THE EGMONT EARLDOM

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 134, 3 December 1929, Page 15

THE EGMONT EARLDOM

A THIRD CLAIMANT

LANCASHIRE OPTICIAN

(From "The Port*" Representative.) LONDON, 24th October. A new claimant to the Earldom of Egmont has arrived on the scene. It will be remembered that Mr. Frederick Perceval, for twenty-five years a Canadian farmer, returned to England as heir last year, following the death in January of the ninth earl. He is now in residence at Avon Castle, Ringwood, Hampshire, as the tenth Earl of Egmont. With him is his 15-years-old son, Viscount Perceval. Then Mr. James William Perceval, aged 66, a baker of Hornsey, appeared on the scene. It will be remembered that he spent his boyhood in Auckland, and also lived in Australia. He claims to be a son of the sixth earl, and declares that the seventh, eighth, and ninth carls bad no right to the title. He has expressed his intention of. prosecuting his claim to the fullest extent with the aid of the Poor Persons Committee of the Law Society. The latest claimant is Mr. E. Pownall, a retired optician, of Haydock, Lancashire. He states that the basis of his claim is that he is a descendant ot the Hon. Philip Tuftou Perceval, a brother of the fifth earl. He has prepared his family tree, and is now in London to complete his investigations. The Admiralty has recently furnished Mr. Pownall with what .-he regards as a vital link. Somerset House is copying for a fee of £4 11s a will of 180 folios of old English writing. Mr. Pownall has not yet traced Philip Tufton Perceval in the family pedigree but with the help of the Admiralty, he says, he has established that Philin Perceval existed and retired as an admiral with distinguished service. Mr. Pownall has obtained-a copy of the admiral's marriage certificate showing he was married at.St. Paul's, Covent Garden, in 1790, to an illiterate woman beneath his station. Mr. Pownall is hoping that the will, at Somerset House will make a further link. He said: "I have never cared for money, but I enjoy life. I enjoy this fight for my title. lam determined to establish the rights" for- my children, so that they will not have: this task." . It is understood that the case of the Egmont Estates' will come "* before a Master in Chancery on-Monday r next. Last June Mr. Justice Maugham directed an inquiry to be made as to who was entitled to the estates.