LEGITIMACY CLAIM.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 758, 5 March 1910, Page 5

LEGITIMACY CLAIM.

AN OLD ROMANCE. BOSVILLE V. LOKD MACDONAXD. By Telegraph—Press Association—Gonyrislt London, March 3. In connection with the case Alexander . Wentworth Macdonald Bosville v. Lord Macdonald, of Sleat (in which the pursuer, Mr. Bosville, seeks a decision that his grandfather,, born on. September 12, 1800, was legitimate per ■- Bnbseqnena matrimonium), Lord Macdonald has withdrawn his opposition to proof of Mr. Bosville's legitimacy, but tho case requires formal proof for the satisfaction of the Court. ELOPEMENT OVER A CENTURY AGO. '' The action was brought in the Court of Session, Edinburgh. In December last Lord Skerrington dismissed as" far as it) sought to have it declared that the pursuer is ■ the great-grandson and nearest heir male of tho third Lord Macdonald; but Lord Skerrington at the same time allowed a proof of the averment regarding the legitimacy of the pursuer's grand-, father, Alex. ffm. Robt. Macdonald.

' llr. Bosville, the pursuer, according to the., statement of claim lodged, is the great-grandson and heir male of Godfrey, third Lord Macdonald, who was born on October U, 1775, in Edinburgh. The domicile of origin of tho third Lord Macdonald was, therefore, Scotch. . Obtaining a commission in the army in 1795, when 20, he continued in the active service list until his death in ,1832, when : he was lieutenant-generaL

While in England with his regiment, in or about 1798, he became engaged to Miss Louisa .'Maria La Coast, illegitimate daughter of the Duke of Gloucester by Lady Almeria Carpenter, daughte. of the Eari . of Tyrconnel; and as her gn'ardians; disapproved of the match her suitor eloped with her that year, and contracted marriage with her by exchange of mutual consent, according to the law of Scotland. , There was no Gretna Green romance in the case; but the family tradition is'"that "tho runaway couple were mar-. ried at the British Embassy in Paris.. There were three children of the union—' Alexander Macdonald, pursuer's grand-, father, born on December-12, .1800, being the second child and eldest-son.

Doubts having been subsequently expressed . respecting' the validity of this runaway marriage, the . two were regu-. larly married in church at Norwich on May 29, 1803. During all this time, pursuer claimed, the husband had never lost his Scotch domicile of origin, and aay children he might have had by Louisa Maria La Goast born prior to that date were thereby legitimated. The marriage made in the Scottish manner was held to be invalid, and the peerage went to the' third child (second son) of the union, Godfrey, born after the mamage ceremony of 1803, and from him is descended the present Lord Macdonald, the sixth baron.- The eldest child was a daughter, Louisa, who married the fifth Earl of Hopetoua, and was . thus the great-grand-mother of the present Marquis ot Linlithgow. One of the most important clauses in the pursuer's pleadings is as follows "The pursuer makes: no claim to the Scotch estates, settled by the Act, 10th Victoria, nor to the Irish peerage, as he is . advised that legitimation per . subsequens matrimonium does not operate;so as' to affect the succession to an Irish peerage. The pursuer, however, desires to have the legitimacy of his grandfather declared, and to vindicate such other rights as may have descended tc him as the great-grandson and nearest and lawful heir to Godfrey, third Lord Macdonald." . .