HELD IN CHANCERY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17351, 16 May 1924, Page 12

HELD IN CHANCERY.

CLAIMANTS IN LONDON, WILL IN DOMINION. (Special to th© “ Star.") AUCKLAND, May 15. A claimant to one of tho wealthiest estates in London is at present living in Auckland. She is Miss Garvey, of 266 Jervois Road. It was by reading in the “New Zealand Herald” of Saturday last of another claimant, at, present resident in London, that- Misc Garvey was induced to tell of her family’s connection with the fortune. The property involved is the Angefl Estates, which include a large area of South London* The area involved fies principally between Konnington and Croydon and embraces Brixton, Streatham, Stockwell, Lambeth and Balbam. All these districts gjo very closely populated and the rent roll to-day must be enormous. Tt is to this princely estate that Miss Gar\ev avers she is one of tho heirs-in-laws. f Tt is 140 years since the original owner, John Amgell. died, hut Miss Garvey says her father possesses papers deeds and documents showing unbroken descent from the man who made his will so carelessly in 1774, that his estate has been in Chancery ever since. No legal action has .so far placed any of Angell’s descendants in possession. “Yes, my father has all the deeds complete,’’ said Miss Garvey this morning. “I have had it drummed into my ears ever since I wjis a baby that we were heirs to the Angel 1 millions, and yet, although we have all this money, or the right to get rt, J have to no out to work. It makes me feel wild with fate, but you never know hotv life will work.” “But,” she proceeded more hopefully, “1 may be lifted from comparative poverty to millions. Father made a fight for the property some twenty years ago, before coming out to Now Zealand. He had not enough money to continue the action nnd had to abandon it. He is now living with my brother at Waikaia, Switzers, Otago.” Miss Garvey traces her descent from Miss Angell, daughter of th© original John Angell. “Miss Angell,” said Miss Garvey, “married a Hatfield. A daughter of thife union married a Waddington, of Kettlethorp Hall, Lincolnshire. My great-grandmother was the child of this marriage and she manned the late Canon Garvey, of Lincoln Cathedral. His son, and my grandfather, was the Rev J. Garvey, of Fullbeok, Lincoln. Finally, there is his son and my father, John Francis Garvey. My mother was a niece of the late Dr Waddington, formerly practising an the Waikato.”

Mr and Mrs Garvey thus both trace hack, through the Waddingtoms and Hatfields, to the original Angell. Other members of the familv in New Zealand are Miss Garvey’s married sister at Paddle Hill, Dunedin, and three brothers. Mr Waddington Garvey, of Te Awamutu, Mr Garvey, teller in th© Bank of New Zealand at Dunedin, and the on© mentioned earlier as being with his father at Waikaia. If they could press their claim to a successful issue, they would he th© wealthiest family in New Zealand.

John Angell died in 1784 and since then^ there have been several law suits relating to his will. That is not surprising when its contents are examined. The will,, which was dated September, 1774, gave to the Archbishop of Canterbury. the Lord Chancellor and the Archbishop of York for the time being yearly sums of £IOO, out of John Angel l’s estates at Ewell and Lambeth, £350 out of “collections of spurn lights at Newcastle,” and £250 out of “lighthouses at Sunderland.” These sums were to be held in trust and to be paid half-yearly for the support of “a college or a society of seven decayed, or unprovided, gentlemen by descent.” The seven beneficiaries were to be called Gentlempn of St John’s College, near Stockwell.” One of the seven was to bi‘ styled “president.” The will provided for the “gentlemen and two clergymen to eat together.” charge for their board and liquor being calculated at £26 per annum each. “Their clothing,” it is added, was “to he light coloured cloth all of one colour.” for which, and for a hat “which shall have narrow gold lace,” each was allowed about- £5 per annum. This was a style of hat which John Angell himself usually wore. The gentlemen were to he chosen out of the counties of Surrey, Kent. Northampton. Somerset, Sussex, Essex. Norfolk. Suffolk. Lincoln. Northumberland, Stafford. Salop, Hertford, Leicester, Bedford, Cambridge, Buckingham and Worcester. Caermarthen, Brecknock and Caernar-

Johin Angell left £6OOO to build the college ,at the middle of a piece of ground at- Stockwell. called Burdenbush- If not built in his lifetime it: was to he commenced immediatelv after his burial. If the college should he dissolved hv the Government the will provided that the revenues should revert to the possessors of th© estate. The college at Stockwell has never been built.