A LUCKY BAILIFF.

Kumara Times, Issue 2483, 4 June 1884, Page 2

A LUCKY BAILIFF.

The topic of conversation in Oamaru is the discovery that a gentleman who has had many ups and downs in the district, and who has lately earned a living by acting as assistant bailiff to the Resident Magistrate’s Court, bids fair to end as the occupant of an earldom with an annual income of £70,000. The gentleman refer red to is Mr F. W. 0. Grant, whose father, the Hon. James Ogilvie Grant, has just succeeded to the title and estates of the Earl of Seafield, consequent upon the death of his nephew, the late earl, without issue. Mr Grant—who now becomes Lord Reidhaven, and the direct heir to the earldom—has long been a resident in the district, and has filled a variety of positions, from commission agent down to labourer. When the news arrived of the death of his cousin, an event which gave him a title and a competency, he was, and is still, the “ man in possession ” at a farmer’s homestead in the district, a duty from which he stoutly refuses to be relieved, so that the unfortunate farmer has the satisfaction of knowing ;b.% under con;, uldo-. he is entertaining a lord and a prospective member of the British House of Peers. The present Earl of Seafield is in his 67th year, so that the Oamaru assistant bailiff will in all likelihood be the ninth to bear the title conferred by William HL He is married to a daughter of Major Evans, of Oamaru, and has a family.—Otago Daily Times.