A curious old scandal has turned up once more in
the Court of Probate. Prince Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland, fourth brother of George IIL, was privately married before the Royal Marriage Act to Olive Wilmot, daughter of the Rector of Barton- on-the-Heath, in Warwickshire. Her granddaughter, Mrs. Ryves, now claims, under the Declaration of Legitimacy Act, to be declared a member of the Royal Family. If she can prove the marriage she is one, and one, moreover, in the actual line of the succession, ranking just after the King of Hanover ; and this is the real issue on which the case will turn. It seems certain that the marriage was at the time believed in, and the object of denying it was to conceal a bigamy, the Prince, like a true descOndant of the Electress, having married a Mrs. Horton while Olive Wilmot . was alive.
Previous page
