From the Lindsay, Ontario Post, May 20, 1910.

“The story of the courtship and marriage of Mr. Michael Fraser, of Midland, a man of 84 years and worth about $100,000 [almost $2 million in 2017], and Miss Hannah Margaret Robertson, aged 30, daughter of the Rev. William Robertson, formerly a Presbyterian minister, now editor of the Dundas Banner, was told before Mr. Justice Riddell, at Osgoode Hall [Toronto] Saturday.”

The shotgun wedding case was brought before Justice Riddell by an application by Fraser’s family to have the marriage declared invalid because Fraser was claimed to be not mentally capable.

The court was told that Rev. Robertson, his daughter and other relatives and friends, broke into Fraser’s house, “armed with a marriage licence and a borrowed wedding ring. The happy couple was promptly married by the bride’s father, the bridegroom attired… in a shirt, a pair of trousers and slippers.”

A.L. Macdonnell, counsel for the Fraser family, had a question for Justice Riddell: “When a woman of 30 meets a man of 84 only twice in a fortnight, and then only in the presence of another man who has told her the man has money, may we not presume what is the attraction?”

“Why not?” responded the judge. “When a woman gets to that age she is entitled to look after herself and think of her future.”

Canada@150