
A SHATTERED IDOL
The Lord Chief Justice & His Troublesome Women
Tom Hughes(Author)
Marble Hill Publishers
Published on 8. May 2025
Book
Hardback
276 pages
978-1-7384970-1-0 (ISBN)
Description
"One of the most despicable scandals ever enacted in an English household."
In the 1880s, Lord Chief Justice Coleridge was the senior and deeply respected 'celebrity' judge in the land. After the premature death of his adored wife, his unmarried daughter Mildred, in her early thirties, was expected to serve as his housekeeper, hostess and companion. But Mildred wanted to marry Charles Warren Adams, the irascible secretary of the `Victoria Street 'anti-vivisection' Society for which Mildred worked. After much-disputed accounts of an incident 'in a darkened room,' Lord Coleridge forbade the two to meet. And so began the scandal that intrigued London society for years.
The dispute ended in libel proceedings that revealed every squalid detail of the Chief Justice's tyranny over his daughter, and ended in total public humiliation of Lord Coleridge who became a defendant in his own court, when he was cross-examined by his would-be son-in-law. Such a situation is entirely without precedent in English legal history.
Worse was to follow - the threat of breach of promise action as Lord Coleridge tried to end his infatuation for a younger woman with whom he had conducted an affair on a steamship returning from America. A second marriage was the solution.
Tom Hughes has written the first full-length account of a scandal that enthralled Britain for more than a decade. Based on Lord Coleridge's personal family papers, this compelling and brilliantly told story of social attitudes and behaviour that are beyond anything we can imagine today provides fascinating insights into 'a family which has gone to ruin itself.'
In the 1880s, Lord Chief Justice Coleridge was the senior and deeply respected 'celebrity' judge in the land. After the premature death of his adored wife, his unmarried daughter Mildred, in her early thirties, was expected to serve as his housekeeper, hostess and companion. But Mildred wanted to marry Charles Warren Adams, the irascible secretary of the `Victoria Street 'anti-vivisection' Society for which Mildred worked. After much-disputed accounts of an incident 'in a darkened room,' Lord Coleridge forbade the two to meet. And so began the scandal that intrigued London society for years.
The dispute ended in libel proceedings that revealed every squalid detail of the Chief Justice's tyranny over his daughter, and ended in total public humiliation of Lord Coleridge who became a defendant in his own court, when he was cross-examined by his would-be son-in-law. Such a situation is entirely without precedent in English legal history.
Worse was to follow - the threat of breach of promise action as Lord Coleridge tried to end his infatuation for a younger woman with whom he had conducted an affair on a steamship returning from America. A second marriage was the solution.
Tom Hughes has written the first full-length account of a scandal that enthralled Britain for more than a decade. Based on Lord Coleridge's personal family papers, this compelling and brilliantly told story of social attitudes and behaviour that are beyond anything we can imagine today provides fascinating insights into 'a family which has gone to ruin itself.'
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Illustrations
18 B&W and 6 colour
Dimensions
Height: 161 mm
Width: 236 mm
Thickness: 26 mm
Weight
822 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-7384970-1-0 (9781738497010)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
A longtime student of Victorian Britain, Tom will leave the Corn Laws and Reform Bills to others. He delights in the olla podrida of the period, the hodgepodge of compelling stories of mysteries, crimes, trials, and family scandals such as the Coleridges'. A former contributing writer for The Marylebone Journal, he is also the author of several books on Victorian clerical scandals, most recently How the Vicar Came and Went (2020).
Content
Foreword by Sir Paul Coleridge
Acknowledgements
A Note on Money
Preface
1. Ottery and the Coleridges
2. A Somewhat Over-Trained Brain
3. Your Dear Millie
4. The Homebird at Sussex Square
5. Charles Warren Adams
6. The Only Two
7. The Darkened Room
8. A White Elephant
9. An American Interlude
10. Otherwise Davies
11. Your Affectionate Brother
12. Your Affectionate Father
13. She Is Not as Others
14. Trial No.1: Mr Manisty Makes a Muddle
15. The Idol has been Smashed
16. A Felicitous Termination
17. Two Quiet Weddings(& an Ex-Husband)
18. A Grievous Blunder
19. Trial No.2,1: A Rat in a Pit
20. Trial No.2,2: The Autocrat in the Box
21. The Old Man's Darling
22. To Keyhaven
Index
Acknowledgements
A Note on Money
Preface
1. Ottery and the Coleridges
2. A Somewhat Over-Trained Brain
3. Your Dear Millie
4. The Homebird at Sussex Square
5. Charles Warren Adams
6. The Only Two
7. The Darkened Room
8. A White Elephant
9. An American Interlude
10. Otherwise Davies
11. Your Affectionate Brother
12. Your Affectionate Father
13. She Is Not as Others
14. Trial No.1: Mr Manisty Makes a Muddle
15. The Idol has been Smashed
16. A Felicitous Termination
17. Two Quiet Weddings(& an Ex-Husband)
18. A Grievous Blunder
19. Trial No.2,1: A Rat in a Pit
20. Trial No.2,2: The Autocrat in the Box
21. The Old Man's Darling
22. To Keyhaven
Index