PURSUIT OF FORTUNES

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 49, 27 August 1923, Page 6

PURSUIT OF FORTUNES

Some time in the seventeenth century Nicholas Fazackerley, a merchant of Preston, in Lancashire, died intestate, leaving a. fortune behind him, In this, the first charter of the twentieth, century, a meeting is being held at Preston' of claimants ,to that .estate, estimated to be now worth millions .of pounds. They have come from the United States, Australia, and 'New Zealand, and presumably from various parts ia the .British Isles. Fazackerley is not a common name, and the fortune left by its.founder is fid cd'min'on estate'of a few hundred's, if it wais • originally Mall, and was invested at a modest return of 3 per cent.,; it may eteily have run into millions r providing the principal has been untouched for 300 years. The Fazackerleys now meeting, in Preston may be justified in their hopes that these Millions will eventually be shared among them; on the other hand, they may realise that there is nothing coining to them, for if Nicholas left no heir, his real property has perhaps gone to the Crown or the Lord, of the Manor, and his personal property has been administered by the nominee of the Crown, for the benefit of the Crown. The remarkable feature in the Fazackerley claims is not whether they; can of cannot be substantiated, but the persistence of the belief ana'ong so many people that they would no"w t be exceedingly rich "if they only hW their rights." In the Mother Country there may be' many who cherish the: hope,of a fortune left by an uncle who, years ago, went; out to Australia, or New Zealand, or America, and became rich, and that was the' last heard.of him. In Australia and New" Zealand from time to time it f that someone has left for good the old mill-horse round of ea"rniji£ a living, arid but little, if anything, more, going ,H6ine to claim a" fortune.. In some cases, h9we.ye?i, .hard-eai-ned mpney is be\pg spent in pursuit of phantom fortunes' of this kind; biit the failures and blighted hopes of others in the quest convey no warning. After all; the chances of winning a' prize in a great lottery are just as attractive and about as' certain to a large number of people who hold no hope of immense .wealth from any other quarter. The Fazackerleys are not singulir, even if they are prominent .just iow in, the news, in their belief that all they have to do is to make good their claims to participate in the millions to which they believe they are entitled. The pathetic aspect of the. pursuit of fortunes of this kind is the great sacrifices demanded upon people of limited means and the bitter disillusionment that so often follows. It. may not be so in the case of the Fazackerleys, but it is so in many casis' 'of the kind.