Skip to main content

‹‹‹ prev (72) Page 10Page 10

(74) next ››› Page 12Page 12

(73) Page 11 -
[ » ]
Jane before her delivery ; at her delivery ; and after
it was over : to all which the Chancellor has fpoke
with great propriety. It is proved beyond a poffi-
bility of doubt that die became pregnant in October,
174.7, at the age of forty-nine years, a thing far from
being uncommon, as is attefted by phyficians of the
firft rank, and confirmed by daily experience ; and
that in die month of July fhe was delivered of twins,
one of whom died, the other is ftill alive ; he has been
prefented to the world by Sir John Stewart and .Lady
Jane Douglas, as their ion ; nor can he be wrefted
from the hands of his parents, unlefs fome other had
in their life-time claimed him as their child in a. legal
and juftifiable way.
This action, my Lords, did not lie againfl the ap-
pellant as an impoftor ; for an importer, in the fenfe
of the law, is a perfon who wilfully and knowingly
pretends to be a different one from what he really is,
in order to defraud another, and to impofe under a
fictitious name upon the public. If any be an im-
poftor, it mull have been Lady Jane, whom they
ought to have profecuted in her life-time, and not at
the diftance of nine years after her death : the method
of difcovering an impoftor is to bring his accomplice
to the court before which the impoftor was arraigned,
and if, after a fair trial, the accufed perfon be found
guilty, let him take the confequences thereof; but
this the refpondents have neglected : the appellant has
been, for five years four months and twelve days,
the acknowledged fon of Lady Jane Douglas •, and
for thirteen years and two months the fon of Sir John
Stewart, before any attempt was made to rob him
of his parents, his birth-nght, and his all.
As

Images and transcriptions on this page, including medium image downloads, may be used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence unless otherwise stated. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence