AN EXTRAORDINARY ABDUCTION.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3241, 19 November 1881, Page 4

AN EXTRAORDINARY ABDUCTION.

An extraordinary case of abduction, in which a clergyman was kidnapped in the neighbourhood of London on the eve of his marriage, is reported. The Rev. R. B. ikennard, rector of Marnhull, Dorset, states that on tbe evening of the 13th of September he went to the Castle Hotel, Woodford, where he intended to sleep previous to his marriage on the following morning in the parish church of Woodford. Before dinner, a person, who represented that he had come from a friend in the neighbourhood, waited upon him with, aa urgent message, and induced him to enter a carriage which was said to be that of his friend. To his astonishment two men entered the carriage after him, and as it did not proceed in the direction of his friend's residence, he became alarmed, and shouted for assistance. He was, however, roughly handled and nearly strangled, and notwithstanding all his efforts to attract attention he. was driven to London and through the metropolis to a house in Hunter-street, m the vicinity of St. Pancras station. Here he was detained till about noon the next day, when he suceeded in escaping, and proceeded to Woodford. The marriage took place in the presence of a large number of spectators the clay following his liberation, the ceremony, being performed by Canon Duckworth and the rector of the church at Woodford. After the wedding the newly married couple left for Windsor- The bride, Miss Bade, is a German lady of about forty years of age, and Mr Kennard, a widower, is aged between fifty-five and sixty. He has a grown-up family of seven or eight children, and two of his sons were present at the wedding. Immediately after Mr Kennard's return to Woodford the matter was placed in the hands of the police, who have, it is stated, traced the perpetrator of the outrage, and communicated with the rev. gentleman on the subject. There appears little doubt that tha abduction was a plot to prevent the marriage. The proprietor of the house to which Mr Kennard was taken at 41, Hunterstreet, states that three rooms were taken for an indefinite period by a gentlemaa, who stated that they were required for an invalid whom he would accompany, and two attendants. He gave no name and said no letters would come for him. When the rev. gentleman was brought to the house and screamed " Murder!" and " Police !" the landlady thought he was a lunatic. Mr Kennard is well known as a breeder of shorthorn cattle.