3. The Trial of the Right Honourable Richard Earl of Anglesey

As it turned out, Richard earl of Anglesey was neither right nor honorable. The trial was one in a series between the Earl and James Annesley, who claimed to be the legitimate son of the Earl’s older brother, whom Richard had defrauded to secure both title and fortune. Though the trial transcripts were published in London, the legal drama itself took place in Ireland. This trial was about a fight which occurred on September 16, 1743, between the Earl and some of his supporters on one side, and James and some of his friends on the other, but the trial did not take place until the following August, 1744. However, during the previous November of 1743 a series of court actions had upheld the claims of James Annesley. The protracted legal struggle between the Earl and James Annesley attracted the rapt attention of the eighteenth-century English public, and was used by Robert Louis Stevenson as the basis for his novel Kidnapped. The legal saga had all the elements of true drama: a wicked uncle, a deprived orphan forced into exile, and his return to reclaim his rightful name and place. This anonymous reader’s comment in his copy of the published trial transcript leaves no doubt as to his sympathies.