MILLIONS IN CHANCERY

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 702, 30 November 1933, Page 7

MILLIONS IN CHANCERY

i SHARE IN FORTUNE CLAIMED ! BY A GARDENER'S j .... WIFE. i BAPTISM CERTIFICATE N'EEDED A share in a fortune estimated at £2,000,000 is being claimed by the wife of a jobbing gardener at Darlington, Durham. A haptismal record thought to have been lost or destroyed during church alterations is the only missing link in the claim. The clannant is Mrs. Sarah Lillian Hirons, of Darlington, who maintains that she is a direct descendant of the Trottexs, a well-known county family, formerly of Sledwich Hall, near Barnard Castle, by whom the fortune was left. The fortune is at present in Chancery pending the discovery of a direct descendant of the Trotters. To prove her claim Mrs. Hirons requires ,a baptism certificate of either a William or a Robert Trotter. The haptismal record was thought to have been in the register of Barningham village church, but .the register cannot be found and it is believed th'at it must either have been lost or destroyed during the restoration of the church. A Newcastle solicitor, Mr. Charles Bell, a relative of Mrs. Hirons, is invesitigating her claim and the facts they have to work on at present are that Mrs. Hirons' grandfather was Mr. Ralph Hutton Trotter, and her great-grandfather, also named Trotter, iived. at Sledwich. She herself was horn at Ovington, near Barnard Castle, in 1879, her father heing William Kirkley, a butcher. "I am certain I am a direct descendant of the Sledwich Trotters," Mrs. Hirons says, "and I understand th'at if we can find the missing haptismal certificate we shall get the money." If Mrs. Hirons' claim is successful,' other relatives will benefit, including Mr. Robinson, of Hornby, near Bedale, a sister of Mrs. Hirons, Mr. Hutton Trotter, a hay cutt.er, of Bishopton, near Stockton, and Mrs. Jane Ann Cherry, of Richmond.