Page:The English Reports v1 1900.pdf/783
the respondent at her house, but never solicited her to marry him; and although in his first answer he said, he did not believe that he had executed the writing of the 1st of September 1741, yet in his second answer he recollected, that he was persuaded, and accordingly did execute such writing. He denied his marriage with the respondent, but said, that in 1743, Francis Rolleston, esq. the respondent's brother, by the contrivance of the respondent as he believed, proposed to him to marry the respondent, representing her as a careful, industrious, good, humane woman, and that he consented to such proposal, and admitted that thereupon such articles of the 22d of September 1743, as are before stated, were drawn up and executed by him. He said, that before such marriage could be had, he met two persons, who, on his asking them some questions concerning the respondent, represented her to him as a turbulent troublesome woman, and that thereupon he determined not to marry her, and that in some time after he acquainted her with his resolution; but said; that the respondent thereupon made frequent applications to him, and requested that he would permit her to live in his house; that he then looking upon her to be a person capable of managing his family affairs, agreed to it, at the same time informing her, that for several reasons he never would marry her; and that she accordingly came to his house, and cohabited with him. That he was prevailed upon by her, to agree that she should go by his name, and be called his wife, and that she for some time behaved in a manner very agreeable to him and his friends; but that she afterwards behaved otherwise, and he was so much ashamed, that he would not let any of his family or friends know that he was not married to her, as he had before consented that she should pass for his wife. He said, that the respondent, as he was informed by Edmund Claron, embezzled his substance, and exercised her supposed authority in his family in a most arbitrary manner; that she misbehaved to his children and relations, and ill-treated the appellant himself, on his not listening to a charge which she had made against Cloran; he denied striking the respondent with a bill-book, or seizing her by the throat. He said, that on his refusing to let her lie in his room, she made choice of a bed-chamber for herself; and that he being informed, that the respondent frequently went about the house at unseasonable hours in the night, and sent away his goods, he ordered a padlock to be fixed on her chamber door, and that it should [23] be locked every night after she went to bed, and believed the same was accordingly done; but he said he did not mean thereby to confine her. He said he was prevailed upon to give her £20 a year, provided she would remove from his house, and live separate from him, and that thereupon the deed of the 29th of November 1762 was drawn, and that the respondent freely executed the same. He said he never gave directions that the respondent should be treated with any cruelty, nor did he believe that she received such treatment. He said he expected that she would have left the house immediately on the perfection of the deed of separation, but she put off her departure from time to time, and he not thinking himself safe in the house with her, went to his son's house, where he continued several weeks, expecting the respondent would withdraw; but on his return he found she still continued there, and upon his telling her that he never would cohabit with her, she went away voluntarily. He admitted that he was possessed of an estate of £1500 a year, and of a very considerable personal estate, but refused to discover how much. He admitted his making the wills before mentioned, and believed, that in every of them he called her his wife. He admitted, that he joined with the respondent in making leases of her farm; and that the respondent joined with him in levying the fine stated in the bill, but said he did not believe he executed any instrument to induce her to join therein. He admitted, that he treated the respondent as his wife, and introduced her to all his relations, friends, and acquaintance as such, and that she stood sponsor to several of his grandchildren, and believed she was esteemed in the country to be a prudent, virtuous woman. He denied that any waste committed by him, was the cause of the respondent's losing her farm; but admitted, that she had lost the benefit of the said lease. He said, that on the 3d of September 1760, he made a will, which was of his own hand writing, and admitted he therein stiled her his wife, and devised to her £30 a year, in addition to the £20 a year mentioned in the articles, and he bequeathed to her £100. He admitted, that for some part of the time, the respondent was constant in her care and seeming tenderness for him, and that he often expressed his acknowledgments and sense of her care and tenderness,
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