A REMARKABLE CAREER.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 1042, 7 September 1883, Page 4

A REMARKABLE CAREER.

* There is at present pending in the Probate Court an action brought by Harriet Gravestock to obtain probate of the will of the late Peter Francis Adrian Vander Vyver, who died on the 26th May, 1882, and the plaintiff being sole executrix and legatee named in the instrument. Johanna Clasina Vander Vyver and Pauline Marie Josephine Francesca Vander Vyver, . the defendants, opposed probate on ithe ground that the will was not duly executed, and that the deceased Van- ' der Vyver died intestate leaving a widow and five children. Mr Inderwick, Q.C., in opening the case for the plaintiff, said there was a question of domicile on which it was possible their might arise a law argument. If the domicile of the testator was an English one the will was good, and it was . executed here in accordance with the English law; but if his domocile was a foreign one the will was not good, and : ' there was an end of the plaintiff’s case. ■ The . career of the testator was certainly a very remarkable one. He was born at Rotterdam in May, 1820, and his parents were Dutch. His father was in business at Rotterdam, and he commenced his business life by assisting his father. In 1839 ■he married a Dutch lady, and , having lived with her in Holland for some years, he was divorced from her by Dutch law on the 23rd March, 1844. There was one child, a daughter, who was one of the defendants in the case. The testator came to London in 1845, and set up in Fish street Hill as a merchant and commission agent, and in 1847 he became bankrupt there. On his bankruptcy he left England for a while, and travelled about France and Belgium with a woman named Bessie . Stuart. She died while he was abroad; and he, having met the person who was the second defendant in this action, she took Bessie Stuart’s place and lived . with him there. He and she came to . "England, where they were married in 1850, and by that time they had three children. His wife, on pretence of visiting relations in Scotland, left him, and did not return. She lived with different persons, and had two children after separation. His wife having gone away, defender in the same year went down to Scotland, and carried on business both at Glasgow and in Fish street Hill. He had not, however, been very long in Scotland when he became bankrupt under the Scotch law. In January, iB6O, his wife aps plied for divorce in Scotland, on the •-i ■ grbiind of his adultery with several persons; but that proceeding was abandoned. He again came to London, and jn Sept., iB6O, he made the ace:quaintahce Of the plaintiff, Harriet Gravestock,. with .vvhora he lived from that date down to the time of his death in 1882. They, passed as man and wife. After some vicissitudes he took a cottage in Jersey. There he -operied an office, in which he had a clerk; and, having established an appearance of business, succeeded in obtaining the appointment of consul in • ; Jersey for the Republic of Uruguay. The direct emoluments of this office were not large, but it served Mr Vander Vyver’s purpose foi another kind of .business than in which consuls were usually concerned. He traded in - procuring patents of nobility, which for a proper consideration he obtained from certain foreign courts. He got himself made a count, and his wife, with whom he was in correspondence, a countess. He also acquired the title of “Doctor” by purchasing the degree of doctors du droit from some institution in America. In 1876 his father died, and having come in for his share of the old man’s property, he, after some correspondence gave io,ooot. to his wife, and 20,000 f. to the illegitimate children; but in 1878 he declined to go to Spain to the marriage of his daughter Pauline with a Spanish Count. This was a real count, and the marriage was a good one for the girl. In 1881 he got into delicate health, and on the 20th May in last year, as he was sucking an orange, a portion of it stuck in his threat, and he was choked. He was sixty-two years of age. He left about : LB,OOO, every penny of which was in English securities. By the will of the 26th June, 1877, he bequeathed ■lt'all to the plaintiff, and she now asked the Court to grant her, as sole executrix, probate of that will. After evidence had been led, the case was . adjourned.