THE AMERICAN CLAIM TO THE QUEEN'S THRONE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 30 December 1885, Page 2

THE AMERICAN CLAIM TO THE QUEEN'S THRONE.

[New York World.] - ,/• . It will doubtless surprise many students of history to learn thatthe fato of James 111 of Scotland was not-what it' Was generally supposed to havei ion; :that ho was not murdered in the year 1488, while ignominiously fleeing from the. battle of Sanchieburn, near Bannochburri, but that on the contrary, he escaped to a place of Bafety, where he was found by (V lady of high degree, to whom he was subsequently wedded, and by whom he had a more or less. muMMs. family of children, the descendants, of which offspring of the King, with true Scotch grit, have kept themselves alive from that day to this, and a portion of whom, including the oldest son in a direct line of descent, are now living in commendablo simplicity at the town of Connecticut, So learned ah authority as stv, Qharles A, Dana is evidently not aware of this interesting fact, fcj \n the ninth volume of his Cyclopedia he states, with cruel positiveness, that James 111, though neither so weak nor so vicious as ho has been represented, did certainly fly from the field of action, and was unquestionably murdered by an unknown hand; How Mr Dana and other writers will now account for the presence in .Danbury, Connecticut, of the very much alive descendants of that ancient monarch, it is puzzling to conjecture. Of course, it is known 'that James 111, long before there was any talk of a battlea,t Sanchieburn, married the beautiful Princess Margaret of Denmark', and by her had a son Jimmy. But this' son has been satisfactorily accounted for, and can by no stretch of imagination be accredited with the paternity of the Danbury Stuarts. He became, as everyone Ws,'King of Scotland after* his father's dissappearance, an!d was engaged in courting Margoret, the daughter of King Henry VII of England, at the very time that his royal father, hidden in some baronial Castle of the Scotch Highlands, was consoling himself with the "unknown lady of high degree," who subsequently (it is presumed not until the death of the lady from Denmark) became his wife and the very, very greatgreat-grandmother or grand aunt of the Danbury folks, This is, of course, supposing that the old gentleman, James i 11.,' was not cut off in his pride at Sanchieburn,

An American view of tho situation would clearly be that the children of the second wife of Jamea 111 were quite, .as much entitled to the belongings of their i father as was the son of his first wife, and if their half-brother" did 1 ' them out of all i share in the crown,'as seems'to have been the case, they and their descendants merit at least the sympathy anpj respect of ; tiiqirfeijov men,'while common justice I calls for a recognition of their royal blood. It cannot be deniod that the theory of James Ill's escape with a whole skin from the battle of Sanchiebum is not entirely now. Burton'sHistoryofScotlandcontains : a marginal note in which is related, moroas aviiguelyancientrumorthan anythingelse, than James 111 was said to have escaped by aid of a friendly sea captain on the Frith of Eortli, Tlie Ikltiury descendants, w]iq ' naturally nave ■ paid more attention 'to this 1 point in histoiy than some otjipr'pciiple,' are able to put tlieir fjngera upon other printed statements to a similar effect, it being said that the copy of an ancient newspaper, rejoicing in the name of the Pjtscottle Ohnmlole, which is in possession of the family, contains a dotailed account of the flight and escape of the King, and mentions the gallant skipper by whom he was saved as one "Captain Wood," This account agrees with the unwritten traditions of the family, except as to the captain's name, which those traditions say was " Bull" not "Wood"—in either case a good Engjis]} name,' INVESTIGATING TifE DANippy STUARTS. All these interacting particulars, and. many more, were learned by a World reporter who yesterday visited Danbiiry for tho purpose of tracing as far as might be, the intrlcately-wovon tie which is said to bind tho Connecticut family to the ancient Stuart dynasty. It was not' oasy for the reporter to place his finger upon the lineal heir. A consultation of the directory • furnished no clue.' A few representatives of the honoured name were mentioned in the directory—which, by tjje way, may be paid tp be the only trustworthy index to the American peerage—but they are spelt with a S-t-e-w, instead of a S-t-u, leaving the reporter himself in a stew—that is in a sort of a box—in fact in quite a "box-stew." Danbury isn't altogether exactly tho sort of placo where one would look for the sons of a king. It is given up to the felt hat industry and an annual town fair. It is full of girls, pretty enough to be queens in their own rights, who wear brightly trimmed straw. • crowns on the backs of their heads, and who do adealof ''bug?y riding," Standing on the corner of a main street, with a stream of jaunty livery " turmqunts" passing back and forth in tho bright sunshine, the admiration and envy of coatless clerks, who, posed in thedoors.of all the shops,' saluting the girls with'pretty nods, and longing for, the hour of closing, it seemed to the observant representative of the World that'royalty hung about faintly in the air, and that it were better to be a hatrrtajter'with half-a holiday ,and, credit 4 the livery s|,abje, thaii'to' be 'the descendant pf Shy king wßp'ey'er field "<Jpwi} the velvet cushion'of a goldpii-tlirbne.' ■ At No 25, Steven Street, in a pretty little white oottage, lives Mrs George Dickens, a motherly woman, who dresses inbjack, and talks in that hesitating, nervous manner which is said to have over characterised the: Royal Stuarts, of which proud line she is an honored, though perhaps jjjdiffeirepf;, defendant. "I cannot gjve/youihV feact'straight pj jt,)' sajd this lady when the reporter,' $p had shrewdly pursued his Inquiry' in this direction, entered'her cosy little parlour hat in hand, and begged her to explain in what manner she was related' to James 111, of Scotland. "■" 1 know,"'she continueii, ji). a slightly flustered manner, "that it has been in fclpfamilj for years, but I cant seem to'think it all' ojit so suddenly.'' If my cousin-was here—[this! with animation]—she'could give you all

"It waß thereupon agreed that her visitor should call later, by which 'time' Mrs .Charles Stuart Tobias Walport 'could be summoned. 'Mrs Walport is a' Ifichr gander by birth: is an extremely jirigh and engagingjady; and publisheda'boo

or two, and is at present employed in ; , ; writing a historical work. upon ■Scotland, Mrs Walport has nosuspicion of thatifJp'V // Mr Walport is a decorativb artist.. : .\f;,V:i "-',.'"■! MrWalpqrt was born at Kent, a', • village about'2s miles distant from Dan-'J/ bury, in the year 1834. He is the son of . ; a Walport, who married the eldest child" • : of Ciiarles Stuart, who was the son of Stephen and Elizabeth Stuart,; which ■ '■}'] couple lived happily together,in the '/;• ;.' latter part,of the last century at the ■., town of Kent, Connecticut, as the records of that^village; will! show. . The; elder ' v. Walport, after marrying into the Wal- ',/■'.'; port family, spent most of his time with . his wife's relations, and was made the ■ : ■"■:' custodian of the important, traditions', and a few of the documents of the house, of Stuart.. According to this .WalpbrfcK ',;.■:; the tale of the flight and escape, of <m|// James'lll., was as familiar a topic' conversation in the Kent household, as I. the'time of day, and it was also known / to the elder Walport that,-during the. ; Revolutionary war an emissary'of George 111, in the person of Lord Howe,, called ! upon the: grandfather of his wife, and promised :in ■/ the name .of. the ',. j, sovereign that, if', he, ;< ..-. ; !;! Stuart, would• assist in "subducating ■:;/ the disorderly and rebellious.'. Colonies;" £ his—that is, Stuart's—blood"ahould have . 't due recognition in England. .In cpn r , : ; ?■ nection-with.this incident, Mrs WiSti;'. points to the fact that: Sabin's " Hisjjry ■ "■, of the Loyalist of the; Revolution" nreiK ■- tioris an interview whioh took .place. ■ between Lord Howe and. that parfcioular- \ / Stuart, although it does not state ■whati, "''■■■•', •the interview was about., Mrs. Walpoit, ' does not deny that back of Stephen, Stuart there is a slight break in the genealogical train, which fact she accounts for in the most startling way. - It appeaw.that about 25 yearn? ; ago the descendants of the Stuart family began the task of proving their Royal lineage,' 1 . : and that this fact becoming knew in England, an agent of the ' ETg,! lish Government was : commissioned! to -steal and the/ &su»rii; records that existed in the Town Hall ab, Kent. There are obvious resw why Queen Victoria, should have/ iak.cn this • somewhat reprehensible when.it is recollected (as Mrs Walport recollects), that at the death, of Queen Anne of England, if the decent from "King- James 111, of Scotland, could have beon proved. Parliament woujd have compelled; to. settle the crown upon ita rightful' representative rather than upon tha : House of Hanover.' With the existence. in America of genuinevand, wideawake heirs, and, descondanj*of : " James HI, it is not. to be afc that Queen Victoria' rested, .uneasily upon her throne until the track had been, - as she. thought., effectually torn up in thenar of the living representatives of this ; old Scotch branoh of royalty. That the Queen suffered some compunction of conscience after the rather mean trick,was performed was proved-to the satisfaction •of the American heirs by the fact that the very next year after - "Jlio records at Kent were stolen Victoria caused a stote , ■ to be erected at Stirling to the metm* of James 111. -MS But the destruction of the records hasV not robbed tho Connecticut branch of its means to establish its claims. Mature, - through royal blood, has left traces that no hand, however, queenly, can efface. In Charles Stuart Tobias Walport are seen to-day the features of this ancient monarch, James IH, nor does the resemblance exist only in this isolated case. Mrs Dickens, who is a cousin of Mr WajpprC has " the same .long: face".. and/ tya "narrowness in the eyes"'whicV'havg. ever'bee'n of the royal , J Stuarts. /The ni and, llio successors, £ and feeblo moral courage," is. also, ac-! B cording-to tho unanimous testimony of '■ those concerned, not missing from the,- i characteristics of the members pf the. Connecticut branch, i ' "' " ' '".'..'■■■'

With' the exception of the single break that occurs, just back of Steven Stuart, it is plain Bailing, so it is said, to trace family.back to the North of fifteenth century, hi which particular, nepk of woods' James 111 after his rescue-: by the gallant sea captain, is said to taken up his residence. The .line i,uJb' through one Alexander Stuart, who livtu at New Milford, Connecticut, in the last century. Mrs Walport is, to : day in oom* munication with a distinguished'. Scotchman of noble birth, who is said to take a deep interest 111 the.matter.