STRANGER THAN FICTION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 93, 15 May 1909, Page 3

STRANGER THAN FICTION.

MANY REMARKABLE PEERAGE ROMANCES. Nearly nine years ago there appeared in a Madrid newspaper a story of an .Englishman who had arrived in the Spanish capital to denounce as a forgery the registration of a marriage alleged to have taken place in IH.'i:i -between liis uncle, an English peer, and a Spanish dancer. The forgery, it was said, consisted of 'the substitution of his uncle's name in the register for that of a dancingmaster to whom the lady was really married.

Now, after all these years, a tremendous light has been waged in the Madrid Assize Court between two claimants' to the estates, titles, and privileges ufj Lord Sackville of Knole, who died in September last. The respective claimants arc Mr.

Lionel Sackville-.West, nephew of the late lord, and M. Ernest Henri dean Baptistc-W'cst, the eldest sou of Lord Sackville and the Spanish dancer, THE EARL AND THE GIRL. Almost exactly a hundred years ago English society was convulsed by a peerage claim which in so many respects resembles the present Sackville case thut the coincidence is simply astonishing. The case was tried iu 1810, but we must go buck to the year 1780 for its beginning. in that year, Frederick Augustus, fifth Earl or .Berkeley, met aud tell in love with a beautiful girl named Mary Cole. Mary was of humble birth, and had been a lady's-maid. Bui sl:e was' clever as well as pretty, and it was nol mere passing affection which existed between the two. I

The e arl, it is said, married her secretly, and up to 179U there were three sons and a daughter. In that year there was a public ceremony of marriage, aud the: lauy became Countess of Berkeley before the whole world. After this three more sous were born.

In 1810 the earl died, and at once a question arose about the succession to tile title. There was no question aibout th e estates.. These—or all of them that he could dispose of—the earl had bequeathed to his eldest son, William Kitaharuiiigo Berkeley, who was then ionr-and-twenty, and known by tire courtesy title of Viscount Dui'slej\ Tlie question about the title arose from doubts about the earlier, the secret marriage. If this were not a real marriage, then, of cours'e, it was the fourth son, Thomas lloreton Berkeley, whoj was the rightful heir to th e peerage. ] The case came before the Committee ol Privileges of the House of Lords, I and, as Thomas was a minor, the law] oilicers of the Crown acted on his jeliali.

lire clergyman, Mr. Hupsmau, who was alleged to have officiated at the earlier marriage, was dead, and all depended upon an e atrj- in the .parish register at Berkeley. -Vow, this entry was not in the register at all. It was found on a loos'e leal torn from the register among the dead ear b private papers. Lady Berkeley said that th e "art had torn out the page in order to keep the first marriage pdvate. ihc, and also her brother, Wil-l ham Cole, swore to its correctness. But there was a mass of evidence on lie other side. The clergyman's signature was declared a forgery, and .he est oi the ..iitry was proved to be in he writing of the late lord. More than tms, when the marriage of 17t)« took place tic earl had described himself as a bachelor.

Ihe result was that the Committee n ammously that William had not made good his claim, and Thomas was declared sixth Eajl 0 f Berkeley. Thomas himself .showed a high-minded n fc J i '",* " ,otller,s ho,lor V "fus'W to bear the title. He never married, • d as Ins two younger brothers also lied unmarried, the title devolved upon a <lc«-oudant of the fourth earl Oddly enough, the unsuccessful elamieven,?,!u SnKTmll ' 1 ' t0 ll,e ™tute S , did uuitually acquire a title. l u mi ],„ was created Earl Fit/.liardinge. and, also ' vmg unmarried, was succeeded by his "»tl.er, Admiral Fitzhardiugc, who died

But the Berkeley case was not dead .vet. f„ JBSB the admiral's eldest son revived Hip whole matter, claiming, on the strength of fresh evidence the anf'™t H'lrU of .Berkeley. Three years later the Committee of J'rivile.r,. s ' mO . nouneed its finding that Randal Mow"'ay iliomas Berkeley had made „ 111H | his claim to the title and dignitv of Earl or Berkeley. *

live, j Hoyul title has been tli e subject of dispute, and la www will tell you that the famous Sussex neci-i«e ease was the most important ever triced. >..17!».%th, ; j),,ke of Sussex, sixth S o,i o (,oorge Jll.. married Lady Augusta -Murray, .laughter of the Karl l(I Dinmoie. Hi,, marriagi' ocroinonv was twice pcrformed-onee at K om 'e and «pm at St. (ieorgo's. Hanover Square. Jwo children were .born-Augustus who became a colonel in (he llritisli Uinc a».. a daughter, who afterwards mar ned Lord Truro.

■ 0 , , i. t 1 1 "'. ,k>atl ' of tu " "»ko of Sussex >» 1843, Sir Augustus ,I'Este. as he was kaonvn, chinned his' father's dukedon I lie ease came before the Prerogative <onrt ol Canterbury.

Simply because the' duke had not re- «*«■. the Knyal „W. his uiama.-e was held t„ hilVl . ,„„,„ „„,, am| r Mr Augustus „„!,. s „ n , in , (i ~,„ , |(Tision a tew years, and his sister died child-

cl,iim „ ' s, ' l,Si,t " 1 "'il liwtage in. ot recent years has be,,, that of tlw carpenter, (i. ||. 0,-,,,.,.. t „ t |„, (] , <o„, „f Portland. The claimant's storv us a most remarkable one. ]|,. w:i ' s the linker Street JSazaar. a recluse and according to the claim-mtV ci 'I luie is no need to recapitulate its details nor recount the tremendous exc,v,\'? '! V< '!' Ul !' °l»' ni "K "f the Druee the claimant when there was found in ] ™ l lh,thebodyofan''age,l ) b":;i«

The Xewlmrg], peerage holds a simoi- !" ■'■ cord. Within (he last thirtv "i . has been the subject of „„ tewe/umn unee claims.

B"U«]l titles |,eld by « forei„„cr' Tie "".ncman. the "l»Mi I''-' finale line. ||„ is , , "' , !! of the „lil„ i -.i V 'Ksceinliint oti. eldest sister of a certain J)or„t!iv ■ adw,„. whl , ,„.„,,„„ t]|i , , , '"" - l th - of

Thf claim is „,,t only lo the title, but ' , t1 " , ,. 1i '»■<■ Hyssop Hall estates in .'-inn,, '"' ' Wl ' it ' l ' '"''' w<nth somc ■L/0,0(11) a year.—Answers.