The Express.
London, England, 1864-07-16 00:00:00

A CHURCH SCANDAL IN YORKSHIRE.

A case was commenced in the Chancery Court,
York, on Thursday, sad concluded yesterday, involving a
serious charge against a clergyman of the ober& of Ragland.
The promoter was Mr. T. S. Noble, sod the snit was load.
tuted against the Rev. G. A. Cockburn, vicar of Pickering.
Dr. Tristram and Mr. Haute, who was specially retained,
were advocates for the promoter, and Hr. Shepherd was the
advocate for the defendant. The proceedings bad been com-
menced is this court by virtue of letters of request from the
Archbishop, presented tinder the authority of the Church
Discipline Act. On the 16th of September last the defen-
dant had been cited to answer certain articles charring
him with barium, within two years past, sated towards a
female known by the same of Jimmy Wardell with an no-
becoming familiarity and in an indecent manner, thereby
make great scandal to the church, and also with having
committed adultery with the maid Jenny Wardell, who is
between twenty and thirty years of age. In Huth, 1858,
the defendant was isstitnted to the vicarage of the
perish ohm& of Pickering, and Jenny Wardell had resided
is the market-onm of that tows. The artiales, twenty in
number, alleged that ova the 19th of Jose, 1562. the de-
fendant was for some time alone with Jenny Wardell in the
kitchen of the bones, and pat big arms round her waist
and repeatedly kissed her. That, on the 21st October is
the same year, the Pickering Ride Corps attended battalion
drill at Searboreeigh, when she defendant met her, and after
the drill be entered the railway station with bar,
himself towel* her with great familiarity and levity,
that be travelled in the same carriage with her between
Halton and Pickering. That, in December, 1862, the de-
fondant took, or attempted to take, an indecent
i liberty with
Jenny Wardell whilst she was standing os some steps n the
church, at Pickering, engaged in illecornthar the chandelier.
That, is November or Desenaber 1862, the defondeet went
into
remained with her slam for a aossiderable time. That on
(oar sights Is July, 1853, she entered she private garden at-
tithed to the vtansgs house, and met the defendant, who
remained with her duce for • considerable period. It
was also alleged that ma several 00011401114 la 1862 mad 1863
the defendant was in her hoses with her absel=
periods ; that several of his parishioners bad i
=
tely. and in his hearing, string disapprobation ; that,
September 1863, the defendant has been carrying on
an adulterous intercourse with Jenny Woodall, and that the
average attendance at the Sasday mornings service, by
reason of the defendant's aoudad, had woe daring the pest
years exceeded 50 peruse, shames the congregation tad
previously amounted to 500. The 20th metalloid
• prayer that the defendant be canesically and daily cor-
rected and punished, haring rapid t• the bet that the
living of Pickering is under sequestention, and rim be cos-
damned in costs.
The defence of Mr. Cockburn was in serest • total denial
of the whole of the charges, and an elleptios that they had
been brought maliciously by his enemies. hewn of
the cam occupied the court the whole of Thursday and yes-
terday, when the chancellor gave todgmeet
The Chancellor said—Sosedal wee a fair pound for
action against a clergyman who might have been guilty
of habitual indiscretion and isdifferenes of *nem
to his Sock. What did the °fanatics arras
dictate bet that • clergymen should hams sad
fashion his family, as much as in him lay, so m to
become wholesome examples and patterns to the Sock et
Christ As to the defendant, be said that there was the
gravest suspicion that lewd familiarities had been brought
home to hiss by adequate proof al most of the @Aides,
and after • solemn warning which bed been give, by the
archdeacon. Had the charge of adultery been brought
home to him, he should have felt it his duty to have alto-
gether deprived the defendant, whole modoct he mold
only sey wee suggestive of ialatnation He then spoke of
the fair manner in which the ors bad bees conducted,
and briefly reviewed some of the streogest features of the
evidence which had been tendered, and particularly that
where it bad been shown that the interview after the arch-
deacon's warning took place in the rector's garden. There
was not the slightest pretence of busbies or official
deity, he observed, proved to have been promotive of
the Mimeos/vs which took place. As to the lady he hoped
she bad sot gives way to the defendant's alimonies* and
be bed no macro to say that which would Impeach her
vitt_ ; but there were the greatest reams* to impute in
discretion. He trusted she would isms nothing scone
at Paris than she had leaned at Piekerlog. Coder
all the eirenmetaeoes, ad looking at hie respoosi-
bailie*, he had been led to hesitate whether, under
any circumstances, he should be justified in allowing
the Wooden) to resume his ministerial functions. Bet
as a matter of comparative severity, sod looking at the
ordinary MIS by which courts of justice bad been gabled,
sod the hope he entertained that • pence after IMAM
punishment, sad with more time for oessiderstios, might
',Sect on the evil which ice bad dose sod turn over s sew
leaf and make himself more useful in the future than he
had does is the past, be should content himself with the
bop* that it nook prove e. serious warning, sod sentence
' the defendant to See years' suspension, and *oedema him is
oasts. Notice of appeal was gives.

Casmear or Wnerrienesraz. —We understand
that Lord Palmerstos has made a very satisfactory appoint-
ment to the rectory of St. Margaret's, Westminster, with
the vacant canonry annexed. Rumour has ridged
several neelleet and distinguished clergymen to the perm:
but we believe that the appointment has been gives by
her Majoity. ea the reemionedatiee of the Premite, to
the Ray. William Coswav, vicar of St. Nicholas, Boehm
ter, whom mined piety, academies, standing, and feithfal
Feeding, admirably qualify him for the pod. Mr. Cooed
r an M.A. of Trinity College, Cambridge, and graduated r
a High Wnsgter in 18116.—Bererd.
ST. GEORGE, lIRNOTER•suCARE—Go Wednesday
last the children, nearly 700. belonging to the South-street
and South Molten-street School,. were takes for their
annual treat to the Bye-home, Hodeleedos, Herta, priwioos
to which they perambulated part of the perish, and os thetr
arrival in Upper Grosvenor-ere" the Marquis of West'
!Waiter appeared at the balcony of his house and viewed
the procession. Oa his lordship being recognised he waa
very much cheered by the children. The latter wait in
Tow to the Great Easters Railway, Shorediteb, and ro
ceeded by a special trio. They partook of an
dieser and tea, sad mimed tbeemalers in a variety of en7l.
The rector, the Bey. H. Hoe'srth, 8.D., accompanied them.
CHEM CREECH Settoms, ST. GiOatoß's EAST.
The manual ozcarsioa of the elder children *reedier
these schools took place ea Thereday. The lards
party, which with the friends of the children numbered
upwards of 1,400, went in a medal train of 30 ,snider
to Epping Forest to spend the day. A large quantity of
food, consisting of ham, breed, cake, bele, will,, ta., for
the cos of the children, was provided on the noniron II
the iscaumbeet of the district, the Rev. 0. H. the
managers of the schools, and private friends. The bawd of
the Tower Hamlets Engineer., all of whom were educated
in the school; was present, and goetributod very much to
the pleasure of the excursion by their melodious strain%
Deakin ridge, swinge, dancing, foot races. bopping matcher.
sad other amusements occupied the children donee the
greater part of the day, which was very fine, and the parry
returned at half-past nine to Christ Church. when the
Natiosel Anthem concluded the proceedings. Y
the younger childrea of the wheels, to the number—Of-3W.
ware eatertaised at the pernmage by Mr. and Mrs. M 43111.
where they spest a very agreeable aftenron and seeping.
We are glad to be able to report that Mr. 12,6-
eon's health Is greatly improved, and that there are earn
hopes of his being able to re-appee at the Olympic before
the close of the seasou.—Reader.

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LAW INTELLIGENCE.
(THIS DL Y.)

cOURT OF PROBATE AND DIVORCE.
(Before the Judge Ordinary.)
HOPLET 7. HOPLL'T.—PhAT HA/RD.
Hopley, the petitioner, was recalled, and examined
!be court. She said—When my husband was taken to
1 bean to arrange to remove from Eastbourne
t, a small cottage at Lichfield. That was the course
9444.4ted by my mother-in-law. My mother-be-law paid
the rest, but what little money my husband had
• over by her. My husband earns out on bail about
314001 before the trial—namely, in June, 1860. I knew
Le ...a COming out on hail. His brother.in•law and Mr.
w.,13 s clergyman, were his emotion. I was instrumeatal
in :ruler bail. Ido not recollect the exact day when he
4;,,„1 1,,e at Uckfield ; he remained with toe and our
;•w3reo till the trial. After the trial, I moan-
P •
air husband to Lewes Gaol, and then returned
• zktield. My brother the Rev. Wolstenholm Cobb,'
cm,. to we me a day or two after the trial bat I would of
• gm. My husband bad so won my affections from my
that I regarded them as my enemies. My brother
etme to ow at Uckfield a fortnight afterwards, and I then
rue bin;. I do not remember that any peepael was
r *le to separate me from my hesbaad, The first
1,.; oral of that kind was made before the
put It was made by my two Ismither• They
03 the, bad beard reports that my husband was very
I ogle' to me, sod that I had better go home to them, aa he
hid to means of supporting me. If I remember rightly
floe' proposed that I should cease to see him. That pro.
mai I refused. !only sew my brothers at UckSeld In the
ple.riCe of my 100411111,10-10 W. In one of my letters I say,
The proposal for separating me from you is now given
up," They found that I was determined not to leave
him and they gave up talking to me on the rub-
set. These overtures to separate me from him
o,:d not have been very often repeated. About
the time of my husband's arrest there was not a
c.v.' feeling between my husband and my family.
They :IA not like him, and be did not like them at all.
31a brother asked me when the time of my husband's
impreonmeot was coming to a close. My brother asked me
what be intended to do. I told him that he intended to
spend the money he could get for his policy of in-
surance for 2.0031. in bringing out a new
i•inTblet, and In erecting a model establishment.
left the cottage at Uckfield bemuse my husband's means
were eiltansted. That was at Michaelmas, 18tH. I bad
Rea seen my friend Mr. Jeffreys, and had deter-
rated to take legal measures against my husband.
Vaned that intention within a fortinght after my last
k.terriew with my husband, which was co the 14th of Au-
gut, 1413. I was largely influenced by considerations le
reference to my children. I had formed the idlest the last
Interview that my husband had ceased to care for toe—that
to could cast me off, take my children from ma, and not
me them well. I told him that as he did
not care for my opinion as to what m
future plans were to be—for he had proposed to cot me off
rarely from my friends who had been very, very kind to
me- I would take the opinion of a gentleman who was not
biassed against him. He had told me that he should soon
be able to make a home for himself and his children.
Mr. Kerslake then addressed the jury in reply, and
heck strongly upon the ability and ingenuity with which
the respondent had argued the case as an advocate for the
defence. He had, however, shrunk from going into the
box sad verifying his statements upon oath. No doubt there
aright have been periods at which he bed treated his wife with
great kindness ; but then came some absurd idea that he was
the high priest in his own family, and he treated her with the
contumely she bad described. He admitted that he had
married his wife not for any affection that he had far her at
that time ; but in ceder that be might traits her into the
matron of a model Christian establishment; and he now
came before the court and mid that because he had a deep
sense el religion, and became be bad spent his life
in lecturing on the education of the embryo and the infant
the jury were to believe that his wife had coon forward,
and had persuaded the other witnesses to ootue forward,
and commit deliberate and wilful perjury. The
learned gentleman then quieted from letters of the
respondent, upon which he founded the argumeat that the
=it%t treated hie wifelike a miserable worm whom be
to tread under his feet. He was • man of such
viodietivenem of temper, that it thwarted be became, as he
himself mid, perfectly Meuse. He literaliy could not keep his
hands off bee, forgetting that by an unguarded blow he
might again bring about ao accident of the kind whisk be
already had reason so bitterly to deplore. The loused
counsel mid that the respondent was much too food of that
dangerous weapon the grey-gooss quill, he was always
ting dowu and inclitiog lectures to his wife. What did the
jury think of a man that considered it necessary to write the
paper of " cautious; " for his own guidance which had been
reed to the jury ?
A Juror—What was the date of that?
Mr. Kerslake—March, 1856.
The Juror—Wu it written for hie own use, or to show
hie wife!

Mr. Kerslake—For his own.
Mr. Hopley—There is a letter, my lord, which I forgot to
put in yesterday. I asked my wife to reed it occasionally,
ad it was the end of her trodden.
Mr. Banlake—There was smother letter, after the birth
of the first child, is which be attributed the sickly state of
her latent child to his cite% *select of the promises she bad
made to hint before her marriage. The respondent had
bad as opportunity, if he had thought he could
get the jury to believe him, to rid himself of
the odioes and disgusting ebarge of creepily by simply
stepping into the box, instead of relying upon the miserable
&Ince et condendios. The petitioner had bees Meddled
by the respondent mid that fascination had been Iceptaroby.
an ind nom soak as no women was ever subjected to
The letters which she had wrings were te • large died
characterised by an excusable hypocrisy—Mrs. Holder, well
knowing that whatever she said would be subject to the
supervision of tear mother-in-law sad the prison authorities.
The learned enamel atroagly medeanned the respondent
for the gratuitous attack which he had solo the ohs_
rector of Mr. Wolstenholm oobb ; sad be should have bees
happy to preduos the reverend gentleman (who was
presort), if the rules of law had permitted it.
But to retort to thee. letters. Whatever his conduct
the responded was the petitioner's husband, and was
it likely that at the very time she was labour* to proem*
his release, to repel the calumnies—for many of the state-
meete that were cirealated wore columeies— was it
likely that she would introduce into letters which would
be read by the prison authorities anything to imply
that she also had to complain of his harshness and cruelty
But what was the return he hal made to her for all her
wifely devotion and all the killdeer she had limns him ?
Bitter reproaches for not baring provided a bean for him
by her own exertions, adfor having led a de-
graded life, as he called it, in accepting the kiednem
of her own family. Theo she began to look the facts sternly
le the face. She consulted Mr. Jeffreys, a friend of her
husband, who, ualike the rest of the world, had sot tuned
his beck upon him ; aid actieg entirely epos his advice, she
informed her family for the first time what bee married life
really had been. Wes it possible that Mr. Wolstenholm
Cobb could have mutated anything but the filing of the
petition? The learned gentleman then quoted " finders
r. bander" (1, Itobinsos), and " Scow s. /now" (2, Notes
of Cameo), contending, upon the authority of them, the..
had bees so ondonation sales the jury thought that the
petitioner bad freely and deliberately, with full koowledse
of the legal effect of her seta, blotted oat and forgives the
offence of the responded.
The reminded said that if he might he was perfectly
ready to go into the box aad pledge his solemn oath to the
truth of every ward he had uttered.
The Judge-Ordinary thee rimmed up, and was addrem-
leg the jury when we went to press

THE POLICE COURTS.
(THIS DAY.)

WORSHIP-STREET.
CONTRADICTORY ITIDINCR.
Mlliaaa Pitman was charged before Mr. Cuthbert Elli-
s'n with an indecent *vault epee Labelle Israel, a young
Jewess, being in Lamb-street, *Redfield*.
Complainant aid—About en hour sines I wee in the
market purehasieg a piece of salmon when I anddeely felt
tnmething on my leg jugt below the knee. Some eels were
lem; weighed, and I at filet thought one of them bad fallen
sod wriggled np my dress, but on brushing it down I dis-
tinctly felt a hand. Defendant was on hie knees, and lam
certain it wu he who committed the offence. I told my
tether, and then preferred this charge.
CrOSI-OVIIIIiOed by Mr. Greese—Not any of the eels were
an the ground. The band held me tight. The sell were
lying shout on the Ault.. _ .

:odes,9l H—When I took defendant into custody, he
said that be was ioaocent of the eretteatioe, that as eel bud
Wien from the scale. sod that be picked it up, is doing
h it certainly might bare touched her leg there or
thereabouts.

---
Mary Sun, dumb* hermit u "a market widow,"
tame-1 was weighing two pounds of live eels for a gentle-
:,,,ii. One of 'em wriggled out. Mr. Pitman, which be
Las • wife mid sin small childreo, picked it up, and flung
it on the stall, waving, "There it is ; there it is."
Mr. S•Nord (clerk)—Did you lose sight of defendant's
while be wu looking for the eel!
Witness—No, I didn't ; and if he had done anythin
wrong, ! must have seen it. The eel might have tooebd
tie rung lady just above the boot, but no higher—ak no,
an higher.

Thomas Hart—l'm a shopkeeper in Spitalfields market,
and Ifie. Swan's stall is just opposite me. Imw the young
I ly landing OD the pavement buying some 1111.11:000, Sad
hoops when she leaned forward reached right berms
l• my shop frost. I could see all her legs quite high,
'6.1 I Mild to a customer, " What a disgusting halos
tot ie." Just then an eel slipped away. sad this
bit man, defendant, snatched it op from close b‘alter
~. but I swear be never touched thee. The deb t ;
they are alippery thiop, that go anywhere ; dishes",
"'me, but know smiting of Mannar& (Much laughter.)
v• known the person 211 years ; be is a moral men with a
• •rz•
sir. Ell twin —All this may be quite true and yet he might
1.,,v committed such an offence an is charged against him.