Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1890-10-19
A STRANGE HISTORY.
MRS. ELIZABETH HYNES THRICE MAR
RED TO HER HUSBAND.
Ocean Romance. and Wedding
to . Millionaire.
New York Hersld.l
Mary Elizabeth Hynes, a very we,


Mary Elizabeth Hynes, a very wealthy
woman with an unusual history, died
upder the surgeons knife late on We'd
nesday night last in the New York Hos
pital.
Tho validity of her marriage to her
husband. William Rose Hynes, who died
and left her and her children large for
tune, was contested in the State courts
here for over eleven years, and was but
recently decided in her favor by the
Court of Appeals
The contest over Mr.. Hynes's will was
one OF the most novel cases perhaps ever
before an American court. She was
married, according to the testimony, to
her husband no less than three times
within ten days, and yet the relatives
sought to break the will on the ground
that she was never legally his wife.
Mr.. Hynes was the son OF wealthy
merchant and land Spectator OF st.
Louis, who died twenty-five or thirty
years ago, and left his entire fortune to
country. Young William sold enough of
it to realize S250,000, with which he
came to New York to live life of leisure
in 1871. He settled here and invested
good deal OF his mouey in real estate.
LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT.
During the summer Of 1871 he took
passage on one OF the steamers for a trip
TO France. While at sea he met for the
first time Mary Elizabeth Mills, hand
some young woman OF twenty-one, who
was going to Europe on visit. They
became acquainted, and it was not long
before the wealthy gentleman asked her
to become his wife, and she consented.
Hynes WAS an agnostic and Miss Mills
Dissenter. He suggested that they be
married at once, but there was no minis
ter on board the ship to perform the
ceremony He said they could get the
master OF the ship to marry them and
that when they reached Paris they
could have a civil rite performed.
MARRIED BY THE SHIPS MASTER.
Miss Mills made many objections to
this programme, but the ardor of Hynes
finally prevailed and the master of the
vessel read the marriage service that
bound them together. In Paris the
second marriage was celebrated.
On the tenth day after they were first
married they reached London, where
to make sure they we're legally married
third wedding occurred according to
the rites Of the Church of England.
They travelled abroad for a long time
and then returned to this city aud lived
in apartments at one of the uptown ho-
tells. Two children were born to them,
William Rose Hynes, Jr., and Andrew
Hynes, before Mr.. Hynes died in 1875.
The relatives of the dead man-Ed-
ward j. Gay, of New Orleans, his
brother-in-law, and Jane McCreery, Of
st. Louis, tho deceased mans sister
began legal proceedings at once to try
and break Mr Hynes's will, which left
bis entire estate to bis wife and children.
His marriage to Mrs. Hynes on the high
seas and in both France and England
created quite legal snarl, which it took
years to untangle.
THE MARRIAGE MADE VALID.
Many nice questions OF international
law were involved and the lawyers
fought the case from the lowest to the
highest court in the State. Lawyer
William Holt Secor was Mrs. Hynes's
lawyer, and he finally won a victory for
her The estate is not thoroughly set
tied up yet, but $500 of it is de-
posi- ed in the Farmers Loan and Trust
Company and the heirs have been living
on their income.
Mrs. Hynes had been suffering for
some time with an ailment which at last
became so bad that her physician ad-
vised her that the only possible way OF
saving her life was to submit to q surgi-
cal operation. She left the Gilsey
House, where she had been living with
her two sons, who are now seventeen
and nineteen years of age, and went to
the New York Hospital about three days
ago.
The operation was performed, but she
never rallied from its effects. and died on
Wednesday night. The dead woman
was exceedingly handsome when young,
and illness did not rob her of all her
beauty. At the time of her decease she
was only forty years Of age.
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