A LEICESTERSHIRE ROMANCE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 378, 23 April 1881, Page 2

A LEICESTERSHIRE ROMANCE.

Vice-Chancellor Malins was occupied on. Thursday with the extraordinary cas«^f : Mr James-Beaumont Winstanley who\jSt is supposed, was drowned in the Mosevje. in 1862. Mr Winstanley was formerly. ' High Sheriff of Leicestershire, where hepossessed large estates producing £6OOO a year. Ha appears to have been a gentleman of most eccentric tastes, and devoted a large portion of his time to travelling on the Continent, where heindulged in Communistic views. A body was found in the Moselle, near Coblentz, in 1862, which was recognised as Mr Winstanley’s by three gentlemen and his, butler, and a similar conclusion was come., to by the German authorities and

official referee after investigation. In spite of this a rumor was set afloat in Leicestershire that Mr Winstanley was still alive, and th t even if be w-a dead be had previously married a French lady, by whom he had a son, who would appear when he attained his majority and claim the estates. In consequence of this the purchaser of a portion of the estates wished to set aside the contract for purchase. The Vice-Chancellor had not the slightest doubt that Mr Winstanley was dead. The official referee, who was a lawyer Of eminence, had come to that com elusion after bearing the evidence. The only pers'n who threw any doubt on the recognition of Mr Winstanley’a body was a police-officer named Smith, who in 1862 was fully satisfied, but now attempted to say that the recognition was not satisfactory. Such evidence must be viewed with the greatest suspicion. The whole story was simply the gossip of some old woman, and he (the judge) being convinced that Mr Winstanley was dead, disthe application with costs. —Home Paper. ___________