In many families there are tales which are handed down from generation to generation as family lore. In the case of my Irish ancestors there are several such stories passed down by my father:
- about the ship’s captain who travelled to the gold rush at Ballarat in Australia and back again to Ireland in the 1850’s;
- about the two brothers who were said to have ridden with the Charge of the Light Brigade on 25 October 1854 during the Crimean War;
- about the great uncles who were coal merchants and won a court case in the 1860’s against the Earl of Meath;
- about the widow who sailed to St. John’s, Newfoundland, in the 1870’s with Governor John Hawley Glover and his sister, and lived in Government House as a companion to the Governor's sister;
- about the loss of the family-owned sailing ships in a storm in the 1880’s;
- about the family link to Frederick Vodrey, the famous Irish art potter, in the 1890’s.
All of those stories I plan to write about in more detail later on.
But this story, the sad tale of Cuthbert v. Browne, was not passed down from earlier generations, perhaps because it happened so long ago that it was forgotten until I chanced to find a reference to it in an old newspaper in Dublin.
I first learned about the case in September 2006 when I was in Dublin’s Pearse Street Library searching through the Irish Newspaper Archive, the world's largest online database of Irish Newspapers, on the library’s computer. To my surprise I came upon a notice in the Freeman's Journal of Wednesday, February 7th, 1821, which read:
“CAUTION
“The public are hereby cautioned against giving Credit to HANNAH CUTHBERT, otherwise DARLING, my Wife, as we have separated and I am determined not to pay any Debts which she may contract.
“CHARLES CUTHBERT
“Little Bray, County Dublin”
Although the newspaper database is available for free in the Dublin libraries it is otherwise a pay site. However the first page of each issue is available as a sample for free on line. Because the notice happened to be on page one of that issue, it may be seen from any computer by entering the date 07/02/1821 and the Freeman's Journal as the publication in the “Quick Cover Search” at
Searching further through subsequent issues of that same newspaper, I found an article about the Cuthbert v Browne court case on pages 3 and 4 of the Wednesday, July 2nd, 1823 edition. The article is extremely long, the equivalent of over 10 typewritten pages in length, and goes into great detail about the case and what led up to it. The story as written in the Freeman's Journal would make a wonderful play and I would love to tackle it someday, perhaps by using Playwriting 101. But if some famous Irish playwright decides to take up the challenge, I ask only that the names of the participants be retained so that the Cuthbert name will be immortalized in literature throughout the ages.
I had already obtained the information that Charles had married Hannah Darling in April, 1820, although at the time I first discovered it I may not have known that Charles was a brother of my ancestor. Luckily I never throw anything out, a habit which sometimes can be a blessing as well as a curse. When I was at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City in March 2003, I had found a record of the issuance of their marriage licence in the Dublin Consistorial Office marriage licence books c 1630-1825 (Film # 0,100,227) which showed:
Name - Charles Cuthbert
Designation - Bray, Gentleman
Wife - Hannah Darling
Designation - Dublin, Spinster
Date of Licence - 1 April 1820
Parish - St. Peter
A record of their marriage is also in the International Genealogical Index (IGI) at
(although the birth dates given there are only a guess and no source information is given);
on the Irish Genealogy site at http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/details/98b5d20709269?name=cuthbert&name2=&location=&dd=&mm=&yy=&type=&diocese=DUBLIN&parish=ST.+PETER'S+C.of+I.¢ury=&decade=&sort=&pageSize=10&submit=Search; and
in the Appendix to the Thirtieth Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records in Ireland, page 249.
While the lengthy Freeman's Journal newspaper account is fascinating to read, a considerable effort would have been necessary to summarize it. However in August of 2009 by chance when I was Googling the name Charles Cuthbert, I came across a post on British-Genealogy.com under the heading “Google Books Treasure Hunt” at http://www.british-genealogy.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29584&page=3&29584-Google-Book-Search-Treasure-Hunt/page3= From this post I learned that Charles’s court case was written up in a book entitled The Annual Register of 1824. This book is fully searchable on Google Books at http://books.google.com/books?pg=RA1-PT35&dq=The%20Annual%20Register%20for
The court case write-up is on page 35-36 and can easily be found by using the search term Cuthbert, or by clicking on this URL:
What follows is an outline of the case before the Court of Common Pleas, Dublin, presented mainly in the style it was originally written in the 1824 Annual Register. But since there is such a tangle of relationships, making the proceedings somewhat difficult to follow, I’ve inserted the name of the actual person involved where a pronoun or legal term such as “plaintiff” and “defendant” is used.
The characters in the drama are:
Charles Cuthbert - my great great great uncle, the plaintiff and wronged party. The outcome of the case was that he was awarded £ 800 in damages.
Hannah Darling - Charles’s estranged wife
John Henry Browne - his evil brother-in-law, the defendant
Elizabeth Darling - John Henry Browne’s wife and a sister to Hannah. Her first name isn’t mentioned in the write-up but I found it since their marriage is recorded in the International Genealogical Index (IGI) and can be found by entering their names at
Archibald Browne - a brother of the defendant
Mrs. Archibald Browne (nee Cuthbert, first name unknown) - sister of Charles Cuthbert
William Cuthbert - my great great grandfather, a man of upstanding moral character, called as a witness in the case
Mrs. Darlington (formerly Mrs. Darling) - mother of Hannah and Elizabeth
Mr. O'Connell - lawyer representing the plaintiff, Charles Cuthbert
Mr. Wallace - lawyer representing the defendant, John Henry Browne
Here follows the write-up of the case from the The Annual Register of 1824:
Court Of Common Pleas, Dublin.
Cuthbert v. Browne.
This was an action on the case for deceit. The declaration stated, that, the plaintiff (Charles Cuthbert) being unmarried, the defendant (John Henry Browne), on the 20th of March, 1820, intending to deceive Charles, did represent Hannah Darling to him as being a chaste, virtuous, and well-conducted maiden;
that, in consequence of such representation, the plaintiff (Charles), on the 20th of April, 1820, married the said Hannah Darling;
that the defendant (John) then knew, that the said Hannah Darling was not a chaste, virtuous, and well-conducted maiden, but, on the contrary, had been debauched and defiled by himself; and
that in six months and three days, after the marriage, she was delivered of a child.
There was another count, which stated, that the defendant (John) encouraged the plaintiff (Charles) to marry the said Hannah Darling, and represented her to Charles as being a chaste, virtuous, and well-conducted maiden; whereas she was not chaste, virtuous, or well-conducted, but, on the contrary, had been debauched and defiled.
The damages were laid at £ 2,000 [i.e., the amount that was being asked for, to compensate the plaintiff, Charles].
Mr. O'Connell stated the case on the part of the plaintiff (Charles). The parties, said he, are brothers-in-law; the wife (Hannah Darling) of the plaintiff (Charles) is the sister-in-law of the defendant (John) [fn1]. The defendant (John) has eight or ten children by the one sister (Elizabeth), and at least one by the other (Hannah); he holds a lucrative employment on the coast of Wicklow, and, by the seizure of smuggled tobacco, has realized something considerable. The plaintiff (Charles) is a farmer, and lives at Bray, in the county of Wicklow;
Archibald Browne, a brother of the defendant, had married a sister of the plaintiff's (i.e., a sister of Charles) in the year 1816 [fn2] , and thus an intimacy commenced between the parties. The plaintiff (Charles), in consequence, became acquainted with Hannah Darling, the defendant's wife's sister [i.e., she was John’s wife, Elizabeth’s sister].
Hannah’s mother who had married a Mr. Darlington [fn3] , gave encouragement to the addresses of the plaintiff (Charles) to her daughter (Hannah), and in the year 1817 everything was arranged for their marriage.
At that period, however, the defendant (John) caused the marriage to be broken off. This produced a coolness between them (Charles and John), which continued for two or three years, until 1820, when the defendant (John) appeared to be anxious for the marriage to take place.
John met the plaintiff (Charles) one evening in the town of Bray, and addressing him abruptly, said, " Your sister [whose name I still haven’t discovered] is married to my brother (Archibald) ; why will you not give me your hand ? You think it was I that broke off your marriage, but you are mistaken; I am your friend; Hannah is at my house, and a better girl never breathed; give me your hand — come home with me and you shall see her." The plaintiff (Charles), trusting in the sincerity of this language, gave the defendant (John) his hand, and went home with him;
He (Charles), however, did not see her on this occasion, as the defendant (John) said that he recollected she was then in Dublin, but would be there in a day or two. John represented to Charles, that there was a romantic cottage, which belonged to Mrs. Darlington, and which would just suit him, the plaintiff (Charles) and Hannah. The defendant (John) added, that he had made such seizures of tobacco, that he was about to add two men to his barge, and that he would appoint the plaintiff (Charles) as one, with a salary of £ 4o a year, and allow him l/6th of all future seizures.
Hannah appeared afterwards; she told the plaintiff (Charles), that it was Archibald Browne (John’s brother) who had broken off the marriage, and not John. Every thing was now settled for the marriage (of Charles and Hannah), which accordingly took place.
William Cuthbert [my great great grandfather] was called as a witness. —
Witness knows the defendant (John) in this action;
knows the young lady (Hannah);
the defendant's wife (Elizabeth) and witness's brother's wife (Hannah) are sisters;
recollects the marriage of his brother (Charles) with Hannah Darling;
a child was born in six months after the marriage;
saw the defendant (John) after the birth of that child;
John said to witness (William), "Oh ! William, is not this a horrid thing that has befallen me? I would not wonder if hell and destruction would open and swallow me up."
Witness (William) told him to pray to God to keep him from temptation;
the defendant (John) said, that he could not go to church or receive the sacrament, since he had committed the facts;
the defendant (John) said, that he would give fifty pounds a piece to two doctors, to make the child come in under age, and that he would then easily settle it with the plaintiff (Charles);
he said, the plaintiff”s wife were a defraud on him, and that he (the defendant, John) would take her home;
witness (William) said, " How can you take another man's wife ?"
John replied that he would bring her home, and let his wife (Elizabeth) do as well as she could with her;
John also said, that he was sorry the law of the land would not allow him to live with both sisters;
defendant (John) told witness (William), that, if William would interfere to settle the business, John would give six or seven government debentures to plaintiff (Charles) and witness (William);
witness (William) said, that he would not interfere; it was too serious a business for him to enter into;
the defendant (John) holds a situation under the government, in the revenue; he is coast-officer at Bray; he appears to live in a very comfortable manner.
Here the case closed on the part of the plaintiff.
Mr. Wallace then addressed the jury for the defendant.
The jury found a verdict for the plaintiff (Charles) - £ 800 damages.
The Freeman's Journal newspaper reported that “the verdict was received with acclamations by a crowded court”.
So far I haven’t found out whether the baby was a boy or a girl, and what happened to Charles and Hannah and the baby after the case was decided.
Also I haven’t been able to find a marriage for Archibald Browne. The Appendix to the Thirtieth Report of the Deputy Keeper of Public Records lists a marriage between a William Browne and an Anne Cuthbert in the 1840’s which would be around the right time period, but I have no record of Charles’s having had a sister named Anne. The only two sisters I know of were Mary (baptised 1769) and Jane (baptised 1791). There is a ten year gap between the baptisms of Charles’s two youngest siblings and so there may have been more children born whose baptisms are not recorded in the Christ Church Delgany Parish Register. Another genealogical mystery to pursue.
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Footnotes:
1 John’s wife was Elizabeth Darling. Their marriage is in the IGI at http://www.familysearch.org/eng/search/frameset_search.asp?PAGE=/eng/search/ancestorsearchresults.asp and also in the Appendix to the 30th report of the Deputy Keeper of Public Records in Ireland published in 1898 as part of the Enhanced Parliamentary Papers on Ireland (EPPI).
2 I have been unable to find a marriage for Archibald Browne.
3 Presumably she must have been Mrs. Darling before becoming Mrs. Darlington.
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