Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-12-03
ROMANCE OF THE PEERAGE.

Toward the end of the last century an
English baronet, Sir Frederick Fletcher
Vane, fell in love with a young lady
named Hannah Bowerbank. They
lived together for some years, and in
1894 a child was born to them, an event
followed in the next year by the birth Of
a second child. Soon afterward Miss
| Bowerbank told her lover that he must
either marry her or leave her, and he
consented to marry her. The marriage
was 10 take place in February, 1897, but
the lady was taken suddenly i'll, and
was prematurely delivered of a third
child. This delayed the marriage,
which, however, was s0lemnized three
weeks afterward, viz: on March 0, 1877.
The infant, whose haste to enter this
world of sin and sorrow made him lille
ultimate, was baptized at st. Georges
Church, London, OF April 10, and in
the entry Of his baptism he was stated
to have been born on the 18th of March,
twenty days after the marriage of his
parents, instead of the February before
that event.
The name given to the child was Fran
els Fletcher Vane, and he was recog-
nized and brought up by his father as his
legitimate son and heir. But after the
marriage of his parents, two other chill
dren were born to them, a daughter and
a son, of whose legitimacy there could
be no doubt. The son was born May s,
1907, and If it be true that the other son
was born before the marriage, the one
born after it is in law the eldest son Of
his father, his brother being nobody and
having no name. This latter son, 'Sir
Frederick Henry Vane, Bart, heretofore
commonly called Frederick Henry
Vane," is now a man Of siXty-fiveyears,
and the other day he instituted a suit in
the Vice-ChancellOr's Court against his
nephew, the son of Francis Fletcher
Vane, to obtain a declaration that
as this Francis Fletcher was born
before the marriage Of his parents he
was illegitimate and could not inherit
the estates of his father nor transmit
them TO his W son, and that he, Fred
erick, being the son born after marriage,
was the legitimate heir TO the title and
estates. He asked in his suit that he
might be declared to be thus entitled,
and that his unfortunate nephew might
be compelled TO hand over the estates
and to account to him for all their rents
and profits up to this time received.
The estates are in Cumberland and
Westmoreland, and are very valuable.
Francis Fletcher Vane married in 1923,
and upon the death ofhis father, in 1882,
assumed the title and the family estates.
He died in 1912, and the defendant, Sir
Henry Ralph Vane, who was his eldest
son, and consequently the nephew of
the plaintiff, succeeded him. Lady
Vane, the widow of Sir Frede-
rick Fletcher Vane, did not die
till 1856, and the plaintiff accounted for
the length of time which had elapsed
before he attempted to assert his rights
by the statement that from the year
1926, when at the age of nineteen he o.
tanned a commissionin the Twelfth Ian
GERS, down TO the year 1866, he had
only been for a few days at a time at the
family place in Cumberland, and that in
that year he for the first time became
aware, through inquiries made in con-
sequence of some remarks let fall by the
widow of Sir Francis, and of a SUISSE
quent conversation with the widow of
Sir Frederick before her death, that there
was any doubt as to the Legitimacy of
his elder brother.