Morning journal and courier., 1882-03-14
A Miserly Monte CristO.
The Enormous Wealth of William Jen-
 nings nd teIl Great Interest Many Have { Therein.

The Enormous Wealth of William Jen-
 nings and teIl Great Interest Many Have
 Therein.
 From the New Yo k Times.]
 In his recent journey to England upon mat
 ters concerning the Jennings estate, Mir.
 James Usher, who makes speciality of that
 sost of thing, dug up some facts which cannot
 but be interesting to the few hundred thou
 sand people who think they are heirs of the
 long defunct William Jennings. Few have any definite ideas about that remotely depart ed person beyond the general ones that he
 was very rich, and left his wealth in such
 form as to be a perennial joy for lawyers and
 of deathless hope for myriad of claimants. According to Mr. Usher's story, William
 Jennings of Acton Place, Suffolk, and of Grosvenor Square, London, was son of Robert Jennings, aide camp to the Great Duke of Marlborough, ,and grandson of Hum phrey Jennings, who was not only an eminent
 iron n-master in Birmingham, but owner of Ellington hall, county of Warwick, and Lord
 of the Manor of Neither Whitacre, in that county, in 1880, which is far enough back to
 look up the Jennings line. The William
 Jennings whose estate is the present bone of
 contention died in 179S at the sufficiently ripe age of 97 years. King William III. was his godfather, and he was at one time page to
 George l., so that social responsibility at
 least may be claimed for his family associa-
 tians. Hospitality and generous openhand-
 edness are reported as having been charac-
 teristics of the Birmingham branch of the family, but William had no such unthrifty vices.
 He seemed to live mainly for the purpose of accunulating wealth, remained a bachelor | all his life that he might the better devote his whole attention to money getting, and
 died at last without making will. After his death will was found i'll his coat pocket,
 sealed, but not signed, he having forgotten
 to take his spectacles with him when he paid his laot visit to his solicitor, and consequent ly deferred it's signature. In his iron chest, the key of which was found hidden in a mort
 gage deed, were discovered G19, ,OOO in bank notes of the year 1798 and several thousand
 new guineas. In various drawers in his town and county houses about G2O, ,OOO in gold and notes were collected. The Messrs Child, his l bankers, kept for him always sort of "pet- sy cash'' deposit of $50, 900, just to meet sudden emergencies, but which he had not drawn upon for many years preceding his
 death, and they also had in keeping for hima huge chest full of silver-plate and jewels. But all these were as nothing by cempari-
 son with his enormous investments in almost every speculative enterprise and security of the day, and his vast possessions in real es- tate. Among some of the items specified in the long roll of his acquisitions are 92OO, ,0OO
 invested in safe and good mortgages e6O,- 900 in three per cent consols, G1OO, GOO in
 South Sea stock, e96 900 in bank stock ESQ., 900 in reduced annuities, e15O,OOO in ac-
 cumulating interest on stocks, funds, etc.;
 G107, ,OO0 cash in private bankers hands, etc. In all he was worth at least @, ,00O, 900 when he died eighty three years ago, and it is aver red that by accommodating interest and profit upon his shrewd investments of capital the present value of the estate is fully four times that much. Of course if he had ever stopped to reflect about it he would probably have seen that little carelessness or even mild prodigallty would hardly have been likely to
 bring him to the poorhouse, yet all his life he was close even to penuriousness, himself talk ing all the trouble of going over all his house. | hold bills rather than go to the expense of l employing steward, making row if he dis l covered a few shillings of extra expenditure,
 and insisting upon it that all his expenses in both town and country should be kept within l e3,0O0 per annunl-the sum be received
 from the exchequer tontine. It is affirmed I that this large estate being well and clearly defined and located, can be made to yield something to the multitude of American I claimants, and that going for it is sort of 1 fishing excursion, as the pursuit of the my ] thical millions of the Hyde estate proved to ' be. But unluckily for the hopeful gentlemen who look after it, there are English claimants
 lu possession of at least 6 very considerable portion of it, and so large sum as eS OOO,- l 900 will hardly be given up without vast { amount of litigation