LEGEND OF A CURSE.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12500, 29 March 1909, Page 4

LEGEND OF A CURSE.

Mr Francis Galtpn, the famous scientist, has been spending some portion of the leasure to which a. man. is entitled in his 87th year upon dispelling an old ecclesiastical myth. : By the aplication of - statistics the veteran investigaor ~has disposed of the theory that curse rests upon families, and especially upon the eldest sons of families, who buy .or inherit property forcibly taken from the church at the time of the dissolution of the monastries in the reign of Henry VIII. The idea of enquiring into the reality ofitheicurse originated with Miss Biggs, niece of Mr Galton, who had been much impressed by stories ..'jof families cut off and eldest sons who did not live to enter into, their inheritage. - . " ■-."..' Mr Galton drew up a question form which when 'filled- in would show, the successive owners of estates,- the relationship to each _ owner to his predecessor the duration of ownership, and the circumstances under which the property passed to a new. family. When Mr Galton' s forms were filled in by the antiquary they were handed to Mr Edgar Schuster, Fellow of New College, Oxford, who analysed them with much care. The figures showed practically no difference as between the Church and non-Church properties, and no special curse upon the eldest son. v The Church estates during the 100 years had 464 owners, of whom 240 wero eldest sous; The ntjn-Church estates had 459 ~ owners, of whom 241 were eldest sons. The average length 6f tenure of the estates in each case was about twenty, seven years. . "I discovered one curious fact, said Mr Galton on Saturday. "The Church properties were sold far "more frequently than-other properties, although the length of tenure was'the same. I am inchned to think- that may be'due to a comparative unsuit- ' ability as dwelling houses of ; ancient 1 abbeys and priories." „