NEW EARL OF EGMONT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20656, 30 August 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

NEW EARL OF EGMONT.

TITLE FOR FORMER RANCHER. ESTATES WORTH £500,000. OLD PENSIONER'S CLAIM FAILS. The matter of the succession to tho Earldom of Egmont was dealt witli by Mr. Justice Eve in the Chancery Division, London, last month. The judge made a declaration confirming a Master's certificate issued in Chambers, that Mr. Frederick Joseph Trevelyan Perceval, who has been ,ii rancher in Alberta, is entitled to the estates.

The estates are in Hampshire,, Berkshire and Surrey, and are said to bo of the total value of £500,000. One of the claimants to tho estates was an oldage pensioner, 74 years old, who ap< pearcd in person to support his claim. When the affairs of the estate Were before tho Chancery Courts in June, 1929, it was stated that Mr. Perceval had taken up residence at Avon Castle, Ring wood, Hampshire, as the tenth carl.

Other claimants mentioned were Mr. James W. Perceval, a baker, of Hornsev, and Mr. Robert Pownall, a retired optician, of Haydock, Lancashire. United with the earldom is the English barony of Lovel and New Holland.

Mr. Neville Gray, representing tho trustees of the Egmont estates, said that there were two summonses before tie* court, one tho result of inquiries ordered by Mr. Justice Maugham last year, and the other to vary the Master's certificate, made as a result of those inquiries. The estates were settled under twoj-sttir-ments, dated 1370 and 1839,' and numerous limitations on those settlements had to be discussed. Mr. Pownall's Claim. One of the sons of tho second marriage of tho second earl became Prims Minister of England. [This was Mr. Spencer Perceval, who was assassinated in the House of Commons in 1332.] Counsel traced the descendants of that son to Mr. Frederick Joseph Trevelyan Perceval, and tho Master had found that he was entitled to the estates. The summons to vary tho Master's finding was a summons by Mr. Robert Pownall, and appeared to be ba*sed not on anything in dispute about the pedigree. The only charges on the estates were jointures of £2OOO each to Lucy, Countess of Egmont, widow of the seventh earl,, and to Florence, widow of the ninth en;!. The trustees thought that Mr. Frederick Perceval, the present claimant, was entitled, but altogether eight claims li.tl been lodged, only two of which were seriously persisted in. Mr. Pownall, who is 74 years of ape, appeared in person, and was informed hv • the judge that h# had to show that the 1 Master was wrong in disallowing his >' claim. Mr. Pownall said .that the Master in. ; formed him that he could rot claim, to be the earl through his grandmother, : therefore he could not become the c;ul." • He claimed descent from Lady Cecil, but ! it had been stated that her marriage certificate could not be found. He had, ; however, found evidence of it in a book j at the British Museum, and there were i particulars of it in the diary of tire-first ! earl. " \ Book Found In British Museum. . j In 1736 the son of the first earl mar- j ried Catherin Cecil, second daughter of I James, Lord Salisbury, and of that unkm ' Phillip Tufton Perceval was born in 1743. i From him he claimed descent. Phillip ' Tufton Perceval was turned out frciu home, and joined the navy. At the aso \ of 22 he was in command of the great- ' est warship of that time. In 1790 ho • married Catherine Hennessy, a poor and pretty comedienne, who signed the marriage certificate with a cross. He died in 1795, leaving issue Sarah, claimant's grandmother. i Mr. Pownall produced a photograph of j a page in a book found at the British j Museum, on which he relied. Seventy-six years ago, he said, his father was a poor ; shoemaker, who had served an apprentice- I ship with the great-great-grandfather of one of His Majesty's present judges. His father said to him: , " Robert, when you have the oppor- j tunity, look up tho family history. There i are great titles and estates./ The Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval, was niv ' grandfather's brother. He was tiia 'seventh son of Tufton. When my mother., was seven years of age she was living ' near Liverpool, with her widowed mother.

" That was in 1800, and there caira to them one day two ladies in a coach, and four, sisters of the Prime Minister, desiring to see their brother's widow and daughter. They offered to take (ho daughter, but not the mother, and living her up as their own, and leave their property and everything to her. " But the mother would not allow her to bo taken,,saving, ' While my husband is alive you refused to recognise us, hecause he married beneath him, and I shall not let you have the child so long as I can work for her. Sly marriage certificate is here, marked with a, cross.' " Question of Mr. Pownall's Costs.

Mr. Justice Eve, giving judgment, said there was not sufficient evidence to establish the claim of Mr. Pownall, .and Master had done right in disallowing his claim.

Mr. Pownall said that he was a poor man, in receipt of an old-age pension of 10s a week, and asked that he bo not ordered to pay the costs. Mr. Justice Eve: I can only say what is just and right. If you make a claim which you cannot establish, it- must l>o dismissed with costs. I cannot mako other people pay your costs in attempting to assert a claim you have not established. Perhaps, if you adopt a different attitude toward them, they may see fit to excuse you tho costs bye and bye. hut if they ask for them they are entitled to thcin, as a matter of justice.