OLD ROYAL LEGACY

Taranaki Daily News, 17 October 1931, Page 24 (Supplement)

OLD ROYAL LEGACY

RECIPIENTS IN SYDNEY. “MERRY MONARCH’S” GRATITUDES. Sydney, Oct. I. Two brothers who live at Ashfield, tt suburb of Sydney, share an annuity of £l4 16s 6d granted by King Charles IL to his rescuers away back in the seventeenth century. In 1651, fleeing from the defeat by Cromwell and his Roundheads at the Battle of Worcester, King Charles escaped westward to the forests, saw the peculiar shaped chimneys which told him that good friend Penderell’s house was a Catholic sanctuary, and dived into the famous Boscobel Oak for safety. The loyal Penderills heaped great mounds of cheese before the secret passage that led from the house to the Oak, so that the baying bloodhounds behind would be thrown off the Royal scent. It is because of that action that Messrs. R, G. Walsh and E. J. Walsh—the latter is at present visiting England—share in the annuity which signified Royal pleasure. The mother of the two brothers, the late Mrs. E. M. Walsh, was a descendant of the William Penderell of '1651, and through the years the annuity has been paid under an order of the Chancery division of the English High Court, dated 1890. Some years after the Restoration, when the smiles of Sweet Nell were interesting the courtiers of the period,' the Merry Monarch granted to the Penderells —the name was afterwards spelt Pendrell —a -good annuity. William and Richard Penderell received £lOO a year each; Humphrey, John and George Penderell 100 marks each; and Elizabeth Yates, daughter of old William Penderell, and his wife Joan, £5O a year. Mr. R. G. Walsh explained the other day that the money was paid regularly in equal instalments twice a year. His mother and her brother received it before him and his brother, and he supposed that the family would go on receiving it for years to come. GEWK -t.: