The Sun.
London, England, 1830-05-08 00:00:00

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.

Wm. Saunders, in custody on a charge of bigamy,
was yesterday brought before Mr. CONANT, the sit-
ting magistrate, for re-examination.

Elizabeth Chamberlain, a pretty-looking young
girl, the second wife, being a competent witness, was
examined, and proved her marriage with the prisoner,
at the parish church of St. John Zachary, in June,
1827, and produced the certificate to that effect.

The first wife, whose maiden name was Mary
Goodman Richardson, was also in attendance, but
being disqualified from giving evidence in the case,
she was not examined, but she produced a certifi-
cate of her marriage with the prisoner, in February,
1813, at the parish church of St. Luke, Middlesex.
It being necessary to prove the correctness of this
certificate, John Facey, the parish clerk of St.
Luke's, attended, and produced the registry book of
marriages for that parish, and read from it an entry,
made on the Bth of February, 1813, of the mar-
riage of William Saunders, bachelor, and Mary
Goodman Richardson, spinster, signed by the Rev.
Mr. Berger, the then rector, and witnessed by a per-
son named Smith, and it appeared also by the entry
that Facey, the clerk, was the person who gave the
bride away.
Mr. CONANT asked the witness if he could swear
that the woman now present was the same that he
gave away in marriage on that occasion, and that
the prisoner was the man to whom he gave her ?
How is it pssible for me," said the witness,
to swear to any such thing after the lapse of such a
number of years, and the hundreds of couples that
have been married at that church since I have
been clerk ?"

"But, I suppose," said the Magistrate, " that
you were not employed to give away in marriage
all the females in these hundreds of instances, and
you might therefore recollect one that you did give
away."—" Certainly," said the witness, " I_ did
not give them all away ; but I have no doubt .1 did
a great many of them."
" How does it happen," said the Magistrate,
" that you are employed to give away females thus
in marriage unless you know something of them ?"
—The witness said that there was nothing more
common than when there was no immediate near
relative of the female present, to employ the parish
clerk to perform that ceremony.
" Then," the Magistrate, " you have no recollec-
tion of either of these parties now present, nor can
you identify them as the couple that were married
on the occasion you allude to ?"—The witness
thought he had some slight recollection of the man
at the bar, but he could not venture to swear to
him; but as for the woman, he had no trace what-
ever of her perFon on his memory.
" I am sure;' said the first wife, " that it is im-
possible you could recollect me, for at that time I
was a plump, fat, and jolly young woman, and now
I am a broken-hearted, care-worn, miserable-looking
creature." Here the poor woman burst into tears.
Mr. CONANT asked if she had any friend who was
present at the marriage, and could identify the pri-
soner as the person who underwent the ceremony
with her? She replied that she had not any per-
son, for it so happened that every one of about a
dozen who were present at the marriage was now
dead, except the clerk, the prisoner, and herself.
" Yes," said the clerk, " even the clergyman
who married you is dead, and I know Smith the
witness is dead too."

Mr. CON ANT asked if there was no person alive
who saw them together o.► that day after they were
married, at the wedding-dinner, or any other place?
The wife replied that there was no wedding-
dinner; for, in fact, immediately on their coming
out of the church after the ceremony, she went one
way home to her friends, and the prisoner went
another way home to his.

" Why was that," said the Magistrate, " did
you nut live with him after the marrriage ?—No,
she said, not for some time after; for the truth was,
that neither her relations, nor the relations of the
prisoner, knew of the marriage, and he being an
apprentice at thQ time, and _ under age, and she

Mr. CONANT.—And will you take back your first
wife to live with you ?—Prisoner—No, your wor-
ship, I would rather be as I am than do that,
because I understand she has, for several years past,
been living with another man.
The Magistrate said, that he supposed, under
these circumstances, the case must proceed, but
there must be other evidence procured.
The prisoner was then remanded until Tuesday
next, and a summons directed to be served on Mr.
Winterburn, of Hackney, to attend and prove, if
he can, the prisoner's hand-writing.
The parish clerk, on being ordered to attend again
on Tuesday said, that almost the whole of his time
was taken up of late in attending to give evidence at
the Sessions, and the different police effices, in cases
of this nature.

" I hope riot," said the Magistrate ; " I trust the
crime of bigamy is not quite so common as all that."
" No crime," said the clerk, "can almost be more
common, and it is increasing every day. People think
nothing of taking two or three wives or husbands."
" I am sorry to hear that," said the Magistrate.