A STRANGE STORY.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 187, 12 September 1914, Page 3

A STRANGE STORY.

FATE OF THREE CHILDREN. A request to Sir Samuel Evans that he should declare three little children" legitimate led to a strange story about a matrimonial entanglement being told at his court, says a London journal. The three children were Mary, aged live, Marian, aged four, and Albertina, aged three, the children of Albert Bardslcy Windle and Margaret Win die, who were married at the Independent Chapel, Victoria Street, Blackpool, in January, 1909. At this date Mr Windle had gone through the ceremony of marriage twice before. In December, 1874, at Hulme, in Lancashire, he had been married to a woman whose maiden name was Sophie Anne Elms, and in July, 1907, he had married Mary Ann Bachelor, at Blackpool.

The second Mrs Windle died in the same year that she was married, but the other is alive at the present day, and was present in court to give evidence. When, however, Sophie Anne Elms went through the ceremony of marriage she was already the wife of a man named Thomas Christopher Rayner, so Mr Barnard, K.C., counsel for the children, stated that he would prove. The 1909 marriage was therefore valid. Mishap to a Witness.

Mr Barnard began his statement to the court by saying that one of the witnesses, the midwife who had attended the third Mrs Windle at the birth of the children, had fallen down when entering the Law Courts this morning and had either, broken or fractured her leg. She had been taken to the hospital, and would have to be examined on commission if her evidence was to be obtained.

The president said that he had seen an ambulance leaving when he arrived.

Counsel went on to state that the woman Sophia was deserted by Rayner after they had lived together near Wrexham for six months.

She, too, had gone through the ceremoiry of marriage three times, being now a Mrs Houghton.

At- the conclusion of Mr Barnard's statement the president observed that the laws of wedlock seemed very elastic in the views of this family.

The first Mrs Windle then went into the witness-box. The bride of forty years ago is now an infirm old lady, and she spoke with a feeble voice.

She was married, she said, to Thomas Christopher Rayner, on February 23, 1874, and they lived together at a place outside Wrexham. Counsel: What was he.

The Old Lady: I could not tell you that; he was anything. He worked at a paper mills. I saw him for the last time six months after we were married. He left me in Manchester. Bride in Doubt.

The witness then told the court how she went through the wedding ceremony with Albert Windle in December, 1874.

"I was given to understand," she said, "that I was not Eayner's wife. I was told that he had been married- before."

Mrs Mary Ann Jones, a widow, who lives at Wrexham, gave evidence that she knew Sophia Anne Elms. She saw Eayner before Sophia was married"to Mr Windle, but had not seen him since. Mrs Elizabeth Anne Jones, wife of William Jones, of Ashton-under-Lyne, said that she remembered Thomas Eayner. He was a machine man at the paper mills. She last saw him in May, 1875. He was then going off to Brazil with a party of emigrants. He said "Goodbye" to her, and told her to call her eldest son after him. She remembered the date because of the birth of her eldest son. Mr Windle himself then gave evidence. He is not nearly so old as the first Mrs Windle. "I lived with Sophia Elms," he said, "down to 1878, when she'left me in Bolton.'' Mr Windle then spoke about the birth of his children. In reply to the president, he said that his father died in 1907, leaving him well off. Counsel: Do you know anything about the marriage of Eayner to Sophia Elms? His Suspicion. Mr Windle: I had a suspicion some-, thing was wrong. When I married her I took her for a spinster. She did not tell me she was married. She never told me anything. A solicitor's clerk was called to disprove the suggestion that Eayner might have been a married man when his wedding took place to Sophia Elms. The witness then searched the registers at Somerset House, and could not find any other marriage of Eayner except that of 1874 to Sophia Elms. The president then made the declaration of legitimacy for which counsel asked.

Mr McCall, K.C., representing relatives interested, asked unsuccessfully for costs.

It was pointed out by Mr Barnard during the argument on this point that the children petitioners were entitled to certain property when they came of age, but not before.