The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1878-10-31
A STRANGE STORY /,
The Disputed Estate IF StanfieId Hall.
From the Boston Adyertisersl

!
at intervals for nearly a century and a
half, has just been judicially determined
for the first time at Norwich, England.
The trial trameEsed a succession of
| strange experiences, including horrible
tragedy which shocked all England
thirty years ago. amd strange and mys-
ferrous Incidents enough for first-class
melodrama. Ii it were played upon a
stage now it would be denounced as i'm
probable fiction.
Stanfeld Hall is the name of an es-
tate which in 1875 became the posses
sion, through marriage, of William
Jenny. In 1851 Mr.. Jenny made viii
For some reason he desired that a sis
ter, into whose possession the estate
would regularly fall at his death, should
not obtain it, and he therefore be-
| queathed it in succession to Jacob
Preston, son of Isaac Preston, and his
heirs male, and then to Thomas Preston
! and his heirs male, and, in default of
issue by either of them, "to such male
person of the name Of Jenny as should
be the nearest related to the testator in
blood, and to his heirs forever" There
was clause in the will providing that
anyone who took the estate should take
or continue to use the name and arms
of Jenny. These Prestons were con
nected with Jenny through his second
wife-not the one by whom he came
into possession of the property. s
/ William Jenny died in 1852, year
after making his will, and the property
went to the elder of the two Preston
brothers, namely Jacob, who was then a
minor. In this condition of things,
Jacob Preston's father, Isaac Preston,
conceived project to prevent the re-
version OF the estate to the Jermys in
any circumstances. He sought out the
persons of the name of Jenny to whom
or their heirs the estate might revert in
case his sons died without male issue,
and found two, Francis Jenny and John
Jenny. He prevailed on each of these
to sell his interest in the estate for
EGO, and in this way he got rid, as he
thought, of all the Jenny claims, and Sc
cured the property to his own family.
Both Jacob and Thomas Preston died
without male issue, and Isaac Preston,
claiming possession by virtue of his
purchase of the interest of the persons
nearest of blood of the name of Jenny,
left it at his death to another son, who,
dying in 1896 without issue, entailed it
by will upon his brother, the Rev. Geo.
Preston, with remainder to his son,
Isaac Preston, for life, and his son,
Jenny Preston, with remainder to his
heirs male Mr. Isaac (Preston) Jenny
was Recorder of Norwich, and person
we'll known throughout the country.
The transaction by which the elder
Isaac Preston purchased the contingent
claims of Francis and John Jenny for
EGO each in 1852 did not escape criti-
cism at the time. There were those
who declared that it was illegal OF fraud
ulent. It was, when it became known
the talk of the county, and in 1853
pamphlets were printed explaining and
attacking it; but, for some reason, the
Jermys made no attempt to recover, and
the affair faded out of mems minds, and
for eighty years afterward the Prestons
enjoyed the fruit of the bargain. In
1888, however, there was sale of the
cuCCUS vi OllC VI UIIC L lCOUO1lO VIII HUI
occupied the property, and among the
articles were copies of old pamphlets ex-
planning how the family obtained pos
session of the property. Thus the old
story of fraud was revived and the re-
vival raised up claimants for the estate.
Among them was a man named Rush, a
tenant of the Stanfeld Hall farm, who
ten years later had a quarrel with his
landlord, and who determined to make
use of the document for his own advan-
tage. The quarrel had ended in law
suit, which left Rush financially ruined,
and he was ripe for any desperate I'M
dertaking of revenge. He wrote new
pamphlet, adding personal abuse of the
living Prestons to the narrative Of the
circumstances by which they obtained
the property. He at the same time
contrived series of crimes which, at
their elimination, shocked the nation.
In the first place he forged deed, by
the terms of which Mr. Isaac Preston)
Jenny released MIN from ruinous pecun-
larry obligations on condition of his
giving up the papers relating to the sue
cession. He then made secret written
agreement with two other claimants,
Larner and Thomas Jenny, that he
should have the lease Of the farms at a
low rate if he put them in possession of
! the estate $3.50
The time approaching when his own
debt was due, he resorted to a terrible
crime to escape payment Of it. Putting
on mask and arming himself with pis-
tolls, he went to the hall in the gloom of
a November evening. The place itself
and the habits of the inmates were well
known to him. It was the custom of
Mr.. Jenny to come to the door after
dinner, and when he appeared that
night, Rush, who was lying in wait, shot
him dead. Then the murderer went
into the house, and, finding Mr.. Jermy's
son, shot him dead also. The sons wife,
on throwing herself on the lifeless body
of her husband, was next fired at, and
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