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> Scandal In High Life 

PROSTITUTION 

Halifax (!CANADA!)

Herald 

23 February 1881 

p.4, col.1. 

LOCAL MATTERS. 

Scandal in High Life.

Some Parties Well Known in Halifax Figuring in The Divorce Court. 

Halifax professional gossips, and society generally, are duly interested in a 
case now before the Divorce Court. The facts are reported to be as follows: 
-- Mrs. Eleanor Cornelia Augusta Tollemache petitions for divorce from her 
husband, Lieutenant the Honorable John Richard Delan Tollemache, on charges of 
alleged cruelty and adultery. The Hon. Mr. Tollemache is a son of Earl Tollemache, and 
a grandson of the sixth Earl Dysart. He is about 33 years of age. One of his brothers 
represents Cheshire in the British Parliament, another is married to a daughter of Sir
Arthur Bass, M.P., of 'Bass's double stout' fame. The family were intimate friends of 
Lord Dufferin. Mr. Tollemache spent his early years in the Navy, but came out to Canada 
shortly after Lord Dufferin's appointment as Governor General? and entered into 
commercial pursuits in Montreal, where he became a partner in the hardware firm of 
Morland, Watson & Co. In 1873 he married Miss Eleanor Cornelia Augusta Starnes, a 
daughter of Hon. Henry Starnes, ex-President of the Legislative Council of Quebec. 
They resided in Montreal some years. Becoming tired of Mercantile pursuits he withdrew 
from the firm, and has since followed the avocation of gentleman-=at-large, spending 
his time mostly in Canada, but making annual visits to Europe. His father, Earl 
Tollemache, allowed him seven hundred and fifty pounds a year. In 1878 or 1879 they 
came to Halifax to reside. Mr. Tollemache became a frequenter at the Club, and an 
intimate friend of the military -- both Mrs. Tollemache and himself spending a 
considerable portion of their time at Maple wood. He joined the Canadian Militia, and was
commissioned Lieutenant in the Halifax Garrison Artillery. Last fall he went whom (sic.) (!! ed.)
to England. Shortly afterwards, Mrs. Tollemarche, by Messrs. Mac Donald?, Rigby and 
Tupper, her Attorneys, petitioned for a divorce on the grounds already stated. Mr. 
Tollemache was served with the papers while in London, and, it is said, admitted to Hon.
Mr. Starnes while that gentleman was in England, the truthfulness of the charge. No 
defence has been entered, and the time for making one has now passed. The case is 
proceeding, and evidence being taken by Mr. James H. Toorne, Register of the Divorce 
Court. Mr. N.H. Meagher has been appointed by the Court as watching counsel in the 
case. Two witnesses have been examined. One, a barber named Goudry, alleges hat Mr. 
Tollemache accompanied him to a house of prostitution on South Brunswick Street. This 
man will be remembered as a witness in connection with the famous Nova Scotia Bank 
Robbery. The other witnesses, Joe Wiseman, was formerly "coachman," for the 
proprietress of the establishment where the adultery is alleged to have taken place. 
Both Mr. and Mrs. Tollemache are now in England -- the latter staying with her sister,
the wife of Capt. Mitchell Inniss, of the 60th Rifles. Mr. Tollemarche is an 
Episcopalian and Mrs. Tollemache a Catholic. They have no family.