The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-02-22
Prom the Nere York SIM.


Birthright.
From the Nei0 York sam,
MIDDLETowN, n. V, Feb. l2.-One of
the most extraordinary and romantic cases
that ever came before the American courts
is the suit involving the legitimacy, name,
and birthright of the young man calling
himself Robert Fulton Crosby Pencil, aud
asserting that he is the son and heir of the
Rev. George c. Pennell and Mary Schroep-
pei Pennel, his wife, both deceased. The
contest over the plaintiffs claim first
opened in a Brooklyn court several years
ago, and was subsequently transferred to
Oswego county, where trial in the
Supreme Circuit Court has just been had,
resulting in disagreement of the jury.
George c. Pencil was the son of DIR.
Richard Pennell, formerly n distinguished
and wealthy physician of Brooklyn. While
the young man was student at Columbia
College in 1851, he met and betrayed his lS-
year-old cousin, Mary Hannah Schroeppel,
who belonged to wealthy family in Cen
trail New York On April 10, 1852, the pair
were married secretly under their proper
names by the Rev. j. w. b. Wood, then
pastor of the Sands Street Methodist Epis-
copal church, Brooklyn, and Immediately
afterward went to housekeeping as Mr.. and
Mrs. George Crosby i'll apartments in East
Houston street, New York Here, two
months after marriage and in the June fol
lowing, a son was born to them.
1t was in connection with the birth of the
child that DR.. Richard Pencil first became
aware of his sons clandestine marriage.
The dishonor attaching to the nuptials and
the interruption of the youths studies
caused the proud father great modification
and offense. He set to work to spirit away
the child, it is said, and part the welded
pair, and in the steps taken to accomplish
that end he seems to have had the acquies
cence, if not the active cooperation, OF the
faithless and craven young husband.
Within a few hours after It's birth, and
while the mother lay insenSible, the child
was taken away Uy DR.. Pennell: and later
when the mother revived and inquired for
her offspring, she was made to believe that
it was dead AID buried. Through
DR.. Pencils Vaccinations she and
her husband separated he to con-
tinue his course of study at Column
bia with the view of entering the
ministry of the Protestant Episcopal
Church, and she to return to her relatives
and former home in Oswego county She
lived seventeen years afterward, dying in
1869, never aware of the deception that had
been practised upon her in the matter of
her child, and never, so far as known,
her recreant husband. During her lifetime
she kept the facts of her New York city
marriage episode a secret from her friends
in her country home. She inherited for
tune and rejected number of eligible offers
of marriage. She passed the latter years of
her life confirmed spinster, melancholy
and eccentric, but in high esteem for her
charities By her will she bequeathed the
bulk of her fortune in legacies to sundry
ms it11fi a6a har- Lob
and Albert Schroeppel, executors Of the
will and residuary legatees.
Meantime young Pennell, being relieved
of his marital encumbrances, pursued his
course of study at Columbia, and was
graduated in 1858 Shortly afterward he
was ordained in the ministry of the Prot
estant Episcopal church. He first offciated
as an assistant rector of Trinity church.
New York, and afterward accepted calls to
the rectoratcs Of st. James church at
Goshen, in this county, and st. James
church, Buffalo. Eventually he became
pastor of the large and rich Church of St.
Marks in Newark, and there he married,
some years previous to his first wife's death,
an estimable young woman who bore him
two children. Up to this time, in so far as
appearances went, the sin of his youth had
never risen up in Judgment against him
He was widely esteemed for piety, learning
and eloquence, and his pulpit career had
been so eminently acceptable and successful
that he might confidently look forward to
promotion to the higher dignities of the
church.
When his fame and fortunes were bright
est, the scandal, which had slumbered for
more than a quarter of century, awoke to
blight his career and to send him forth as
exile and to premature death in a rough
mining town in the far West. One day, in
the summer of 1880, young man having
the appearance of a farm laborer, and
speaking with a pronounced German ac-
cent, called upon him at the parsonage in
Newark and made claim to being his son by
Mary Hannah Schroeppel, his first wife,
and demanded recognition The young
mans story was this: When Dr. Richard
Pennell took the infant from its unconscious
mothers arms, in East Houston street, New
York, he conveyed it to Brooklyn and
placed it in the care of the wife of rtaphael
REM. German market gardener living in
the suburbs of that city. Dr. Pennell con
tracted with the Renzes to bring up the
child as their adopted son, he agreeing to
He told them that the child had
been born in lawful wedlock, aid
had been baptized by the name Of Robert
Fulton Crosby, but refrained from giving
them any further information concerning
it. For ten years the chi!d's allowance was
promptly PAID, and then, Or. Pennell dying,
his representatives refused to make any
more payments. The REM family, how
ever, continued their care of the youth
until he grew up to manhood. 1t was
several years later, he meatime earning a
liveliho I'd as a gardener, before the young
man got an inkling of his real parentage
and birth rights, and when he did so he set
to work, with the counsel and assistance of
some German friends, to clear up the mys-
tsry and establish his identity.
In April, 1880, the following advertise
ment appeared in the columns of the Sun:
A NY PERSON who attended a young lady
"A during child birth June 10, 1852, in Houston
street under mysterious circumstances, address
HENRY FUEHRER, II Maujer street, Brooklyn,
f. D..
The advertisement fell under the eye Of
Mary +. Delaney, then residing in Duchess
county, who recalled the fact that she had
been employed by mysterious young cou-
pie, named Crosby, about the date named,
and who lived in Houston street. She re-
membered the wife as IN a delicate condi-
ton and the husband as of boyish appear
ance, and as a student Of Columbia College,
and wearing a college badge on the lapel of
his coat. The couple addressed each other
respectively as George" and Molly" AT
ter lapse of several years, Mary Delaney
attended a service in Trinity Church, and
in the minister who oficated she recognized
the young husband seen in Houston street,