SOME FAMOUS FAMILIES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 103, 17 September 1912, Page 7

SOME FAMOUS FAMILIES

' THEIR: LOWLY ORIGIN. |Jife , 'p'rb\id family of Percy, the jsecond "largest landowner in Great 'Britain,"Vfio:counts himself of equal ' birllr witl'ijtiie of, the world, is one oi 'tlfe' ie\V .remaining specimens of the old Bnt'ish'aristocracy which is so rapidly 'before irresistible -lritfrtHi''*of"btjJtteTn' 'democracy. The old feiuM ''iystem ss ' to His Grace as real and; a? living'as'in the days of his ancestors, 'tijiil'of /whom was ;i : great friend of Will'iartf 'the Conqueror. Yet this proud a'iuT man numbers among his 'dirifct' humble personages le Smythesonne, farmer, farmer, Ralph Smith- > son,' temin't' artel' Anthoijy 'Smithsoh:yeiirt'aijj;'*4!fs'on of the "latter, Hugh Sinithsoii, went to 'London and obtained ft;'. position "ijr,a,', haberdashery, made a ,fortunje; M Voir «r6ate<l a baronet. Four '"cneratjonßjlater another Hugh Smithson \voojd:a'hcl" won Lady'' 'Elizabeth Seymour, ami'with her the Percy name and' estates. was'created the first Duke o,f Northumberland. Had the original ~;ftugl\ "continued the 'farm life'bfr.'.ancestors and not gone to Lomjoir'to -retail hats- and cravats his •desc'eudants; r ify these days ' "probably wonld. .be .ploughing his modest two-acre farm instead .of lording it" over hajf-a-dozen of'Tbc'ftty&t ca , sttes'"in"tlie country a-ird c,ltfse upon a million acres of the flues); Englislji laii'ij,' !. thaji, tlirQe. peers—Earl Cromer. , 'the afchifpcl; of' modern Egypt; Baron Revelstoke, one' of Eiighyni's greatest and a governor of the Bank of Engliind,;' Slnjl.'Eai'l'!Mrthbrook— are descended from' pne John Baring, a son of a Broihea'pai'son, who started in business. as ii clotli.manufacturer on the out- : 'skirts' df ' ... ' No more • distinguished family exists : in England to-day, than that of Ripon. The present holder of the title is chiefly known to the public as one of the finest game shots hi the world, but his father, who died at a great age three years agoestablished a record as a Cabinet office holder. There was hardly a position in the British;taVmet that he did not fill at one time or another. Yet this great peer was descended from a humble Yorkshire tradesman named Robinson, who becamb'established in York; ' They were a shrewd family," however, and 'almost without exception added to their fortunes or watered' their red blood with blue by alliance with many of the oldest families in the north'of England. The liamc of Smith is associated with trade," of which the British aristocracy expresses such a horrpr. the. descendant 'ofiJYfMi 'Smith,' who sold tapes and buttons and dress materials to the women of Nottingham, is' tiie Marquis of Lincolnshire. - • r ' (