Prisoner: “No, it was not the will; it was only the certicket of my guardians to show who I was, and what property was coming to me.”
Here Mr. Granger, the counsel for the prosecution, drew forth the tin case, which was a pitman’s candle-box, bearing the following inscription, “Robert Taylor, otherwise Lord Kenedy.” From this case the learned counsel drew the “dockyments.” The “will” was rich alike in its bequests and its odours. It was a foul and filthy affair to look upon and to approach. Disregarding the usual long and dry prefaces in which lawyers are accustomed to indulge, it rushed at once into the marrow of the subject. Mr. Granger tickled the ears of the court with a line or two. Thus:—“I give and bequeath to Robert Taylor, son of Elizabeth Taylor, single woman, 1,015,000l. Three per Cent. Consols and no more.” The will proceeded to bestow upon him four coal-pits, a woollen-factory, two or three ships, and sundry other trifles, as before mentioned.
Mary Davidson, a neat, modest-looking girl, detailed the circumstances which led to her marriage with the prisoner. The latter, she said, was introduced to her at the house of her father, on the 4th of April, by Benjamin Fryer, her brother-in-law, who was a preacher among the Primitive Methodists. The latter said he had known the prisoner some time, and he recommended him as a pious young man whom he had brought to the house on purpose to marry her. The prisoner said he was the son of Lord Kenedy, and the moment he arrived in London with a wife he would have 700l., and 20l. a year till he was of age, when he would have 60,000l. per annum. He showed her several documents, one of which was a certificate that he was Lord Kenedy’s son, and would have 60,000l. a year when he came of age. He had previously seen her unmarried sister, whom he rejected in favour of her. They were married, by licence, the very next morning. They lived together three weeks, during which time the prisoner had made several attempts to get away; and many times, in the night, he had endeavoured to slide the ring off her finger. While they were together, he lived upon the money which he borrowed from her brother-in-law, to whom he owed 22l.
The prisoner being again directed to ask the witness any questions he pleased, said, placing his hands upon the bar, and leaning forward in a counsellor-like attitude, “Now, Mary, are you certain that I had 22l. from your brother-in-law?”—Witness: “You had 12l. in money, and you were to pay him a reward of 10l.”
Prisoner: “You say I had 12l. in money, Mary. Now there was 10s. to be paid for the ring, 5s. for fees, 3l. 10s. for the licence, and 8l. I had in money, which makes 12l. 5s. So you see, Mary, you are wrong. You was also wrong when you said I told you I was to have 20l. per annum per year.”—Witness: “You said 20l.”
Prisoner: “No, Mary, I said 150l. per year per annum. And I wish to ax you if I didn’t say, ‘Will you have me, money or no money?’ ”—Witness: “No, you did not.”
Prisoner: “Yes, Mary, I axed you, would you have me, money or no money, and you consented either way.”
The prisoner spoke at considerable length in his defence, giving a rambling account of his various migrations from the north to “Brummagem,” from “Brummagem” to the north, &c., with some amusing particulars of his marriages and courtships, whereby he wished to make it appear that all the young ladies he came near wanted to have him, and that he had been in every instance inveigled into wedlock for the sake of his possessions. His main defence was, that he was under age, and that all his marriages were illegal; and his conclusion seemed to be, that having contracted one illegal marriage, he thought himself perfectly justified in contracting a hundred.
The prisoner’s mother having expressed a wish to give evidence, and the prisoner having consented, she took her place in the witness-box, and deposed that she was now the wife of Michael Rickaby. The prisoner was not born in wedlock; she had him in a love-affair. But she would not say who his father was. She had not come there for that. He was under age.
The jury found the prisoner “Guilty.”