CRIM. CON.—WILLIS versus BARNARD.
On Thursday, Mr. Willis, formerly a Puisne Judge in the Supreme Court of Upper Canada, obtained a verdict for 1,000/. against Captain Barnard, of the 68th Regiment, for the seduction of Mrs. Willis. Mr. Willis, in his professional character as a hamster, had bad some corre- spondence with Lord Strathmore in 1824, concerning a bill of equity, and thus became acquainted with Lord Strathmore's family, where he won the good graces of Lady Mary Isabella Bowes Lyon (the daughter of that nobleman), whom he subsequently married. In 1827, be was appointed a Judge in Canada, and carried thither with him his lady and mother and sister. Having some difference afterwards with Sir Pere- grine Maitland, the Governor of Canada, Judge Willis was suspended ; and in August 1828, returned to England, to appeal to the Privy Council: During the interval, his lady, who with his sister was left in America, became intimate with Mr. Barnard, then a Lieutenant, with whom she subsequently eloped from Montreal, and returned to England. The lady has since gone to France, mid the gentleman to Demerara.
Sergeant Spankie attempted to raise a question on Barnard's identity, but did not succeed. He afterwards treated the Jury and Court to three stanzas of Bums's address to the " Unco guid ;" but the Jury would neither be argued nor sung out of an acquittal.
Previous page
