The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-10-10 00:00:00

ROMANTIC ELOPEMENT CASE.

At Worship-street Police-court on Saturday morn-
ing, before Mr. Hannay, Patrick John Kavanagh,
aged 26, described on the sheet as a gentleman of
superior education, and said to be a medical student,
was brought up on a warrant granted by Mr. Bushby,
charging him for that "he, on the 11th day of Sep-
tember, 1885, in the county of Middlesex and district,
did feloniously and fraudulently detain one Kate
Florence Geraldine Wilson, a woman under the age
of 21 years, out of the possession and control of William
David Wilson, her father, contrary to the statute.'
Mr. Elliott (of the firm of Elliott and C 0.,) solicitor,
appeared for the prosecution on behalf of the father
of the young lady. The prisoner, who was not legally
represented,,Ahen put into the dock looked rather
pale, as if Urea from travelling. He appeared fully
of the age stated on the charge-sheet, as given by
himself, and has a pleasant face and gentlemanly
manners. He was dressed in a morning suit, black
Cambridge coat and vest, and grey trousers, and wore
a heavy gold albert chain and locket, and carried a
billycock hat and gloves in one hand. The affair has
created considerable interest owing to the fact that
the young lady is a ward in Chancery, and entitled to
a reversion, according to the deposition of her father,
of a sfrm of about X. 5000.

Mr. Elliott said that owing to the prisoner having
been brought to London only late on the previous
night., he had been unable to get the witnesses in
attendance, and he would therefore have to ask for a
remand. Ile proposed to read the sworn information
of Mr. Wilson, the father of the young lady, and take
that as sufficient.

Mr. Hannay said that would be sufficient at this
stage of the ease.

William David Wilson, of Ebor House, Tun-
bridge Wells, Kent, was then called and sworn, and
his information was read to him. This was very
short, and substantially worded as follows: 1. That
on or about Sept. 11, 1885, P. J. Kavanagh did
fraudulently allure and take away and detain my
daughter Kate Florence Geraldine, she being under
the age of 21 years, oat of the possession and against
the will of myself. 2. That to the best of my know-
ledge, information, and belief, the said P. J.
Kavanagh, stayed with my said daughter at the
South-place Hotel, Finsbury. 3. That my said
daughter has a present and future equitable interest
in personal estate, to wit, to the value of £5OOO or
thereabouts.—Signed, W. D. WILSON. The witness
said that that information was correct.

Mr. Tiannay said that the prisoner could be re-
manded on that, and asked him if he wished to say
anything, although he advised him not to until he
had had legal advice:
Prisoner: No, sir; only this, that I had no know-
ledge of her being a ward in Chancery, and that my
intentions were good and honourable towards this
young lady.
Mr. Hannay (to Mr. Elliot) : I see it is a felony,
but you charge him with fraudulently taking her
away. However, that may be an after matter. The
only question then is as to bail. The young lady has
£5OOO. Well, I can make the bail heavy.
Mr. Elliott: Will you admit him to bail at all, sir?
Mr. 'Hannay thought so, as the prisoner said that
his intentions were honourable towards Miss Wilson.

Mr. Elliott said if that were so, the prisoner might
have communicated with the parents.
Mr. Hannay: Allowance must be made for young
people sometimes. He asked if the prisoner had
been moving about much.
Mr. Elliott said yes; and he should call witnesses
from Scotland and the young lady herself on a future
occasion, to show that the prisoner's representations
as to himself were false. He was an adventurer.

Mr. Hannay then said that he would order a
remand, and would say nothing about bail.
Prisoner was then l'emoved in custody, evidently
disappointed at not getting bail.
The following additional particulars with regard to
this singular ease have been obtained: Although it
was known that the prisoner had been brought by the
evening boat from Dublin, it was not known at what
court he would be brought up. The prosecution,
however, had decided to charge the prisoner with the
felony in the district to which he was traced---City-
road—as the first movements of the pair after
eloping from the lady's father's house, Ebor
House, Tunbridge Wells, were traced, it is stated,
to the South-place Hotel, Finsbury-pavement,
within the jurisdiction of this court. The prisoner
was brought up in custody of Detective-Inspector.
Peel, C.1.D., attached to the G division,
and Sergeant Merroney, who had travelled with him
from Dublin. It was owing to the exertions of
Detective-Inspector Peel that the prisoner was traced
from the time they arrived in London; that before
going to the South-place Hotel they stayed a night at
a small private hotel in the City-road has been ascer-
tained; but at the South-place Hotel, a large establish-
ment, kept by a member of the Society of Friends
named Aimfield, they passed as husband and wife.
Subsequently they left for Scotland, and, according to
the prisoner's statement in a conversation with
Sergeant Merroney during the journey to
London, in Scotland the pair tried to get
married, but found they would have had to be
residents for three weeks in the district of the
registrar. It was know that from Scotland
the couple had travelled to Dublin, the prisoner's
native place, and where they had first met only about
three weeks ago, at which time Miss Wilson was
visiting Ireland with her parents. On the informa-
of Inspector Peel, the father applied for a
warrant, laying his information under the 10011
sec. of the Act 24 and 25 Tic., cap. 51, and charging
the prisoner with fraudulent representations. The
prisoner asserted that had they had sufficient time
for residence in Dublin they would have got married,
but his arrest prevented it. In conversation on the
matter, the prisoner said that it was a ease of love at
first sight, and the young lady had had two offers of
marriage. It was useless, he says, to hope that the
parents would have permitted any communication
with the young lady, as one gentleman in Dublin had
addressed the parents with a view to becoming a
suitor for the young lady's hand, but had been re-
fused. When he followed her to England he found
it necessary to keep out of sight of the parents, but
111"—eed to communicate and have interviews with
the young no,r.
A,
the course of which the elopement
was planned for one eveL„
el when Mr. Wilson was
away at Brighton. The young laay L.,,elf was, it is
said, very strictly confined, and had a servant ai.c.7a
with her. Moreover, attempts had been made to
get her to enter a convent, but that she had
resisted. Leaving the house at about eleven o'clock
on the night of Friday, the 11th ult., when
she was supposed to be in bed and asleep, Miss
Wilson met her lover, and they walked across country
to take a morning train to London. The prisoner
asserts that he knew nothing of the young lady's
fortune, nor of the arrangements of the household,
so that he was not actuated by any motive of lucre.
On this point some stress must be laid by the prose-
cution, as the Act under which the prisoner is
charged makes it a heavy penalty (a maximdtn of 14
years' or a minimum of three years' penal servitude)
for the abduction of a woman from motives of lucre,
and the prisoner, if convicted of fraud, would be
liable to the same extent of punishment. He, how-
ever, denies a knowledge of her position, and expresses
the belief that though separated from him Miss
Wilson will be true, saying "She's the bravest girl
I've known up to now." Indeed, in one of the letters
written by the young lady to her mother she said
that if separated from the prisoner she should die.

A correspondent of the Times suggests that as
ladies will persist in entering smoking carriages it
would be better to label them "gentlemen only." If
he thinks that would have the desired effect he is
much mistaken. Besides, he lays himself open to the
retort by the ladies that the persons who would
really avail themselves of such compartments are not
gentlemen,