The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-05-11
AN EARL'S C0RONET.
What Came of British officers Love Affair
in Colonial New York Over 100 Years Ago.

New YORK, May 9-Testimony win be heard
within month by the English House Of Lords
to determine what constituted legal marriage
under the Law and customs prevailing in New
York before the Revolution. Upon the determin-
alton will depend hugely the succession to one
of the oldest peerages in England-that of the
Earldom of Lauderdale, to which is attached
an income Of $4,000 year. 1t is now vacant,
through the death of Sir Charles Barclay Matt
land, baTonet and twelfth Earl of Maitland,
who was struck by lightning while riding over a
moor on his estate at Lauder, Berwickshire,
Scotland, on Aug. II of last year. He was I'M
married. The authorities on the peerage credited
fIajor Frederick Henry Maitland, of her
Majesty's Bengal Cavalry, with being the right
fui heir, but counter-claim has been put in by
Sir James Ramsey Maitland who is descend
ant of the fifth son of the sixth Earl of Lauder
dale, and who asserts that Sir Richard Maitland
(who was the fourth son of the sixth earl) never
married, and, therefore, had no legitimate issue.
Cary e. Whitridge and Seward q Da Costa have
been prosecuting Investigations here of facts
bearing on the contest
Sir Richard Maitland was Acknowledgement of
New York colony about 1765. His life at home
had been gay, and he soon won popularity
among the bellies of New York. Mary McAdam,
one OF the pfetIleSI RlrlS OF the COWn, DecaIue
enamored of the brilliant British officer. 1t
seems that, adopting the policy of some of the
dissolute young Knickerbockers. the Adjutant-
general made flying trip to Connecticut, had
marriage bands published there and brought his
sweetheart back to New York, where she found
that according to English laws and customs
there had been no marriage at all Devoted to
the man she loved, however, Mary McAdam
scandalized the colony by living with Sir Klch-
ard and bearing him two children. Suisse
H. ~ /, will
Feb. 5, I772 making her and her children
his sole heirs, and in July of the same year,
three days before his death, there is reason to
believe he was married to her by the Rev. DIR.
Ogilvie, of Trinity Church. The widow re-
moved to the home OF some relatives in New
Barbados. a village in southern New Jersey,
where one of Sir Richards brothers. who was
an officer under Lord CORVALLIS, stationed In
the place, recognized the unfortunate woman as
his sister-in-law, gave her cottage in New
York, in Rector street, and took her eldest son,
Patrick Tor Peter, as he is called in his fathers
willy to Scotland with him. From this boy,
who was educated at one of the English univers
ities and who afterward prospered, and was
married in India, Major Frederick H Maitland
was descended. At the time it was not lmag
ined that the Maitland estates and title would
have to find claimants SO far away from the
main line of the family as the present disput-
ants.
Sir Richards will is in the Surrogate's office.
Mary McAdam was supposed to have been buried
in Trinity church yard. next to the tomb of AL
exander Hamilton but search last February
revealed nothing. No record of marriages is
found in Dr. Ogivie's diary. The lawyers for
Major Maitland believe that as the English com
mon law was supposed to prevail in colonial New
York, and as the marriage was acknowledged by
the family and is recorded in Burke's "Peerage,"
the claim of the contestant, Sir James Maitland,
will be set aside.
A similar case was tried in the House of Lords
years ago. One of the Sheddons came to Ameri
ca, near the close of the nineteenth century,
lived for years with a woman named Ann
Mason, and, two days before he died, married
her. He wrote to brother in Scotland Il
have this day married Ann Mason and made
an honest woman of her." His eldest boy was
brought up in Scotland by his uncle, who was
defeated in suit to establish his legitimacy
The boy gained wealth in India after he became
of age, and learned the facts of his parentage by
finding among some old musty papers letter
written to him twenty years before by his sister
in America of whom he had heard.
Further search brought to light the letter of his
father, which somehow had never reached the
uncle's hands. A suit was brought to reverse
the decision given years before. MIR. Sheddon's
daughter argued the case before the House of
Lords, but the decision was against her. The
estate had become extremely valuable through
the growth Of Edinburgh and the discovery Of
coal and iron on the land.