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Llanrwst County Court.

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Llanrwst County Court. FAMILY AFFAIRS AT TREFRIW. This Court was held before His 'Honour Judge Moss at Llanrwst on Friday. Mr. C. T. Allard took the place of Mr. J E. Humphreys as Regis- trar, tie latter having gone for a sea voyage for the benefit of his health. THE TREFRIW-AM ERIC AN ROMANCE. On several occasions the action, which- has now become known as the Trefriw-American ro- mance, has been before His Honour, and for- tunately it came to a conclusion at this Court. The action was brought by an old lady named Elizabeth Jones, residing at Alma House, Tref- riw, against Hugh Sweeney, Colorado, U.S.A., her son, Henry Jones, Ty'ndidol, Trefriw, and others to set aside a deed. of assignment and to vest certain real estate in. the rightful owner. Mir. R. A. Griffith (instructed by Messrs. Chamberlain and Johnson, Llandudno) appeared for the plaintiff, and Mr. C. T. Allard repre- sented the defendants but owing to. Mr. Allard taking up the duties of Registrar, the defence was entrusted in the 'hands of Mr. A. Lloyd Griffith. It appears from the previous evidence that the deed of assignment was arrived at on October 31st, 1902. The ,1ate Henry Jones, husband of the plaintiff, took a lease of Alma House from ,Baroness Willoughby De Eresby, in March, 1895, and the reversion was conveyed to him on the 3rd June, 1897. Henry Jones obtained mortgages on the property from his son David Lewis Jones, amounting to £ 812. D. L. Jones died on, the ■131th February, 1902, in Colorado, where it was alleged he was married to. a woman named Mary Maria Sweeney. She came over with a youth named J. T. Jones and said he was the lawful son of D. L. Jones. The parties arrived at a settlement by which the old people had the right of possession of the house while they lived, and on their demise the property was to. be divided in three equal, shares.. Mary Sweeney died in Colorado in 1906, and her son Hugh Sweeney v;as granted administration of her estate. It 4k came to. the knowledge of the plaintiff that Mary Sweeney was married in Chicago to. John Sweeney. The contention of the plaintiff was that Mary Sweeney had falsely represented her- self as the lawful wife of D. L. Jones, while her husband, John Sweeney, was alive. Mir. R. A .Griffith said he was now in a posi- tiofn to put in a certificate proving that John Sweeney was married to Mary Butler at Cork on the 23rd December, 1857, and there was the affi- davit of John Sweeney himself, which bore out the certificate. Elizabeth Jones, widow of the late Henry Jones., isaid she was now 72 years of age. Her husband died on the 5th December, 1904, and he made a will of which she was the sole ex- ecutrix. David Lewis Jones was her son, and he died on the 13th February, 1902. She re- membered Mrs. Sweeney coming over to Trefriw in 1902, and John. Thomas Jones accompanied her. They stppped with, witness's son, Henry Jones, who. went to Liverpool to. meet her. Mrs. Sweeney went to Alma houise and told witness that she was her daughter-in-law. She was. told that if she did not sign the deed of assignment Mrs. Sweeney would go to Llanrwst the follow- ing day and sell the house. She was also told to be nice to Mrs. Sweeney, who said that she was the owner of Alma Honse, .and that she would pay the rates and give witness £2 per month. Witness had never received any of this. Cross-examined by Mr. A..Lloyd Griffith, she said there was a mortgage of £800 on the house before the making of the isettlement. She would swear that Mrs. Sweeney said she was the wife of D. Lewis Jones, and that she owned every- thing. That was the first time witness had heard of her as her son's wife. Would you be surprised to know that they were married on the 24th January, 1885 ?-It was most unlikely. ANOTHER MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE. Mr. Lloyd Griffith here produced a certificate of the marriage. Continuing her examination, the witness .said .that D. L. Jones was very kind to her, but Henry Jones, when he was in America, was very unkind to her. He never sent her a halfpenny whilst he was there, but he gave her half a ton -of coal before starting out there. Replying to another question, witness said that !D. Lewis Jones had told her that he would re- member her all his life, and wished her to be sure that when she died. her body wo.uld be taken out through the front door. Her parried daughter did not like the fact that she did not came under the settlement, and she expressed herself as being afraid that they would be turned out of the ho.use. She never suggested that witness should try and upset the settlement. She admitted that her daughter Rebecca told her that they had, been wrongly dealt with, but no one suggested that she should try and upset the settlement except herself. Mrs. Hannah Jones, daughter-in-law of the last witness, and wife of Henry Jones, one of the defendants in the case, was called, and her evidence closed the case for the plaintiff. For the defence, Henry Jones, one of the de- fendants, who is blind, and son of the plaintiff, ,said he lived at Ty'nddiol, Trefriw. He re- membered Alma House, Trefriw, being built, he at that time being working in the mines, and afterwards helping to. erect the house in the evening. When at home witness gave. all the money he earned to his mother, and then col- lected a little. together and joined his brother in America, and helped him as much as be could, until he lost his eyesight. When he arrived in America, his brother, D. Lewis Jones, was mar- ried to Mary Miaria Jones, and he stayed with them for close upon three years. Whilst in America he sent money to his mother through his eldest brother. The last sum witness sent was £60. When leaving America his brother took compassion, on him and gave him a mort- gagte for ^400, which on his arrival in this country he placed in his box. After being struck blind he was about to. go to the Institution in Liverpool, and he searched his box and found them missing. Witness asked his mother about it, and she turned her back and never replied. Whenf David Lewis Jones came over to. this country they had a conversation around the fire- side, and he asked the latter whether he was willing to hand over all the deeds and mort- gages, and he replied that he was, .that the sons had worked hard for them. The next day they came to Llanrwst and went to a solicitor's office for the purpose of the transitor. Mr. R. A. Griffith objected to. this evidence. Witness You don.'t kow anything about it, sir. (Laughter.) Continuing, the witness said that owing to what transpired in the solicitor's office, the trans- fer of the mortgages did not take place. He had never written to Mrs. Sweeney, neither had he instructed ,anyone to do so. for him. Everybody .agreed to the settlement, which was also under- stood by everybody, because one of the trustees explained it in Welsh to his mother.

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