THE SACKVILLE ESTATES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3132, 8 March 1909, Page 5

THE SACKVILLE ESTATES.

PROCEEDINGS IN MADRID. INDICTMENTS WITHDRAWN. MADRID, March 5. In connection with the petition by Ernest H. J. B. Sackville-West, under the Legitimacy Declaration Act, seeking to establish his claim to be the eldest legitimate son of the late Lord Sackville and of Jnsefa Duran de Ortega, the Public Prosecutor has withdrawn the indictment against Sanchez (clerk in the Chureho San Milan, Madrid), and Rophon, who were charged with falsifying the marriage record of Papita Duran with one Gabriel Oliva, alleged to have taken place in 1851. This decision of the Public Prosecutor implies the correctness of the marriage entry, and also supports Ernest Sackville-West's claim to legitimacy.

In September last the Hon. Ernest ' Sackville West revived, under the Legitimacy Declaration Act, his claim to the Sackville title and estates. The Hon. Ernest Sackville West claims to be the eldes"; son of the late Lord Sackville by a legitimate marriage, and in 1903 he brought an action to perpetuate testimony concerning the validity of the marriage of his mother, with a vipw to his claim to succeed, on the death of his father, to the peerage and the family estates, to which he claimed to be .-ntitled as next tenant entail male in remainder expectant on tr.e death i of his father. The Court of Appeal held that, inasmuch as the sole question really in dispute was the validity of the marriage of the plaintiff's mother, and he could, by proceeding under "The Legitimacy Declaration Act, 1858," obtain an immediate judicial determination of that question, an order f:>r the examination of witnesses abroad, for the purpose of perpetuating their testimony, ought not to be made; but the plaintiff could bring an action for a declaration of his title to the estate as tenant entail in remainder exnectant on the death of his father. The following are involved in the case: —'The late Barun Sackville: Died in September last, aged 81, having spent 41 years in the Diplomatic Service, his last appointment baing as Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States. Mr Ernest Henry Jean Baptiste West: Claims to succeed the late baron in thd peerage and the family estates, alleging that he was a legitimate sonoos" Lordf s "Lord Sackville by a secret marriage. Josephine Duran de Ortega: Claimant's mother, now dead. A beautiful Spanish dancer, alleged to have been secretly married to Lord Sackville. Mr Edward Lionel Sackville West: Son of the late Lord Sackville'a younger brother, aged 41; major in the West Kent Imperial Yeomanry; formerly regarded as the heir presumptive; defendant in the present proceedings. Knole House, Kent, is the Sackville home, one of England's oldest and most famous mansions, full of art treasures, with a park of 1,000 acres.