HOTEL-PORTER’S ROMANCE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XX, Issue 1128, 23 November 1911, Page 22

HOTEL-PORTER’S ROMANCE.

<4dice a romance ,comes trom Palmerston- .worth. . It concerns a young porter in an notel there,.- who. makes an interesting claim to wealth _ and title,.?> Charles Avard is his name, -and ne;pas? a brother who is at present xxi "v-eliington. ■' .

• The estate and title which the wards claim belong to tneir family are those at present held iby the Lari of Dudley, ex-Governor-General of Australia. ' The Wards come from Devonshire, England. Some years ago, they state, the Devonshire Wards began to put forward their claims, but without any substantial result. The claim is now being pressed by William Ward, a Melbourne builder, who is said to be determined to fight the case out, and is on his way to England for that, purpose. The family in whose behalf this ciaim is mode assert that they have descended in a direct line from Thomas, the. son of the second Baron Ward, and eleventh Lord Dudley. Of this Thomas a atory that is in some respects romantic is told. He was born in 1685, and whilst a young man he married-and settled down in the town of Great Torrington, situated on a hill above the River ;rorridge, seven miles out of Bldeford. ■He soon made a reputation for himself as the bold smuggler of Plymouth?’

. He ’ was practically , outlawed, ami a price was put on his head, hearing that:the 100 guineas offered by the Government. for . his capture might lead some of his smuggling comrades into treachery, he sailed away to Jamaica.

There he .contracted a bigamous marriage with - the daughter of a Spanish planter,. and, incidentally, acquired,'considerable estates. He died in Kingston, ■ Jamaica, in 1736. He by both marriages. After of- time one of his Jamaica who had risen to the dignity/of a judge, sailed for England to do . battle for, the family possessions. ' However, Judge Ward died, either on the voyage or immediately alter landing.' - ■ -

Thereupon, it is alleged, his nurse, a finding herself out ofi/'/employment, seized Ward’s up as his widow. In this capacity, it is said, she drew a pension” /from the Government of Jamaica for several years.