James Robert Addys SCOTT married Edwina Lizzie MAURICE while she was still a child.
Lizzie was an orphan as well, and a wealthy one. Her mother Eliza MAURICE of Pension Müller, Bonn, Germany, died leaving Lizzie, her illegitimate daughter, her sizeable propertied estate. SCOTT was presumably aware of that fortune.
http://i.imgur.com/KIyPeCa.jpg
For permission to marry Lizzie, an orphaned child, SCOTT had to petition the High Court in London, securing a "sanction" for the marriage at Chancery in 1888.
Orphan Lizzie MAURICE was already seriously ill at the time of her marriage; with just months to live. James, her 25 year old fiancé, the grandson of Liberal MP Robert Wellbeloved SCOTT, surely knew of Lizzie's sickly disposition. Arguably, taking advantage of that vulnerability.
When Lizzie died in the spring of 1889, her family were furious. James Addyes SCOTT, they argued, had exploited a vulnerable yet wealthy child, to inherit her fortunes.
Lizzie's family took the case to court, arguing that the late Lizzie, still just a minor, did not have the legal competence to enter into a marriage settlement with SCOTT. This notorious case went to trial at the Supreme Court.
The case -- Re Scott; Scott v. Hanbury, [1891] 1 Ch. 298; [I886-90] All E.R. Rep. Ext. 1250 -- set a legal precedent. Legal argument revolving around the interpretation of the 1856 Infants' Marriage Settlements Act.
See:
http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/acts/1856-2a.pdf
https://ia802608.us.archive.org/17/items/dasbrgerlichere00volkgoog/... (in German; pp.303-306)
http://media.sclqld.org.au/documents/digitisation/v17_pp249-266_Sup... (para. 152)
By autumn of 1890, barely a year after Lizzie had died, and James Robert Addyes SCOTT was already marrying again. This time to Kate Castelli in Wandsworth, south London. Second wife Kate later committing suicide.
In 1907, James Robert Addyes SCOTT was involved in a separate legal argument over inheritance. His estranged mother and widow, Mahlah Addyes SCOTT née HOMER, dispossessed James, her only child, in her last will and testament. Leaving her entire estate to sister Elizabeth WOOLDRIDGE instead. That case was still being reported in the national press over 30 years later (Daily Mirror, Thursday, August 10, 1939.)
http://www.cradleylinks.com/mahlah.html
