The Loves of the Lawyers. silent as to his first wife. We know that her name was Bridget Paston and that is about all. When Bridget was gathered to her fathers, an event which happened in June, 1 598, Coke cast about for another. In November of the same year he married Lady Elizabeth Hatton, which was something in the nature of a general surprise. For a short time before Lady Hatton had refused no less a man than Bacon; and it was little wonder that the world stared when she ac cepted his comparatively insignificant rival Coke. What Lad) " ' '.tton's motive was we do not know. It ts mi^>e than likely she married out of spite. It is also probable that Coke was influenced chiefly by the fact that Lady Hatton was grand-daughter of Burghley, and consequently a good " catch" for the ambitious lawyer. But never did a marriage of convenience turn out more dis astrously. Lady Coke, of course, cared nothing for her husband, and openly set him at defiance. Family rows were alarm ingly frequent. The most notorious squabble which took place between the ill-assorted couple was that over the marriage of their daughter. Sir Edward wished her, at the age of fourteen, to marry the brother of the Duke of Buckingham. Lady Coke ob jected, and absconded with her daughter to Oaklands. Sir Edward applied for a writ to regain possession of the girl, but Bacon, possibly to pay off an old score, refused it. Coke, however, went to Oaklands and took her away by force. Shortly afterwards Lady Coke left her husband — a separation which neither probably regretted. The loves of the lawyers have not in frequently been tinctured with all the ele ments of a thrilling romance. The story of Spencer Cowpcr, sometime judge of the High Court, is a case in point. When Cowper was a junior barrister going circuit, a certain young lady, by name Miss Stout, fell violently in love with him. Her love, sad to say, was not returned by the unim pressionable juror, and, like a silly young
501
woman, she determined to take her life. One morning she was found dead in a stream close to her parents' house. Now, it hap pened that Cowper had spent the evening before at the Stouts', with whom he had always been on friendly terms. Suspicion fell upon him, and he was actually indicted and tried for the murder of Miss Stout. Of course there was practically no evidence against him, and he was acquitted; but it is said that the experience made him very careful in after life, when, as a judge, he had to try men on the capital charge. Spencer Cowper married one Pennington Goodeves, and the author of " The Task " was their grandson. The other legal Cowpcr, Wil liam, the first earl, to wit, had a strange experience of a somewhat different kind. Cowper, like so many other famous lawyers, was married twice. His first wife was Judith Booth, concerning whom history recordeth little. But the curious thing is that the idea got abroad, and for a time was very prevalent, that Cowper had committed big amy. Swift was the first to publish the story, and he attacked Cowper in his usual savage style in two numbers of the " Exam iner." The Dean also instigated Mrs. Manley to wield her caustic pen in the same satir ical manner. This she did in a little ro mance entitled " Hernando and Louisa," which the inquisitive may find in that spright ly lady's " Secret Memoirs from the New Atalantis." The story crossed the Channel and was adopted by Voltaire, who published it, with the substantial addition that Cow per had written a pamphet in favor of po lygamy. Of course there was not the slightest truth in the statement that Cowper had committed bigamy. But men's sins, like chickens, come home to roost; and an early entanglement with a woman caused Cowper much annoyance and vexation in after life. When Judith Booth died, Cow per, still playing the mystery man, went through a secret marriage with one Mary Clavering. Many reasons, not altogether
