HEIR TO FIVE MILLIONS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18785, 19 May 1923, Page 11

HEIR TO FIVE MILLIONS

DUTCH MERCHANT PRINCE’S BRITISH DESCENDANT. STOREKEEPER. COMPLETE CHAIN OF EVIDENCE. LONDON, March 28. Mr. James Taylor, of Plumstead, a storekeeper at Woolwich Arsenal, who is one of the claimants for the great fortune left in 1878 by Peiter Tayleur Van der Hulst, of Haarlem, Holland, has within the past few days succeeded in obtaining the last of a long series of legal documents which prove him to be the lineal descendant, through six generations, of th'e Dutch merchant prince who amassed it. The sum involved is variously estimated at from £5,500,000 to £7,500,000, and has accumulated ever since Van der Hulst’s death. There have been many claimants, but none has worked more persistently than Mr. Taylor, an ex-soldier who fought for his country at Majuba. One of his brothers was killed in the same engagement, and his other brother was killed at The discovery in the British Museum of an old book printed In Dutch, giving details of the life of Peiter Tayleur Van der Hulst, materially assisted the search. It served to correct erroneous statements that Van der Hulst was born in Scotland. It was also the means of eliminating from the list of claimants several Scottish people Who claimed kinship. The facts now in Mr Taylor’s possession show that Peiter Tayleur (or Peter Teylcr) was born in Haarlem in 1702, and that he assumed, his mother’s maiden name of Van der Hulst. He died childless in 1778, leaving two brothers and two sisters. DIRECT DESCENDANT. The present claimant Is directly descended from the youngest brother, William Tayler, as his name is spelt in his birth and marriage certificates. William Tayler came to England. He landed at Deal and was married to Sarah Wilson, at Canterbury In 1730. Their son William, married Mary Clement at Hougham, in Kent, in 1768. Four sons and two daughters were born to, them, of whom the fourth son, Peter, was the great-grandfather of Mr. James Taylor or Plumstead, the present claimant. This Peter Taylor married Sarah Pledge at Dover Parish Church, in 1802, and their son, Peter, who was born in 1 808, was married to Ann Golder at St. Jame’s Church, Dover in 1828, Their third son, James Taylor, who married Ann Kemp in 18 54, was the father of Mr. James Taylor of Plumstead. Copies of the official records of all these marriages are now in MrTaylor's possession, so that the chain of legal evidence connecting him with Peiter Tayleur Van der Hulst is complete.