Case ID: f-cas_3/html/0720-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "THE COURT", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Case No. 1,554.
    BLODGET v. THORNTON.
    [3 Cranch, C. C. 176.] 
    
    Circuit Court, District of Columbia.
    May Term, 1827.
    Dower — -Marriage—Evidence—Cohabitation.
    Upon a writ of dower, the marriage may be proved by parol évidence of cohabitation as man and wife.
    [NOTE. For subsequent proceedings by the plaintiff, see Blodget v. Brent, Case No. 1,553.]
    Writ of dower. Verdict for the plaintiff [Rebecca Blodget], subject to the opinion of the court, whether parol evidence of cohabitation as man and wife, is sufficient to prove the marriage.
    C. C. Lee, for the defendant [William Thornton],
    contended that the marriage can
    only be proved by the certificate of the bishop, or of the clergyman who married them. The following authorities were cited by Mr. Lee: Jackson v. Claw, 18 Johns. 346; William v. Gwyn, 2 Saund. 45; 1 Phil. Ev. 262; Starkie, Ev. 939; Birt v. Barlow, 1 Doug. 172; Morris v. Miller, 1 W. Bl. 632.
    R. S. Coxe, contra,
    cited Birt v. Barlow, 1 Doug. 172; Morris v. Miller, 4 Burrows, 2058; Bayard’s Peake, Ev. 88. See, also, Woodf. Landl. & Ten. 402; Henry St. George Tucker’s notes to 1 Bl. Comm. 440, note 3.
   THE COURT

(MORSELL, Circuit Judge, absent),

ordered the judgment to be entered for the plaintiff.