The Queen against the Inhabitants of Mansfield
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 28 April 1841 |
| Date | 28 April 1841 |
| Court | Court of the Queen's Bench |
English Reports Citation: 113 E.R. 1203
IN THE COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH.
S. C. 1 G. & D. 7; 10 L. J. M. C. 97; Jur. 505. Discussed, Hawes v. Draeger, 1883, 23 Ch. D. 178. Referred to, Gardon v. Gardon, [1903] P. 142.
[444] the queen against the inhabitants of mansfield. Wednesday, April 28th, 1841. On a trial as to the legitimacy of children begotten when the husband and wife were living separately, the fact that they had opportunities of access is not conclusive of the legitimacy ; but the presumption of intercourse may be rebutted by circumstances. If there was an opportunity of access, but the wife was notoriously living in adultery, it does not necessarily follow that a child begotten while such opportunity existed was not the husband's. By a case sent from Quarter Sessions on a question of settlement, it appeared that a wife was deserted by her husband, who went to live with another woman ; that the wife, at the end of three or four years, married another man, and that she had two children by him ; and that, eleven years after the second marriage she again cohabited with her husband. It did not appear where the husband was between times of his deserting and again cohabiting with his wife. Held that the sessions were not warranted, on this evidence, in finding non-access of the husband at the times when the children were begotten. And, therefore, that the wife's evidence could not be received to prove them illegitimate. [S. C. 1 G. & D. 7 ; 10 L. J. M. C. 97 ; 5 Jur. 505. Discussed, Hawes v. Draeger, 1883, 23 Ch. D. 178. Referred to, Gordon v. Gordon, [1903] P. U2.] On appeal against an order of justices (made January 25th, 1840), removing Ann Fletcher, otherwise Ann Parsons, and her two children, Henry and Elizabeth, from the parish of Mansfield, in Nottinghamshire, to the parish or township of Tewksbury, in Gloucestershire, the sessions confirmed the order as to Ann Fletcher, and discharged it as to her children, subject to the opinion of this Court on a case, which was stated in the following words. In the examination on which the order of removal was founded, the pauper Ann Fletcher alias Ann Parsons, who was the only party examined before the magistrate, stated : That she married her husband Thomas Fletcher by banns at Tewksbury old church, in the county of Gloucester, on Christmas Day in the year 1812 : that her said husband Thomas Fletcher was born at Tewksbury aforesaid, of parents who were legally settled there, and that he has never done any act to gain a settlement in his own right : that about a year after her marriage her said husband deserted her and came to live at Arnold, where the examinant found him about four years afterwards living with another woman. Her husband ran away from her [445] there, and she lived at Arnold three or four years, and latterly has been residing at Mansfield : that she has had by her said husband one child named Betsey, now aged about twenty-seven years, and married, and residing at Beeston, in this county, the last time this examinant heard of her. That she, this examinant, about twenty years ago, was married by banns at Mansfield aforesaid to Henry Young Parsons, by whom she, this examinant, has had two children, viz. Henry, aged about nineteen years, an idiot, and Elizabeth, aged about seventeen years, who has very ill health. That she, this examinant, and her said two last named children...
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