Indecent Familiarities at St. Paul's Cray

 Archaeologia Cantiana 1889

In North Kent lies the small village of Paul's Cray; the ancient church of St. Paul, though now redundant, is picturesquely set along a little stream, "called by courtesy a river." It was never a large parish but, in the 1850s, the rectory was quite spacious. Residing therein were the Rev. Edmond Roberts, his wife Eliza Anne, their six living children, several servants and eight teenage boys, as the rector supplemented his income with a small school. To assist with the latter, 20-year old James Mowat, a young man preparing to go up to Cambridge was taken on as a teacher. Alas, Mr. Roberts soon had reason to believe that his wife of 17 years had formed a questionable attachment with young Mowat; in fact, their “indecent familiarities were the common talk of the servants.” 

In 1854, the first English Divorce Court was still a few years away. Thus, the Rev. Roberts appeared before the ecclesiastical tribunal, the Court of Arches, in Canterbury. Roberts told Sir John Dodson the signs of his wife's misconduct were everywhere. She had no interest in the school until Mowat came. Suddenly she took long walks in the country, arm in arm with the young tutor. Some of the boys claimed they saw them kissing. The butler reported finding Mrs. Roberts and Mowat in the locked library; the keyhole in the door was stuffed with paper. It must be said, however, the rector was not the most attentive husband, making long visits to Brighton and Ireland. In his absence, he got word that Mowat had moved into the dressing room adjacent to Mrs. Roberts' bedroom. Eliza Anne had a female companion but Roberts alleged that she was their confederate, leaving the two alone, passing their letters when apart and doing nothing when the two "by mistake" spent several nights at a lodging house in Bath where Mrs. Roberts posed as Mowat's cousin. On another occasion, Mrs. Roberts had been traced to London, staying in the same lodgings as Mowat. Confronted by the evidence, she blandly denied it. After the rector saw his wife boldly emerge from young Mowat's room, "the separation of the parties thereupon took place." 

Eliza Anne Roberts contradicted her husband's jealous obsessions. Mowat arrived in Cray in delicate health and spirits. Her husband had worked the youth quite hard; she felt it was her role to provide some tenderness. Mowat's father was a well-known Wesleyan minister and his son's plan to join the Anglican church had caused a family upheaval. She helped him through that, with long conversations and long walks - at doctor's orders. She denied the schoolboy gossip, the library story, and while together in Bath, they stayed in separate inns. There was medical evidence that she was occasionally erratic and confused about dates and places. She also insisted that she had slept with her husband for some time after he dated their separation which raised the question - had he condoned her misconduct?

The rector's counsel admitted there was no proof, no time or place, of the adultery but there was enough evidence of Mrs. Roberts' indecent familiarities that the court could infer that she "might" have done it. But her lawyers suggested it was quite improbable that a previously unimpeachable woman, twice Mowat's age, having borne nine children, could suddenly abandon herself in such fashion. The rector's evidence entirely failed to prove that any adultery had occurred.

The Arches judge took nearly a month to rule; he found enough evidence of "proximate acts" that if the opportunity had been afforded (in London, Bath or the rectory), adultery would have been committed. He granted the divorce; Mrs. Roberts' subsequent appeal was denied. 

The scandal in Cray forced the Rev. Roberts to resign and close his school. He became rector in Dorset (Wootton Glanville) but died a few months later. He was just 47. Mr. Mowat did go on to Cambridge and was ordained in 1860. After many years as a college don, The Rev. Mr. Mowat was married and served as rector of Handsworth in Yorkshire. Mowat did not marry Eliza Anne Roberts; she cannot be traced. 

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