The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-03-25 00:00:00

EXTRAORDINARY CASE OF SLANDER

At the Leicester assizes, on Friday last, the following sin-
gular case was heard. One of the parties who is spoken of
as having resided in this town was very well known here, es-
pecially amongst the officers of the customs.

DEMPSTER 'HEMMING AND WIFE V. POWER.
Mr. Balguy, Mr. Sergeant Goulburn, Mr. Hill, and Mr.
Waddington were for the plaintiffs; Sir W. Follett, Mr.
Daniel (both being specially retained), and Mr. Mellor were
for the defendant. •

The present action was brought on account of certain de-
famatory expressions alleged to have been used with refer-
ence to Mrs. Hemming by the defendant, the facts as de-
tailed in proof. being as follows :—Mr. Hemming, a gentle-
man of fortune, living at Caldecott-hall, in the county of
Warwick, was bred to the bar, and for a short period went
the Midland Circuit ; he subsequently prcceelled to India,
and having made a large fortune returned to his native county
and purchased the estate on which he now resides. Some
time in the year 1839 he met, at the house of Mr. Roberts,
who is a magistrate of the county, a Miss and Mr. Alleyne,
who were introduced to him as brother and sister. The lady
was possessed of great personal attractions, and ultimately
Mr. Hemming married her. We believe the marriage was
solemnised towards the latter end of 1839 or the beginning of
1840. It would appear that Mr. and Miss Alleyne were
strangers in the county, and how they got acquainted with
Mr. Roberts did not precisely appear. The plaintiff, Mr.
Hemming,. is about 60 years of age, and what is generally
termed an old bachelor ; the lady is 28, or it may be 30. It
being known that this marriage bad taken place, many per-
sons were curious to ascertain who Miss Alleyne was, and
the defendant (Mr. Power), who is a very respectable at-
torney, living in the neighbourhood, had stated to certain
professional gentlemen, whom he had met on business, that
it was suspected they were not brother and sister, but stood
in the relation to each other of man and wife. The persons to
whom this was said expressed their entire disbelief of such re-
ports, and, ultimately, Mr. Alleyne was informed of what had
been said by Mr. Power, and wrote to that gentleman. Mr.
Power, in answer to this communication, admitted he had
stated such rumours were current, and gave as his authority
Mrs. Roberts, of. Witherby. Some communication took
place between the parties, and at last the present action
was brought for- the words so spoken. On the part of the
plaintiffs, the learned counsel contented themselves with
simply proving the words to have been uttered by Mr. Power,
refraining from putting Mr. Alleyne into the witness-box to
say who or what he or. Mrs. Hemming (his pretended sister)
were. This fact was indignantly commented upon by the
Solicitor-General, who, failing to nonsuit the plaintiffs upon
certain objections which he took to the declarations, pro-
ceeded to state who Mrs. Hemming and Mr. Alleyne (as far
as the exertions that had been used by his client could show)
really were. With regard to Mrs. Hemming, they had not
not been able to trace her origin, and therefore the Solicitor-
General stated he would assume the description she gave of
herself, when married to Mr. Hemming, was the correct one :
that description was Rhoda Mary Alleyne, daughter of Henry
Alleyne, gentleman•. With regard to her pretended brother,
it had been discovered that his father had been a shipwright
in the town of Lyme Regis—that his name was Chard ; he
he had been unfortunate in trade, and been bankrupt. This
Henry Alleyne, then, was the son of this shipwright, and
was traced to have lived at Liverpool, in the humble station
of tidewater ; that while a very young man he was placed on
the superannuation list, and received his pension quarterly
or half-yearly, all these facts being proved by evidence, and
Alleyne's own hand-writing, giving receipts for the pensions,
which writing was distinctly sworn to. Those documents
were signed " Henry Chard," and that was done during the
whole time he was down in Warwickshire, at Caldecott Hall,
living upon Mr. Hemming. It was also proved that in 1838
this Alleyne was living with Mrs. Hemming at Finchley or
Hampstead, ostensibly as brother and sister; he had also
gone by the names of Captain Alleyne and of Dinham, in
which latter name he appeared to have been a dealer in
butter.

Sir W. Follett contended that if he proved these circum-
stances, and others of a similar nature, it would be quite
clear Mrs. Hemming and Alleyne were mere adventurers,
and that Mr. Hemming was their dupe ; that Mr. Power had
not uttered the words in question other than as the reports
common in the neighbourhood, which were in everybody's
mouth ; and that under these circumstances the verdict
should pass for the defendant.

Mr. balguy contended the jury had nothing to do with
Alleyne. _The, aetion was- brought 1 y•Mr. Hemming--and
his wife for words reflecting upon her ; and the learned
Judge, in summing up, inclined to that opinion.
The jury retired, and ultimately found for the plaintiff,
with one farthing damages.