Star.
London, England, 1824-08-06 00:00:00

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.
LINCOLN, AUGUST 4.
ORM CON•JORS V. TIRE Ray. E. 8. WETLAND.
This was an action of Crim. Con. against the defen-,
dant, who pleaded, first, the generalissue; and, secondly,
the two statutes of limitation, which respectively re-
quire that the action should be brought within either
six or four years after the commission of the offence.
Mr. PHILLIPS opened the pleadings, and Mr. DEN-
MAN stated the case to theJury.—He observed, that no
case of a similar nature had ever occurred in the county
of Lincoln, at least within his recollection, and he there-
fore deemed it necessary to be more than ordinarily ex.
plicit in his statement to the Jury. The charge was
one of a highly serious nature, against a Clergyman of
the Established Church ; and certainly the defendant
bad taken a very singular and unprecedented w 4 of
rescuing his moral and religious character from the
stain which such a charge was calculated to throw upon
it. He had not rested his defence upon his innocence,
but had preferred a legal security, by a technical re-
course to the Statutes of Limitation, to the more digni-,
fled and certainly more moral ground of his integrity.
He would not contend that the defendant's offence had
inflicted any poignant misery 'upon his client, or
that it had entitled him to call upon a Jury of his coup-
try for excessive damages; but the verdict of the Jury,
in cases of this nature, ought often to be determined
by the moral turpitude of the offender, rather than by
the actual injury inflictei upon the victim of his guilt.
His client, Mr. John, was a most respectable attorney,
practising at Penzinsce, in Cornwall. In 1810 he mar-
ried Miss Grills, the daughter of a Gentleman of good
family in the same county, and then a member of the
profession of the law. Circumstances, he lamented to
say, had induced the parties to separate very soon after
their union, and the Lady was liberally provided for by
her husband, and placed, with great judgment and pro-
priety, under the protection of a clergyman, a Mr. Pal-
mer, then residing on the living of Redburn, in Lincoln.
shire. Mr. Palmer afforded the Lady every protection,
and bestowed Opon her every attention which her pe-
culiar situation required, and which his sacred functions
had induced the husband to expect at his hands. For
three years she had resided in his family, and had been
in habitual intercourse with the most respectable families
around her. But, unhappily, a servant, whom the Lady
'had brought into Lincolnshire, married a tradesman re-
siding at Kit ton, in the same county, and Mrs. John
thought proper to leave the house of Mr. Palmer, -anclio
take up her residence with this newly-married domestic.
It was at this house that the Reverend defendant became
so intimate with this victim of his criminal designs. It,
is not to be supposed that Mt. John, although separated
from his wife, could be indifferent to her conduct, or
insensible to her dishonour ; but neither anxiety nor sus-1
pinion could be well excited, by the visits, however fre-,
,quent, of a man of the defendant's sacred office, and
whose holy functions had been made a passport to the,
Lady's society and confidence. He should, he trusted,',
prove to the satisfaction of the Jury, that the visits I
which the Clergyman had paid to the Lady under pre-
tence of performing the sacred duties of his profession,
had been made the means of accomplishing those de-
signs, for which his client so justly sought redress be-
fore a Jury of his countrymen. • •
Richard Oxlam, R..q. knew Mr: and Mrs. John in
'eassawaU;. had witnessed their marriage on the 23d of
January, 1810; he was thin High Sheriff of the County.
John was his Under-Sheriff ; the Lady's father was
steward to the Duke of Leeds.
Cross-examined by Mr. Serjeant VAunnAu.—The
parties re
,crated three months alter marriage, in conse-
quence of Mrs. John's presenting her husband with a
child, to which he thought he could conscientions4, lay
no claim. He never lived with her after this exposure;
the marriage took place in January,lBlo, and the Lady
was confined in the succeeding March. •
Mrs. Margaret Smith, examined by Mr. READER.—
The witness lived at Gainsborough ;
_ha maiden napie
was Green; she accompanied Mrs. John from Cornwall,
when she came to reside with Mr.-Palmer, at Redburo,
in Lincolnshire; they lived with Mr. Palmer four years;
the IfitOSS4 then married, and settled in Kit ton, Lincoln.:
shire; Mrs. John came to live with me in September,.
1814; Mr. Weyland, the Clergyman at Redburn, had.
Mrs. John at Mr. Palmer's; his visits were very
frequent to Mrs. John at my house. He always came oh
Wednesday and Saturday, and generally remained about
hslf an hour, sometimes he remained nearly . two
hours, they were generally in *the sitting-room. A
servant, named Ann Smith, always aniweieb*the bell 1
Mr.Weyland sometimes visited the Lad y in the bed-robin,
bet this was only when she was too ill to get up ; Amick
then the clergyman did not stay above a quarter or half
an hour: in general half an hour. They were in general
alone. One day witness went "unexpectedly into the
bed-room. Mrs. John was ;4411 Saw Mr. Weyland
turning himself round by the bed, as if to sit down.
Imagined he had been praying; hit dress was disordered ;
and his coat was half off his shoulders : it was much his
usual way of wearing his coat. I spoke to Mrs. Palmer
about it : but I did not cry out 16 shame r as I entered
or left the room : Mrs. Palmer said, she thought the
clergyman was criminal with the lady : 1 was not of
that opinion. The Rev. Mr.W.eyland was married, and
he continued his visits to Mrs. John after his marriage,
but I never knew him to gO into the bed-room but when
the lady said she was ill. She left-my housein 1618.
She did not bring -her child into Lincalnshire with her.
Mr. John had left the care of her to her father's arrange-1
ment. She always appeared broken-hearted: and she
had requested the assistance of a clergyman in her de-
votions, upon which Mr. Palmer introduced to her Mr.
Weyland, the defendant. She had an objection to go to
church, and the defendant used to read psalms, and re-
ligious tracts to her: and occasionally gave her the
sacrament. He was always alone with her, when be
was reading this religious tracts.
Mrs. Ann Palmer was the widow of the Rev. Me.
Palmer, alluded to by the preceding witness; she in-
troduced the defendant to Mrs. John; in 1815 aria%
Margaret Smith pointed out to me the impropriety of
•the defendant's attending Mrs. John in her bed-room 1,.
she told defendant of it; he admitted the inipropriety
of it, and proMised that it should not be repeated. .
Mathias Binnes proved the hand-writing of the fol-
lowing letter, which was put in in evidence :
"Mr Dux Sts.,—l have to thank you for your delicacy ilaj
loading to Mr. Hasidersley the execution of a painful duty Obi
service of a wt4t In this action.) It is In vain fqr me to say. that
wish every part of my intercourse with Mrs. John was known to
eke whole world. I have been the victim of misapprehessilion, but
fear I cannot help myself. Spare me, if possible, the pain of a
trial at Lincoln, as I wish to have the business concluded at Londe&
Tile damages, of course, with a woman so infamous, will be oily
assaing. State this explicitly, in order to satisfy my mind'. I can-
not but think it hard to be singled out as Mr. John't victim, wilco
Smith WAS often heard to declare, that Mr. George Foster was.dia-
covered in bed with Mrs. John, at nine o'clock in the mortars.
To Mr. Buxton, Attorney."

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