EARLDOM CLAIMED.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18421, 30 June 1925, Page 10

EARLDOM CLAIMED.

BY EX-SCHOOLMASTER.

FAMILY CONNECTED WITH N.Z.

(by cable—press association—coptbight.) (Sydnex "Sun" Service.)

LONDON. June 28

The "Weekly Dispatch," says that Alexander Grant, a septuagenarian ex-schoolmaster, is claiming, in the Scottish Courts, the title and huge fortune of the Earl of Seafield, at present held by the 19-year-old Lady Seafield, one of the few Countesses in her own right. Lady Seafield's grandfather lived in humble circumstancss in New Zealand prior to succeeding to. the title. Grant claims to be the son of the seventh Earl, who paid for his education at Aberdeen and only saw his mother once, in 1906. Lord Strathspey, uncle of Lady Seafield, and heir-presumptive; says that Grant's claim is one of several. An American claims the title and already calls herself the Countess. "I have contemplated claiming the earldom," says Lord Strathspey, "but ifc would eost'£oo,oOO. which is prohibitive. The trustees of the estate allow me £7OO yearly. I have to rent a house in a London suburb when the ancestral seats in Scotland are empty. [The Earl of Seafield, Lady Seafield's grandfather, lived in Oamaru before he succeeded to the title. Lady Seafield is a daughter of the 11th Earl and Nina Caroline, a daughter of the late Dr. J. T. Townend, of Christchurch. She is one of the wealthiest titled women in Britain, and there were rumours of her engagement to Prince Nicholas of Rumania. Upon the death of the eleventh earl, the Barony of Strathspey, which can be succeeded to only by the male line, was assumed by Trevor Ogilvie-Grant of Grant. He was the- second son of the tenth earl and in 1905 married Alice Louisa, daughter of Mr T. Hardy-Johnston, of (CHiris'-tchurch. The Earldom [of Seafield was created in 1701.]