A CLAIMANT IN CANADA

Shannon News, 5 January 1926, Page 4

A CLAIMANT IN CANADA

LONG SEPARATED RELATIVES A story published recently in a Canadian newspaper has served to reunite members of a family long separated—;and may be the means of bringing about- the division of the estate of „ the Earls of Oxford. Thisis not the Asquith family, even though the ex-Prime Minister of Britain has taken the title of Earl of Oxford, .suspended in recent years through lack of a male heir, and to the estate of-the Harley and Mortimer families. The story of the efforts of a Captain Samuel Lawrence to establish his cjaim to the title and estates of Oxford. It furnished to Mr. Charles Brown, gardener, of Brantford, Ontario, a clue of missing members of the family, and led eventually to a uniting of several branches, long lost. It may lead ultimately to another union—that of the heirs to the fortune itself. i So far 'as the present heirs are concerned, the history of the family begins with the Hon. Sarah, of the Harley and Mortimer family. She was a twin daughter of the fifth Earl of Oxford. She married Mr. Samuel Lawrence, of Titley, Herefordshire, who was overseer of the estates owned by her father. The marriage aroused great enmity, in the family of the earl, and finally resulted in a general disruption. The grandfather of the present claimant and his uncle, Richard, eldest son of the Hon. Sarah, met with violent deaths, and when the second son, William, died at Leominster, his descendants left for Central Argentine. There all trace of them was lost The third son, Benjamin, died at Deptford, England, in 1813. Mr. Brown's grandmother was the eldest child of the marriage which had such ill results within the family.. She spent a great sum of money trying to locate the children of .her brother William, but without avail.

The newspaper story telling of the efforts of Captain William Lawrence ot Salmon Arm, British Columbia, to justify his claim to the Oxford title, led Mr. Brown to look u£ the family affairs, since he had been told oflen 'of the lost family of William in Argentine. AS a result of his researches, patiently carried on for some months past ,he discovered a cousin in Mrs. L. Julien, of Macross, near Eriksdale, Manitoba. Her brother, Mr. Samuel Lawrence, like herself, had been brought up in the Argentine, but afterwards went to Canada. That Samuel was father of Captain Samuel Lawrence,' now claimant to the Oxford title and estates. The re-united heirs were lately awaiting the return of Captain Samuel Lawrence, who has been prospecting in the Dease Lake goldfield discovery in British Columbia. Joint action is then expected to follow. The Canadian paper mentioned says: "The new Earl of Oxford and Asquith would be none too secure in his possession of the new designation if the claims of Captain Lawrence and the other heirs of the older, but now suspended, title are upheld. But the Chancery Court and the legal committee of the House of Lords move slowly, and it may be some time before any action is put before them/'