A Heartless Case of Wife Desertion in Nottingham.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3546, 7 May 1880, Page 2

A Heartless Case of Wife Desertion in Nottingham.

The parties referred to in the following extract will doubtless be remembered by many in this district:—

On Wednesday, morning at the JBorough Police Court, before Mr J. P. Cox and Aid. Bowers, a middle aged man, named J. W. Addey,was charged with leaving his wife and three children chargeable to the Union.— Mr Belk stated that he knew something of the case, which was one of a very

painful character. Prisoner had promised ' to pay his wife £1 per week from certain money which.he said had been left him, and an appointment was made for prisoner to meet his wife at his (Mr Belk's) office on Saturday last to pay the first sum of £1. The woman and three children were waiting about the office for two or three hours,'but prisoner never came, and as the woman, and her children were really starving he advised her to seek . relief; In fact prisoner was not to be believed at all, and the case wai a very hard one. Prisoner represented to his wife who was living with her father, in New Zealand that he was in an excellent position in England and had about £20,000. He' went over to fetch her, and persuaded Ijer to come back with him, and she then found that he had a sum of £2000, but it was considerably em* barrassed by charges upon it, and since the woman had been here one home had been sold under a bill of sale given by prisoner. Prisoner had some property at Hull, but it was very much" encumbered, and it was a question whether anything would be got from it.—Prisoner: I hare written to my lawyers at Hull.—Mr -Clayton: Have you any funds or property ?—Prisoner: Yes, but my sister says she shall not sell it till the spring. There is £66 personalty, which I have not \ ' received.—Mr Morely, clerk to thtf^" guardians, said they understood that prisoner was an incorrigible drunkard, and he was apprehended that morning in a publichouse.—Mt Clayton: See what you have brought yourself to. You are a well educated man, and could do well, and I understand you speak three lan* guages besides English.—JUr Belk: It is a bard case. His wife was getting £600 a ' year as mistress of a seminary in New Zealand, and it was a great pity that she was persuaded by prisoner to come to England. Her father was a settler—Mr Holland—and in a good position in the colony, and Mrs Addey was a talented woman.—Mr Morley said the guardians had no hope of getting anything from prisoner.—Formal evidence of relief being given by the relieving officer, Policeconstable Carter spoke to apprehending prisoner that morning at the Scotholme Hotel, Hyson Green, where he had been drinking. He made no reply to the charge, and was well known in the neighbourhood as a heavy drinker.-—Prisoner «aid he was a native of Selby, in Yorkshire, and meant to get his living as a schoolmaster. He had applied to the Nottingham School Board for a situation. He and his wife and children arrived in England from New Zealand on the 23rd of June last, and he had lived upon remittances from his solicitors at Hull.— The Magistrate sent prisoner to gaol for one month with hard labour, Mr Belk saying he would communicate with prisoner's solicitors at Hull on behalf of Mrs Addey.—Nottingham Journal.