containing a draft note for £20, which he told me to be sure | and take care of and keep very quiet, as it was the proceeds of something he did not want known. He said 1 could use £."» out of ib if I was badly off, bub I must keep the other for him for his use if he could get home again. In ISS7 a knock came at my door, and on opening it lie again presented himself in a weatherbeaten and most dilapidated condition. He said I was nob to say anything about his being back, but he had come for the £15. As we had been left in such struggling circumstances, I had used £10; he took the other £10, broke open my boxes, cleared out all he could find, and went away again. In ISSB he gob a situation at Amy's drapery stores, Swanseombe, near Sittingbourne, Kent. I had a letter or two from him, and once a pound of tea on my birthday, but no money. He left there, and after that I heard nothing more of him for two years. Then I seemed to have lost sight of him altogether again till one day in May I read an account of the arrest of a man who gave the name of Henry Fison Burgess for swindling Miss Snooks out of £247 by means of a matrimonial fraud. 1 said to our son, who is now IS years of ago," I believe this is your father; I should like to know. He has deceived a large number of girls, but their friends, 1 am told, will not let them come forward." I had nine children by him, bub five died and four are alive now. My daughter, who was my bridesmaid at eight years of age, you see has now grown up, and as the others grow up too I hope we shall be able to pull through the troub'.js he brought us into. Though I knew he was a sharper, I did not know of his matrimonial frauds till 1 read ib in the paper, and I am sorry to see so many respectable young people in such trouble through him.