The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-07-24 00:00:00

OXFORD CIRCUIT.

SHREWSBURY, Juts' VI
The press of business here has been so enormous that It will
be impossible for the Learned Judges to complete it, notwith-
standing the extra time allotted to this place. The only causes
really possessing public interest will be made temanenta, and six
special juries will remain untried.
The Attorney-General came specially here the night before last,
from York, in the case hereunder, which was commenced yestet.
day, lasted until eight o'clock in the evening, and at eight this
morning was resumed.
AIL Baron °ARROW sat on the other side this day; and took a
long ejectment cue of no importance.

DOE ON THE DEMISE OF LLOYD V. PASSIVGHASC.
This was an action brought by the lessee of the plaintiff, to re-
cover possession of a most valuable and extensive property in Me-
rionethshire. extending into the celebrated vale of Llatigoi hen,
which has been in litigation since the year 1783. In 1794, the
case was tried here, when the present defendant was one of the then
Plaintiffs, and recovered possession. On that occasion the late Lord
Erskine came down specially for the Pa.singham family, and
the present Mr. Baron barrow was also brought down specially to
oppose his great abilities to the learning of the late Noble Lord.
Mr. TAUNTON, Mr. CAPPISELL. and Mr. RICHARDS. were
for the plaintiff.; the ATTORNEY-GENERAL, Mr. 0. RUSSELL,
and Mr. ALEXANDER, a son of the present Chief Baron, were for
the defendant.
Mr. TAUNTON stated the case to the Jury in a very elaborate
and perspicuous speech. This was an action brought by the heir
at law, in the right line of a Mrs. Catherine Lloyd, to recover
possession of the property in question. Mr. Ewen Lloyd, the
common ancestor, was, in the year 1740, possessed of the property
called the Hendeur estate, in Merionethshire. In six years of e
he became so possessed of the property in question, he inter-
married with a lady of the ancient and respected family of the
Hilla, in this county, and settled upon her and the issue of the
marriage, in strict settlement, the whole of his real property.
Mr. Ewen Lloyd died in 1774, without issue, and his widow
survived him until 1702, when she died. 111 r. Ewen Lloyd had
also two maiden sisters, Miss Catherine and Miss Mary Lloyd,
who, upon his and wife's deaths, inherited the estate as copartners,
and for a number of years received the rents and profits of it.
Catherine Lloyd, upon her death, bequeathed her moiety of the es-
tates to certain relatives for life, remainder over to present plaintiff,
who was grandson of the common ancestor. His right as remain-
dennan did not accrue until last December, when the last life te-
state died. It was neeessary a Nue to the Jury. that in the year
1704, the family of the Paseinghams brought an action for
the recovery of this property, as the lineal descendants and
right heirs of Mr. Ewen Lloyd, being issue of a marriage
said to have been contracted by hint antecedent to his onion
with Miss Hill, and they succeeded. Accortli.tg to their ac-
count, one daughter. issue of this marriage, had married the
father of the present defendant, and according to such a pedigree,
he was of course grandson to Ewen Lloyd, Esq. The supposed
prior marriage was alleged to be with a woman of the name of
Elizabeth Taylor ; and the verdict which was obtained on the for-
mer occasion was the result of a deep-laid conspiracy. The Learned
Counsel did not, however, mean to insinuate that the present
plaintiff participated in the plot that had been laid to obtain that
verdict, but it had been procured by perjury and forgery of the
blackest description. The Learned Counsel would not dispute, as
it watt unnecessary, that this Elizsbeth Taylor was the mother of
the Passinghams. by Mr. Lloyd, but he was capable of proving,
beyond the power of doubt, that Mr. Ewen Lloyd bad never been
married until he entered the holy state with Miss Hill. On the
former occasion, evidence had been tendered and admitted, by 31r.
Justice Heath, who tried the case, who was, unquestionably, a
most able Judge, but on this occuirn he cittd in judgment as to
the prior marriage. He, however, admitted proof, such as it was,
that the previous marriage had taken place with Elizabeth
Taylor. Every one now knew the benefits resulting from the
late Marriage Act ; but previous to its passing, and during
the reign of George the Second, a scandalous and infamous
practice long prevailed, of marrying persons at a house as-
signed and art ringed for the purpose in the neighbourhood of
the Fleet Ditch, and these contracts were termed " Fleet 3lar-
riages." Clergymen who were the outcasts of their calling, and
the di.grace of their cloth, officiated at these unholy unions, and
a regular registry of them was kept; but that registry having
been repeatedly made the instrument of fraud, falsehood, and
imposition, the first law authorities in the kingdom ruled
that they were not regular means of proof upon any occa-
sion. _lilt. Justice Heath, on the former trial of this cause,
admitted proof of a marriage of this description between
'Mr. Evan Lloyd and this Elizabeth Taylor ; and such it was,
but he was principally influenced in that admission by the produc-
tion of an attested copy of entries in the parish register of the parish
church of St. Pancras, which went to corroborate the probability of
the " Fleet marriage" between Mr. Lloyd and this Elizabeth Tay-
lor. The Learned Counsel was now prepared to prove that these
entries in the paridi register of St. Pancras were forged interpola-
tions. The parchment was ground down with pummice stone or a
penknife, so as to efface the original writing, for the purpose of
substituting the fraudulent entries. Elizabeth Taylor, the alleged
first wife of Mr. Ewen Lloyd, was a bar-maid at the Thatched
House Tavern, St. James'e-street, a house then frequented by 3lr.
Lloyd ; and the Learned Counsel would show that that female was
buried in the church yard of St. James, Piccadilly, by the name of
Elizabeth Taylor, in 1741. This fact would go to show that no mar-
riage had been contracted, or else site would not have been buried in
her maiden name. He would also show what had been the fate of
Elizabeth. Taylor, and how unlikely it was that she had ever becu
married to Mr. Ewen Lloyd, or that her child Elizabeth was legiti-
mate, for that child was sent to a poor village school, kept bye barber
or hie wife, at Teddington, in the neighbourhood of London, and
there always known by the name of " Bet Taylor." Mr. Lloyd
was a gentleman of family and of fortune, and, therefore, it
was highly Improbable that he should marry the bar-maid of
the Thatched House Tavern, and moreover, he had done
so, it was much more improbable that he should leave unpro-
aided and destitute the offspring of his first marriage, when
he had no issue by his subsequent wife, Mica 11111. This
" Bet Taylor," as she was called, afterwards married the father of
the present defendant, and then went to Bath, where she kept a
lodging-house, and afterwards became the housekeeper of a 11r.
Burt, &surgeon, near St. Thomas's Hospital, where, the Learned
Counsel would prove by Mr. Blount. a surgeon of great eminence,
who was a pupil of biz. Burt's in 1774, that the unfortunate wo.
man represented herself to be the illegitimate daughter of a Welsh
gentleman named Lloyd, and died broken-hearted when she heard
that he had not mentioned her or her children in his will. The
Learned Counsel, after some other statements of the substance of
facts, concluded by pressing his claim fervently on the consciences
of the Jury. •
The records of the former trial, and the notes oF evidence then
taken, were tendered as evidence. They were partially received.
The Chancery proceedings in the cause were also produced, and
received. It further appeared from documentary evidence, that
the marriage with Elizabeth Taylor occurred under these circum-
stances ;—She had been sent to a boarding-school after site left
Teddington, from which she eloped with the father of the present
plaintiff; and, in consequence, incurred Mr. Loyd's severe dis-
pleasure, for he totally abandoned her.
The Rev. Rowland Hill, after being called, anti sworn, stated,
that he knew an aunt of his married 3lr. Ewen Lloyd, bet lie knew '
nothing of their private affairs.
111 r. Blount, a very old gentleman, stated, that before he had re-
tired from business he had been in the medical profession. in
1774 lie was walking the hospitals, and he was a student with a Mr.
Burt, near St. Thomas's lloapital, where he knew the late Eliza-
beth Passinitham, who always described herself as the reuted
child of a Welch gentleman. Site acknowledged that she believed
she was illegitimate. She said, she had etrended her father, but,
for family reason., she always expected a legacy. A gentleman
from the neighbourhood of Shrewsbury called one morning at the
house of witness's master, in the Borough, and stated that Mr.
Lloyd was dead. When this fact was communicated to him, he asked
nether any property wu left to Elizabeth Passinghain. Ile said
nothing whatever had been bequeathed to her. The Comma-

Mention of dila fact to the unfortunate woman made het instantly
delirious, and in three dors afterwards she sprang out of het own
bed.room window:, and was killed on the spot.
several other witnesses were called for the plaintiff, when tesd•
ninny tended to the establishment of his claim, but the particulate
of their evidence are tedious and uninteresting.
The At-Toilet:l%6ex Ertat.. this morning, in • speech agent
length, detailed and remarked upon the whole of the legal sail
equity p,,,,e,eding4 In this case, since 1793, and quoted as tonna
law and good authority the doctrines and observations of ittevri
Erskine, during the former trial respecting the just claims et die
Paasingham family. The present defendant, Colonel Pattaingbatna
was a military man, fie had served his country and bled profusely
in the American war. bowl Erskine, in his early life, had been a
soldier himself, and on the former occasion Lie void a gallant tribute
to the activity and energy of a brother soldier. But to revert to the
suhject of this most extrantilinary ease. The nosh:sham fa.
roily. now, after thirty valve peaceable possession, which was
the best indication of lawful right. were assailed by the present ac.
tion, and were charged as being the spurious offspring of a gentle-
man who burr high reputation and gontl keeling as the ebaratterlaties
of his conduct. The flintily of the Passingharns had established
their legitimacy by the best criterion that human judgment could
afford, namely, by the venlict of twelve honest Englishmen. They
had pronounced the repudiation of imputed bastardy, and the solid
establishment of legitimacy. This judgment was not orotund by
the eloquence of Passinghanes advocate, renowned and celebrated
as he wits, in his day, for his unbounded powers; but the dictates
of an honest onset/am, and the exertam of pure English judg-
tr.ent, had fixed a verdict upon a huh; that ought not to be Aitken.
The Learned Counsel then went through a train of resuming, sad
&statement of facts formerly adduced, for which we have not room.
and rested upon a positive conviction that no new Jary would dis-
turb the solemn sanction of a verdict, prononneed by twelve honest
Englishmen, assembled in the same box which the present Jury
now eceopied.
Several witnesses were then called. The widow of Col- Vivian,
of the Guards, and others, deposed that the Slimes Lloyds, who
..had been left shone In the possession of the property in question.
always spoke. of Colonel Pasiingharn, and his blather, as dais
nephes a, since the year 1794.
The will of Mary Lloyd was put in as evidence, showing that
that degree of relationship really existed.
Other evidence was also adduced, which was produced on the
former occasion.

Mr. TAUNTON replied At Considerable length ; but it is itcpsx.
sible to give his observations.
Mr. Justice BURRO. OHS, from his infirmities, had the Jury
removed from the box to the bench ; and there he summed up us
them.
The Jury retired at eight o'clock, and bad nut ptceutuncod tbzit
verdict et ten, when our express left.
This trial only affects a small part of the property.