MILLIONS AND MYSTERY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19833, 31 December 1927, Page 2 (Supplement)

MILLIONS AND MYSTERY.

A DEAD WOMAN'S GOLD. ' . "' "; LARGE UNCLAIMED fortune* : -HfALF A .MILLION WAITING, 'A 1 WICKED LAWYER'S CREiIE, BT CDjVRTJES BTTDMCT.' IV. "Blake-r-Heir at Law—Next-of-kin.—' The heir at law and the next-of-kin of Mrs. Helen BJake, late of No. 4, Earl's Terrace, Kensington, widow-, deceased, are requested to communicate with Few people who read- this advertisement in ;ihtr Times could , ha-ze supposed that behind it was an owoerlm estate of £2OO,OCX) in addition. to land .in British Columbia. Yet such was the .fact,

As nothing was knowa of Mrs. Blake, a number of agents • began scouring the country, and, as the'result, thfiy partly cleared up the mystery surrounding her. Shi was born of humble parents, named Sheridan, in the West of Ixflasd. While ntill very young sha captivated an English officer stationed at Dublin Cattle, General R. D., Blake, with whom she eloped. The couple went to- Ohio, and, .as the general was disowned by his family, started a millinery business, which ultimately proved •"■ery successful. Daring, a visit to tliis-country General BJake died, leaving his fortune to his wife, who thereupon came, to England, and settled in South Kensington, where she lived to a ripe old age. The searchers, however, were unable to find any proof of 1 the marriage of Mrs. Blake's parents, or of that lady's birth, notwithstanding that, owing to circumstantial rumours, they visited hundreds of churches,, It was presumed, therefore, that she was illegitimate. So, as she had left no will, her estate—after some imperfect testamentary dispositions, all of them scribbled upon scraps of pape?, had been acted upon—went to the Crown. Among the many people who believed they were related to the mysterious old lady of Kensington was a poor man named Sheridan, a member of a West of Ireland family, who resided in Liverpool. On him one day called Joseph fiollis Yates, a local solicitor. "I have reason to 'believe," said Yates, "that you are the sole haiir to Helen Blake's estate. Now, if I prove that you are entitled to her fortune, will you. recompense me?" "Certainly I will," replied Sheridan. "Then/' naid Yates with confidence, "the thing is done." Collection of ' 'Evidence.'' This seemed to be no ,vain boast; for in a short time the solicitor accumulated evidence at an amazing rate. : Entering a bookshop, he carelessly—as he explained afterwards—picked up a musty old Bible, in which were recorded, the : births, marriages, and deaths of the family of one Martin Sheridan. There was also in it this entry: "My daughter, . Helen, has run away with a young officer staying in Dublin Castle, and has married him privately in Sooth,nd." A "find" indeed! Here was proof that Helen Blake was the daughter of Martin Sheridan, the original own.tr of the Bible! A little later, while on e visit to the West of Ireland,, Yates had a series of successes. Ho found a number of other books bearing the signature, "Martin Sheridan.," as well as a silver watch, en the back of which was inscribed, "From Helen Blake to her dear nephew, Patrick Sheridan, 1866." This inscription, ac- ! cording to the solicitor, wd,s most irn- | portant, because it showed the connection between Helen Blake and the Liverpool claimant.. Yates, in fact, got together a mass of-evidence, 'and all of it went to show that his client was entitled to the- money -loft by the old lady ~ of Kensington. A StarJljflg Disclosure.. * But this two were not to have & walkover. Some timj previously a man had entered the shop of a Liverpool jeweller and, producing <an old-fashioned silver watah, had ordered to be er. graved' "on it the following inscription, "From Helen Blake to her dear nephew, Patrick Sheridan, 1866." The shopkeeper, in. accepting the order, had hardly looked at the words, but when he had come to do the work he had, assuming that an error had been made in the date, substituted "1896" - (the then year) for "1866." When the customer had called for the watoh he had noticed the alteration and become much excited, with the result that the jeweller had at once converted "1896" into "1866." Subsequently, becoming suspicious, he informed the police, who at once began to take an interest in Yates' doings. J Some of them were amazing. He ordered* from a Birmingham firm two coffin plates bearing inscriptions purporting to show that they had been affixed to coffins containing the remains of persons named Sheridan, and- afterwards buried these plates in a back garden. 1 In some Irish cemeteries, too, he erected tombstones extolling the virtues of Slier;.dans who never existed. Penal Servitude tor Life. 1

So, just when Yates' case 'was complete, the police pounced on him- Ih *hi3 office, which proved to be a veritable forgery factory. It was full of old Bibles •—in some of which were unfinished entries relating to the Sheridans—bottles of sophisticated ink, designs for tombstones to the Sheridans and jewellery intended to play some part in connection with the claim to Helen Blake's : gold. Yates was made to stand his' trial -for forgery and other offences at the Liverpool Assizes and was convicted oh the clearest evidence. "Never before," said the Judge, "have 1 listened ,to so tangled a web of wickedness. I can pass upon you only one sentence. That is that you go to penal servitude for life." Since the Liverpool solicitor schemed to make the 'Treasury give up Mx's* Blake's estate there have been many honest claims to it. Sheridans, Brennans, Tooles. and Doyles have come forward in shoals and' there have been two,"English claimants—Mrs. Mary Rathbone.Wilmott, of Hastings, and the Be v. Mr. Maugham, a deigyraati —wlw claimed through the Blake's.. General Blake was a son of Sir Francis Blake, second baronelt, a member of .» wealthy Northumberland coal-owning family, and it was through this line that the two persons namea claimed the "Blake millions," or, at any rate, a portion of the property left by tMrKensiugton lady. Claim that Led to the Poorhouse. , One of the most remarkable da'imanU was Daniel Sheridan, Though 70. old, ha left behind him at Quincy,.lllinois, a farm of several hundred acres, many head of cattle and an oil well and came to England to claim the estate, on the ground that he was Helen Sheridan's cousin and had played with her in childhood, Taking lodgings in Londou, ho prosecuted his claim for four years, when his money became exhausted:. Shortly afterwards his evidence was xe-. jeftted and he went, into Lambeth Workhouse. . Helen Blake's gold, however, is still held by. the Crown. From it about £50,000 was absorbed by law' costs and the balance, some quarter oil a million sterling, was handed over to the Commissioners for the reduction of the national debt. This, with accumulated interest, is *jow about half a million steffc fiufc, long as it, is sines the money reverted to the Crown, it is still claimable and there is no doubt, that, if the authorities war© satisfied of the relationship of a claimant, it would be restored. So there is a fortune of hair" & million waiting for anybody who cao establish that he was related to the mysterioui old lady of Kensington* - - '