St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-03-18
VISIONARY RICHES.
The Romantic Story of a Great English
Estate.
Thousands of Heirs in Daily Expectancy Of
Securing Millions.
How Agents and Solicitors Live In Luxury at
Their Expense.
New York Correspondence.

! Tie famous IoWnley estate, winch includes
most of Lancashire, England, and that Mr.
Seward was prosecuting the claim. He sale
to your correspondent yesterday:
at is matter of which do not care to
speak at present.''
Mr.. Seward would neither affirm or deny
the truth of the report that he was prosecut-
ing his wife's claim. In brief, it may be
stated that the claimants number more than
5000, most of whom are represented in the
LawrenceTownly association formed al
Dayton, o., many years ago. Albert Hill of
Boston is the active agent of these peo-
pie in America, and Col. James Jacques, d
former minister, is in London for them.
| Both men
ARE PAID FOR THEIR SERVICES.
!; . Col. Jacques got into the case through a
Mrs. Andrews of Kentucky,a widow, Her hus-
band never had any faith in the claim, but
when the widow came into possession OF
| Sis, 900 on his death she proceeded to carry
out plans for claiming the estate OF which
she had dreamed from childhood, and which
had been described to her by her father and
grandfather as her rightful property. She
supports Jacques. Another claimant, who,
years ago, gained notoriety as prospective
heir, was John A. Lawrence of Troy, and be-
ing poor, he issued scrip or bonds, which his
| lawyer sold to anybody who would buy them,
promising fabulous amounts when the estate
became his. in consideration for S. or $40
in cash. This money went to agents who
hunted over records in England. The case
has become famous because of the distin-
guished men who have at different times in
terested themselves in its legal aspect. A
branch of the claimants known as the Chase
heirs engaged Daniel Webster, who went to
England and hunted up the title. D. B..
Carver,a prominent lawyer and antiquarian /,
and George Day, Troy lawyer, also gave
many years to the case. There have been
American claimants for fifty years and
more, but they have been and are to-day
mostly women, who, in spite of the statute
Of limitations which bars them out of the es-
tate effectually, have gone on
HOPING TO REALIZE GREAT RICHES
and pinching themselves to maintain agents
in England who lived in luxury off their con-
tributons In return for their credulity they
get roseate pen pictures of the situation, and
are kept in constant expectancy that in a
month or year, the gates of the great es--
tate will be thrown open to them, and they
will be allowed to walk in this Eden of their
! Imagination. from which their ancestors
were expelled years ago. The way in which
interest in the estate is kept alive is shown
! by the following dispatch, sent for the bene-
| fit Of the deluded victims, by an agent who
was interested in the case. s'To Francis
| Kinverton, New York: The exact amount
of real and personal estate is estimated at
! $101 100000. Buy all the bonds you can.
| Give good figure for them" A gentleman
in this city who was engaged year ago to
look into the claim, received letter from
widow 20 years. old of Ann Arbor Mich.
asking what hope there was. She said she
had been
OBLIGED TO MORTGAGE HER HOUSE
for $500 to meet the last demands of agents
| and she expected the mortgage would be
foreclosed in few weeks. She said she had
been led to believe that her share of the es-
tate would reach her before the mortgage
was due. Many hundred letters Of the same
nature were received by the gentleman, and
be said yesterday that it fairly made his heart
bleed to learn what suffering many endured
for the sake of their imaginary claim. Syl-
yester Cowles, D. D., of Rudolph. purchased
| bonds in the estate and planned to give
$40, 900 to the endowment fund of Hamilton
college, and $40, 900 to a college for colored
| people in Tennessee. Among the absurd
stories told about Col jacques success in
| England is one to the effect that he had Civ
! en- two members of the house of lords an in
terest in the estate for which they were to
procure an act of parliament directing that
| the proceeds of the estate be paid into the
| treasury of the United States. Lord O'Hara
who recently died in England lived on the
estate because he was related to Sir Charles
Townly who died in 1873 The claim of al
legged heirs in America is
BASED ON A ROMANTIC STORY
about Mary Townley's moving away to this
country in the seventeenth century, and
marrying at Springfield, Mass. Mr.. James
Usher, an attorney at No. 8 Murray street,
went to England in 1888, for certain New
| York claimants who bad no faith in agency
systems, and exploded the story in printed
report covering more than one hundred
pages. He said yesterday: II searched the
records from beginning to end and found
that to establish their claim my clients must
! prove that certain estimable lady had three
children after she was rs years old, and many
other equally ridiculous things. Unscrupul-
Gus people had represented that Mary
| Townley had married Joseph or John Law
renee and William Chase, whereas she mar
ried neither, but died in 1880, and was bur-
led in the Catholic cemetary at Forde. The
| property has been represented as IN
claimed.
IT NEVER WAS UNCLAIMED,
but simply on the death of William Townley
passed to his brother John, who had only
one son, who had predeeeased his father, and
on the death OF John the property reverted
| to the daughters of Sir Charles, who are now
rightfully owning and enjoying the same.
Il has been occupied by this family for hun
dreds of years, and the statute of limitations
only requires an occupancy of fifty years to
bar all other claims. The people who are
! paying money to Jacques has said that the
case was before the queens bench. 1t is
not, and never will be. The people whom
l represented were satisfied that there was
nothing in the claim anddropped it. These
wards, like thousand others come into the
Lawrence family genealogy, but their claim
| is as worthless as the others, and I don't
believe they contemplate taking any step
in the matter. If the people would only put
| their energies into something tangible
continued Mr.. Usher, ''they might realize
something in their day and generation.
| There is to-day, SO, 100000 of unclaimed
money in the banks of the City of New York.
1 have it on reliable authority that the Sea-
mans bank holds nearly 1900, 900 which
was never called for, and on which they
HAVE CEASED TO PAY INTERESTS.
| I propose to try and have a bill passed in
| the legislature obliging corporations to pub
| lish the names of depositors who have not
/ drawn their money for twenty years or
more, that the heirs who live right here, in
our midst, in all probability, may get the
savings of their ancestors, which really be-
! long to them, and not to the banks. ODly
a short time ago friend Of mine who left
one of the banks looked up the heirs for