The Sun.
London, England, 1861-07-20 00:00:00

---
LAW TELLIGENCE.-July 19.

DIVORCE COURT.
TUCKER DE ST. HILAIRE V. TUCKER DE ST.
HILAIRE.
This was. a petition by a wife on the ground of
adultery coupled with bigamy and desertion. The
respondent did not appear.
Mr. Patehett, for the petitioner, stated that the
marriage took place at Chelsea on Oct. 30, 1842,
and the cohabitation continued for four years.
The respondent was married in the name of Charles
Tucker de St. Hilaire, and he passed him-
self off as an Italian. His original name
was Tucker, and he was supposed to be an Irish-
man. He had also at different times taken the
names of the Marquis de St. Hilaire, of Alessandro
Borromeo, of Alessandro Count of Borromeo, and
of Dr. Charles Tucker. In 1847 he abandoned the
petitioner and went to Sheffield. He there repre-
sented himself as a political exile, the son of the
Due de Borromeo, made political speeches, raised
himself to a position of some importance, and on one
occasion offered himself as a candidate for a'setititi-

the town-council. He took advantage of his popu-
larity to get into debt to a large amount, and also
to persuade a young lady named Froggatt to elope
with him. He was married to her at Gretna Green
in November, 1847, and lived with her until 1851.
In that year he, deserted her, and went to Belfast,
where, as Dr. Tucker, he delivered lectures on mes-
merism. He also proposed to found a mesmeric
hospital, collected subscriptions for that purpose,
and decamped with them. He next became lecturer
to an itinerant panorama of Switzerland. He then
made the acquaintance of Miss Murray, a respecta-
ble lady, who had £2OO or £3OO belonging to her.
He represented himself to her as a physician be-
longing to St. George's Hospital, although his only
connection with that establishment was that he had
once been an out-patient, owing to a wound in his
leg which he had received in a duel on the Conti-
nent. When he had exhausted Miss Murray's purse,
he abandoned her, and then gained a living by going
to hotels and running up bills and leaving carpet-bags
filled with bricks in payment. He next visited Kil-
kenny, and represented that he was a " Count of
the Holy Roman Empire in the Pontifical degree,"
and that he had heen persecuted in consequence
of his conversion from the Roman Catholic
to the Protestant religion. The Protestant clergy-
men of the place, who became interested in him on
this account, introduced him as French teacher to a
resp:ctable academy. He then became a suitor to
another young lady, and proposed marriage to her,
but told her he could not marry her in the regular
manner, on account of his rank in the Holy Roman
empire. Some sort of marriage ceremony was,
however, gone through, and they lived together for
some time. He then abandoned her and came to
London, after having extracted a considerable sum
from her family. In London he took up with
another girl, and gained a living by concocting re-
ports of secret conferences supposed to be held by
Italian noblemen and friends to the Italian cause
and selling them to some of the newspapers. When
the fraud was discovered he was arrested on the
charge of obtaining money under false pretences.
At the time of his arrest he was lecturing at the
Reading Theatre, on electro-biology. On the 16th
of August, 1858, he was convicted of, bigamy, and
sentenced to four years' penal servitude.
The marriage having been proved by some of the
respondent's relatives, and the bigamous marriage
and the conviction by Miss Froggatt,
His lordship granted a decree nisi with costs.

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

HOME CIRCUIT.—CHELMSFORD, JULY 19.
(Before Mr. Justice Williams.)
MUIIDER.—.Martba Spencer Weaver, 42, was
charred with the wilful murder of John Gibson, a
child two years and a half old, by strangling him
with a shawl.
Mr. Shaw conducted the prosecution. The pris-
soner had no counsel, but, at the request of the
Court, Mr. Peirce kindly undertook to watch the
case-on her behalf.
It appeared by the evidence that the prisoner is
a married woman, but separated from her husband,
who made her an allowance of 7s, 6d. per week,
and she had been for a few months previous to the
death of the child residing at the village of Dan-
bury, near Chelmsford, of which place she is a
native. On the morning of April 15 the prisoner
and the mother of the child had been out in the
morning picking up wood, and they returned home
to Danbury, where they occupied two cottages close
to each other, about 12 o'clock. Shortly after this
the prisoner went to the child's mother and asked
her to give her a lucifer match, and she told her to
let the deceased go and fetch a box for her from a
shop in the village. The prisoner, it appeared, had
always seemed to be very fond of the child, and
frequently sent him on errands, and the mother
readily consented to the request of the prisoner,
who gave the child some money, and he went away.
In the course of a short time his mother saw him
going towards the prisoner's cottage and he called
out to her, "I have got the lucifers, good bye
mother ;" and she told him to make haste home as
his dinner was ready, and the poor little child was
observed to go into the prisoner's house, and was
never again seen alive. An hour or two having
elapsed, the mother became alarmed, and went
to the prisoner's cottage, and found the door
locked, and upon her knocking the prisoner came
down, apparently half asleep and in a stupified state,
and in answer to the inquiry of the mother where
the
green boy was, the prisoner said that he was on
green playing. The mother asked
kon what green,
and the prisoner said she did not now,
then shut the door, and locked it,
Nanotdbweiansg heard
to walk upstairs to the bedroom.
to obtain any tidings of the child, the mother went
again to the prisoner's cottage, accompanied by a
neighbour, named Neville, and found the door
locked as before. Upon her knocking, the prisoner
opened her bedroom window, and she was then ap-
parently in the same condition as before, namely,
half asleep, and she rubbed her eyes, and seemed
as though she had just woke up. The mother
again inquired where her child was, and the priso-
ner replied, " I know nothing of your child, he is
not here," and then shut the window. The mother
then applied to the Rev. Mr. Thorp, the curate of
the parish,' and told him the circumstances, and that
gentleman having prnenred the assistance of the
parish constable, proceeded to the cottage of the
prisoner which still remained in the same state.
Having knocked, and receiving no answer, a man
got in at the window and opened the door. They
then proceeded upstairs, and upon going into the
prisoner's bedroom, the first object that presented
itself was the dead body of the child lying on its
back in the middle of the room, with the end of a
shawl tied so tightly round its neck as to produce
suffocation, and the prisoner herself was lying
upon the bed apparently in a deep heavy sleep.
It was with considerable difficulty that she was
awoke, and she then talked in a very incoherent
manner, and upon her being accused of murdering
the child, she made no reply. After she had been
taken into custody, the prisoner said to the odfficfeorr,
" I don't mean to live long, but I mean to
the
her p
some of them before I die."
fire constabletontohen
asked her how she came to
ut of
said, " Never mind who—that
child, and the prisoner, in answer toeltlsheolqeuestion,
in
notrklde
eaosnisntaintcprlatetappeared
aatkt
tnaagt thes w
laudanum,pris one wasand
she told her neighbours tahl
bottles that had con-
quieting her nerves ; sever
tained laudanum were found in her bedroom, and
dthoesereownasthneomdoournbitngshoef had e tfaaktaenl
otteeucorrnesnideeer.abe
Itl
also appeared that the prisonerandto eatheeckhioltdkraelw,
andays
seemed to be very much attached
there did not appear to be the slightest motive for
the commission of the dreadful deed by the prisoner,alf
and according to the testimony of all the witnesses
she was at the time of the occurrence in a h
stupified and unconscious state, and did not appear
to know what she was about. The death of the child
appeared to have been occasioned by the end of a
large shawl being tied tightly round its neck, and
the remainder of the shawl was tied round its body.
and it then appeared to have been laid on its back
in the position in which it was found by the
witnesses.
Mr. Peirce made an earnest appeal to the jury on
behalf of the prisoner, and after observing upon
the absence of any motive for the commission of such
a barbarous crime, and to the fact that the prisoner

and the deceased appeared to have enterNned
strong feelings of affection for each other, he -ifig(o.
that it was possible that the child, while playing
about, had accidentally got the shawl round its
neck, and in struggling had drawn it so tight as
to cause suffocation. He also endeavoured to show,
thaf, supposing the jury slibiihiconic to the con-
clusion that this was not the case, and that the
death of the child was to be attributed to the act of
the prisoner, that she was in such a State of mind at
the time as not to be responsible for the act she had
committed, and that conacquently the jury ought
to acquit her on the ground of insanity.
The learned Judge having summed up, the jury
retired to deliberate upon thir verdict. They were
absent more than two hours, and upon their return
into court the foreman gave a verdict of Guilty.
His lordship then put on the black cap and
passed sentence of death in the usual form upon
the wretched prisoner, and she was taken from
the bar.

TESTIMONIAL 70 TILE RIGHT HON.

T.-111-17,NER GIBSON, M.P.

Yesterday afternoon a meeting was held at Fen-
Hotel, New Palace-yard, Westminster, for
the purpose of taking steps to present the Right
Hon. T. Milner Gibson, M.P., with a testimonial
in recognition of his " persevering, able, and suc-
cessful exertions during twelve years, as president
of the Association for the Repeal of the Taxes on
M.P., presided ; and
Knowledge." Mr. W. Evart,
amongst those present were Mr. Cobden, M.P., Sir
J. V. Shelley, Bart., M.P., Mr. J. White, M.P., Sir
C. E. Douglas, M.P., Mr. Stansfeld, and
Messrs. D. N. Chambers, John Cassell, G. W. Pet-
ter, Hunt, Lucas, &e.
The CHAIRMAN, in opening the proceedings,
remarked that all present would agree that Mr.
Milner Gibson had conducted the cause in parlia-
rnentwith consummate ability, and for that reason,
as well as on account of the services he had ren-
dered as ',resident of the Association for the Repeal
of the Knowledge, it was thought desir-
able to give the public an opportunity of presenting
himwith some testimonial in appreciation of his
merits. (Hear, hear.) . Many members of parlia-
ment as wellns isther gentleme.wha4 given in their
TititieStarTo IrtCitieet of• theiteNtlitirig, raid it had
been thought better to limit the amount of their
contributions in order to extend the area of sub-
scriptions.
On the motion of Sir J. V. SHELLEY, M.P.,
seconded by Sir C. DOUGLAS, M.P., the gentlemen
present resolved themselves into a testimonial com-
mittee, with power to add to their number, and to
appoint an executive committee having power to
appoint local committees.
Mr. COBDEN, M.P., who was cheered upon en-
tering the room, said it gave him much pleasure in.
being able to be present, in order to show his
appreciation of the talent and exertions of Mr.
Gibson ; and to offer his co-operation in some sub-
stantial mode with a view of tendering him his
meed of thanks for his labours. Those who had
the opportunity of watching Mr. Gibson, mast
have seen that he had brought an amount or
energy, skill, and address to bear on the question
rarely equalled by any public man. (Hear, hear.)
They were not a class of questions that could be
carried by assault, because they were not subjects
that gained so much attention out of doors as to
enable them being taken by storm. They required
sapping :and mining, and Mr. Gibson bad shown
great talent in that process. They all recognised
his merits, and were now anxious to show their
high appreciation of them. As to what form the
testimonial should take that would be for a future
meeting to decide. It rested entirely with Mr.
Gibson as to what should be done with the money
after it was collected. Mr. Cobden believed there
was a general feeling throughout the country that
some recognition should be made of Mr. Gibson's
services ; but their efforts would have no success,
whatever unless a working power was applied ;
and he saw around him gentlemen of just the kind
to make it a success if they devoted themselves to
the subject.
Mr. WHITE, M.P., proposed, and Mr. ASIIURST
seconded, a resolution to the effect that the sub-
scriptions should not exceed 11., which was agreed
to.