The Sun.
London, England, 1824-12-22 00:00:00

T
/ a tl•44'

WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 22, 1824.

1...A.W INTELLIGENCE.

COURT OF KING'S 11ENCH, Drc. 21.
Sittings at TVertminster kfbre the Lord Chief Justice An-
BOTT and a Special Jury.

BREACH OF PROMISE OF MARRIAGE.
I.OOTE V. IlaYxu, ESQ.
The expected trial of the action brought by
Miss FooTE, the actress, against JOSEPH !JAYNE,
Egq., for a breach of promise of marriage, created
an interest so intense, that the doors and avenues
were crowded to excess at the early hour of eight
in the morning. A favoured few were admitted
by the door for the King's Counsel, and instantly
the Students' Box and the Body of the Court, .
where the Solicitors sit, were filled to an over..
flow, A few ladies were adritAtted to the seats
behind the Counsel.--A bout nine o'clock it was
whispered that a compromise was likely to take
place, and consequently that the cause would go
off. This intimation was received with evident
disappointment, as was clearly indicated by the
countenances.of some, and loudly expressed by
others, but it soon turned out to be a false alarm.
—At half-past nine precisely the Lord Chief
Justice entered the Court ; the Earl of Sefton
and Lord Mountford sat on the left hand of his
Lordship ; Count Vandreuil (attached, we be-
lieve, to the French Embassy in this country),
occupied a place on the Lord Chief Justice's
right. The cause having been called on, the
Jury, which consisted of all special Jurymen,
were then called over by Mr. Abbott, the
Judge's Associate, who answered to their names,
which were as follow :
Charles Hitchcock, Esq. James Rogers, Esq.
Charles Bacon, Esq. John Gilmour, Esq.
C. F. lligg, Esq. Henry Bateman, Esq.
W. Slaughter, Lsq. Samuel Harding, Esq.
• H. Dixon, Esq. T. Cooper, Esq.
T. Steed, Esq. W. Benson, Esq.
While the Jury were being sworn, a dreadful rush took place,
accompanied with cries from the constables and tipstaves of
" Clear the road"—" Clear the passage!"
The Loan CutEr JusTrcE—Bring any one that is making
a disturbance in custody before me, and I will instantly send
him to Newgate.
Mr. PLATT now opened the pleadings, and said that the,
first count of the declaration stated that the defendant had pro-
mised marriage to the plaintiff, which be had afterwards failed
in performing. There was another count, which stated that
the plaintiff; exercising the calling and profession of an actress,
had been induced to abandon it on the defendant's promising
to marry, which had occasioned her to sustain damages, laid in
the declaration, to the amount of 10,00/.
The ATToit),TEY-GENERAL then rose and addressed the
Boad-street, for the
Jury for the plaintiff. This, as had been stated to them by
his Learned Friend Mr. Platt, was an action for a breach of
promise of marriae. The defendant in this case, Mr. !Jayne,
of a lanrygooaeun gentleman,g
independent
about 23 or 24 years of age. possessed
sthw.atorasetst ; flag man
n house ust ei
ntoUwpnAar man
oo ko-f
arlborough, but principally residing at an
nrocAsiniuisireefo.wrt„usHnieeiv,
nouessed a country-seat in the
with those person,' over whom his fortune
the -mr° neighbourhood
oBv,eneasy
purpose of rendering his associa-
tionhad given him a contralti. The l"'ir-.111-;LP. Miss Fiat was well
known to be a lady of great beauty and accotnp amyl, and
possessing the utmost fascination of manners. She was st,4,
daughter of a gentlemen who had been an officer in his Mom.
ty's army, and she was an actress of the highest talent : she
did not come there, nor was it his intention on her part, to ex-
cite the compassion of the Court and Jury in her favour—she
came there merely for justice against Mr. 'Bayne, for an injury
done to her feelings, of the deepest kind. The Jury would con-
sider the situation in which Miss Foote had been ; anti what.
ever, long previous to the period of which he was then speaking
might have been the conduct of this persecuted lady.
[ Here a dreadful noise and great confusion prevailed, so
much so, as tntally to interrupt the Learned Attorney-Gene.
ral in his address. Silence having been again restored, be
proceetled.l
Ile was sure the Gentlemen of the Jury would see that this
was n case calling for a large amount ef damages. It must evi-
dently be no small part or aggravation of the plaintiff's suffer-
ings to be obliged, as she now felt herself, to expose anti to state
every circumstance of her private life before that Court and the
world. She, however, expressed no desire to conceal the errors
into which she had unhappily fallen ; and when the Jury con-
sidered the situations of. peril And temptation in.which she had
been placed, he was quite sure that they would not think those
errors altogether unpardonable. The father of Miss Foote, in
order to bring up his family in respectability, had taken the
Plymouth theatre, at which the present plaintiff' first made her
appearance before the }public, as an actress. 3lr. Foote having
given up his commission, and the Corporation of Plymouth
ing erected a rival theatre, his daughter's friends considered
her talents so high, as that there was a fair prospect of her suc-
ceeding on the London stage. An application on her behalf
was accordingly made to Mr. Fawcett, then stage manager,
and that gentleman, with the kindness and liberality that
always distinguished his character and conduct,, answered,
that although he never advised or recommended young fe-
males to appear on the stage, or to adopt a theatrical life,
yet, if she chose to make her appearance, he would use his
best influence in her behalf, in order to secure her success.
Sho accordingly made her first appearance in London, in
the Chili/ of Nature', and although without any party to
flatter her, she played with. so much of talent anti feeling
as at once to ensure herself success. A three years engage-
ment followed this effort, and so far she neither disappointed
the opinion of her friends nor the judgment of the public; but
on the contrary, she attracted the attention of many ladies of
' high rank, who received her with the utmost partiality and at-
tention. About the period when she was 17 or 11l years of age,
she had the misfortune to be invited by the proprietor of the
Cheltenham Theatre to play there. She accepted the invita-
tion, and soon arrived at great popularity In the progress of
the season her benefit arrived, and then it was communicated
to her by, the Manager, that a gentleman of great wealth
and influence, and of much popularity—a gentleman deeply
skilled in the world, and in intrigue, and one of no mean
theatrical talent himself—in short, Colonel Berkeley, the
eldest son of the late Earl Berkeley, was desirous of playing a
part with her, for her benefit. She entertained no suspicions
of his having Ins against her person
andpeace formed any improper desand this led her to accept his offer, Ile (the At.
premeditated scheme to effect her ruin.—
torney-Oeneral) would.
acquit the Colonel of having, at that
her, anti finally offered
yti°ton--4°°thatnefFaeCto,w
ed the warmest
it
aansclheaffw'easctiotnhanforlaaking
tTimhee'Cfoolrnonleellt.sabewed the most marked attention—,stain
application for
Place then, as her pro-
ah e
Peers
,marriagegean;dr egtuaat,
was
(1
was impossible their n cnolui tel
wt aoku
ti
throw
petitioning his Maj
P fession and present sitiiit'arriationgei such an ob-
hint, For five
, stacle in the way, that the prayer of his petition would never be
~ granted. Still his attentions and his professions of deep regard
• and affection increased instead of diminishin, and about •
year after she had net him at Cheltenham she became the ViA-
410r1C1 11 and all
yearstini fst eer tendernessival u nde
under
aftntiv
pscrilai
eme
teinotn
.towards
o t.
that time he gave no intimation that he would not perform his
promise ,ha marrying her. During all that time eo made her
no pecuniary allowance beyond the payment of thow eepences
• which he himself hail led her to incur; and, for the whole fiyo
► yea that she continued to live with hits, ese
the prnte he
h,
made her did not amount in value to 1001, This tt'n"c'ctlan
was no secret, but it was carried on with an mush of decency
t and decorum, that Miss Foote never „assail a night out Of
r her fatheett house in Iteppel4treet 4
time
uervierngptuh:
141011:leg:it*.
ne.
r years 'that she was under the protection or Colour.' ne_lk,elers
• near thud the Colonel, in that
that house. To
suppose that. a rasa 44' flee wood like Mr.
, liayne, and one who had mixed in Society as he '
had done,
. ' could be ignorant or dos connection, was to draw too largely
on the credulity of others. lii 1821 Miss Foote bad a child
by Colonel Berkeley, 'and he told her that she must con.