ABSTRACT
It will be recollected that a few weeks since the widow of a soldier, named Patrick Readdy, who died in India, where she left her only surviving child in the care of a missionary, complained that she had been cajoled into a second marriage with a recruiting sergeant named Samuel Spurling, who ill-used her the day after the wedding and left home with two women of loose character, taking with him £10, which was paid to her by the committee of the Indian Mutiny Relief Fund, from whom she had been in the receipt of a pension of 5s. per week, besides 2s. 6d. per week from Lord Clive’s fund. The heartless conduct of Spurling, who was stripped of his uniform and dismissed from the recruiting staff for his misconduct, was indignantly commented upon by the magistrate of the Thames Police-office, Mr. Selfe, to whom the woman applied, and who relieved her with a small sum from the poor-box fund. Mrs. Spurling again appeared yesterday before Mr. Selfe, and stated that she had received information that Spurling had a wife living when he married her, and she was anxious to know what course she ought to pursue. Mr. Selfe
If Spurling’s first wife was living when he married you, he is liable to be indicted for bigamy; and if you can supply evidence of the prior marriage and that his wife was living when he contracted the second marriage, you can give him into the custody of any police-constable.
