Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1879-08-13
A Disputed Inheritance.
From the Baltimore American.

A very singular disputed Inheritance
case that has been before the English
courts for twenty years was recently
decided. Mrs. Brown, usually called
Mrs. Mangini Brown, died in London
intestate in 1871, at the age of SO, and
left personal property to the amount of
100000. She had survived all her
children and all her known relations,
and her property was accordingly taken
possession of by the crown. But an
unclaimed inheritance often brings to
light unexpected heirs, and it was not
long before several parties appeared to
prove their kinship to Mrs. Brown and
their claim to the rich succession.
After laborious investigation the in
heritance was adjudged in 1876 to five
members Of a Genoese family named
Freccia, who were held to have proved
their kinship to the father of Mrs.
Brown, and to have made good their
claim to the succession in default of
any nearer relatives. An adverse claim
was set up by another Genoese family
named Crovetto who claimed that
Mrs. Brown was illegitimate. Mrs.
Brown was the daughter of one An
thony Mangin, who, born of Genoese
parents and originally called Antonio
Manginl, settled in England some time
before the year 1771. Thus her parent
age was clear on her fathers side
for she was acknowledged as his
daughter, educated at his expense, and
married with his consent about 1892
to an American named Aguila Brown,
o,, n EyoI fo. to,, xoox, -,
Baltimore. Her father died in 1868,
and Mrs. Brown, who was in Europe,
though not in England, at the time OF
his death, lost no time in taking out
letters of administration and claimed to
inherit his property. The Crovetto
claim was set aside, and Mrs. Brown
was established as the real heiress of
her father, extinguisned the Crovetto
claims, and enabled her to recover,
after many years of litigation in an
other suit, a large sum of money,
amounting to over 100000, from one
De Tastet, her fathers former partner.
The Crovetto claim was based on the
assumption, never disputed by Mrs,
Brown herself, nor placed in issue be-
fore the courts which decided on her
case, that her father, Anthony Mangin.
was native of the village Of st. Ilario,
near Genoa, and was baptized there as
Antonio Mangini, the son of John Bap-
tiste Antonio, in 1885. But just as in
1903 Mangin's inheritance produced
the claims of the Crovetto family, so in
1871 the inheritance Of Mrs. Brown,
herself, now swollen to 100000. pro-
duced the claims of another family, re-
lated to Antonio Mangini, born in the
last century near Genoa, but
at another time and in another
place. It is beyond all dispute
that child named Antonio Mangini
was born at Quarto, near Genoa, and
baptised there as Antonio, the son of
John Baptiste, in 1774. Here, then,
were two men, both born near Genoa
within two years of each other, both
baptised Antionia, and both sons of a
father named John Baptiste. On re-
view of the whole evidence, the Vice
Chancellor came to the conclusion that
Anthony Mangin was the Antonio Man
gini born at St. Ilario in 1885; that his
namesake at Quarto died in the middle Of
the last century, and that, therefore, the
Freccia family, as his surviving next of
kin, must still be held to be the right
full heir of Mrs. Browns property. The
whole story is very curious one, and a
fresh illustration of the superiority of
fact to fiction; that half dozen Italian
families should be disputing IN England
in 1870 about the birth and parentage