CLAIM TO EARLDOM.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 December 1922, Page 7

CLAIM TO EARLDOM.

LYTTELTON MAN’S PLANS. GREAT SCOTTISH ESTATES. It is quite possible that Mr. Thomas Radcliffe, says the Christchurch Sun. an octogenarian resident of Lyttelton, is heir to the title and estates of the unlucky Earl of Derwentwater, who was executed on Tower Hill for his share in the Jacobite rebellion of 1715. Mr. Radcliffe says that he is going to put in a claim for them, if all goes well. The following paragraph appeared in Reynold’s Newspaper, of October 1 last: People surnamed Radcliffe will be interested in the possibilities of a claimant to the Derwentwater Earldom coming forward. With the title may go vast estates in the north. These Were forfeited to the Crown when the Jacobite Lord Derwentwater was executed on Tower Hill, and are now the property of Greenwich Hospital.

James Radcliffe, third Earl of Derwentwater, was a staunch supporter of the Old Pretender, and took a leading part in the rebellion, but was made prisoner at Preston and sent to the Tower. At his trial for high treason he pleaded guilty, and was executed on February 24, 1716. His estates were declared forfeit to the Crown. The earl left no children, so there was no question of the forfeiture of their rights. Mr. Thomas Radcliffe, who lives in London Street, Lyttelton, comes from the Isle of Man, where his forefathers have lived for generations. He claims to be the eldest lineal descendant of the Earl of Derwentwater’s brother Charles, who, after the execution of his brother, escaped as a fugitive to the Isle of Man. Frank, another brother of the Earl, died childless about this time in London. Soon after his arrival in the Isle of Man, Charles married and acquired the estate of some 700 or 800 acres, known as Knockaloe, the second largest estate on the island. At his death his eldest son became heir ot this property. His son, Mr. Radcliffe states, was the father of his, Mr. Radcliffe’s great grandfather Charles, who succeeded to Knockaloe, which subsequently passed out of the family owing to financial embarrassment. Mr. Radcliffe’s grandfather, also named Charles, who worked on the estate for a time, died in the year 1847, and was buried in Kirkpatrick cemetery, in the Isle of Man. in the family plot of Charles, the Earl’s brother. The old church, which adjoins the estate, of Knockaloe, still contains the mural tablet erected to the memory of the Earl’s brother Charles, wliile on the tombstone, there are inserted the names of his descendants. the Radcliffes. When the Earl was executed his freehold estates in Northumberland. England. known as “Dilaton” and “Dilaton Hall,” were confiscated bv the Crown, and the rents devoted to the upkeep of the Greenwich Hospital in Ixondon. The claimant, who came to New Zealand in 1874, is the eldest of a. family of five sons' His brother William, the fourth in the family, is an ex-Mayor of Lyttelton, where he still resides. A third brother, Edward, at present lives at Woolston. Christchurch, and the two others. John and Basil, died in America and South Africa respectively. It is stated that at the time of the Earl’s execution he was the richest nobleman in England, and at present the rents accruing from the estates amount to something like £50,000 a year. Mr. Radcliffe, it might he mentioned, has alwavs been recognised by the Radcliffes of the Tslp of Man hr the head of the Radcliffe family on the island. The reason why no member of the family has ever laid claim to the title u simply that none of (hem, until now. has felt financially able to undertake the task. Mr. Thomas Radcliffe has several sons, and as the New Zealand branch of the family is not by any means dving out, it is probable that the claim will be thoroughly pursued. The chief dffiiculty in the way appears to be a legal question—whether the estates, having been seized by the Crown, can be recovered, as Reynold’s Newspaper suggests.