EXTRAORDINARY MARRIAGE CASE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1169, 24 April 1884, Page 3

EXTRAORDINARY MARRIAGE CASE.

Wellington, April 21. At the Magistrate’s Court to-day, Alice Lynch was charged with having at Auckland, on the 23rd November, 1881, made a false declaration touching the age and parentage of one Emma Mary Howell. John Owen Lord, Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages at Auckland, produced a book containing entries of marriages. On the 22nd November, 1881, there was a notice of the intended marriage of Charles Henry Monckton, described as a widower, a photographer by calling, S 6 years of age, permanently of Wellington, but then of Auckland, with one Emma Mary Howell, described as a spinster, 15 years of age, previously living in Wellington but then at Auckland, and a notice signed ‘ Chas. H. Monckton.’ The usual declaration followed. The next declaration set forth that Alice Howell being the mother of the said Emma Mary Howell, gave her consent to the marriage. The Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages at that time was J. M, Wayland, whom the witness had succeeded. On the 23rd of November, a certificate was granted to Monckton. The Registrar could not lawfully have issued a certificate without the consent of the mother, father or guardian of the girl. Another document was the certificate of the birth of Emma Mary Howell, born at Napier, on the 27th September, 1869. Emma Howell, alias Monckton, deposed that in the month of November, 1881, she was living in Auckland with her sister, the defendant. When she left Wellington her father was in the city living with another sister. Her father was now in the lunatic asylum. Her mother was dead. She was in Auckland for three or four months. On the 23rd No vember, 1881, witness, Monckton, and her sister went to the Registry Office in Auckland. The prisoner to'd her she was to get married. She was then twevo years and two months old. At that time she did not know what marriage was. She did not go to the office when her sister and Monckton made a declaration on the previous day. On the 22nd she was boarding at the Convent, and was taken out and was to'd she was to be married the next day. She slept at her sister’s house that night, and on the following morning she was married. She could not say who witnessed the marriage. She believed one of the witnesses was a messenger, simply called in for the purpose. The other was her sister, the prisoner, who wrote her name as if she was a witness. Another person also told the Registrar she was hep mother, She further certified that her father was dead. Omssexamined \ She had been living with the prisoner since she was a little girl, and had sometimes called her ( mother,’ She recollected when she first went to live with Mrs Lynch, Accused had clothed and fed her for several years.

Monckton, however, told her that if she did not marry him she and her sister would be turned out on the street. For two years or so after the marriage she had lived with Monckton. She had never acknowledged herself to be Moncktou's wife. [A letter was here produced signed ‘Emma Monckton.’] This was wiitten by witness. She remembered the day one of the sisters, a Mrs Beckwith, was married. She did not recollect what was said on that occasion. Accused was then committed, bail being allowed, herself in £2OO and two sureties of £2OO each.

Charles Henry Monckton was then charged with a similar offence. Mr Lord gave similar evidence to that in the previous case. Mrs Lynch stated that she had been living with Monckton for about eight years, the greater part of the time as his wife. Monckton did not appear at the Registry Office the day before the marriage. Witness was born in Auckland in 1854, and was now thirty years of age. Years ago she had separated from her husband. Monckton was appointed her trustee under the separation. She was then about twenty years of age. She came down to Wellington from Wanganui, and tried to support herself and the girl Emma. She found that she could not do so, and she want to live with Monckton, but not as his wife for some time afterwards. Witness believed that her sister was now about seventeen years of ag* and at the time the marriage took place n as about fifteen. She held this opinion on account of eomething which her mother said. There were at one time all sorts of yarns about the parentage of the child. Witness palmed it off as hers because she did not want people to know who she was. Mrs Beckwith, another sister, who was living in Courtney Place with Lovell, came up from Christchurch and was married to Beckwith when the latter was drunk. Witness kept him drunk for a fortnight, in order that he might not see her sister’s condition. Cross examined ; Monckton was always of opinion, as far as she knew, that Emma was a child which she had had before marriage. Once or twice he had heard the girl was her sister, and witness told him not to believe any yarns of that sort. When she put the girl in the Convent, the authorities desired her to take Emma away as she taught children things that married women only ought to know. Margaret Beckwith, wife of Sydney Beckwith, stated that Monckton first lived with her sister Alice at Wanganui, the girl Emma being with them. Witness was in the house for some time, and saw Alice beat Emma because she did not call her ‘ mother,’ Witness had heard Alice Lynch tell Monckton that Emma was her sister, and that she had had her since she was a child, was now about 14 years and six months old. Cross examined : All this occurred about six or seven years ago. Witness went to Wanganui at that time to get married. She declined to say whether she had a child shortly afterwards. She was now separated from her husband. Was acting as Lovell's housekeeper before getting married, and after she came into Christchurch. She resided with her sister in Wanganui for about a month.

The Bench thought the case was one for the Supreme Court to decide, and the prisoner was committed for tria 1 , bail being allowed at £IOO for the accused and two eureties of £SO each.