LIFE OF BIGAMY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 311, 30 December 1908, Page 4

LIFE OF BIGAMY.

SCAMP WllO AIAiUUED AND DESERTED NINE WOMEN. A x>luusiblti scoundrel's career of bigamy and fraud was cheeked at Leeds, England Assizes on a recent Alonday. Samuel Charles Joseph Woodward, allcdged public schoolman, doctor, adventurer, and really picturesque scamp, was sentenced to ten years' penal servitude. There were in all live indictments for bigtnany and others for fraud and lar- j eeny. Woodward pleaded not guilty oni all counts excepting two of bigmany; with a Miss Day of Gloucester, and Miss Blandford, of JSristol, lmt a jury, haying heard the evidence, decided against him. Air Waddy, who prosecuted, said it had been ascertained that the man "was born in 185«>, and married in 1873. His father was a working gardener at Derby, and there had been Y nin'e warrants issued against luni. He began by taking money, but this his father repaid. He afterwards went to Canada, and on his j return was employed at Wnngate, where | the first warrant was issued for embe/.z- 1 ling about £3OO in 1802. j lie contracted his iirst bigamy mar-1 riage with Kliza Dawson at Newcastle in l8!J(i. Me then absconded with £528. and a reward of £IOO was oll'ered for his apprehension in 1808. He married three women hi two months, and then went to Hampshire, where he absconded with £l3O, and contracted a further bigamous marriage, deserting one woman three months after the wedding. He also went through the form of marriage with Aliss Phillips at Warwick, deserting her after live. days, and marrying Miss Francis Day of Gloucester, and Miss Blamlford, of Fishponds, Bristol. Some nine bignmous .marriages which prisoner had contracted were mentioned by counsel. With regard to the charge of stealing two sums of money, one of £.>() and th other £4.3, from Alias Fanny Henderson Davis and her sister at Huddcrsfiek! on November 23, 1007. prisoner got into communication -with Miss Davis, said counsel, through an advertisement in which he described himself as a bachelor and member of the medical profession, visiting England from Canada. The prisoner's marriage with Aliss Fanny Davis in October, l!MI7, was the sequel to the following advertisement in ;i Yorkshire newspaper : "Bachelor. 43, medical profession, (now on visit from Canada), ih-ires correspondence with lady, 28 to 3.">; viuw, early marriage."

UeTLt vi at li itld'eritielU, The pri'SMß himself to bo a doetor, gWj us Jaaues Walker, in ulHrgain lier confidence ha executed a marriage .settlement, purporting l«i anake over to her various properties tAd securities in Ontario, Cauudu, to a total lace va'ue of £38,000. These proved to be mythical. After the marriage the prisoner and' .Miss Davis travelled together, and Miss Davis and her lister Minnie aoid their furniture for £SO. Miss Davis also withdrew £45 from tile bank. This money was put in a purse by Miss Davis, «, hepurse being placed ill a drawer, {Shortly 1 afterwards she found that the money

was missing. She told the prisoner of this, but he dissuaded her from calling in the police, as they were 011 the point of sailing fur Cauada. The honeymoon was spent at Torquay and Edinburgh, and at the latter town the prisoner diNippcaral, after paying that Ik; was going to have a Turkish bath.

In defence, Woodward called M'ss Lily Theresa lilandford, whom he bigalnonsly married. She was married to prisoner on April 2, and was present when lie was arrested, after which Miss Havis spent the night with her. She still retained an allection for the man, and had visited him in prison, f-ihe was the last of those who had married Woodward, thinking that he was a single man. On the charge of obtaining £IOO on a forged mortgage deed, Mr Wadd.v explained that while employed as a clerk by a linn of solicitors iii Penrith Woodword gave a junior clerk !js lid to engross a blank mortgage; deed. He then filled in the deed himself to represent, it as security for the repayment of .C2OO to a certain William Clark, the security being a dwelling-house in Carlisle which was the property of one ot' the clients of the prisoner's employers. He then took this deed to another firm of solicitors,- and borrowed ,CIOO on it. Prisoner, who conducted his own defence, addressed the jury at length. Twenty-two years ago, Ire said, ho was in business as a shorthand writer and teacher in Derby. He was originally articled to a solicitor, but was plucked at his intermediate 'examination, and ultimately went abroad. At a genllcninn'.s expense lie qualified as a medical man in Canada. His true name, lie said, was James Walker Katelill'e, though he had been brought up as Woodward, ami had lxien educated at Keptou and Rugby. He had been all over the ivorid, and, as a medical mail, had been among the Blackfoot Indians. lie had also acted on the Malaria Commission during the Cuban war. He had also lieen in South Africa, and had a medal with three clasps. 1 For the forgery tile prisoner was sentenced to ten years' penal servitude. The other sentences were seven years each for the two bigamies and three years for the larceny, all four to run concurrently. Woodward listened to his sentence with absolute calm, and stepped below without saying a word.