TAYLOR MILLIONS

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 131, 27 February 1937, Page 13

TAYLOR MILLIONS

Fortune in Trust for 150 Years NEW ZEALAND CLAIMANTS One who knows more than probaoly anybody else in New Zealand about the grounds upon which descendants in various parts of the world of Peter Taylor are laying claim to the forttune he left in trust 150 years ago, previously referred to in "The Dominion,” is Mrs. Mary Cherrie, of Wellington. Mrs. Cherrie’s great-grandfather and Peter Taylor were brothers. She was brought up with her grandmother, Taylor’s neice, in Dairy, Ayrshire, Scotland, and has been in New Zealand only nine years. Mrs. Cherrie informed "The Dominion” yesterday that the his- - tory of the fortune that had been published in "The Dominion” coincided with what her grandmother had told her, although she had never had any contact with her distant New Zealand relations who had apparently given out the information.

Mrs. Cherrie’s grandmother had often told her that the family’s claim to the fortune would succeed when a missing family Bible was discovered. The discovery of the Bible in Wanganui and the announcement that it was to be sent to England to play its part in further attempts to recover the money was the occasion of the previous mention of the case in "The Dominion.” The amount in trust is said to be £8,000,000, and much effort has been expended by families in England, Scotland and America to secure it.

Peter Taylor died in Holland, leaving four steel chests of money, the greater part of which he bequeathed to a Scottish nephew, with the provision that if the'heir died first the money was to be held in the chests for 100 years and then distributed to. his male descendants The object of this curious provision was to frustrate the chances of his nearest relation, his brother, securing the fortune. That brother was Mrs. Cherrie’s grandmother's . father. Peter Taylor had quarrelled with him. Many years ago a number of residents of New Zealand who claimed to be descended from Taylor placed in the hands of Ministers of the Crown documents and records with a view to establishing that William Nimmo, an old man formerly resident in Wanganui, was the nearest descendant to Taylor. It was found, however, that Mr. Nimmo had lost his memory 40 years earlier. A few years ago a "Dominion” reporter in Wanganui stumbled on the fact that an old family Bible that had belonged to Mr. Nimmo was in the possession of a man who had befriended him. The Bible contains the long record of the Taylors and Nimmos in the 18th century, and is believed to establish the relationship of all down to a generation to which those now living can connect themselves.