NORTON, Caroline.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Autograph letter signed, to Sheridan Le Fanu; A letter from the reformer and author to her cousin requesting "a copy of the Yelverton case in full", a sensational dispute regarding the validity of inter-religious marriages. Norton was herself notorious for her marital legal troubles, and here comments that "a mock marriage is not a very new piece of treachery, but has been attempted in many a case of perfidy among evil men".The Yelverton case was debated between William Charles Yelverton (1824-1883), an Irish Protestant, and Theresa Longworth (c.1827/33-1881), an English Catholic, who married in 1857 in a secret Catholic ceremony after the latter insisted she would not cohabit without it. When Yelverton later wished to marry another, he claimed that his marriage with Longworth was legally void due to a Georgian statute nullifying marriages celebrated by a Catholic priest and any between a Protestant and Catholic. After Yelverton proceeded with his second marriage without the consent of Longworth, a case was brought to the courts in Dublin to test the validity of the marriages, which ultimately was decided in Yelverton's favour. Popular opinion deemed this outcome unfair and eventually led to the enactment of the Matrimonial Causes and Marriage Law (Ireland) Amendment Act of 1870, which legitimized inter-religious marriages.Norton shared this negative popular opinion: "I have seen nothing so wonderfully cruel!". Her own marital affairs had been tried in the law courts and the

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.