The rector of Romaldkirk and a tale fit for the pages of a Jane Austen novel
From the Darlington & Stockton Times of March 4, 1871 THE rector of Romaldkirk found himself catapulted into the national headlines for daring to stand-up to the silly, giggling extravagance of the “ton of daughters” he had had the misfortune to father. In a court case that could have come from the pages of Pride and Prejudice, the Reverend Henry Cleveland was in the dock, cast as the Mr Bennet character. The rector was refusing to pay a £155 bill to William Whiteley, founder of a fashionable Bayswater drapery store, which his daughter, Mary Louisa, 27, had “recklessly incurred...
Source: darlingtonandstocktontimes.co.uk