to be his youngest brother's address in Battersea as his destination. He soon moved from here to the Isle of Wight where he set up home with a woman named Marian Paine, a widow with children. She subsequently bore several illegitimate children of Dougal's. With Marian, Dougal acquired the goodwill and furniture of the Royston Crow public house on Baldock Street in Ware, Hertfordshire in 1889. A fire at the Royston Crow, following soon after an earlier one that had been extinguished by a business neighbour, raised suspicions of arson. Dougal was charged with defrauding an insurance company but was found not guilty. Nevertheless, the local magistrates refused to return his licence. In 1892, Marian left Dougal over his bad behaviour towards her. Later in the same year he married Sarah Henrietta White, a 20-year-old Irishwoman. With Sarah, Dougal began his career of defrauding easily-victimised women. He persuaded a woman called Emily Booty to live with him as his wife but promptly spent her money and humiliated her by bringing his real wife to live at their joint home. Miss Booty suffered further public humiliations attempting to regain possession of her property. Dougal moved on but did not give up his schemes until he was found guilty of stealing and forging cheques. He was sentenced to twelve months prison with hard labour to be served at Pentonville Prison. Faking a suicide attempt, he was removed to Cane Hill Lunatic Asylum where he served most of his sentence. He was discharged perfectly sane on 8 December 1896. Again his youngest brother helped him by providing employment for him at Biggin Hill, Kent and he was here until 1898 by which time he had lined up his next target, 56-year-old Camille Cecile Holland. Miss Holland is believed to have advertised for a husband to which Dougal presented himself as a candidate. Having ensnared her, though he was still legally married to Sarah, they first set up home as a married couple near Brighton. Soon they were in negotiations to purchase Coldhams, a property in Clavering, Essex. Miss Holland was to finance the deal and insisted her name appear on the contract documentation. As Mr and Mrs Dougal, Miss Holland and Samuel Dougal found lodgings at Saffron Walden whilst Coldhams was renovated. On 24 April 1899 Miss Holland and Samuel Dougal moved into the property that they had renamed Moat House Farm -