£500,000 Estate

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1052, 16 August 1930, Page 18

£500,000 Estate

A Pensioner’s Claim

N old-age pensioner of 74, Mr. Robert Pownall, a retired optician, of Haydock, Lancashire, was present in the Chancery Division when Mr. Jus-

tice Eve decided that he had no claim to the estates of the Earldom of Egniout, situated in Hampshire, Berkshire and Surrey, and stated to be worth between £400.000 and £500,000.

There were two other claimants: Mr. Frederick Joseph Trevelyan Perceval, formerly a rancher in Alberta, Canada, who returned to England in March last year, claimed to be the 10th earl, and took up his residence at Avon Castle, Ringwood Hampshire: and Mr. James William Perceval, a baker, of Birkbeck Road, Hornsey, N. Mr. Neville Gray, for the trustees of the estates, observing that one of the sons of the second marriage of the second Earl of Egmont became Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon Spencer Perceval) traced the male descendants of that son to Mr. Frederick Joseph Trevelyan Perceval. The Master had now found that that descendant was entitled to the estates, freehold and leasehold. Mr. Pownall, appearing in person, said the first earl had one son, who in 1736 married Catherine Cecil, second daughter of James, Lord Salisbury. Of that union was born in 1740 Philip Tufton Perceval, who in 1790 married Catherine Hennessay. obviously a poor and pretty comedienne. The issue of that marriage was Sarah, Mr. Pownall’s grandmother. Mr. Justice Eve said he had heard all that Mr. Pownall had got to say, but there was not sufficient evidence. A declaration was made by Mr. Justice Eve declaring Frederick Perceval entitled to the estate and Mr. Pownall’s claim was disallowed with costs.