"MISS” ROBINSON.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9068, 7 February 1908, Page 8

"MISS” ROBINSON.

“Miss Robinson,” who has confessed herself guilty of perjury in the Druce case, swore that she was a friend of Charles Dickens, the novelist, that she was on intimate terms •with the late T. C. Druce, whom she knew also as the Fifth Duke of Portland, that her father was an American planter, and many other things. Under cross-examination she stuck to her story in its essential points, and, generally, carried through her part with,considerable skill. According ~to the prosecution, \,“Sliss Robinson” was the wife of a trctcher. who worked as a shepherd at Worksop in 1870,. Both sailed for ISTew Zealand in 1874, and were residing at Waimate, in South Canterbury, in 1875. “Miss Robinson” was the mother of several children, including Maude, born in 1881, who, as Maud O’Neill, appeared as a witness before Mr Plowden, in the perjury charges against Herbert Drucee, but who had not stated her relationship or real name. After Jier husband’s death, which occurred in 1884, ‘‘Miss Robinson” kept boarding houses, including one at New Brighton, and another in Palsgrave street, Christchurch, until 1906. __ She had been paid £3 17s weekly since her arrival in England. The claim against Lord Howard de Walden rested on the alleged fact that the Fifth Duke of Portland, ostensibly a bachelor, was in reality married twice, and that G. H. Druce is descendant of one of these marriages. On the Duke’s death the title passed to his cousin, but the estates of the barony of Ogle went to bis sister Lucy, who married Lord Howard de Walden.