TIED UP FOR 100 YEARS

Grey River Argus, 27 April 1929, Page 3 (Supplement)

TIED UP FOR 100 YEARS

HUGE FORTUNE AT STAKE. MELBOURNE WOMAN’S CLAIM. Mrs Edith Rebecca Iledderwiek, of Moonee Ponds, Melbourne, who i ; 75 years of age, and who is claiming portion of a shipbuilder’s fortune of £1 000,000, rays that she is confident that her claim could not be refuted. She (explained '.hat the fortune, which had been amassed about 120 year ago, was now in the Bank of England, wncrc it was earning interest. vr? lliam or John Mansfield., the shipbuilder referred to, who was born about 140 years ago, married twice, and died m Germany, where he had a large shipbuilding yard. Mrs Hed derwick explained that his second wife had no children, but the will provided that she should, use the interest accruing on the fortune., and that at her death uic money should go to the Mansfield family, of which the Moonep Ponds resident was a member. The second wife, who evidently was not pleased with the will, tied vp tne money for 100 years;, as she was entitled to do undc r the German law The time has now expired, and a* Mrs Heddcrwick’s grandfather was a brother of the shipbuilder, and her father was uvtid, she claims that she was entitled, with other members of the Mansfield family, to a share in the fortune. She said she understood that the shipbuilder’s first wife also died childless. Explaining how she had come to hear that heirs to the fortune wer*« being sought,. Mrs Hedderwick said that she had been informed in April last, year of an ar.icle which bad ap peared in an Irish paper. This article, which was headed “Is Your Name Mansfield?” related that somewhere about 1798 a young man named Mansfield, ..\om Ardmorq, County Water ford, had emigrated to Liverpool to seek his fortune. He made a little money, mid then went "io Germany, where he established a shipbuilding yard, which later developed into a big uadertMting.