A MONCTON BIGAMY CASE.

Year
1881
Month
1
Day
28
Article Title
A MONCTON BIGAMY CASE.
Page Number
3
Article Type
Language
Article Contents
Charles Lamothe, a French Canadian, Arrested in this town as a Serious Charge. Quite a sensation was created yesterday by the arrest of Chas. Lamothe, a French Canadian, on a charge of bigamy preferred by his wife here. Lamothe is a shoemaker by trade, and has had a shop here next Weldon’s drug store on Main street. He came to Moncton some ten months ago, and had previously lived nearly a year at Memramcook, having removed to that place from Massachusetts, to which state he had removed from Quebec some 15 years ago, more or less. He is a man about 40 years of age. After coming to Moncton, he met a girl named Maggie Legere, aged about 19, daughter of Louis Legere, who lived in Moncton a number of years but at present resides at Carleton Station, Kent County, on the line of the intercolonial north. They were married on or about the 26th of last October. Some suspicions then existed in the mind’s of Lamonthe’s acquaintances in regards to his previous history, and on accounts of representations made to Father Belliveau, R.C. Parish Priest here, by a party who might not care to have his name mentioned, at this stage of proceedings at all events, the Father refused to perform the marriage ceremony until Lamothe should produce a certificate of his first wife’s death, or satisfy him in some other way that everything would be legal. This Lamothe could not, or did not do, and the couple proceeded to a Protestant clergyman, who married them, unsuspectingly no doubt. They settled down, in married life, with no immediate untoward event, but THE DISTURBING ELEMENT soon came, it is said in the person of an acquaintance of Lamothe’s , who had knowledge of his life in Massachusetts. By some means it came to the ears of Lamothe’s first wife, who is now living in Marlboro, Mass., about 40 miles from Boston, that her absent husband had married again, and she wrote to him to his address here. Lamothe cannot read, and so it happened that he gave the letter he had received from his first wife to wife No. 2 to read for him. This letter referred to his reported marriage in Moncton, expressing a disbelief in the report, and asking that further information be given. The effect it had on the affairs of the Lamothe household can better be imagined than described. It ultimately led to a visit Wednesday night to STRIPENDIARY MAGISTRATE WORTMAN, by a near relative of she had been Maggie Legere. The Stripendiary, it is said, referred this person to Mr. Wells, Crown Officer at Dorchester, and thither he went by Wednesday night’s train. The result was that yesterday about noon, the police here received an order from Mrs. Wells to arrest Lamothe, and he was immediately arrested and placed in confinement in one of the cells of the police building. His examination was set down to commence this A.M. at 10 o’clock. HE DOES NOT DENY THE CHARGE. Lamothe, it is said, does not deny that he has a second wife, by whom he raised seven children, three of whom are yet living with their mother. He says in justification that his first wife is a bad woman, that she kept companion with other men, etc. He does not seem to feel very badly over the cause of his arrest, though he no doubt feels his incarceration somewhat. It is said he had not lived with his first wife for six years. Since he has lived here, he does not appear to have gained much notoriety, except what attaches to him in connection with this case.