St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-05-15
Foolish American Money
Hunters Who Covet En-
glish Estates.
Enormous Increase of Dupes
Seeking Imaginary Anees-
trail Riches.
More Of Papnell's Followers
Will Desert Him in Adj
versity.
Alleged Attempt of an Amer
lean to Murder His Wife
in Wales.

LONDON, May 14.-In spite of the re-
peated warnings which have been sent
out from time to time by the United
States legation here, and by the press of
America concerning the fraudulent
character of sO-called English estate
agents IN America, recent developments
nave shown that the warnings have
been unheeded, and that the number of
dupes is increasing instead of decreas-
ing. During the past few weeks more
letters than ever before have been re-
celved from America inquiring after
Imaginary estates or fabulous sums
awaiting the writer's in the bank of En-
gland. This correspondence, as far
back as Mr.. LowelPs time, grew to such
enormous proportions that all letters
of this description had to be an
swered by printed circulars. Mr..
Lowell. in his circular. said:
The pretended prosecution of these
pretended American claims to English
property is carried on with such per-
sistence and ingenuity by the men en-
gagged in it that we despair of being
able to make the incredulous victims
understand what an utter imDoSture
and deluSlon the whole business is. II
cannot too strongly advise since you
have addressed us on the subject TO
have nothing to do with such schemes,
and especially to remit no money to
their agents." In the case of many es-
tates, such as the j ennings; Lawrence
IoWnley or Chase Townley, Hyde,
Horne, Bradford and others, special
circulars had TO be printed to answer
the numprOuc annliOonfc frba nIo0
generally adopted by the estate agents
is to insert advertisements in the coun-
try papers to the effect that a large
property has been left by a person of
the same name with that of some we'll
known family of the district or of some
exceedingly common name likely to oc-
cur any where.
The MOdus Operandi
usually adopted by these agents is to
ask first for remittance of e. or 93 to
cover the cost of copying the will upon
which the claim purportS to be based;
then larger sum for the expenses of
investigation, the correspondence being
so cleverly conducted that some years
frequently elapSe before the fraud is
discovered. During Mr.. Lincoln's term
OF office as minister here, nearly all the
letters have come from small country
towns, showing that the agents find
them the most profitable field Texas,
Kansas, Iowa and the far West seem to
/ be especially productive for them, al
though letters are received from all
parts of the United States.
Among the letters recently received at
the legation are communications from
claimants to some of the estates. OF
all the claims investigated by English
solicitors, not one has been found to
have any validity whatever. In any
case the legation is utterly powerless to
help claimants Or even investigate
these cases, as no one attached to the
legation can take any part in the inveS-
tlgation of claims of this character, and
III report drawn up by MIR. White, sec
rotary of the legation, it is plainly
stated that the time of any one wishing
to prosecute claims will be wasted by
addressing the legation on the subject.
Claimants should also bear in mind that
statute of limitations fixes period
within which unclaimed estates revert
to the crown, and this period is twenty
years. The limit within which
action can be brought for the
recovery of real property is
twelve years. There are no
large sums of money awaiting claim
ants in the Bank of England. There
are very few of 81, 900, and none ex-
ceeding that sum by more than 91OO, 900
or 920O.000. The amount of money in
chancery belonging to unknown heirs is
altogether less than 91,000,000.