DIGGING II 11 MUSTY RECORDS FOR FOR AMERICA HEIRS london june 20 it h beginning to look as if david jennings the montreal man who came to this country recently to prove himself the right ul heir tal the famous million was certain to get a hearing be fore the chancery court and if he does some people in the united slates will themselves immensely interested in the proceedings virch are F likely to follow the jennings millions of course are those which were left by william jennings or jennens the british ironbound er who died intestate in this country KM years ago and for the possession of chose vast estate rival heirs fought in the chancery court for almost a century the case with ita interminable history of claimants ruined by litigation became world famous especially after charles had satirizes satirized zed it under the name of vs jarn dyce in bleak house Slean while the original left by benninga Jen ninga most of which was in gilt edged stocks had gone on increasing until at the time that the struggle for its possession was supposed to be finally closed the chancery courts return estimated the fortune at the amazing sum of which amount david jenning who ie in possession of a perfect mass of evidence to prove his DAVID 8 OF I 1 in london ta for fortune of to rbana and hi itar lo to he D heir or ahr buard art ad ni th orl gloal et ao 10 homo claim thereto has come to this country to lift as sir thomas lipton would say it was just about thirty years ago that fhe jennings suit ended the court deciding that the contested millions should remain in chancery while earl inowe who by the way is a direct descendant of sir william inowe who commanded the british forces in the american revolution was left in possession of the rich jenning property which his lordships Lord ships aristocratic family might be said to have jumped immediately after william jennings death the estate includes corsall hall in leibes hershire ter shire where earl inowe recently entertained the king acton place ashton hall the so called penn estates and a house in aristocratic curzon street london this decision having been reached by the chancery court every one supposed that the famous ease had been settled for abaye recently however there has been a significant activity among the jennings claimants in this country whose hopes were dashed temporarily by the chancery courts decision in earl favor one of them announced the discovery of documents throwing an entirely new light upon the case and there have been other indications that the famous legal contest apon which it 19 estimated more than has been spent soon would have to be opened again then came the appearance on the scene of david jennings the canadian claimant an elderly man who has spent several years already in collecting document to prove himself william jennings lineal heir and whose claim is thought eo well of by certain montreal capitalists they are backing him financially in this attempt o 0 he purpose to make to get the jennings acres and guineas away from earle jiovo soon after his arrival in england jennings laid hie case so far as it had got then before lawyers here who encouraged him to go on after looking over the documents which he presented next jennings who by the way doea not impress one either as a fanatic or a man likely to suffer from delusion invaded the public record office wherein the records of births marriages and deaths bince time out of mind are kept and there for several weeks be has spent day after day in pouring over the musty volumes in the search for further evidence on which to base his claim he has refused obstinately to have anything to do with professional bearch ere and the officials in the building who do not generally sympathize with folk engaged in such a search his say that they never have met any one of the species who pursued his object with diligence than jennings whether the man who means to oust earl inowe ha discovered anything at the mccord office likely to assist himin doing so ho declined to state when questioned the other day but it is significant that his solicitors now say that they hope to get him a hearing before the chancery court before july first however all the evidence upon which the claim is based and this means thousands upon thousands of folios of closely written matter must bo read and discussed before a legal luminary called the master in chancery who must decide whether the case is one that ought to occupy the attention of one or two of his Maje judges for a time that might exceed that of the first jennings suit itself biard work and sleepless nights appear to have left their mark upon the old man and when he was seen by the writer he was by no means inclined to straighten himself out to talk 1 I am disgusted he commenced with the way the english newspapers have distorted the facts ef my case they have tried to make fun out of what is a very serious matter both to me and earl inowe the earl does not take it so flippantly I 1 can assure you he under the gravity of the situation 1 I am receiving shoals of letters daily from all parts of the world many of them resting their claims on manifestly imaginary foundation there are claimants from new york san francisco buffalo toronto yew mexico melbourne ade a de burmah port said pari st petersburg and even moscow all claiming to be descendants of the celebrated william Jenning sT yes but I 1 can after years of hard work trace the pedigree of only six out of a possible threta hundred and these with two exceptions live in america two in san francisco one in melbourne one in new york one in toronto and one in bunnah are all these three hundred contris contri 1 buting toward the cost of the present litigation t oh dear no they are in claims anticipating a windfall who ii woney then that is a subject I 1 cannot discuss at present idere mr himself up and appeared angry further questioned as to his relation with the other claimants he exclaimed somewhat heatedly 1 I am not going to concern myself with other people troubles I 1 have enough of my own the statement that there will be a general meeting of the whole body in london is an invention euch a thing is impossible people cannot conveniently come from all parts of the world to attend of that sort william jennings dying intestate leaving no son how have you succeeded to the name of jennings jennings married into the family and so the name was restored was the quick reply do you really expect to win your ease 1 I ought to if there is justice in england you are rather skeptical as to the result the courton Court of chancery is an institution which the lawyers themselves have never been able to understand if you succeed to all this wealth what do you propose to do with it I 1 1 am not so much interested in the money as I 1 am in establishing the claims of my family and ancestors I 1 aman old man and money can be of no great value to me according to mr jenkings earl allowe is laying low the canadian haa communicated with hi lordship suggesting an interview by which litigation might be avoided but the earl has not replied As a matter of fact lord howe haa been threatened with eviction so many times before that he is getting a bit callous his lord thip by the way is rather a picturesque figure he is one of the youngest of englich peers and ie treasurer to king edwards household as well lord in waiting but perhaps the earl ie beet known as a musician he the organ with real brilliancy and ha a magnificent instrument at hall ilia principal seat the history of the jennings millions is an extraordinary one from beginning to end but no part of the tale is more remarkable than that woich explains how it was that the english millionaire to whose fortune there have been so many claimant came to die intestate william jennings was an aristocrat as well as ft roan of great wealth his father had been an aid de camp to the great duke of and he himself had william III for a godfather and as a boy had been page to king ceoric I 1 but be was renowned moat of all sac hi riches a fortune of 10 such his being accounted a mighty one in those pre days benninga Jen ninga had inherited part of his fortune but he more than quadrupled his original heritage by fortunate speculation he had a perfect genius for making investments for instance hie shares in the exchequer tontine for which he paid each brought him in apiece for many yeara strangely enough it wag the most trifling sort of an accident which led to jennings dying without a aiu and aa n consequence to one of the most lengthy and expensive lawsuits in history only a few daya before hie death the old fellow then 07 went down to his solicitors office for the specific purpose af pf drawing up bis last testament aben ho came to sign it however he discovered that be had left hie spectacle at home so he put the will in his pocket and went off saying that he would drop in again eoon and cloae the matter A day or two afterward he wae dead and when his were searched the testament in law was found in hu pocket continued on page ten costumed from page 0 up to the lime of jennings death jew perse persen n isal begun to realize how ha was it waa discovered that ie sad W property in almost way one of the existing funds and it had been als habit to leave the dividends on most f his stock to accumulate year after year he seems to have had money on ill sides of him in an hon h on chest which be used to keep under hid bed they found banknotes bank notes worth and more in the shape of newly coined golden guineas it was in 1793 that old william jennings died and hardly was he laid in bis grave before there began the battle in the chancery Chance jy court for his estate which was to drag on until people apoka of its as they did of the roil during alie one Ti undred odd years that the suit lasted whole rooms full of evidence was submitted and many and many a litigant beggared liim self and his family in lawyers fees of this side of the caad there could be no better description anan dickens gave when he held the controversy up fo ridicule in bleak house Jarn dyce and Ijar odyce drones on this scarecrow of i a sail has in course of time become so complicated that no man alive knows what it means the parties to it understand it least but it has been observed i that no two chancery lawyers can talk about it for five minutes without com ing to a total disagreement as to all the premises innumerable children have been born into the innumerable j persona have married into it in numerable old people have died out of 1 it scores of people leave deliriously found made parties in jarn dyce and Jarn dyco without knowing I 1 how or why whole families have in merited legendary hatreds with the suit the little plaintiff or defendant who was promised a new rocking horac when Jarn dyce and Jarn dyce should he settled has grown up possessed himself of a real horse and trotted away fair wards of court have faded into mothers and grandmothers a long procession of chancellors has come in and gone out there are not three left upon the earth per hapa since tom Jarn dyce in despair blew his brains out in a coffee couo in chancery lane but Jarn dyce and Jarn dyce still drags ita dreary length before the court per hopeless As the suit went on the folk who were lighting it grew less and less scrupulous old parchment records were mutilated to make them lie entries wre erased or inserted in the registers of births marriages and deaths one claimant was accused of altering the original genealogy ical tree of the jannings by grafting j thereto an alien infant branch others were believed to have changed eions on tho tombstones there was cven that the nal name j plates were removed from coffins and balac ones substituted earl howe whose position sir jan ninga of montreal is preparing to dispute has receil caters every few dayd bince lie came into alie property from folk ho believe they should be in his i place enough evidence to fill 11 wheelbarrow sent to Ws lord ship all hearing on the senders claims arto his estate says the earl people all over the country seem to have an 1 idea that they are entitled to nibble at my property 1 however it can be said to alie noble mans credit anat although he describes himself aa being in no fear of being iris rivals he looks upon their as being pathetic rather than absurd and not only reads all the letters sent him but keeps them f before ane arrival in this country of id avid there were paid to be about thirty eight jennings claimants who not only were devoting their spare time and money to tracing their decent back to the old hut who meant 0 o have a tussle with jar in court just as soon as possible these claimants arc mostly commonplace enough with per hap one exception cep tion ideis n railway guard and is one of those who aa dickens married into the jennings case uis wife afi fact h a granddaughter of one of the chief claimants for nine years now this railroad man has practically devoted his life to proving his wife en 1 titled to ine lions share of old william jennings property and that he has the shadow of a case is shown by ane fact that earl attorneys gave him an interview a while ago and after seeing hia laboriously gathered proofs admitted that hia wife was a bit of a cousin but him not to trouble the earl about it an exasperating part of the railway mans case is that the train on which he is a guard runs past aarl leicestershire Leicester shire estate a rich slice of the jennings property which as this humble claimant ruefully says in a manner of speaking ought to belong to us cantis cuntis BROWN