The Yelverton marriage case : Thelwall v. Yelverton : comprising an authentic and unabridged account of the most extraordinary trial of modern times, with all its revelations, incidents and details : specially reported.

  • Avonmore, William Charles Yelverton, Viscount, 1824-1883.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Yelverton marriage case : Thelwall v. Yelverton : comprising an authentic and unabridged account of the most extraordinary trial of modern times, with all its revelations, incidents and details : specially reported. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    I THE YELVEKTON MARRIAGE CASE, (THELWALL v. YELVERTON.) EVEE was there a trial in any court of justice—civil or criminal— that created so much sensation as the extraordinary and romantic marriage ease, with which we now iircsent our readers with a full and varbatim report, which has been specially prepared and revised. It commences with the able and eloquent opening statement of Sergeant Sullivan. The case was tried in the Court of Common Pleas, before Chief Justice Monahan and a Special Jury, selected from the common panel. From the day the par- ticulars of this strange case were first revealed to the court up to the present, it has continued to be the leading topic of conversa- tion and comment throughout the entire community, and the great interest which the public has manifested from the commencement seems to increase and intensify as the history of the lady (the Hon. Mrs. Telverton) who occupies the' most prominent position in the aifair, is developed in the narrative of the evidence. riEST DAT. Mr. Townsend opened the pleadings in this case. It was an action to recover a sum of £259 17s. 3d. for board and lodging, and necessaries supplied to the defendant’s wife and her servant. The defendant pleaded that the goods and necessaries were not supplied to his wife, and this was the important issue raised by the pleadings. THE OPENING STATEMENT. Mr. Sergeant Sullivan stated the case. The action, he said, rested on the well-settled principle of law that if a husband turned his wife out of doors without cause he sent her into the world as his accredited agent, and he was responsible for her reasonable support. An ordinary action of this kind would be easily disposed of. But this was not an ordinary case; it had features strong and uncommon—it would be one of surpassing interest, and it involved the most momentous con- sequences. In ordinary cases the relationship of husband and wife was admitted, but in the present case the relationship of the defendant, as the husband of the woman to whom the goods and necessaries were supplied, was disputed and denied, and their attention would be, therefore, necessarily drawn to that lady, for whom, before the case was over, if he mistook not, their hearts would beat with manly and generous sympathy. The plaintiff’sought to make the Hon. William Charles Telverton responsible for the support of his wife, and the man who stood by a woman, when her husband deserted her—who stood between her and the accumulated ills that followed on such a condition, wa.s deserving of every respect. Ho (Sergeant) Sullivan was prepared to prove that Teresa Telverton, to whom the goods had been supplied, was the wife of the Hon. W. Charles Y'elverton, and that ho mercilessly abandoned lier ; that he had driven her on the world without the means of support, and that plaintiff', fully aware of all these facts, had given to her the means of support which her husband denied her, and if all these facts were proved his client would be entitled to the verdict, which he was sure, when they had heard the case, thev would rejoice to give, in assertion of tiie cause of virtue, and quelling the suggestions and repelling the rnachinations of vice, and the verdict that could accomplish such results would have the approba- tion of their fellow-iwm. It was absolutely necessary that he should ojien in detail the history of this unhappy lady. The defendant was a man of noble family, the heir apparent to the peerage of Avonmore. Teresa Telverton, his wife, whose maiden name was Longwortli, was also of gentle blood. She belonged to an ancient and honourable family in England, and having lost lior mothor in early life, she was taken to France to bo educated, and though her family wore all Protestants, she, from a very early ago, was reared in the doctrines of tho Catholic church, and had continued since of that faith, which made a deep impression on her, and he believed a more sincere or devoted member of it never existed than Terosa YTelvcrton was, and has been. Sho had a sister raarned in I ranee to the son of the Chief Justice of that empire, and while ooraing over in 1857 from a visit to her sister at Boulogne, she, for tho first time, met tho Honourable William Charles U