Marriage: Love and Law exhibition catalogue - Flipbook - Page 33
22
24
Sarah pursued action against Payne for ‘trespass’ on a promise of marriage
and sought £1,000 in damages (22). Payne dismissed Sarah’s complaint,
arguing that he had not made a promise of marriage (23).
However, a letter Payne earlier wrote to Sarah stating, ‘it is my sincere intention
to make you a companion of my future life’, suggested otherwise (24).
22 Supreme Court of NSW
Summons for John Payne,
filed 21 September 1824
Paper
1824
NSW State Archives, NRS 13471
[9/5198] Cox v Payne 1825
23
23 James Norton
John Payne’s defence
Paper
1824
NSW State Archives, NRS 13471
[9/5198] Cox v Payne 1825
‘It is my sincere intention to make you
a companion of my future life.’
John Payne, Letter to Sarah Cox, 15 February 1822, NSW State Archives,
NRS 13471 [9/5198] Cox v Payne 1825
24 John Payne
Letter to Sarah Cox, 15
February 1822, p. 2 (detail)
Paper
1822
NSW State Archives, NRS 13471
[9/5198] Cox v Payne 1825
32
Payne’s defence countered that Sarah could not have believed a promise was
in place, as another man, David Souter, had declared his affections towards her.
Furthermore, Souter’s advances to Sarah had been made on the grounds that
her ‘former attachment was completely broken off with a certain individual
in Sydney’ (25). The court found in Sarah’s favour and awarded her £100,
one-tenth of what she had originally sought (26).
Sarah was represented in her action against Payne by William Charles
Wentworth, a champion for the emancipists and later Member of the NSW
Legislative Council. As they pursued Payne through the courts, Sarah and
Wentworth conceived a child. The couple went on to have two children,
then another eight after they married in 1829. It was thought that Sarah’s
convict parentage, her cohabiting with Wentworth, and the birth of their
first two children outside marriage later impeded her acceptance into
‘respectable’ society.
33
