MICHAEL M‘ILVENA. EXECUTED FOR UNLAWFULLY PERFORMING THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY.

THIS villain was a native of Ireland; and in his migrations through the northern part of that kingdom, personated, successively, the characters of a Catholic priest, a Protestant minister, and a lawyer. The last place we find him in was the village of Ballinahinch, where he went under the appellation of The Counsellor. While here he became acquainted with a man of the name of Christopher Jennings, with whom he conspired to debauch a young girl, named Mary Hair.

This unsuspecting creature was only seventeen years of age, and had been a servant for a year and a half with a Mr. Knox of Drumanockan, near Dromore, and having spent the Christmas of 1812 with her parents, she was on her way back to her place, when she met her acquaintance Jennings on the road. He conducted her to a public-house to treat her, and there, as he had done before, made proposals of marriage to her. The poor girl had before looked upon him with a favouring eye, and she took him at his word, saying, that if he could find a priest, she would marry him at once. They in consequence went together to Ballinahinch, and Jennings took his bride into a public-house where M‘Ilvena was sitting, and introduced him to her as the minister, who was to marry them. A little coyness was exhibited, and some mistrust was shown by the girl at her being married in a public-house; but her scruples having been overcome, the marriage was directed to be begun.

M‘Ilvena, with assumed sanctity, pulled out his book, and went through what Mary thought were the proper forms, joining their hands, and interrogating the parties in the usual manner. After the ceremony, the poor girl asked for a certificate. This was at first refused; but as she insisted on it, the supposed parson took pen and ink, and wrote the following:—

“These are to certify, that Mary Hair is this day joined in marriage to Christopher Jennings, of Drumara. As given under my hand, this 26th December, 1812.—W. M‘I.”

This scrawl contented the deluded girl; and the parson then intimated that he was always paid for such duties. Mary gave him ten tenpennies; but he threw them down with an indignant air, exclaiming, “Am I to be college-bred and learned, and not receive my just dues?” But no more money was forthcoming, and the parson was obliged to put up with what he had got, contenting himself with wetting the bargain with a jug of punch. The unfortunate girl was then conducted to the house of an old woman named M‘Kee, where her husband was admitted to all the marital rights; and on the next morning she was bid by him to give notice of the event to her master and mistress, and he undertook to break the business to her father and mother. The poor girl was parting from him with reluctance for this purpose, when he told her unblushingly that she was not his wife, and that she was deceived.

The unhappy girl was immediately awakened to all the misery of her situation; and she ran, in a state of distraction, to her parents, to whom she related all that had occurred. The necessary proceedings were immediately taken, and the counsellor and Jennings were committed to prison. At the summer assizes for Downpatrick, August the 17th, 1813, they were brought up for trial. M‘Ilvena was first indicted; and Mary Hair having deposed to the foregoing facts, she was cross-examined, with a view to affect her testimony, by endeavouring to make her acknowledge a former connexion with Jennings; a fact, however, which she indignantly denied.

M‘Ilvena, in his defence, produced Jennings, who swore, first, that he had an intimate knowledge of the prosecutrix long before the time mentioned in the indictment; next, that she never represented herself as his wife; and that M‘Ilvena never pretended to join their hands together, or otherwise unite them in marriage.

Jennings, having given his evidence, was ordered back into the dock from whence he had come, and M‘Ilvena was found guilty; after which he was called on, in the usual form, to say why sentence of death should not be passed on him. He appeared quite unmoved, and said he was not guilty of the crime imputed to him. The judge then proceeded to pass sentence on him; which he did in a very impressive manner, though frequently interrupted by exclamations of innocence from the prisoner. The offence being made by a particular act of parliament a capital felony, he was sentenced to be hanged. He asked for a long day, which was humanely granted, and his execution was deferred to the 18th of September, on which day it took place, in the midst of a vast concourse of spectators.

The day after M‘Ilvena’s trial, Jennings was placed at the bar, on an indictment for conspiring to debauch Mary Hair. He was almost instantly found guilty; when the judge told him his crime was much enhanced by the attempt he had made to screen his accomplice from punishment, in which he had committed wilful and corrupt perjury. The sentence of the court was, that he should stand for an hour on the pillory, be imprisoned for one year, and pay a fine of fifty pounds.