The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-07-30
THE INGRAHAM WILL.
FI-O1n the ~. Y, Tribune.

THE LNGRAHAM WILL.
From the ". Y. Tribune.
We have no desire to discourage the reason
able anticlpations of the Iugraham family,
which recently met in this city to take mea-
sures for obtaining possession OF the CITY OF
shall be worth Si000O0,000. Indeed, they seem
to be so enthusiastically hopeful, and their
such an extremely good one, that to damp their
ardor is probably impossible. If it were not
Ie TeadIna niS of BLEAK House" to be 'G5d fol-
lowed by Ten Thousand a Year" Poor
wallet; iii Mr.. r. Crooke had documents" in
his paper-heap; Mr. Titmouse had documents"
S eSe o SSeey
family are not precisely in so fortunate q posi-
tion. They have no documents, put they know
where they are to be had for a consideration;
Two centuries ago one Joseph Wilson, of
Yorkshire, made will, devlsing to Sarah
Cowell. his granddaughter in America Ungra-
ham by marriage), lands upon which Leeds
now stands. The Ingraham family claim
under her-a very numerous family, 1t would
appear, with so many ramihcations that, If
the decision should be in favor OF the de-
scent. there win probably be q hundred suits
about the distribution. But, in the very begin.
ming, there are suspicious circumstances, with
just the falntest aroma OF swindling about
them. The much-desired will of the old original
Joseph has been hunted for by eager and
hungry heirs for more than sixty years. Now
it was in the possession of Lord Erskine. Now
IL was held by Lord Erskines son, it hav-
ing been cOnfided to the first. named law
t IT. is Il in am America, % and last % January It S''I IS
found, but alas! IL Is in the hands OF " two
lawyers" who demand ten thousand
dollars and tenth of the property as the
condition of surrender! This the Ingraham
Committee declines TO pay; but IL finally does
money and thirty thousand dollars OF the In
graham Association scrip" but with wisdom
which we should hardly have anticipated with
holds the cash until the 1.-TWO lawyers" shall
have proved the will to be genuine to the salts
are engaged In the troublesome preliminary of
raising the money for the two lawyers"
Such, in briet, and dtvested of unimportant
details, is the story of the Ingraham claim to
the city of Leeds. 1t is, we are forced to con-
fess, a suspicious. though not conclusive cir
the concealments and the uncommonly sharp
practice of the "two lawyers" who withhold
and law, TO surrender, having come into the
possession of a piece OF property which does
long to them. IF we were never
SO distantly related to the Ingraham
family, we would make short work of that
beautiful brace of attorneys who want s5O,OOO
for doing an act of the very commonest kind of
honesty: We would hire the sharpest gentle
the "two lawyers" to course Of Chancery pro-
ceedipgs which would soon bring them to their
marrow bones We would harass them with
bills and subp9nas and discoveries and con-
eomtants; we would bring great variety of
actions against them In the common lawcourts;
we would, If necessary, indict them for
larceny; we would try trover; we would resort
TO replevin; we would attach all the pro-
perty in their possession, will included;
we would have them sent to jail upon an ave-
rage once week; we would have that "docu-
ment" out of them, or know the reason why
from the august lips of the Chief Justice of the
United States himself This is the way in
which we should spend our money, because in
| this way we should soonest find out whether
the "two lawyers" really had or not a testa-
ment which they themselves believed to be
genuine Ifit turned out upon production to
be fabrication palpably and Enthusiastically a
forgery, then we should not be at the expense
of proving it. If it were prilpd Iacle genuine,
then we could go to probate with IL with a tole-
rably light heart, leaving the two lawyers to
pay their own costs, and portion of ours into
the bargain,
meeting seems TO have been of nature alto
gether too satisfactory. As soon as the 1.-TWO
| lawyers" have been brlbed to disgorge the
document" all difficulties, 1t is assumed, will
have been surmounted, and the hourishing
city of Leeds will change owners at once. 1t
seems to have been unaccountably forgotten
! that there are lawyers in England as we'll as
| lawyers in America; and that tenants who have
held lands for two centuries generally get a
! popularity of English practice to take Wills
for granted; they must be proved, as several
! hundred volumes of eccleslasticala and consistory
! reports sufficiently attest: and If anybody
! thinks it easy to prove a will two hundred
! mons we recommend him, If he has money to
snare to try the experiment He viii find that
! faith in the 1.-TWO lawyers" who discover an In
| strument Just when IL is wanted, might not be
! so large upon the other side of the Atlantic as
1t appears 10 be upon this. Time makes strong
| men who are receiving the rents of the Leeds
| properties might not be disposed to surrender
! al dtscretion and there would be two hundred
| instead Of two lawyers to deal with, and per-
! hans even the whole House of Lords,
| II will be seen ti Vt while we have pointed out
the difficulties of their realization, we have
offered no opinion on the validity of these re-
| markabe claims. Even If we desired TO do So
! we nave no trustworthy data from which to
| make up our minds; but we confess that our
| suspjcions of the "two lawyers" with will for
sale cheap are somewhat grave. 1t would be
| strange If there were not heirs-at-law or de-
visees in this country entitled to estates long in
| allowance in England. When we consider the
| heaTtache the hope deferred, and the disap-
| nointment, we could wish that IL were other
| wise We have known more than one man
| rnined by trusting to these fRllacious dreams
| oG wealth to be had without labor, OF riches to
he acquired by good fortune, OF estates TO be
| seenred by some extraordinary chance. In too
| many cases 1--WE say nothing of the presenD
| q me rogue is the moving master.spirtt OF the
| hrilIiant vision, and poor men are made poorer
| in the effort to grasp an unearned and un-
| merited opulence. We could mention @ gem
| tlennan long since deceased, himself one of the
| sbiest legal writer's in America, and whose
Works are of authority in the Courts, whose
| whole life was embitlered by the dream of
| orest English inheritance. Fortunately he
| 5nevv well where TO stop, although he could
| not cease TO regret the Ldcund In the evidence
| wbich kept him from rank and from Riches
| W. ruiah- that all eXpectants might prOva