THE ABERDEEN DAILY JOURNAL

Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

25 November 1909

(page 6)

AN INVERNESS-SHIRE DIVORCE CASE.

AMUSING EVIDENCE.

Evidence was led before Lord Salvesen, in the Court of Session yesterday, in an action for divorce by Rose Edith Kelly or Sherritt or Crowley, residing at the Vicarage, Camberwell, London, against Alister Macgregor Crowley, formerly called Alister Macgregor Crowley, formerly Edward Alexander Crowley of Boleskine, Foyers, Inverness-shire.

Pursuer (35), said she was married in 1897 to Captain Sherritt, who died two years afterwards. In 1902, when she was staying in Paris, she made the acquaintance of the defender. He was then calling himself Count Skellett. Later he called himself Macgregor in order to identify himself more with Scotland. In July, 1903, she again met defender at Strathpeffer. He was then calling himself Alister Crowley Macgregor. She knew that he had bought Boleskine before 1900, and that that was his home. He used to wear the kilt, and always gave himself out as a Scotsman. At Strathpeffer, on 11th August, 1903, he asked her to marry him. They were married next day in the Scottish fashion. They went abroad for the honeymoon, and afterwards resided at Boleskine. Shortly after the marriage, he assumed the title of Lord Boleskine, saying that in Scotland people took the name of their estates. Their first child [Nuit Ma Ahathoor Hectate Sappho Jezebel Lilith] was born at Boleskine in 1904. For a year they travelled in the East. In 1905 they were in Hong Kong. He sent her home from there by America. She was rather annoyed at the way he left her. In March, 1908, they went to live in Warwick Road, London. The house was taken in her name, and defender wished to avoid responsibility for the rent. He was becoming impecunious. She left him there on 21st July last. He had been frequently cruel to her. Sometimes before that he had asked her to take care of a child for one of his most intimate friends. She accidentally opened a letter addressed to him, which gave the name of the child’s mother, and learned that the defender was the father of the child.

Replying to Lord Salvesen, pursuer said the defender still owned Boleskine, but it was now let, and it was also bonded. Her father said he was Irish. She was born in England.

Mrs Danley, charwoman, said that, on the night after the pursuer left the defender, a short, dark woman, gaily dressed, and who wore a lot of jewellery, stayed with the defender. She took up two cups of tea to them in the library at midnight, and again in the morning, when they were in bed together.

Charles Randle, chauffeur, said that Miss Swee boarded in his house. The defender, whose portrait he identified, frequently visited her. When he was told of the girl’s condition, the defender promised to pay her board, but he had not done so.

Gerald Fergus Kelly, brother of the pursuer, said he and the defender were undergraduates at Cambridge in 1897. The defender was a frequent visitor at his studio in Paris. Defender was very proud to have Scottish blood in his veins. At Boleskine, he put mirrors round a room and called it a temple. He invented a sort of religion. He was a Cabalist, and studied ancient manuscripts. He was fond of literary work. He had got some mark of distinction from an Indian chief, and he thereupon called himself Lord Boleskine.

Lord Salvesen—That is the history of how he became a Peer.

Continuing, the witness said there was a lot of land around Boleskine, but it was perpendicular most of it. The witness was staying with the defender there in 1903, when witness’s mother was taking the cure at Strathpeffer. The witness and the defender went to Strathpeffer to see her, and the latter again met the pursuer there. At that time the defender was appearing in complete Highland costume, and the Macgregor tartan was very, very bright.

Lord Salvesen—Personally, I never could get up any admiration for the Macgregor tartan from an artistic point of view, although its associations are rather romantic.

Replying to Lord Salvesen, witness said he believed the defender’s father was an eminent Plymouth Brethren, and that the defender got a lot of money from him. Defender was a poet.

Does he make anything by it?—Certainly not.

Lord Salvesen sustained the Scottish domicile of the defender, and gave decree of divorce, with the custody of the child [Lola Zaza] to the pursuer, ailment being fixed at the rate of £1 weekly.