BIGAMY EXTRAORDINARY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1248, 30 January 1896, Page 12

BIGAMY EXTRAORDINARY.

SEVEN "WIVES AND TWENTY-TWO CHILDREN. William Henry Cadman, 54, described as a traveller, was indicted at the Old Bailey on December 15 for having committed bigamy with Beatrice Caroline HodgettfJ. '; Mr Charles Mathews prosecuted for the Treasury, and Mr Noble defended. Mr Mathews described the case as very •cruel and very grave. The prisoner was married to a young woman named Pemberton, at Manchester, in 1870, and nine children resulted from the union. In 1883, however, Cadman deserted his wife »ahd leaving'them destitute. Ere long he made the acquaintance of Miss Martha Smith, whom he seduced under a promise of marriage. He took her to Brussels with the implied intention of marrying her, but on arriving there he made excuses and went on to Paris, where his companion learned that he was a married man. "When she taxed him with it he asserted jjshat his wife wa? mad in an •asylum, that "she was likely to die, and ! that when that happened he would marry her. In these circumstances she continued with him, but he ultimately deserted her, too, leaving her so destitute fchac she was obliged to obtain the help of the British consul to return to England. On reaching London she met the accused, who then paid her fare to Manchester, where he continued to visit her down to two years ago. In the meantime, however, he had been marrying other women, j There were two children of this alliance, j In the same year, 18S6, he made the acquaintance of a young lady named ( Beatrice Caroline Hodgetts, who resided i with her widowed mother, a lady of some ! means, at East Dulvvich, and who two years afterwards was married to the j prisoner at the Hotel de Ville in Brussels, coming back to this country and living at Vauxhall-bridge road. Subsequently they went to 'Paris, where they resided until : 1891. The prisoner, however, was frequently away in England upon various pretexts, and during that time spent be- i tween L6OOO and L7OGO of Miss Hodgetts' | money. Eventually he left her, and she j did not see him again until she met him j accidentally in London in the early part j of the present year, and, having in the i meantime discovered that she had been victimised, she had him arrested. Being, however, admitted to bail, he absconded and was not heard of again until, in October, the police ascertained that he was in custody in Manchester on a long firm charge. While living with Miss Hodgetts he visited Miss Smith as her husband, and carried on intrigues with other women. When, he was arrested two bogu3 marriage certificates were found on him, one relating to a marriage j with a young woman named Sherrard in | 1885, and another with Nellie Brown in \ 1887, and the prisoner was actually living ■ with this " wife " at the time of his appre- | hension. As throwing still further light J upon the character of the prisoner counsel read a letter written by him on his arrest to his real wife, whom he had deserted in 1883. The communication was written from Strangeways gaol, and said : *' From a remark that Mrs Dyke made on Tuesday a ray of hope awakened itself within me, whereby I saw the dawn of a better life for both of us, if I could but get out of this sad difficulty. Otherwise, I have felt a strong desire for death to come quickly. I must tell you frankly I never for one moment imagined, Polly, during all these years, you ever had a spark of geniune love for me, otherwise I do assure you we should have now been living a very different life. Ah, well 1 let bygones be bygones. It is now the present we have to face, and should God, in Hie infinite and mysterious j ways, be the means of a reunion I can j .most devoutly say that nothing shall be wanting on my part to do that which is I religiously right towards you and our j children." j After stating that he had asked the intervention of a friend, the letter pro- j ceeded : I

" Should this errand of mercy prove unsuccessful, why then, of course, I must bow to the inevitable, and if my end should happen I want you to dispose of my body to the medical people at Owon's college. You will obtain, I think, a few pounds for it, and if possible get Cousin Arthur to know, because I'm anxious for him to have the synopsis of my head. I'm sure they will find something peculiar in respect to my brain. Oh, what an irony of fate this is! Here I am, on the very ground where I have spent many, many happy hours of my childhood, and here I am spending the most wretched days of my existence. I feel, Polly, that I should very much like to see you, but somehow I feel afraid to do so. I hope and pray for the best. Give my devout love to the children, and accept the same yourself, from your affectionate but broken-hearted husband, Will. " My poor dear mother, it's her birthday next week, What sorrow for her 1 How sad! Good-bye and may God bless you, and may you and our dear children be happy and prosperous, Amen." This letter was enclosed in an unstamped envelope containing the words, " Sorry no stamps.—From Will," and the prisoner's wife had to pay the Post-office surcharge of 2d. . "Witnesses were called to substantiate fthis'fsbktQminti— -Miss Siiiith deposed to

being left absolutely destitute in Paris, and stated that two children were born.

Mr Noble enquired the names in which the children were registered. The Becorder directed the witness not to answer the question, and asked wh} T this attempt was made to. bring shame on the children, Mr Noble said he was instructed to ask the question. The Recorder said counsel ought to exercise a little discretion, and not allow themselves to be made the medium of villainous spite. Miss Hodgetts said her mother died in 1891, when the prisoner, with the exception of LSOO, had the residue of her estate.

The two police officers from Manchester stated that when accused was arrested on the long firm charge, about 2000 letters relating to his bigamous proceedings were found. Charles Cadman, the prisoner's son, stated that on the desertion of his mother in 1883 she was compelled to apply to the parish for relief. Mr Noble, in defence, ask the jury to believe that the prisoner wen* through the form of marriage with the prosecutrix in order to relieve her from certain financial difficulties, and that her mother, who knew he was a married man, desired him to do so.

The Recorder: Do you seriously ask the jury to believe that this most respectable woman, who is dead, and cannot defend her reputation, was willing that her daughter should go through this ceremony with a marriel man, knowing that any children who might be born would be illegitimate? Such a defence must be the vilest of slanders on a dead woman.

Mr Noble was so instructed, and he appealed to the jury to take a merciful view of prisoner's conduct. The jury returned a verdict, of guilty. Mr Mathews said he ought to tell the court, with reference to the marriage certificates found in the prisoner's possession, that Miss Sherrard was a schoolmistress in Manchester. She was seduced by the prisoner in 1883, and lost her situation, and then li">ed with the accused

as his wife. In the case of the other certificate, Miss Brown was living with Cadman at the time of his arrest. The correspondence found showed that at that very period he was writing to no fewer than five women as his wives, and - he had so been corresponding with no less than seven in all. He wus the father of 22 children, of whom 13 were illegitimate. The Recorder said the prisoner had added to the heinousness of his offence by uttering the most outrageous slanders against a poor, dead woman. The case was, without exception, the most serious one of its kind that had come within his professional experience, and he should not be doing his duty if he did not pass the maximum sentence allowed by the law, which was that the prisoner be kept in penal servitude for seven years.