The Portland daily press., 1868-12-31

Thursday Morning, December 81, 1883,
spiritualism i'm Court.
A NOVEL CASE AT BATH.
PORTLAND.

vase vi MARY Ann hoDmson appellant against
the executors of the will of Mary W. Green.
Mary w. Green OF fTopsham, died August 2lst
1867, at the age of sixty-eight, leaving four
wills and codicil to the last will by her
made.
The last of these wills with the codicil an
nexed was approved and allowed in the
Probate Court as the last will and testament
OF the decedent. The said Mary Ann, the
daughter, and only heir at law, appealed from
this decree, and at the trial in this Court ten
dered three issues in substance, that the will
and codicil were not duly executed; that at
the time of making, lhe deceased was not of
sound mind; that the testamentary writings
were not the offspring of the decedent's own
mind and will, but were produced by undue
influences from other sources. The trial
was upon the issues thus rendered.
The formal execution was clearly proved.
Il appeared in evidence and was conceded
by the executors, that the deceased embraced
the belief in spiritualism, so called, about the
year 1889, and that she was firm and i'm
plicit believer in tie doctrine of the commu-
nications Of disembodied spirits to living peo-
sons through the instrumentality of writing
mediums, and that for long period, extend
ing from the time of adopting the belief, and
one witnes, who, however, was not much
with her in the very last years of her life,
said, as long as she lived, she was in the
habit OF receiving letters purporting to come
from the spirits of her deceased husband and
cnndren and other deceased persons, through
different mediums.
Ihe deceased had been informed by the
spirits that she had power to heal Diseases
She believed this, and sometimes experiment
/ ted on sick persons, without much apparent
| success. Some of the witnesses understood.
her to believe that this supposed power was
the same as that given to the apostles.
| The appellant put into the case many of
these spiritual letters, so called. The execu-
tors put into the case two small manuscript
volumes and third nearly complete, in the
hand writing of the deceased containing
these spiritual letters, many of them bearing
dates extending from her first adoption of the
belief to period in 1854.
| The testatrix was greatly afflicted by the
alienation of her daughter, occasioned by
want ofsympathy between deceased and the
daughters husband, but she imputed all
her conduct to the influence of the husband !;
and after she embraced spirituaism, she as
sumed that he was "a Medium and that it
was by that power that he controlled his
wife. A distinguished physician testified to
an interview with the deceased in 1866 in
in which she unlolded her belief in spiritual
ism and in her own power to heal diseases
and declared her conviction that Robinson
was medium, and that he could and did in
fuence his wifes feelings towards herself, as
witness understood it, even when not pres
ent. And while he said there was no gener.
al arrangement, he considered her belief in
these matters, an "insane delusion.n
The reason given, however, for this opinion
was, that witness "did not believe ANYTHING
of it." Some of the witnesses who reside in
| Portland, and who evidently sympathized
with the appellant, testified that on her way
to Bloomington in 1864, the deceased seemed
excited and looked wild; two witnesses testi-
fed that she had said at different times that
her relatives thought she was crazy in beliey-
ing in Spiritualism. Her sister and other
relatives testified that she was never unduly
excited, though greatly interested in her new
belief. Otherwise, no one had ever noticed
anything peculiar in her manner or conduct.
Her physician in her last sickness, who
was witness to the codici, never discovered
anything indicating alteration or unsouud
ness of mind.
1t also appeared in evidence that she often,
as she believed, ascertained by written COM
munications the opinion of her departed hus-
band as to matters of business. Two of the
Portland witnesses, ladies with whom she
mad been familiar at times, testified that she
always did this before acting, and that she re-
hea implicitly on directions thus given. An
other lady, residing in Brunswick, much ac-
quainted with her doings, testified that she
often thus consulted her husband, and that
she treated his opinions and advice in the
same manner as ii he had given them living,
but absent. Other witnesses of the decedent's
relations testified, either that they never
knew her to make such supposed advice and
opinions the basis of action in business affairs.
or that she actually did not do so that by in
formation derived from the spirits themselves
she considered that such matters wero- out of
the province of spiritual control, but that af-
ter acting she sometimes confirmed or tested
her own views, by consulting the spirit of her
husband. There is passage in one of the
so-called spiritual letters, purporting to come
from her deceased husband, after the first
three wills had been made all of which three
were made before she became a spiritualist,
in these words: "As to the will, it is right
as l should have DONE" There is no other
allusion in these communications to the will.
But the appellant put letter of her moth
er's into the case dated June 4, 1866, in
which she says, "but knowing 1 have been
governed by the wishes and directions of nv
spirit husband, and knowing, too, that God
knows, that it has been my highest aim to be
Just with my child in every respect" &c.
The appellants counsel, among other po-
sitions, assumed that Spirituaiism is a delu-
sion, and contended that her adoption of it
was an insane delusion, that the will was the
supposed dctation of the departed husband,
and therefore not the intelligent and free will
OF the deceased and that her b elief in Robin
sons control over his wife, which had infiu-
enced her action, was an insane delusion,
aud that for each of these reasons the will
and codicil are void. The Judge, in accord
ance with the proposition Of counsel for the
executors, instructed the jury in substance,
that although she may have supposed that
she received advice from the spirits of the
departed and may have acted upon such be-
lief, yet the will is not for that cause invalid,
unless she surrendered her own will and
judgment to such supposed dictation, and
that if she acted with freedom upon her owu
judgment the will is good but if she was un-
der any insane delusion, which moved her in
making the will, it is void.
The case was seven days on trial, and the
jury after deliberation of twelve hours rem
hered verdict sustaining the will.
Gilbert, Adams and Cleaves appeared for
Executors and Gould, Tallman and Larabee
for Appellant.
| Letter from, New Hampshire.
PORTSMOUTH, Dec. 1868.