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- (Sir) James Campbell (1745-1831) was a Scottish officer of the British Army, and author of Memoirs of Sir James Campbell of Ardkinglas, written by Himself. Until 1810 he was known as James Callander. While not a baronet, as he claimed, he used the title "Sir" James Callander Campbell was 5th Laird of Craigforth and 15th Laird of Ardkinglas. He was the eldest son of John Callander of Craigforth, by his wife Mary, daughter of Sir James Livingston of Glentirran and Dalderse, and was born on 21 October 1745. He was educated at Edinburgh High School and under a private tutor.
In 1759 James Callander, as he then was, joined the 51st regiment as ensign, and served in the Seven Years' War. After 1763 he was in Ireland and Minorca, returning to Scotland in 1789. He ran into financial troubles, and his cousin Sir Alexander Campbell of Ardkinglas had him imprisoned for debt.
Taking work abroad, under Sir John Acton, 6th Baronet, Callander was inspector-general of troops at Naples. At the request of Lord Nelson, Callander claimed, he went to the Ionian Islands to confirm the inhabitants in their attachment to the English cause. This authority was thought by some to be fictitious, however. He remained there till the Peace of Amiens in 1802.
On succeeding in 1810 to the estate of his cousin Sir Alexander Campbell of Ardkinglas, Callander adopted the name of Campbell. He also used the title of baronet to which he was not entitled, the Campbell baronetcy having terminated with his cousin's death.
Campbell died in 1831.
Campbell was four times married after a legal form, and left a large family. His first wife was Catherine Forbes, the daughter of George Forbes of Hitchner Hall Surrey, they were married in 1769 in Geneva. His second wife was Harriet Dutens, the daughter of Peter Dutens jeweller to the Prince of Wales, they were married in 1772. His third wife was Lady Elizabeth McDonnell, the daughter of Lord Alexander Earl of Antrim, they were married in 1777. Campbell's fourth wife was Melle Descot, the daughter of his Paris banker, they were married in 1815.
When resident in Paris, Campbell made the acquaintance of a German woman, Lina Talina Sassen. Being detained by the order of Napoleon, he supposedly sent her as his commissioner to Scotland, designating her in the power of attorney with which he furnished her as his "beloved wife". On his return to Scotland he declined to recognise the relationship, and she raised an action against him in the court of session. Although the marriage was found not proven, she was awarded a sum of ?300. per annum. On appeal to the House of Lords the award was withheld, and Sassen continued to bring legal actions against him, being allowed to sue in form? pauperis. A daughter had been born to them, around 1813.
(James Campbell (1745 -1831))
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Campbell_(1745%E2%80%931831)]
2 - HOUSE OF LORDS, May 24,
Sir JAMES CAMPBELL, BART, APPELLANT, v. Madame Lina Taline SASSEN, Respondant.
This case arose not of an action brought against the appellant at the instance of the respondent, who claimed to be Sir James Campbell's wife; or, if not, that she was entitled to aliment or reparation, on the ground of deception and fraud, said to have been practised upon her by Sir James. The Court of Session in Scotland found that she was not his wife, but that she was entitled to 200l. a year of ailment, against which decision Sir James Campbell now appealed. The circumstances of the case were as follow : - Sir James Campbell, who is now several years past eighty, has constantly resided abroad for the last thirty years. In the year 1806 he became acquainted with Madame Lina Taline Sassen (who, it appears, was a Prussian lady), in Paris, and from that period till the year 1816, cohabited with her In France, and other parts of the continent, though latterly not without occasional seperation. This lady, as represented by the appellant, had, previously to his acquaintance with her, lived in a state of prostitution. She was brought to England by a merchant, with whom she lived for a time, and then returned to Paris, as a servant In a family who lived at the Hotel de Prince a Gallis. At the time he made her acquaintance she lived at a house of ill fame in the Roe Mont Blanc, and was even registered In the books of the police. Sir J. Campbell then took her into his house as a servant, and afterwards treated her as his mistress, but he denied that anything like a marriage ceremony was performed, or contemplated by either party. Madame Susan, according to a usual practice abroad, took his name, but the circumstances in which they lived were well understood by all his friends and acquaintances, and after the dethronement of Nepoleon, in whose service he states she was a spy, he took steps before the proper Judges in Paris to oblige her to give up his name, and the applieatton was successful. Her conduct was such that he at length got rid of her; but she still continued to use his name, and succeed in exciting the sympathy of the English than resident at Paris. Sir James Campbell, apprised of this, summoned her as as impostor before a police magistrate, by whom her claim to be his wife was investigated. The result of this investigation was the following declaration by M. Denaeyer, then Commissary of Police: - The declaration of M. Dammeyer bears: " That, in December, 1815, Sir James Callander Campbell, English General, lived at Paris, in the street Des Bourbon Villaneure, No. 29, came to complain to him of the vexations which he experienced daily, from the above-named Lina Taline Sassen, a Prussian, who, under the pretext of being his wife, came not only to extort money from him, taking possession of what-ever she could find, but even pretending, as his lawful wife, to establish herself in his dwelling-house - required the said gentleman, compearer, to put an end, by any means in his power, to these insufferable vexations. M. Deeasyer then called before him the Lady Lisa Taline Suess, and enjoined her to exhibit to him the act of marriage. That woman than produced to him a little square of ragged paper, setting forth, that in the year 1804, her marriage bad been contracted at St. Germain on Laye, and celebrated by a Protestant minister, assisted by two witnesses. The compearer then went to Mr. Maron, chief of the Protestant worship in France, and represented to him the declaration which had been made to him by the woman Sassen. Mr. Maron assured the compearer that he never had a Protestant minister at St. Germain en Laye; and that, moreover, the name related on the paper was totally unknown to him. On the strength of that declaration, the compearer intimated his order on the woman Sassen, to cease taking in future the name and title of spouse of Sir James Callandar Campbell, with a promise on the part of M. Denaeyer, that he would use his influence with General Campbell to obtain assistance in money for Miss Sassen. That assistance was obtained; and, in the discharges which that woman subscribed for the sums paid her, she signed solely and simply Sassen." In 1817, Madame Sassen proceeded to Scotland, to commence proceedings against Sir James Campbell, under the impression that, by the law of Scotland, she might more easily establish a marriage. The grounds upon which she sought to establish it were, that they were married at St. Germain en Lays, near Paris, in May, 1804, and thereafter lived and cohabited together as husband and wife, and there were several children of the marriage, one of whom was still living; and that in 1800, Sir James Campbell having some business to transact to Scotland, gave her a power of attorney to transact it for him, In which he styled her his beloved wife, Lina Taline Sassen, besides some letters addressed to her as Mrs. Campbell. A stricter inquiry than before was made at St. Germain en Laye, and the following certificates were produced.
" The Mayor of St. Germain en Lays, formerly Colonel of Cavalry, Chevalier of the Royal and Military Order of St. Louis, and Officer of the State Civil -
"Certifies to whom it may concern, that having made search of the registers of the State Cleft, In the decennial tables, from the second year of the Republic, down to the 1st January, 1818, inclusive, there is found no marriage celebrated (pronounce) in the names of James Callender and Lina Taline Sassen."
A similar certificate was also produced from the curate of St. Germain;
" I, undersigned, curate of St. Germain, certify to whom It shall concern, that after the declaration made by the civil officer, and searching the registers, there exists no marriage, ei-ther canonical or elvil, contracted between the parties deft - nailed In the present declaration above written, sad that I have no knowledge of soe - Done at St. Germain, 6th September, 1817."
Madame Sassed failing on this ground, said, by the law of Holland, having cohabited with Sir James Campbell fat more than IS months to that country as man and wife, they were mar ried ; but the latter, to pot an end to all difiieslty or doubt upon that point, obtained a commission in Holland, before whom it was proved by the most eminent Dutch lawyers, that cohabitation during the alleged period did not constitute a marriage by the law of that country. Failing to establish the marriage, she claimed damages or aliment, on the grounds of imposition, and proved such to have been 'practised upon her by the appellant, who Ied her to believe that she was married by the law of Scotland; of the fraud being continued by executing formal deeds, in which she was styled as his wife; and of his having made repeated declarations to many persons in France, Holland, and Scotland, to that effect. In this claim she succeeded in the Courts below, who pronounced their final interlocutor in March 1811, which the appellant now sought to have revised.
Lord Gifford, in delivering judgment, said that he had examined the case with a great deal of care and anxiety, and endeavoured to divest his mind of those prejudices which the situation of the respondent had a tendency to excite, and which, perhaps, had some eh.tre In lnfiuencing the decision of the Courts below ; but however much one may be disposed to sympathise with her, yet, looking at the facts of the case only, as a Judge was bound to do, he must say that he thought she failed in establishing a case in which she was entitled to aliment. Even if the appellant represented her as his wife, still she, who consented to live in a state of immoral intercourse with him at first, had no reason to complain of deception, and ought not to be allowed to profit by her own immorality. It was therefore his opinion, that the Interlocutor of the Courts below should be reversed.
The following judgments bale been delivered by the Lord Chancellor :
OGILVIE v. DUNDAS.
Remitted with special declaration.,
SIR JAMES DUFF V. THE EARL OF FIFE.
Interlocutor affirmed. Special declaration for the bills of exception, 50l. costs each appeal.
(Article in the Globe newspaper 25 May 1826)
[E-mail attachment from Judy Mccutcheon rec: 28 Aug 2019]
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