Cyfres L 2 - Edwards v. Scudamore

Rev. William Edwards, minister of Llanfihangel-y-fedw and St Mellons, co. Mon., and Llanedern, co. Glam. (d. 27 Sept. 1788, aged c.83), held several estates, including one in the parishes of Marstow, Goodrich, Hentland, Peterstow, Sellack and Bridstow, all in Herefordshire, and worth above £400 a year.

The causes relate to an allegedly forged deed, being a lease and release for 999 years dated 8 and 9 Aug. 1781, made by William Edwards of the whole of his Herefordshire estate to his relation and steward William Donne of Brelstone in the parish of Marstow, Herefordshire, gent. (d. 31 Aug. 1784), witnessed by Dr Thomas Llewelyn (d. July 1783) and Mary Watkins, William Donne's servant. In his will, dated 16 Dec. 1783, William Donne left this leasehold estate to his friend and executor John Scudamore of Kentchurch Court, MP for Hereford.

William Edwards made his will in 1782, making no mention of the alleged lease, and leaving a moiety of the estate for life to Ann Donne (described elsewhere as his 'first cousin', and the mother of his 'second cousin', the said William Donne and of the otherwise unmentioned John Donne), and the other moiety to the said William Donne, and after Ann Donne's death her moiety to go to William Donne and the heirs of his body, and in default to a friend, John Morgan of Tredegar. Both Ann Donne and William Donne died in the lifetime of William Edwards, and William Donne died without issue. The estate therefore fell to John Morgan of Tredegar.

The causes were initiated after John Scudamore proved William Donne's will and tried to take possession of Rev. William Edwards's estate. The aged William Edwards turned to his friend John Morgan. William Edwards, and later John Morgan, argued that Donne had been the steward of William Edwards's estate, and since the commencement of the alleged lease had issued several receipts to tenants for rents received for the use of his master and so had not collected rents in his own name. They argued that, given William Donne and Mary Watkin's general bad characters and probable intimacy, they had forged the deed using thin paper, unusual in itself for a long lease, so as to copy through the paper the signatures of William Edwards and Dr Llewelyn from other documents in their possession, resulting in the signatures looking similar but formal versions of their usual signatures.

The cause was tried before the Master of the Rolls on 17 April 1788, when William Edwards's bill was dismissed, with costs against Mary Watkins, although the issue at law of whether the deeds were those of William Edwards and whether they had been obtained by fraud or imposition were forwarded for trial. William Edwards died 27 Sept. 1788. John Morgan filed his bill in Michaelmas Term 1788, and the case was ordered to be revived. In June 1790 Scudamore was moving for a new trial. The case appears to have ended with something of a judgement of Solomon, with the alleged lease ordered to be surrendered to John Morgan to be cancelled, with John Morgan paying William Donne's costs, and John Scudamore paying John Morgan's costs.