FORTUNES FOUNDED ON FLOGGINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 147, 22 June 1901, Page 2 (Supplement)

FORTUNES FOUNDED ON FLOGGINGS.

SOME PECULIAR CASES,

Very few people nre nware that it sometimes pays to be flogged. The power and affluence which Lord Castletown's family have enjoyed for centuries is due almost, entirely to the fact that one of their nneestors was "whipping boy" to Edward VI.

In tfee days wheu Henry VIII. was having his sou Edward educated It was not considered seemly for a Royal Prince to be flogged. But a Prince of the blood was as likely to need a good whipping as any other boy, so a "whipping boy" was provided, who took the castlgation which the Prince Incurred by his misdeeds.

KOYAL GRATITUDE

There lived In Ireland at that time a feudal chief who called tolmself Lord of Upper Ossory. He had submitted—but only par'ttally submitted—to the British, and wan altogether a defiant and turbulent person, holding a Royal Court In the fastnesses of Queen's County. His son, Barnaby FltzPatrlck, had been "caught young," and was held at the British Court as a sort of hostage for his father's good behaviour. Young Barnaby was made "whipping boy" to Prince Edward, and completely gained the good-will and affection of that Royal youth.

The Fltz-Patrieks might have gone the way of many other Irish ehlefs had it not been for the favour of Edward, who, when he came to the throne, bestowed upon Barnaby estates and honours. From Barnaby, the whipping boy, the Lords of Caßtletown were directly descended.

A NOTABLE EXAMPLE.

Two other notable families of England have a whipping boy on their family trees. The Earl of Dysart Is directly, and the Earl of Lauderdafe collaterally, descended from Will Murray, who was whipping boy to Charles I. when the merry monarch was Prince of Wales. The floggings which Will Murray received for his Iloyal master were richly rewarded, for when Charles came to the throne he made the son of the poor Scottish minister Lord Huntingtower and Earl of Dysart, and endowed him with valuable estates.

Will Murray had no sons, but Charles continued the honours and estates to his daughter and her heirs, and gave her in marriage Ilrst to Sir Lionel Tollemache, a man of ancient descent and of considerable property, and after his death to the DuKe of Lauderdale, the descendants *of whose brothers are now Earls of Lnuderdale.

HOW TITUS OATES PROFITED. Id the record of people who profited flnaU' cially by a flogging Titus Oates ought not to be forgotten. For his perjuries he was sen teuced to be flogged from Aldgate to Newgate, and then, after an interval of two days, from Newgate back to Aldgate. This sentence was carried out so rigorously that according to a contemporary account h« might as well have been flayed alive. When William of Orange came to the throne of England he gave to Oates a pension of £300 a year (money was worth much more in those day«) as some compensation for his flogging, a punishment, however, which lie had richly deserved.

TWO INNOCENT CONVICTS.

As receutly as 1844 William Henry Bar her, a London lawyer, was convicted of forgery and sentenced to a long term in one of the British penal settlements. While undergoing his sentence he was flogged for some trifling Infraction of discipline. Be never held up his head again, and though aftpr four years his Innocence of the crime for which he had been transported was established, It was but the wreck of a man who returned to Kngland to receive the congratulations of his friends. It was the flogging that had broken his heart. I'arlia ment,as a slight compensation for the chas tisement to which he had been subjected, voted him £5000.

Within a few months after the Barbel case had been made public another innocent, convict was found working in the chain gang on Norfolk Island. He was a former shopkeeper named Dunne. He was at once pardoned, but that did not satisfy him, for ho, like Barber, had been flogged. As a salve for his sore back, the Australian colonists raised £2000 by. subscription and pre sented it to him. Dunne said that he never again wanted to see England, and so set tied down as a sheep farmer in Australia. He Invested his £2000 so well that when he died he was possessed of a large fortune, all of which he left to charity. A RUSSIAN ROMANCE. There is no wealthier family in Russia than the Lapukins, of Ustillich, mineowners and bankers. A flagging with the knout bestowed upon the beautiful and accomplished actress, Madame Lapukin, the ancestress of tbe family, laid the foundation for the immense fortune of her descend nnts. Madame Lapukin fell under the displeasure of the cruel and insolent Czarina Elizabeth, the last of the direct line of the house of Romanoff. Elizabeth had Madame Lnpukin publicly flogged in the marketplace.

Then the unhappy lady's tonsn<» -wnf! tr>n> ont. and she was hanlshed to Siberia Elizabeth's successor. Peter 111., recalled Madame Lapnkin from her banishment when he ascended the throne, nnd bestowed upon hpr over £100.000. besides srlvine tn Tipr linsband pnonnofßly val"nblp pstntps and mining rights in tbe then lltt!e-(levHnr>-cd mirmrtnin regions lylnp between TJstllilel) and Pass Nier.—"Dally Bcpress."