The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-07-15 00:00:00

TRE STOURBRIDG-141 OBSERVER

the damage might not be excessive, so as to cripple his
exertions.
Mr. Under-Sheriff Burchell, in placing the case
before the jury, told them they had to estimate the
loss the young lady had sustained. Though of humble
parents compared to the defendant, who was the son
of a clergyman, she would have fulfilled her new
position, as she was evidently a person of superior
mind, and her letters showed her to be well and reli-
giously educated. It was not a case for vindictive, but
for fair and reasonable damages. The defendant, it
was evident, had sacrificed his affections to his duty to
his father.

The jury, after consulting for half an hour, assessed
the damages at £350.
On the application of Mr. E. Harrison, the Court
certified for a Special Jury.

trustees. By the first codicil she gave a legacy of £5OO
to Mr. Sharpe (whom she also appointed an executer),
husband of her niece, Mrs. Sharpe, and by the second
codicil she gave Sir W. Fergusson a further legacy of
£2,000, to the Rev. Mr. Howarth, rector of St. George,
a legacy of £3,000, and smaller legacies to a few other
friends and acquaintances. In support of the papers,
the solicitor who prepared them and several other wit.
teases who had known the testatrix for the greater
part o! her life were called, and all described her as of
.theerful temperament and perfectly rational down to
her death; and like testimony was given by Sir W.
Vergus-;on, whose evidence was taken at his residence
by comtnission.
From the cage as set up for the defence it appeared
that the father of the testatrix was, in the time of
George IV., a well-known professor of dancing in
London and at Brighton, and that she herself had
also obtained considerable success in the profession,
which she abandoned on her marriage with Mr.
Nasmyth. Her husband died in 1846, and it was said
that a few years afterwards she became penurious in
her habits, eecentric in manner, and subject to a per.
eistent delusion that she was a woman of rank, and
that Her Majesty would allow her to enjoy her title
were it not for the fact that Mr. Francis Mason, her
nephew, continued to follow the family profession or
calling of a dancing-master. Mr. Mason, who was
called as a witness, stated that he published in 1854 a
little work entitled "Dancing and Exercises as Means
of Refinement," and that his aunt complained of his
having done so, declaring that his object was to pre-
'sent her from obtaining her title. Some years later,
in 1860, Prince de Lichtenstein took a lesson from
him in the "Lancers," in order that he might take
part in a "set" at a State Ball, and the circumstance
was regarded by the deceased as another effort on the
part of her nephew to mar her fortunes. The witness
mentioned other incidents of a like character, and he
declared that he had always treated them as delusions,
and as proof that his aunt was not quite sane. Mrs.
Young also deposed that the deceased was fond of
boasting of her position, and some slight evidence was
likewise adduced as to her great penuriousness.
His Lordship, without calling on counsel for the
plaintiff to reply on the case, said he was satisfied that
the testatrix was of sound mind when she executed the
the will and codicils. The evidence showed that she
was treated down to time of her death, as a woman of
sound mind; that she was left in the management of
her property which she carefully husbanded, and that
her letters were sensible and to the point in the matter
with which they dealt. It was clear that she had a
weak-minded prejudice against the profession to which
she herself and so many of her family had belonged,
but it was every day's experience that persons were
foolishly ashamed of their connexion through relatives
of particular trades or bueiness. The only evidence of
delusion rested on the testimony of Mr. Francis
Mason. He did not impute untruthfulness to the wit-
ness, but the evidence was certainly not of a character
to warrant the Court in coming to the conclusion that
the deceased was of unsound mind, He should, there-
fore, pronounce for the will and codicils.