STRANGE LEGACIES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 96, 16 January 1918, Page 3

STRANGE LEGACIES

FROM POVERTY TO WEALTH

STORIES OF UNEXPECTED WINDFALLS

It is usually relatives who die abroad who enrich their kin by unexpected w ; ndfalls. In many cases persons have been raised from poverty to iiches »y legacies from testators on whom they have never set eyes, and of whoso existence even they were hardly cognisant. Vittorio Mariana, a ticket olnra clerk in the Tivoli Railway Station in the suburbs of Rome, working at a salary equal to £1 a week, came in for a windfall exceeding £1,000,000. I'orty years ago his uncle, Signor Allesaudro Corrandoini, who was then Italian Consul at Alexandria, was obliged to «j foe his life during an anti-Chribtian persecution. He went to Buenos Awes, where he succeeded in amassing a huge fortune. After his death it was found that his entire fortune had been leit to his nephew, the ticket ofhee clerk at ; Tivoli, who had been kept in ignorance of the good fortune awaiting Hm. ! When Mr. Lightfoot, an Englishman long resident in France, died intestate, I leaving an estate valued at over £60,000, lawyers searched far and wide for an heir. At last he -vas found in John Kirkley Lightfoot, a JoHriiey. man printer, and grandson of the dead man/who knew nothing whatever abcut his benefactor except that, some titty Tears earlier, he had gone to I , ranee. Another French case, even more remarkable, was that of a lady who, afte ignoring the existence of three humble 'Native's, died.and left £120,000 to Jo divided amongst them. Ono _or tne lucky ones was a navvy, earning tne equivalent of £1 a week, the, Hvond was a clerk in an oil factory, the third was a cattle dealer on a small scale. It was a poor factory girl named Esther Sleight, of Kingston New lork, to whom Mrs. Charles Vandewater, widow of a Vancouver "lumber tang, left her entire fortune valued at £1,400,000. When Mrs. Vandewater made tho girl's acquaintance she vas working us a servant m an Atlantic City hotel, and she was so attentive to the widow that a friendship sprang up between them, and this was maintained up to the widow's death. When tl'is took place Miss Sleight was omployed in a cigar factory and helping to support her parents. The "lumber K'Cgs widow had no children, and in Hying her estate to 20-years-old Esther Sleight she wrote of her as the girl she regarded as "a dear daughter. The great wealth amassed by I'ra.nh. A. Morrison, of California, was left to William Warren Morrison, a young m<l employed in a Boston printing efnee, and who happened to he .a nephew. Deapite the fact that he had inherited die enormous fortune of £4 000,000, William Warren Morrison continued for somo time to carry on at his job of trotting around with proofs, answering the telephone, and miscellaneous errands. . By a few lines written m tbo payhook of a lieutenant of the Gordon Highlanders, who fell at Neuve Chapolle, a chorus girl inherited £Io,OOU. This was the sequel to a probato action heard in December of last year before Mr. Justice Horndge. Wβ lady sought to have the contents or the will, which had been lost, established. Early in 1915, when in England on leave, the lieutenant showed her a will written at tho end of an Army paybook, which, she declared, read: "In tho event of my death 1 leave all my property and effects to .» The' two had been lovers for quite a time. Most of the legacy was in stocks and shares. These amounted to about £15,000. • Then there were two small properties in Ireland, and a house in Southsea as well. / .

When Mr. William Eanse Whittiugham, of Guestling Hill, near Hastings, died three years ago, it was found that he had left nearly all his estate of £46,000 in equal shares to his 6<m and daughter. The son, however, .had been lost sight of for some years, having sickened of doing nothing, and gone to London to earn his own living independently of his parents or rich relatives. The missing heir was was 'found in the top floor of a Soho lodg-ing-house, and ho was earning his living as a taxi-driver. Somo of the jobs lio had filled included attendant in a picture house, film actor, mail-van drivor, and omnibus driver. When discovered, he owned a, taxicab, and was on the point, of purchasing two additional cabs when the news of his good fortuno was conveyed to him. While working as a pavior's labourer for' the Bolton Corporation William Tunstall received information that his father-in-law in Aostrajie, a man named Westwell, had left him his fortune of £200,000. Westwell left Lancashire many years ,ago for West Australia, where he amassed a fortune m in the silk and pearl industries. Tho will set forth that Tunstall should receive £30,000 in cash, and each of his four children £15,000, besides silk and pearl fishing plants, and an estate of several tbousand acres, tho whole being computed at £200,000. For somo timo after receiving news of his good fortune Tunstall continued to work as usual, earning a wage of 28s. per week, and living in a cottage rented at ss. per week. Some years ago a pauper in a London workhouse became the heir to real and personal estate valued in the aggregate at £300,000. It appeared that a sistex of tho pauper's father died intestate, leaving a personalty of £140,000 and a considerable amount of property in the West End of London valued at £160,000 more. This handsome fortune went begging for several years, when the next-of-km was discovered in the person of tbo pauper referred to, a man well advanced in years, and who was an inmate of a workhouse at the time he heard of his unexpected slice of luck. After a hard life, and at the ago of 59, Mr. James Ourrie, of Blackpool, unexpectedly found himself in the possession of £20,000, left to him by a cousin whom he had only seen once, and that when he was just eight years of age. Among bequests by a Chelmsford lady was.one of £100 to the wifo of a cashier at a local bank. The legacy was received eimply for smiling pleasantly at Miss Hodges as they left church. When told of her good fortune tho bank cashier's wifo said she used to sit near Mies Hodges in church, and as they came out she smiled at her and exchanged a few pleasant words. An elderly gentleman was walking down a Liverpool street when a sudden gust of wind blew his hat off and carried it down tho street. A young man pursued and captured tho hat and politely returned it to its owner, who oxpres'sed his hearty thanks, and offered to exchange cards. A warm friendship sprang up between tho two njen, and in the courso of timo the elder gentleman died, leaving his young friend a. welcome legacy of £5000. _ A solicitor's clerk in Belfast was in the habit of giving a civil greeting to a crusty old gentleman who did business with his master. He would also help him off and on with his greatcoat and tako charge of his umbrella or walking-stick. For these courtesies ho rarely received so much as a grunt. Judge the clerk's surprise when on the death of the old gentleman lie loarned he had been left a legacy of £500. Such arc a few of some of tho romances of sudden leaps to fortune which can bo related. Among others which may bo mentioned are those ot the million pounds that fell to Richard lloborts, a Durham sandwichmaii, and that of Edward Corcoran, a Dublin saddler, who succeeded to £365,000 left to him by an old friend, John Sullivan, who iii his youth had gone- to Canada and "mado good," '