FORTUNE OF MILLIONS

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 168, 13 April 1926, Page 5

FORTUNE OF MILLIONS

A STRANGE CLAIM MAN’S ROMANTIC STORY Although he says he has official documents to prove that on the death or his father in Melbourne he will be the rightful heir to London property ami monev worth anything up to £15,000,000, William Bailey, a warscarred man just over 30 years of age, drives a Darlinghurst bus ami hves in an old two-storeyed house in Bayswater Road, says a Sydney paper. He is making a fight to claim Ins fortune, which he says represents about £OO,OOO in the Bank of Itngland ; 100 shares in the Bank of England, worth £75 each, and property worth nearly £15,000,000, which includes mansions in Hyde Park facing Mann and Crossman’s brewery, and kind in Spitalfield market and at the Stepney Green railway station. The story the man tells he claims is true in every detail. He .declares that lie holds documentary proofs. "In the year. 171-I,’’ he says, “my great, great, great grandfather was a very wealthy shipowner, who, owing to the plundering of pirates on the Spanish. Main, sold his ships. He retired to private life, and thereupon, as an investment, bought large areas of land which at that time were , only fields in and around London. On his death he left his fortune to his son Thomas Francis, who died at the age of 97 on January 11, 1845. The fortune then by will was left to his son, John Francis, who died at the age of 72, March 5, 1869, the fortune succeeding to his brother’s son, William Francis, who died on November 17, 1871, at the age of 58.. His will was proved on December 7, 1871, and it was found that he had bequeathed his entire fortune to his sister, Mary Bailey (nee Francis), the fortune automatically reverting to her heirs and heiresses for ever and ever. Mary Bailey moved about in the highest circles in London, spending most of her time in amusements, with the result that the mansion in which she resided was left unguarded solely to the servants’ care and trust. During one period of her absence there was a conspiracy between one of the maid servants, her sweetheart, Ned Pine (alias Ned Spiney), and his employer, Frank Moseley (alias Frank Newton), to rob her of the title deeds and bankbook. The robbery was carried out. Unpleasant Discovery. "Shortly afterwards Mary Bailey died suddenly, ignorant of the fact that the bankbook and title-deeds had been stolen, and the fortune being entailed, she left no will. When her only son, Richard Bailey, my grandfather, inherit-’ cd the fortune, he discovered the titledeeds and bankbooks were missing. Under the impression that they were only concealed in the house, and being very wealthy at tlie time, he neglected to try to locate them. ‘Frank Newton (alias Moseley) then added Francis to his name and made himself known as Newton Francis. Being unable to claim the property, he collected the rents and revenue derived from the properties. • " “My grandfather gradually found himself becoming a poor man, through his intemperate habits, which fact serv cd to bring him to his senses. He then tried to discover the whereabouts of the deeds and bankbook, and was in formed, for a small consideration, by Ned Pine’p daughter, that her father liad stolen them and that they were then in the possession of Frank Newton I have a signed declaration from the daughter, who is still alive, to the effect that her father stole the, papers. Her father died a year after the robbery. She is now 85 years of age. My grandfather then issued a writ against Frank Newton for the recovery of the deeds and bankbook. In Donkey Cart to Court. “I remember the day well that my grandfather, grandmother, father and ' mvself, drove along in a very stylish dcVkey cart, the donkey being a prize Trotter, to the High Court of England, where the case was to be heard before Mr. Justice Eaves. The case was adjourned, through the non-appearance of defendants, and mv grandfather’s solicitor. We then started for home and when about 100 yards from his house my grandfather was brutally assaulted by three men, who 'ran away before b“-ing recognised. It was learned shortly after this incident that the solicitor’who should have acted for mv grandfather had accepted £15,000 and’had left for Barcelona, in Spain. Next followed the death of Frank Moseley (alias Newton) in the year 1898. Thrown From Window.

“Mv grandfather, having had what he considered enough experience of lawyers, decided to take possession of an empty house in Harbour Square, near Whitechapel, being part of the property due to him. After being there nine days the enemy heard of his whereabouts, and employed ruffians, who brutally assaulted both my grandfather and my grandmother, cutting a deep gash in my grandmother’s forehead and throwing my grandfather from the window to the courtyard below. My father made several attempts to recover the property, but bis life was attempted two or three times. With all debentures, leases, birth certificates, marriage lines, and a host of other papers, he came to Australia. After being here about 18 months he gave my brother power of attorney to .reopen the ctise. Mv brother received judgment against defendants, in default of appearance, on May 13, 1922.

Flight to Australia. ‘‘The following (lay he was assaulted by someone unknown to him, shanghaied aboard the s.s. Beltana, where he worked as a trimmer, the other trimmer, we later learned, being paid to lose his ship. The result was that he landed at Cape 'Town. The day alter he arrived there he was walking up Dock Street, when he was asked by two men for a match. While handing it to one of them another tried to strike him, so he ran for his life and took the first ship he could secure for Australia. He was over here for a time when two men in a motor-car hailed him. Fearing he was being trapped again, he went straight to the Box Hill (Melbourne) police station to get. a license to carrv a pistol, but coming home that night he was knocked out and spent five weeks in the Melbourne Hospital. Now he is a nervous wreck.”