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Dunstan Times, Issue 1222, 31 July 1885, Page 3

The maiden ladies, distressed widows, and struggling tradesman “of inadequate, small, or limited means,” who fondly hoped to receive a fat legacy because they bore the charmed name of Clarke or Cooper, and could trace a pedigree of six generations, will be assured by the proceedings at the Old Bailey (says the “ Pall Mall Gazette ”) that there is an end to their dream. The two men who fabricated the fictitious will of an equally unreal “ James Hill Cooper Clarke, of S. Jose, South America,” under which something like two millions sterling was to be distributed in legacies of L3OOO each, have been found guilty of conspiracy and fraud, and a sentence of five years’ penal servitude has been pissed upon the principal culprit, an old gaol bird, who has already done five years, while his colleague is remanded till next sessions. For ourselves we trust that ingenious persons in America and elsewhere who have load our description of the remarkable testamentary document will cease from troubling, and accept the verdict of the old Bailey jury as authoritative.