In re Doyle

• Decision Date: 24 June 1884
• Citation: 16 Mo.App. 159
• Parties: IN RE LAURA DOYLE.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

16 Mo.App. 159

IN RE LAURA DOYLE.

St. Louis Court of Appeals, Missouri.

Jun. 24, 1884.

APPLICATION for habeas corpus.

Custody of the infant given to the petitioner.

A. J. P. GARESCHE, for the petitioner.

J. G. LODGE and J. A. TALTY, for the respondent.

BAKEWELL, J., delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an application under the habeas corpus act. The petitioner, Emily James, alleges that Laura Doyle, a child of eight years, is unlawfully restrained of her liberty by one William Conn. The name of the respondent is, however, George Conn. He brought the child into court in obedience to the writ. The testimony of witnesses for petitioner and respondent was heard at great length. The facts appear to be substantially as follows:--

The petitioner is a Roman Catholic nun, and superior of an educational institution of the highest class, conducted in St. Louis by ladies of a religious order called Sisters of Loretto. The institution in question is a boarding-school for girls. The order, of which petitioner is a member, originated in Kentucky, and has houses in various parts of the United States. Its object is teaching. The sisters in Missouri are an incorporated body under our state laws. The petitioner, Emily James, is known in the order as “Sister M. Simeon.” Though superior of the particular institution with which she is connected in St. Louis, she is not at the head of her order, but is herself a subject, and bound by her rules to obey the directions of her superiors, and liable to be ordered away from St. Louis as shall seem best to them.

George Conn, the respondent, is a master mechanic, aged thirty-nine years, earning about ninety dollars a month. He has been married about five years, and is childless. His wife's age is twenty-six. Their home is a modest but comfortable one, and such as might be expected from their position in life. Conn owns nothing beyond the furniture of his house. Both he and his wife have an excellent reputation amongst their neighbors as persons of the best habits. Mr. Conn is a Protestant; but not a member of any Protestant church. He has a general respect for religion; and since his marriage, he and his wife have usually gone to church on Sunday evenings,--now to one Protestant church, and then to another. He is not specially prejudiced against the Catholic religion, and is anti-Catholic only so far as that is necessarily involved in the fact of his being a Protestant. Mrs. Conn was brought up a Catholic, but was married to Conn by an Episcopalian minister, and has not, since her marriage, attended the Catholic church. She still calls herself a Catholic, and says that, if dying, she would send for a Catholic priest.

The child Laura Doyle, the subject of the unhappy controversy, is a bright looking girl, apparently in good health. She was brought into court looking neat and well dressed; and her demeanor in the court-room during the proceedings showed that she was affectionately disposed towards Mr. and Mrs. Conn. We may say here, once for all, that there is no doubt that Mr. and Mrs. Conn and the child love each other dearly.

William Doyle, the father of Laura, is a molder by trade. His wife died nearly four years ago. They had four children: a married daughter, a boy now aged about eighteen, a girl aged now about twelve, and Laura aged now about eight. Doyle has the habit of indulging to excess in intoxicating liquors. He has for many years been in the habit of going on sprees. Between these periods of debauch he abstains from liquor altogether. When his wife died the family was broken up. The two girls at first were placed with their maternal aunt, Mrs. Kelly. But Mrs. Kelly's circumstances were such that it was inconvenient for her to keep the children, and the two little girls were placed by the father in the St. Bridget's Half Orphan Asylum in St. Louis. The father then went to work in another town. He was to pay four dollars a month to the asylum for each of the children; but after a few months he ceased to remit. Nor did he ever come to see his little girls. Twice he set out for St. Louis with considerable sums of money in his pocket, intending to do something towards their support, and on each occasion he got on a spree and lost his money. Doyle and all his family are Catholics. He himself has not attended to his religious duties for years; but he strongly desires that his children should be brought up Catholics, and it was with this view that he placed his children in a Catholic asylum. Two of Doyle's sisters are nuns of the Loretto order, and are in the same house with Sister Simeon, the petitioner here. There is nothing to show that Doyle is a man of bad habits, except for his irresistible appetite for liquor, which leads to the occasional sprees of which we have spoken.

St. Bridget's Half Orphan Asylum is one of several asylums in St. Louis, in charge of Catholic nuns, supported partly by Catholic charity, and under the control, to some extent, of a board of gentlemen called the orphan's board. According to the rules of the board, children, when they leave the asylums, are to be placed only in Catholic families. When the children are of age to be of use, it is usual to place them in families, with the understanding that their position is not to be a menial one, but that of members of the families which receive them. It is the custom, before accepting any proposition from a family to receive an orphan, to have a certificate from the priest of the parish in which the family resides, that the heads of the family are practical Catholics.

In October, 1883, Mr. and Mrs. Conn conceived the idea of relieving their childless condition by adopting some child from an orphan asylum. Mrs. Kelly was a neighbor of Mrs. Conn, though they were not intimate. Mrs. Kelly was a Catholic; and to her Mrs. Conn applied for help in carrying out her project. Mrs. Kelly, accordingly, went with Mrs. Conn to various asylums. At St. Bridget's Half Orphan Asylum, they were shown two children, one of whom was Laura Doyle. Mrs. Conn was asked whether she was a Catholic, and said, either that she was, or that she had been raised, a Catholic. There can be no doubt that her answer was intended to convey the idea that she was a Catholic, and that it was so understood. She also said, in answer to a question by the sister in charge, that her husband was not a Catholic, but was not prejudiced against Catholics, and would not object to her raising the child a Catholic, and she promised, in case she was allowed to have Laura, that she would raise her a Catholic. Mr. Conn afterwards saw the children, and he stated to the sister in charge that he was not a Catholic, but had no objection to the child being brought up a Catholic. The sister advised him not to take Laura, as she had relatives who might reclaim her. But both Mr. and Mrs. Conn preferred Laura; and, on statements of a similar character to those set out above, they obtained a letter to the asylum from a Roman Catholic clergyman, on the faith of which the child was delivered to them.

Mrs. Conn taught the child some prayers,--amongst others the “Hail Mary,” a Catholic and peculiarly unProtestant prayer; but she gave her no catechetical instruction, never sent her to a Catholic Sunday-school and sent her daily to the public schools, when she was well enough to go, as she usually was. The child never went to a Catholic church, and once, at least, was sent to a Protestant Sunday-school. Mrs. Kelly heard of this, and remonstrated, urging upon Mrs. Conn her promises and those of her husband. Mrs. Conn replied that her husband had changed his mind, and would rear the child as he had been reared. Of all this, the aunts of Laura were informed. They took alarm, and the consequence was the present proceeding.

The father evidently doubted whether the custody of the child would be given to him on an application to the courts, so, after Mr. Conn had refused to give up the child to her aunts, he executed an agreement on the 7th of May, 1884. This agreement is a sealed instrument between himself and Sister Simeon, executed by both. It recites that Sister Simeon is a religious of the order of Loretto, that Doyle is the father of Laura, and unable to take care of her, that Laura's aunt, Catherine, is a member of the same order, and desires him to enter into the agreement, and in consideration of the premises and the stipulations of Sister Simeon, he surrenders to Sister Simeon his parental control over Laura, during Laura's minority, in consideration of which, Sister Simeon covenants that she will assume the care and custody of Laura, feed, clothe, educate and maintain her during minority and, so long as Laura will submit to such control, reserving to Laura the right to choose her own guardian at fourteen.

Sister Simeon swore on the witness-stand, that she would carry out this agreement so far as she could; that she had not made it without the previous consent of her superiors, and that, under it, Laura would receive such an education in all respects as is given to the children of wealthy parents attending the Loretto school; that she would be put on an equality with these children, and taught all the usual accomplishments; that, at eighteen, she would be allowed to enter the community as a member of it, if she showed signs of a call to the religious life; that, if she had no such wish, she would then be able to maintain herself as a teacher, and would always have a home at the convent, if out of a place.

William Doyle swore that he desired the child to be placed under the charge of Sister Simeon, and desired in all respects to adhere to the agreement he had made.

Sister Simeon, who seems to be a woman of no ordinary intelligence, and of long experience of girls as a teacher, said that the effect of the separation between Laura and her new friends, the Conns, would probably cost her a pair of red eyes and a headache or two, but would not injure her health; and, as to...