21 S.E. 241 | Va. | 1895
delivered the opinion of the court.
Samuel C. Copeland (appellant) was, on the 22d day of February, 1890, arrested on a warrant from a justice of the peace in the county of Wythe, charging him with having seduced, under promise of marriage, Josephine, alias Josie, Swecker, and, upon his arrest, was bailed to appear before the justice on the 5th of March, 1890, for trial. On the 5th of March, 1890, a marriage' took place between the accused and Josie Swecker,
This is a striking case of want of correspondence between the allegata and the probata. The bill charges ‘ £that the appellant was forced to marry appellee under and by the threats of the officers who made his arrest, as above stated, who were relatives of the appellee, and heavily armed; that the appellee was pregnant at the time of the marriage, — not by him, but by some one else, — and that he did not know this fact until five months after the marriage; that he could not safely remain at the house where he was married, and went back to his woi’k, he being but a laborer, having no home, and his wife having none, but was living with her mother; that he resumed his work at Bertha, and never lived with her at all, as she never came to him, but refused to do so, and he never went to her mother’s house, although he worked within a few miles of her, etc.; that they never did live and cohabit as man and wife, from a kind of a mutual repulsion, but she wholly neglected and refused to live with or come to him, or in any way seek the protection of said marriage, as it was well known to have been obtained by fear and force, and hence void in law.” The witnesses examined in support of these allegations