THE SEAFIELDS EARLDOM.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16207, 9 May 1918, Page 9

THE SEAFIELDS EARLDOM.

AN AUSTRALIAN CLAIMANT

(raou our own correspondent.)

SYDNEY, May 1

"When Captain the Earl of Seafield was mortally wounded in November, 1915, while leading his Highlanders in battle, everyone regretted the death of a fine type of young nobleman; but no one guessed that the fact would profoundly influence the life of a young soldier in the Australian army. A story which comes from Uralla, however, suggests that Sapper William John Grant, of tho A.1.F., now on activo service abroad, may "find himself brought forward as the rightful Earl of Seafield.

The young earl (the eleventh to hold the honour), who gave his life for his country on the AVest front, held several titles; he was also Viscount Reidhaven, Baron Ogilvy, Baron Strathspey, and 30th Chief of Grantv At tho time of his death ho had only one child, the Lady Nina Caroline Ogilvie-Grant, then nine years old. Therefore, in tho matter of succession, difficulties arose. The little girl became the Countess of Seafield, Viscountess lleidhaven, and Lady Ogilvy of Deskfoid and Cullen; but, because she was a girl, the other titles could not go to her, and her uncle, the Hon. Trevor Ogilvie-Grant. the brother of tho late Earl, bocame Baron Strathspey and Chief of Grant. This appears to be the first occasion on which the Seafield titles have been held by a female: and it may bo possible, under the complicated iaws of entail and succession which govern so many Briiish peerages, that the succession of this young girl to the Seafield estates is open to challenge. It may bo that .the title must be held by a male in the direct line, and that it is now necessary to go back three or four generations in order to discover the right order of succession. If so, such a development as a claim to the Earldom by an Australian citizen would not be unlikely, as the Ogilvie-Grants were a numerous family in the early.part of last century,.and there must be many branches of the. family living to-day, A good many years ago a Mr and Mrs John Grant settled on the land on the Barrington River, in tho district of Gloucester, New South "Wales. "When their only child, a boy, was seven years old, the two parents died., and tho child was adopted by Mr A. G. Cleghorn, of Uralla, with whom he grew to manhood. Twelve, months ago he enlisted and went abroad with tho Australian army.

| tat long .ago a resident of Gloucester, a relative of young Grant, came upon an advertisement which interesteel him, and he placed himself in communication with a firm of solicitors who A'cre making enquiries. It appears that the claim is made that Sapper William John Grant is; in the direct line of succession through an older branch of the family, the true Earl of Seafield, and it is argued that his claim must take precedence over that of the daughter of the eleventh Earl. It is probable that the matter will not roach finality until the war is over, and Sapper Grant is freed from military service; but the claim appears to be confidently made. The present Seafield family has considerable interests in this part of the world. The tenth Eari, in 1874—14 years before he succeeded to_ the title — married a Nsw Zealand lady, Miss Ann Trevor Corry Evans, daughter of Major George Thomas Evans, of Clooneavin, Otago, New Zealand. This Earl (lied only a few months after his succession, but his widow is still alive. He was succeeded by his eldest son (who, as stated, died of wounds in 1915), and the latter, in 1898, also married a New Zealander, Miss Mary Elizabeth Nina Towncnd, a daughter of the late Dt. Townend, of Christchurch. The Hon. Trevor Ogilvie-Grant, -who succecdcd to the title of Baron Strathfey when his brother, the eleventh »rl, died at the 1915, was born at Oamaru, in 1879, and spent most of his life in Now Zealand, where he was employed in the Civil Service. He married Miss Alice Louisa HardyJohnston, a daughter of a Christchurch engineer.