CLAIM TO LARGE FORTUNE

Hokitika Guardian, 13 December 1929, Page 3

CLAIM TO LARGE FORTUNE

ESTATES IN SCOTLAND. ■ f; DUNEDIN PORTER TRACES HIS DECENT. DUNEDIN, December 11.. William McLachlan, one of the ‘‘red caps” authorised for luggage work on the Dunedin railway station, has come back from the Old Country. He under took the trip in support of the claim of his father, John Cochrane McLachlan, to-be the sole next-of-kin to Dr. Peter Cochrane and his son Peter Cochrane, and as suclv entitled to the Clippens estate. Another voyage to the Homeland will be commenced in November next year by Mr W. McLachlan for tlie purpose of further pursuing what is necessarily a protracted claim. The estate of Clippens, near Paisley in Renfrewshire, Scotland, belonged to the Cochranes for 200 or 300 years. In or about 1670 it was occupied by Hugh Cochrane, who married his cousin, M-argaret Cochrane, in 1673. They had four children—Hugh, John, Robert and Elizabeth. Hugh had as lawful issue two sons, Hugh and John. This Hugh did not marry. John married and had two children, Joan, who died without issue, and Peter, who became a doctor and married Margaret Douglas Fearon, who bore two sons, Peter and John. The John who was the son of the original Hugh Cochrane had two sons, Patrick and Hugh. Patrick’s only grandchild died without issue. Hugh, the brother of Patrick, was the..uncle of *Dr. Cochrane. This Hugh, who became a sergeant in the Scots Grey, had one daughter, . Helen, who married James Glen. Their two sons died unmarried. Their daughter Janet married Archibald McLachlan, who died in America. To the McLachlans two children were born, John and Janet. Janet died unmarried. John married Rosina Simpson and they had one son, John Cochrane McLachlan, who is now alive, and claims to be the only direct descendant of the whole line covering a period of 256 years. The Clippens case came into prominence after the death of Dr Peter Cochrane, who retired ifronj the membership of the first East India Medical Board. He went to India when quite young, became very wealthy, returned to Scotland about 1808, married Margaret Douglas Fearon, and built the new Clippens mansion. He died in 1831 before his sons, Peter and John were twenty-one years of age. The estate consisted of the mansion and grounds and farms of Clippens and other lands and freeholds, including a house in Cal-

cutta. The clear residue of the personal estate in annuities was £147,163 13s 2d, besides a resevre of sicca rupees in India and smaller sums.

[ Several claimants arose and made application under the ruling of the English, law, and it was during thd application of one named James Lord that the Vive-Chancello.r gave a ruling to the effect that Dr. Cochrane and his son Peter were domiciled in Scotland and that the will should he,' interpreted under the rules of the Scottish Court. As a result fresh claimants appeared, hut in 1803, the proper Commissary Court of Scotland found that John McLaohlan, son cif Janet McLachlan, was next-of-kin to Peter Chocrane, and he

was therefore appointed heir at law. This John McLachlan, an unbrella maker, had one son John Cochrane MieLachlan. the present claimant. His father, before dying in August, 1883,. instructed him to take up the claim. He dfcl so to the extent of making some enquiries and was told to apply to stop that he did not take at the time because of the possibility of costs, which he thought would he beyond his means. He came to New Zealand in 1904 with his wife and two sons, one of whom is the “red cap”now intervening on his aged father’s behalf.