The Sun.
London, England, 1818-12-09 00:00:00

COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, Drc. S.

.S'itiings after 'Term, before Chief Justice D.31.1.„%.3 and a
Special .lury.
•
CRIM. CON.
CLITFIRROR V. PETP:RS.

. -
Mr. CHITTY stated, that_iu this case-Colonel 1,
John Clitheroe was plaintiff, and John Peters,
Esq. defendant. The declaration charged the de-
feud-ant with holding, on the 21st of September,
1817, ainl on other days, criminal conversation
with the plaintiff's wife.—The defendant pleaded
Not Gritty.
It was, in other terms, an action t 9 recover a
compeasation in damages for an adulterous inter-
course with the wife of the plaintiff.—The damages
were specially laid at 10,0001.
Mr. Serjeaot VavotraN represented this to be
one of the most aggravated cases he had ever stated
during his professional life. The plaintiff had been
rubbed of a wife by whom he was most tenderly
beloved, and whom he loved with equal tenderness,
under treachery, hypocrisy, and breach of friend-
ship. Ile was persuaded the Jury would consider
it. a case which required heavy damages.—The
plaintiff was Captain Clitheroe, of the Third Regi-
ment of Foot Guards, and a Lieutenant-Colonel iu
the Army.' He was one of those brave men to
whom the country was some!) indebted during the
late war. From 1809 down to the present time
hiS lite had been honourably. devoted to the ser-
vice of his country. Ile was a Gentleman of ancient
and honourable family. 1.11 1809 be married
the Lady %I/hose conduct was the subject of this
action. Lie was long acquainted with her be-
fore marriage. She was 'an accomplished young
woman, 22 or 23 years of age, and the eldest
daughter of General Burton, a man of good fur-
tune, and a General in the Army. The plaintiff,
early in life, was Aid-de-Camp to Gen. Burton,
who saw that he -deserved notice and attentitons
He paid his addresses to die General's daughter,
and was received by the family. In 1809 the mar-
riage took place. it promised complete happiness
to the parties, and the tenderest attachment pre-
vailed. The Colonel was 2:5, and the young
Lady 22. In the Spring following 1809, lie was
called to his military duties, and went with the
Expedition to \Valcheren. tie returned at the
end of the year, and went to Spain, where he re-.
'pained some time. lie was wounded at the bat-
tle of Fuentes Ilonores, and returned to this coun-
try. The most ardent affection subsisted, at that
time between the Colonel and his wife. Called
again by, duty, he went once more to Spain, and
was wounded at Burgos. Being severely wound-
ed, lie did. not rejoin the army till the end of
ISIS, when the Dike of Wellington was pro-
ceeding to Paris. After the Treaty of Paris, in
October, 1815, he sent for his wife, who came to
bins : and the fatigues of war having ceased, they
enjoyed happiness together. She went with him
to the South of France, and
.at Toms their ac-
quaintance with the defendant commenced. The
defendant was the eldest son of Mr. Peteis, the
banker, a man of large fortune and ,of the highest
respectability. This young man had been himself
married to a woman to whom he was tenderly
attached ; but hail had the misfortune to lose
her. In January, 1816, he went to France for
the purpose of dissipatiOg his melancholy, and
at the house of a friend, iii the South of France,
was introduced to the plaintiff, about Feln nary in
the same year : this was one month after his loss.
He was received by the plaintiff with kindness
and hospitality. The Colonel, while at Tours, had
his only child with him, a boy seven years of age;
and the Jury would feel that he could have
no sospicibn of having his marriage bed violated
while his wife had a child seven years old almost
invariably by her side. The intimacy which sub-
sisted induced theta to travel together They went
to Marseilles, Toulon, Svc itzerland, and Geneva.
Having made the tour of Switzerland on a footing
of trieudship, they returned to Dover at the end of
the year. Mr. l'etels then heard of the &earl' of
Isis mother, and Colonel Clitheroe invited hint to
go to the house of his mother. The defendant
accordingly %vent to the Colonel's mother's house,
and soon after Col. Clitheroe removed to Bexhill
Barracks, avh(4e he had command of the mill-,
ary depot. Mrs. Clitheroe remained with her
mother and went to Worthing, a circumstance
which gave the defendant all opportunity of
ruining her happiness with the plaintiff. In the
Spring of ISI7, the Colonel took his wife with
him to Bexhill, atsd it was remarkable that the
defendant never visited Mrs. Clitheroe at Bexhill
its his own name. Ile was received by Mrs. Cli-
theroe with welcome in the absence of her hus-
band, who never suspected his confidence had
been abused after be left his wite with his mothers
It would be difficult to fix the exact time the adul-
terous intercourse commenced, but the Learned
Serieant observed, that was not a material cir-
cumstance for consideration, as the Lady had
eloped and was then living with the defendant in
France. Ile should prove, bowCver, that on the
sth, the Gth, and 7th of July, 1817, when the
friendship and intimacy was supposed to be sub-
sisting, the defendant disguised his name to
accomplish or carry on the adulterous. inter-
course. On the sth of July, the Colonel waa
compelled by military duty to proceed to Wiud-

sir. The defendant, ille mor.:,-;ug ti.e
after the Colonel's departure, ‘vent down to Bex-
hill, and told. the servants lie had a letter for Mrs.
Clitheroe from Mr. Peters, which he must deliver
himself. In consequence of this, he was received
by her i•n the parlour, under circumstances which,,
proved the criminaliq of her conduct. She had
previously told the servants to put clean linen on
the bed in her chamber, to gather flowers in
the garden to adorn the bed-room, and to go to
bed themselves at ten o'clock. She sent also
for the cook, and gave directiona fur a din-
ner ; she was told not to come lip to inter-
rupt her, as she should have a Gentleman with
her. All these valets would prove that the adul-
terous intercourse was pre-concerted by the par-
ties, The defendant came between five and six in
the evening, and was received in the parlour
which led-into the bed-room ; he remained there
until two o'clock in the morning, and not one of
the servants saw him go away. In the morning
he went to the Ton to dre,ss, and returned to (lin-
net ; he remained there the second day in the
same manner. On the third day he went at nine
o'clock at night. • It would not be difficult to in-
fer that 111 e act of. adultery was committed during
the three days, but the subsequent conduct of the
parties made that q'testion of less cousequence.-e-
The person of the defendant was known to the
servants at Bexhill by a black patch on his cheek,
and he Wai some time after identified in France
by the same mat k. Upon the day when he avail-
ed himself of the absence of the plaintiff, and was
received by Mrs. Clitheroe, he should prove that
Mrs. Clitheroe said to him—.." Sit down, my dear
I hope you have had a pleasant journey."—This
was the brief outline of the case, and Mr. Ser-
jean( VationaN contended that it called f,,r ex-
emplary damages.
IVm. Allen produced the Register of the Mar-
riage of the plaintiff and his wife, at St. George's,
Hanover-square, in February 1809.
Miss Sophia Clitheroe, sister to the plaintiff,
proved that her brother and Mrs. Clitheroe lived
happily from the time of their marriage to the
elopetnent. She corroborated the statement of
Mr. Sedeant Vaughan respecting her brother's
set vice in the army.
Mr. Ayres said he was •acquainted with the;
plaintiff in the early part of 1816. They came to
him at Tours. The defendant was introduced to
them at his house. He considered them theshap-
piest couple he had ever known.
Colonel Mercer had seen the plaintiff in 1815,
in Paris, but knew nothing of his intimacy in 1816
with the defendant,

. _
Sarah ‘Vebb, a girl 14 yearn of age, the'daughter
of Serjeant Webb of the Guards, said, she lived in
Colonel Clitberoe's family, as servant to :Nirs.
Clitheroe, in July last year, at Bexhill. She re-
membered the defendant coming to dine, with her
mistress about the 4th or sth of July. Her mistress
told her, the day before the defendant came, to go
to different places and get all the flowers she could
to make the ped-room nice. She Ordered her also
to put clean bed linen on. The plaintiff's picture
was removed from the bed-room, and Mrs.
Cli-
theroe's put up invest!. The witness was ordet ed
not to sit to work in the bed-room, as she usually
had done, but to go into the kitchen. Mrs. Cli-
theroe mute an alteration in the bed-roam by
putting her night clothes in a silk bag. the wit-
ness saw the defendant with her mistress in the
month of November, in the absence of her master.
The' servants consisted of a cook, a groom, a foot-
man, and herself.

Jane Scott, cook to the plaintiff, proved that
Mrs. Clitheroe gave her orders to prepare dinner
on the day the defendant came. A watch, which
hung in the parlour, was removed to the kitchen
to prevent the conk going into the parlour to
know the time while cookin4 the dinner. The
defendant remained in the house after the ser-
vants were ordered to go to bed. On her exa-
mination- by the Judge, site said the little girl
‘Vebb made Mrs. Clitheroe's bed. The witness
was in the room when the girl made the bed ;
she had no means of knowing whether one or two
persons had slept in it.
James Hillier, servant to the Colonel, remem-
bered the defendant coining to Bexhill. When
he was in the parlour, Mrs. Clitheroe said—" Sit
down, my dear : 1 hope you have had a pleasant
journey...
William Pritchard, another servant, proved t hat
the defendant and Mrs. Clitheroe were together
at Bexhill in November. They eloped in Decem-
ber in a postchaise. The plaintiff's child was at
school in London. The witness went in August
last to Foros, in France, where he found the
defendant and Mrs. Clitheroe living together as
man and wile. , lie went with a Mr. Thompson,
who had a citation from the Ecclesiastical Court
to serve on Mrs. Clitheroe.

I. Thompson proved that he served the eita.
lion on Mrs. Clithetoe, in France, on the 24th of
June List. •

The .plaintiff's Attorney proved that the de-
fendant had suffered hilwelf to be outlawed before
he gave instructions to his Solicitor to defend this
action.

'Mr. Seijeant LENS made an able appeal to the
Jury in behalf of the defendant, whom lie tie,
scribed to be a very young man, who had been
drawn from his duty by a woman many years
°leer than himself. It was not, he contended, so
bad a case as that stated by his Learned Friend.
'l' he CHIEF .IU9TICit summed up the evidence
%‘ith his usual accuracy, and expressed an opi-
nion that sufficient evidence' of the et imioal con-
duct of the parties had not been procured ; at
the same tittle, he considered it a most aggrava•-
ed case. A gallant Officer, who tifforded hospi-
tality and friendship to the defendant, had 'been
basely. betrayed in his absence on duty; his site
torn fiont him, unit his child deprived of a mother.
There was no extenuation in the ease, unless it
could be found in the ages of the parties-the
defeudant being some years younger than \Mrs.
Clitheroe. He left the Jury to say what da-
mages ought to be given.
The Jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff--
Damages, 3,0001.

The coach-house of Sir TuomAs 117u.s'orr, of
Stamford-street, Blaekfriars, was broke Opel) 011
Monday night, and plundered of some valuable
harnesv, and a coachman's box-coat.