Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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ID |
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Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
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A63501
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The true Countess of Banbury's case relating to her marriage rightly stated in a letter to the Lord Banbury.
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Price, Elizabeth, 17th cent.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing T2667; ESTC R12414
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29,409
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37
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starve first he was so concerned how to answer my Libel that he offered to give me One Thousand Pound and Two Hundred Pound per Annum only to desist and prosecute him no further in that Court And this likewise at first I rejected but afterwards Proved by Mr. Miller Mrs. Brownsworth Mr. Hancock by the over Perswasion of himself and my Friends I was prevailed with to accept and he gave me a Judgment to secure me the Payment of the Thousand Pound within Eight Months and promised punctual Payment of the Two Hundred Pound per Annum and thereupon I gave my Proctors order to desist in my Suit in the Ecclesiastical Court But my Lord soon after beginning to wrangle with me about the Judgment and not performing his Agreement and keeping Company with Mrs. Litster And the Libels and Answers upon Record I took up my Suit in the Commons and pressed him for an Answer to my Libel wherein he made so much Difficulty that I was forced with some Charge to procure the Judge himself of the Court to examine him upon the Articles in my Libel who thereupon asking him whether he took out the Licence at Verona in the Libel set forth he answered in these Words That he did procure and obtain the Licence to marry me but did not remember that he touched the Holy Gospel Being asked what he did with it and whether he married me or not he demurr'd and desired to answer that Matter by Councel And well knowing what undeniable Proof there was of my Marriage he betook himself to a new Invention when he saw nothing else would do for the Ruine of us both and upon the Third of August 1693. makes Litster by Collusion Libel against him for Conjugal Rights notwithstanding he kept her in his own House at Thistleworth at that very time and in that Libel she expresly suggests and declares That she was married to him in 1686. by Dr. Cluer a Reverend Divine of the Church of England in the presence of divers Credible Witnesses accordind to the Rites of the Church And my Lord in his Answer to this Libel confesses that he was Married to her But it seems they overshot themselves and considering as is proved in the Cause by her own Relations that they were not so much as acquainted at that time Mrs. Litster desires Leave of the Court to Reform her Libel as they call it and in November following brings in a new Libel and therein lays her Marriage to be upon the Sixteenth of May 1689. by the same Reverend Divine and in the presence of divers Credible Witnesses And here it is not improper to observe that she her self differs but Three Years with her self as to the time of her own Pretended Marriage But this is but a small Mistake amongst others in this Cause But however this last Libel being too general and the Place where she was married not being mentioned nor any of the divers Credible Witnesses named I put in an Allegation by my Proctors Requiring her to set forth the Place and who these divers Credible Witnesses were with their Names Qualities and Places of their Abode To which she answers That the Marriage was at the Nags-Head Ale-house by Doctor Cluer in the presence of Charles Sherrard Mr. Morton's Journeyman So that at last the divers Credible Witnesses are dwindled into that Scandalous Doctor and one single Servant and upon this infamous Testimony his Lordship endeavours to establish his Marriage with Litster and overthrow mine contrary to his own Oath all the Proceedings of Law Proofs Notorious Facts and other Circumstances in Concurrence And now I hope the Reader will allow me to have kept my word with him I promised him a simple Narrative of Facts relating to the Proof of my Marriage which I have exactly kept my self to not in the least touching or reflecting upon any Matters tho' never so absurd and improbable relating to Lyster's unaccountable Pretensions any further than in the few observable Remarks following which I hope the Reader will think no Transgression but a Necessary part of my Vindication I have already consulted in this Narrative all the Niceties of Law Honour Justice and Conscience that occur in my own Case but yet lest the repetition of so many necessary Forms and Recitals should have made it seem heavy and tedious It will not be amiss to pass some short Remarks in the Nature of a Summary upon the whole And the Point will be shortly this Was there ever any thing more Scandalous or Incredible than the Pretence and Menage of Litster's Pretended Marriage on the one hand or ever any thing more Solemn or Notorious or backt with a stronger Pregnancy of Proof and Presumptions than Mine with the Earl of Banbury is on the other Now I should not concern my self in the Story of Litster's Marriage if I were not in some sort upon a Disproof as well as a Defence and drawn into it by Litster her self but since it doubles the Credit of my Vindication to prove the one True and the other False I hope the Reader will not think the Digression impertinent To begin then with the Circumstances of Litster's Pretended Marriage When was she Married She charges it in 86. But upon second Thoughts and my Lord at that time having no Acquaintance with her as is Proved by her own Relations in the Cause She obtained Leave of the Judge of the Ecclesiastical Court where the Cause depended to reform her own Libel and then lays it to be upon the Sixteenth of May 89. and differs with her self but Three Years in the Time of her own notable Wedding But from that time till about April 93. none of her Friends ever heard of this Marriage and then it was high time she being big with Child And yet my Lord all this while until he Married me was at his own dispose and liberty of full Age had neither Father or Mother or any Relation to awe and controul him and Mrs. Litster likewise being in the same Condition Freedom it will be hard to fancy a Reason why they should conceal it In the next place I must mind the Reader that in August 89. which was scarce Three Months after this supposed Marriage Mrs. Brownsworth my Lord with his Sister the Lady Katharine and all his Servants came to my House in the Pall Mall Lay there constantly not a Night absent and I lived in Part of the House with them till December and then he perswaded me to go into France but he continued in the House disposed of my Goods and Writings at his own Will and Pleasure till May following and then came to me at Paris And in all this time no News of Litster either in Town or Country Consider agen Proved by Timothy Hill John Blake Mr. Vaughan Margaret Vassal the Place where they were Married It was at the Nags-Head Ale-house in Covent-Garden And now to Crown the Work The holy Man that Coupled