N.Z. CLAIMANTS

Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 78, 11 March 1931, Page 5

N.Z. CLAIMANTS

SEARCH FOR HEIR DUCKHAM'S ESTATE Press Association. —Copyright. (Reed. 2 p.m.) LONDON, March 10. Several New Zealand descendants of Duckham have cabled to the attorney, Mr. Williams, verifying their relationship. Williams has communicated with Besleys, of New Brighton, Christchurch, inquiring if they are descendants of Duckham's first wife. It is understood that there are already 30 claimants, though Duckham's Kentucky sister, Sally Langworthy, died in 1851. A cable received on February 28 stated that dozens of parish registers in Devon have been searched by Mr. Monomouth Alfred Williams, of Newport,' as attorney for the heirs of the late Mr. Thomas Duckham, who died in Kentucky in 1851 and was the owner of vast acreages, from some of which oil is now being pumped. The title reserved the mineral rights for Mr. Duckham, whose estate is reputedly worth millions. The attorney discovered that Mr. Duckham's sister Sally had a daughter Hester, who married Louis Lee, whose son Louis Thomas died in 1916 at St. Aubyn's, Tarua Bay, near Auckland. Mr. Williams says that searches are being made for Louis Thomas's brothers, sisters and descendants.