LONDON CABMAN AS A LOST HEIR

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 288, 29 August 1908, Page 10

LONDON CABMAN AS A LOST HEIR

DESCENDANT OF A .MAN WHO HID KING CHARLES 11. ■ 111 tho year 1651', immediately after tho disastrous battle of Worcester, King Charles 11-, fiying from pin-suing soldiers, was' succoured; by a loyal farmer named Richard Penderel, who hid tho King amid the foliage of an oak tree—which has como down through history as the " Boscobel oak." Tho soldiers sought for tho hidden King in vain, and Charlea 11,- in gratitude for tTio honest farmer's services, gave him a pension of £100 a year, which ho ordered was to bo paid to Penderel and his heirs for ever.

For seven tho pension was paid without interruption, until, in tho year 1869,'tw0 m'on, James Withington and Robert M'Laren, both descendants of tho original James Ponderel, woro sharing tho pension betreen them. Both decided to sell their lifo interest in tho pension, M'Laren, with tho sum which he realised, becamo a cab-owner; Withington, stating his intention of going abroad, • disappeared comnlctoly, In Docombor flasVyear, Messrs. Petch and Co., a firm of solicitors, published particulars of Withington's disappear,-Inca, but no. tidings of value reached: tho solicitors until a fow weoks ago, when thoy received a letter from a Mrs. Shotton, who lives in Wolverhampton. Sho claimed to bo a half-sister of tho James Withington who had disappeared. A representative of, tho' firm went to soo her, and established, to his satisfaction, her claim of relationship. She described to him how, when a child,, sho had heard of James Withington being drowned- in tho River Avon. Tho solicitors thereupon mado exhaustive inquiries, but. no record could bo found at Somerset Houso of James Withington's death. But what thoy did find was that an unknown man had . been' drowned' in tho Avon, near Warwick, at a timo which.corresponded with Mrs. Shotton's recollection of her half-brother's : death. Seoing that the ago of this .unknown man corresponds with that of James Withington, and tno description also tallies, tho Courts will ba asked to prosume his death. ■ In the course of his inquiries tho solicitors' representative also" discovered authentic proof of tho birth and death of Withington's onlv son. Tho result of this romantic search will be that if tho Judge presumes the missing Jamos Withington's death' his sharp of tho pension, amounting to £1 a week, will revert to his old associate, Robert M'Laren, who is still alivo and in London, although considerably over seventy years of ago. tho windfall will be extremely welcome to him, seeing that his business as a cab-owner and cab-driver proved unsuccessful and that lio has boon living for many years, in a state of poverty.