The Statesman.
London, England, 1810-06-18 00:00:00

VT.

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CON.

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OrKING'S BENCH. ;vex 16.
111/TING. 'BrifoßE LORD ELLEI4IIOIIOOaU AND 41'
• 111PRCiat;
• LEE*.B. BIAAQVIERE:'
Mr. ABBOTT opened the case. ' This was an
'action of damages, foe Criminal •Conveisation with
Use wife•ol the Plitititiff,'"'ite.' &e. '•
•
..• . • . . .
Mr. GARROW iddressod the Jory.--4‘ Gentle.
men, this'is one of those unhappy cases which un-
fo-rtunately appear too often in Courts of Justice,
and justice cannot be more laudably or usefully
exerted than in chastising to the uttermost the
crime of which I have now to canijilain. , I shall
shortly state the circumstances : The Plaintiff•is a
Clergyman of the must respectable characieet a!
man of diitinguished learning and morals, and one
of the Chaplains to the Prince of Wales. In 1904
he married ; and if it wen; not presismptiones in any
man to think that his happiness was within his own
power, he might have been said to have secured, by
that act, no common chance of happiness. I have
not seen his A ife, but I am told she is a woman of eits
quisito beauty. The marriage was altogether a
union of affection, and it promised the most for-
tunate results to his future life. They confirmed
to live for some years in the most perfect harmony.
In this I speak advisedly, fur it is quite certain
that if any thing to the disadvantage of the Plain.
tiff C3ll be-alleged, you will hear it. The wife of
the Plaintiff is now living with the adulterer ; and
it is not to be expected that any sum wising feeling
of delicacy will prevent her from publishing. all
that she cae remember to &feat this action. I
proceed to the narrative. While they lived in this
perfect lotion, the Plaintiff and his wife went
down to R mnusgate, and Mrs. Lee,
,au interesting
and elegant young.% email, joined with the natural
spirit of youth in the amusements of that place,
and it. lass many amusements. Clergymen, you
know, Gentlemen, du not frequently: attend
balls, or, when there, make it a practice. to
dance with their wives. Mrs. Lee soon found
partners and admiration ; „but the Hontinrable
Colonel Blaquiere, a younger son of •Leed
De Blaquiere, was the must assiduous, anti ,the
most favoured. He visited at the Plaintiff's house,
and was received with frank and kind hOspitality.
The Colonel's attentions were at length observed,
and Mr. Lee received some anonymous letters on
the subject ; on receiving the first of these letters,.
the Plaintiff was only indignant at the insolence and
meddling of the writer. He shoved it to his wife;
she laughed contemptuously at the thaige, and
told it to Colonel Blaquiere. Another: and. alio.
thee letter followed. Mr. Lee, assured of the pu.
rity of his wife, and incensed at the pertinacious
malice Of the informer, actually took legal adtice
as to the'rtiole in which Ite,,shotild pettish his spi--
rit of meddling. It was, however, becoming so
painful to gut act the observation which had been
evidently produced, that the Plaintitrand his wife
returned to London. And here (said Mr. Gar.
row ) began the first eff:ct of that unfortunate
course 9it the Defelidaot. The ainity and affection
of husband and wife gradually subsided osi her par t
into' cuulnesa, and from coldness ilito..alienatiou.
lier husband, pained by this sudden interruption
of his better prospects, naturally, 'remonstrated,
and endeavoured to reclaim her ;. but this was
now beyond his reach—his fortune was injured,
and his peace put in
,datigbr. The danger was not •
long doubtful. Colonel Blaquiere went abroad
with his regiment; and on his return, witlilhe ho.
non's of war thick npun Min, was ambitions of
other distinctions. Me signalized his return to his •
country by breaking in.upon the peaccof an itinmo.
cent and honourable man, a fond father, and a'
most affectionate husband. Mrs. Lee and Colo.
nel Blaquiere now live together ; they go by the
same name, and the shameless and wicked deserter
of her legitimate child is now become pregnant by.
her adulterer. Gentlemen, this a case, which calls
for no common punishirent. The confidence of
the husband—the lenity, the long suffering, the
''generous frankness which he,exhibited in the com-
mencement of a transaction, which has ended in
making him miserable beyond all the power of •
your verdict fully to compensate, Call for elem.
plary damages. .
The Rev. B. Lawrence way celled lo prove the
marriage of Francis Lee, heckler, wit' Catherine
Ball, in July, 180-1.
Sculthorpe, the Plaintiff's footman, was then
called. tie deposed that he had attended his mas-
ter to liary.le.bone Chapel in 1801; they met a
young lady in the street ; his mastei took her nu-
tter his arm, and they walked together to the
Chapel, where they were married. On his cross-
examination, he adniitted that he had acted as fa-
ther, and given Mrs. _Lee away : that, he wore
plain clothes, and that his master had desired him
to take the livery lace off his hat. He could not
' swear that his master wore black elothes,,or the
usual dress of a Clergyman on that day. The
lady appeareato be between sixteen and seventeen...j
The Rev. W. EVANS knew the Plaintiff and Ms
wife since their marriage, and believed them 4•1
bave'lived in perfect harmony until after. their • re.
turn from Ramsgate in 1806; from that time .'he
observed a coolness; and fur nearly six months
before the elopement, he (the witness) almost
ceased going to Mrs. Lees house. She was very
young, yell beautiful, and very interesting.. She
was, as far as he could judge, fund of admiration ;
and from the high circle in which she moved, ra-
ther too apt to adopt the fashionable style of
dress/. and expose her person more thin he (the
witness) would wish to see his wife do. Her man.
Der was lively and animated, with somewhat of
eight and levity, but without the leait tendency to
any improper or onion-mine allusion: Ile saw
Mrs. Lee in Hampshire, in 1803. There was
.no,
want of affection its her conduct at that time.—
In September, 1808, Mr.. Lee 'went to Spain ;
(" what," said Mr. Gattaow, 64 Letsin;Spaiii!")
he remained there tie January,
.1809 ;--Wit.
ness did not believe that be had any official situa-
tion or precise duty, hut he brought back dis-
patches from Mr. Frere. Witness had heard,
that in 1807, during a temPerary absence of the
Plaintiff, Mrs. Lee left her house, and went to her
mother's, btrs.lolinson, .in Portland-place, but
returned. Witness could not be sure that Coln-

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THE STJ

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eel Blaquiere was in Spain while Mr. Lee was
there, but rather thought he was.
Mr. Satinderson, the friend and school.fellew of
the Plaintiff, admitted that, during .the absence of
Mr. Lee, his wife had applied to witness for Toe-
trey, as a logo, till 'the return of her husband,
which, however, be thought proper not to glee.- . •
Mrs. Evans, the wife of the Rev. II Evans, was
thrintimate and early friend of Mrs. Lee. The
coldness which grew between the Plaintiff and.
his wife commenced after the Ramsgate excur.
sion, and was frequently eghibited in little al.
tereations, about extravagance in dress, and
other common matters ; but no charge of in-
fidelity, or any thing tending to grossness, was
ever brought. Mrs: Lee's general manners were
those of the highly fashionable society in which she
lived. She was an extremely elegant and hand.
'some young creature. Her conversation never
touched upon indelicacy ; she was, on the whole,
rather reserved and dignified.
• Mrs. Evans was then .questioned whether Mrs.
Lee had alleged any cause of complaint to her
against Mr. Lee. She answered, that the perfect
intimacy in which she lived with Mrs. Lee of
course allowed her many confidences which she
could not betray with propriety ; but, on being
further questioned, whether the Plaintiff and his
-wife had cohabited for some time before 1809, she
said that they had separate apartments for at least
two years before. .
A clerk from Messrs. Cox and Greenwood's
office proved, that Colonel Blaquiere- wes a Major
in the 60th regiment, but could not say whether
he was about to sell his conenission.
Celonel.l3tequiere' letters', already alluded to,
were put in and • read. They 'Were Animportant)
and consisted mere!) of general expressions' of re-
sentment against the writer of the anutiymous
letters at Ramsgate ; and regret that the name of
a Mrs. Ramage hid been itAroduced in the coerce.
Tendency.
The person who let the lodgings in which Colo.
.net Blaquiere and Mrs. Lee lived after their elope.
ment, preyed that they lived together with all the
appearance of maie and wife. . .
,„
Sarah Salisbury, the housemaidat..Mr. bra's,.
[viewed that they were then living together; and
admitted, .Ma question put to her by Mi. Park,
that Mr. Leeittal his wife had' separate 'feeds for
these years before the etonement. The cite here
ilosed on the part of the 'Printeeistion. •.. .
Mr. Pen*, for- the Defendant, would. not of.:
fend the Jury.- by gait* into any of the painful
`and
improper detail which the case seemed to in.
Mite. But where 'lives hot an injury that was re:
.quired to be punished, but damages sought, the
• irtual eircurnstatices of the parties were to be to--
ken primarily into consideration.' " I will not,"
-Said Mr. Park,. 64 press upon. the circumstances of
•the marrragultself. 'But there was a retest iin pro.
.per levity, a most ominous indelicacy in the form
of that marriage. I speak as a father—as the fa.
thcr of daughters, Mind in that dear and tender re.
lido* I say, that nothing could be mere injurious
to the steadiness and purity of a woman's, a young
.and uttrimtire woniiii.te mind,, thin eke lightness
and funk of intrigue with which chat solemn obli.
Ohm to obey her husband, was,contracted. No
paretWprent—inet, as if by accident, in the street
---inveigletl. to the altar—a servant brought in to
act•the miettcbry of the father; the lace plucked off
his hat to disinise him for the moment—the mas-
ter throwing off the garb ores clergyman, .sign.
Ing himself in the registry as alayartn, not rim*,
but bachelor. And all this the nianceuere of a
clergyman ; s man of forty-five, to impress the
sanctity of the marriage state on the mind of a
child of sixteen! Whit had been pardonable in a
tioy of one-anie.twenty, who carried off the girl of
his affectious, becomes absurd and chiltliah, and
utterly unbecoming in' a grave, end elderly man.
It was remarkable, that on this trial none of
,Mrs.
Lee's relatives were called. forward to prove the
' cordiality of therrties at any period of their mar-
riage. • NVe are told that the Plaintiff absented
himself from the bed of his wife for three years
before the elopement. Gentlemen, I wish to
speak it with the must genuine respect fur morality
and decency ; but a man who condemns a most
lovely, innocent, affectionate young creature, a
girl then of eighteen, to celibacy and solitude, de.
serves no -damages. There is no colour in the.
evidence for her having known Col. 13, tit itamsgate;
But if her husband valued her ; if he had the coin.
mon feeling of a mart fur that most precious index.
quisite jot el, a wife's love, how, did he cherish her.
heart, how did he guard the jewel-1 I donut mean,
said Mr. Park, that he shoeld laic used restraint;
that be should have become an Argue, or attempt.
ed to oppress the soft and yielding spirit of a
woman. Rut 160 he bring MT into the society-a
her female relatives ? Did lee try to win upon her
byletyleness, and leniency, and. love ? Nol be
left her to neglect on his part, and admiration on
that of the world. Ile left her. to ask money of
this friends. He went to Spain to 'amuse hieettri..
-oaity • this fact came like a *surprise upon my
learned friend, (Mr. Garrow) and thus left •his
yountand blooming wife to the first seducer diet.
ventured to approach her. Colonel Blaquiere, a
young, and' as I understand, a handsome and accom.
plished man, met here ho suffered .himself to. give
Way to the admiration, which I am the lest man in
the world to praise him fer indulging.' The ardour
of.an admirer was unfortunately capable of too
strong a contrast with the coldness and contempt'
of a husband. After a lung lapse of time. the ad-
mirer became the seducer. Id? not defend, Ido
nut lessen the great crime which he committed.
But you cannot give vindictiee damages."
No witnesses were called on-the Defendant's part.
Lord Eeeetteottoenit, in charging the Jury,
stated the principal shapes, in which the crime of
adultery might be stipposed to come before them,
and concludthl a Charge of greet dignity Cud do.
quenee, by leaving the matter 141 the Jury.
The Jury, without leasing the box, returned. a
verdict for the Plaintiff.— Durneges 5001. •

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I b'.l). •
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Lsitely in a garret, at Kirklington, Carlisle, Jeremiah Gra-
Num, aged id. Though his' personal estate automated to at
least ►bOOl)I. his soma, expellees during the fast years of his
life 'did oot exceed live shilling', for his victuals were the ele-
most nary contribution of bis• relations, and the last coat
whicy he wore was coeval with his beard, being yearly 60
years uld.