The National Register.
London, England, 1813-03-14 00:00:00

triTP NATIONAL REGIST,rit.

DEPOSITION OF ROBERT BIDG001).

I have lived with the Prince twenry.three years next September;
I went to the Princess in Ma-ch, 1798, and have lived with her Royal
Highness ever since. About the year IRC2, early in that year, I firs
observed !ir Sydney Smith come to Montague House; he usedeo stay
very late Jt night ; I have seen him early in the morning there, about
ten or eleven o'clock. He was at Sir John Douglas's; 1 was in the
habit, as weR as Sir John and Lady Douglas, of dining, or having
luncheon, or supping there almost every day. I saw Sir Sydney
Smith one day in !BR, in the blue room, about eleven o'clock in the
Morning, which is fell two hours before we ever expected to see cont.
pane, I asked the servants why they did not let in know that he
was there ? Phe f eeman informed me that they had let ne person in.
There was a private door to the Park, by which he might have come
in if he had a key to it, anti have git into the blue room without arty
of the servants perceiving him. I never observed any appearance of
the Princess which could lead me to suppose that she was with child.
T first oh treed Captain Manhy come to M mrague House either the
entl of iSh,.; or the beginning of 1501. I was waiting ohe day in the
anti-:- .rat, Captain Mahby had his hat in his hand, am; appeared to I
I
be goh% aWay ; he was a long time with the Priecess, and as I stem!
on the steps. waiting, I looked ireo the room in which they • were,
and in the reflection in the leokieg-glaes I saw them salute eech other;
I mutt, that they kissed eidi other's lips. Cahtein Maltby then
went away. I then observed the Princess have her handkerchief in
her h -nds, and wipe her eves as it she was crying, and she went into
the drawing.-roo e. The Princess were to Southend in May, ISM; I
went with her. We were there, I believe, about six week. before
the African came in. Siccaret was very viten watching whit a glass to
see when the ship would arrive. One day he sew the African, and I
soon liter the Captain put oft in a boat from the . hip. Skcard went .
down the shrubbery to meet him. Wheel the Captain came on shore, I
Siccard conducted him to the Princess's hruse, :Jul he (heed there
with the Prinecss ane her Ladies. After this he came very frequently
to sec the Pi-incest. The Princess had two henses on the Cliff.
Nos. ti and 9. She afe:rwar Is took the drawing-room of No. 7,
which communicaied by the h !cony with No. 8, the three hothes
being adjeittiog. The Princess wed to dine in No. 9, and after dinner
to remove with the cumpaey into No. 7, and I hive several tunes
seen the Print:eve after haveig gale:. into No. 7 with Captain Maltby
and the rest of the company, retire :dam with Caet;iii Menby from
No. 7 to N h S into No. 9, winch was the house in whit h the Plincess
'slept. 1 suspected that Curtain Manhy slept freqeeetly in the house..,
It was a subjtee ef conversation in the house. I i htts were given by
the s rvants, and I believe that others suspected it as well as e: elf.
The Vtineess total; a child, which 1 tie :eistoiel ‘vhs brought into the
house la Stikeman. I wahed only one week in three, and I was not
there at the time the chil ; was brought, hitt I saw it there early in
n? )3. The clip.{ wh iis now with the Princess is the se he as I saw
there early in 1903 ; it has a mark on its left hand. A ustie is the name
of the man who %h.& sad t' he his father. Austin's wile i e I believe,
still alive. She has had another child, and has brought it sott:times
to Mentaeue-house. it is very like the child who lives with the
Princess. Mi-s. Gorden was employed as a nurse for the child, and
she used to bring the child to the Princess as soon as the Princess
awoke, and the ;:hill Ilse.) to stay with her Royal Highness the whole
morning, The Priestess appeared to be extremely fond of the child,
and still Appear. so. (Slimed) R. BIDCOOD.
Sworn at Lord Grenville's house, in Downing-
street, the 6th day of June, 1806
(Signed) SPENCER.
GRENVILLE.

DT:POSITION OF WILLIAM COLE.
I have livrkt vI h tin Princess of ever since her marriage
9‘r 4.tdner Smith fits:, vibited at Moitastat.heuse ahoy.

1a

chserved the Princess to be ta.miliar with Sydney Smith. One
.t :y, I think about February in that year, the Princess oraleted soma
sitndwitdtes ; I cariLd them leto the blue mom to her. Sir Sydney
Smith wits there; I Was surprieed ro see him there; he rene4t have•
come in from the Park ; if he had been Ittt in front Blackheath, ha
inust have passed.throu4h the rooto in which I was waiting. When
I hal left the sandwiches, 1 returned, after some fine, into the room,
and Sir Sydiiey Smith w.); sitting very close to the Princess, on the
sot-a. I looked at him and at her Royal Highness. She caught My
' eye, and saw that I noticed the manner in which they were sitting to-
gether. They appeared both a little confused when I cme into the
room. A short time before this, one night about twelve o'clock, I
saw a man go into the house from the Park, wrapped up in a gr-at
c at. I did not give any alarm, for the impression on my mind was that
it wAs not a thief. Soon after I had seen the Princess and Sir Sydney
Smith sitting together on the sofa, the Duke of Kent sent for me, and
tcld me, That the Princess would be very glad if I would do the duty
in town,- because she had busi.Ass.to do in tt,wn which she would ra-
ther trust to me than any body else. 4
The Duke said, that the Princess had thought it as ould he more
agreeable to mato he told this by him than through Siccard. Atter
this I never attended at Montague-house, but occasional!), when the
Princess sent for me. About]nly, !SO% I observed that the Princess had
grown very large, and in the latter end of the same yea- she appeared
to be grown thin ; and 1 observed to Miss Saunders, who said
that the Princess was much thinner than she had been, I had not any
idea of the Princess being with Witt Mr. Lawrence, the Painter,
used to g' to M.ottagite-house„ about the lattereud of VOI, tvhco he
was pain•hg. The Princes; and he have slept in the house two or
three nights together. I have often seen him alone with the Princess
at elevcn or twelve o'cl 4•. k at night. He has been there as late as one
or two o'clock in the morning. One night I saw him with the Prin-
cess in the blue room, after the Ladies had retired. Some time after-
wards. when 1 supposed that he had-gone to his room. I went to seat
that all was safe, and I found the blue room door locked, and heard a
whispering in it, and I went away. (Sighed) W. COLE.
Sworn at Lord. Grenviile's house, in Downing-
. titteet, June 6, 1806.
(Signed) SPENCER.
GRENVILLE.

DEPOSITION OF CHARLarrE SANDER.
I have lived with the Princess of Wales eleven years. I
am a native of Ilrunswick, and came with the Princess from
Brunswick. The Princess has had a little boy hying with
her under her protection ; he had a mark on his hand, but
it is worn off; I first saw him, four years ago, in tl:c Au-
tumn. The faller and mother of the clj:d are still alive;
have seen them both; the father \yolked in the Dock-
yard at Deptford, bul has row lost the use of his
the folier's name h Austin. The mother brouglit the child
to the Pi inress he wa: four moath3 old ; I was present
wlien the child v,:s bh,nght to the Princess ; she was in her
own room up stairs,. when the child was brought ; she came
out, and took till child herself. I undcrst,Jod that il,e
child was expected before it was bronght. I .:in SUle that I
never raw the child in ,he house before it al peered t, he
four months old. The Princess was not ill or iadiTo:cat
the Autumn of 1802. I m%is drev.er to her brat fliAltuess ;
she could not be ill or indisposed wit::out my knowirg it.
I am sure that she was, not confined ro her room,- or 'o her
bed, in that Atitninn; there was not, to my knowleil4e, any
other child in the inre; it was hardly pos,ib:e there
could have been a child there without Iny ktinwn,g it. I
have no recollecti.on that the Princes!: Intl grown bigger in
the year 1802 than usual; I am sure the Nrincf-s, I%as not
pregnant—being her dresser, I mnst have •cen it, if he
was.* I solemnly and poatively swear, I have no reason 70
'plow or bcLeve that the Ptince,s of tValcs be,n) at
any time pregnant during the t;tne I have Lived Ait!! her
Ilighne.is at Montague house. I may h.tve saal to
Cole, that the Princess was grown much thinner, but .1