“The Court is, as I understand, asked solemnly to declare, on the
strength of two certificates, coming I know not whence, written
on two scraps of paper, that the marriage, the only marriage of
George III which the world believes to have taken place, between
His Majesty and Queen Charlotte, was an invalid marriage, and
consequently that all the Sovereigns who have sat on the throne
since his death, including Her present Majesty, were not entitled
to sit on the throne. That is the conclusion which the Court is
asked to come to upon these two rubbishy pieces of paper, one
signed ‘George P.,’ and the other ‘George Guelph.’ I believe them
to be gross and rank forgeries. The Court has no difficulty in
coming to the conclusion, even assuming that the signatures had
that character of genuineness which they have not, that what is
asserted in these documents has not the slightest foundation in
fact.”
With this view the Lord Chief Baron and the Judge-Ordinary entirely
concurred, the former adding:
“... the declarations of Hannah Lightfoot, if there ever was such
a person, cannot be received in evidence on the faith of these
documents ... the only issues for the jury are the issues in the
cause and this is not an issue in the cause, but an incidental
issue.... I think that these documents, which the Lord Chief
Justice has treated with all the respect which properly belongs
to them, are not genuine.”
Before the Attorney General had finished the statement of his case, he
was interrupted by the foreman of the jury, who said that the jury were
unanimously of opinion that there was no necessity to hear any further
evidence as they were convinced that the signatures of the documents
were not genuine. On this the Lord Chief Justice said:
“You share the opinion which my learned brothers and I have
entertained for a long time; that every one of the documents is
spurious.”
As the Counsel for the Petitioners had “felt it his duty to make some
observations to the jury before they delivered their verdict,” and had
made them, the Lord Chief Justice summed up. Towards the conclusion of
his summing-up he said, in speaking of the various conflicting stories
put forth by Mrs. Serres:
“In each of the claims which she made at different times, she
appealed to documents in her possession by which they were
supported. What was the irresistible inference? Why, that
documents were from time to time prepared to meet the form which
her claims from time to time assumed.”
The jury, without hesitation, found that they were not satisfied “that
Olive Serres, the mother of Mrs. Ryves, was the legitimate daughter of
Henry Frederick Duke of Cumberland and Olive his wife; and they were
not satisfied that Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland, was lawfully
married to Olive Wilmot on the 4th of March 1767....”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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