Telegram-herald., 1891-06-08

MARQUIS DE LEUvILk.
nv Of Music with Gen. Daniel Sick)es,
the hero of Gettysburg, and who, as as
serted by some, thrashed him with his
crutch, and charged him with not being
a blue-blooded noble at all.
The genealogical enthusiast also said:
II am sorry for Mrs. Frank Leslie, and
/ think it would be better for her to
make some inquiries relative to the
marquis, for L have reason to believe he
has 3 wife still living Here is the
twelfth volume Of De Magny's 'Univers-
al Nobility of France and it says of
the gentleman who poses as the
Marquis de Leuville that He married,
in 1859, Miss Taunton Now there is
no record of his being widower and /
would like 10 know what became Of the
marchioness We also learn that some
years ago he introduced to his friends
Miss Tussaud. the 'waxwork heUess.'
who was formerly the wife of Mr..
Charles Kenny, a clerk in the British
war offices. as Nine. la Marquise de
Leuville. Where is she? For with all
that we have been told about de
Leuville, | cannot believe that he
would commit bigamy, let alone
trigamy. Then again we heard that he
was shortly to lead to the altar Mrs.
Peters, of London, the extremely rich
widow of the famous London coach
builder who was celebrated for his
tally-ho four-in-hands, or, as they call
them on the other side, drags- But it
is funny how his name has come up
again, as I underst~,i that he had
buried his alleged nobility since he
opened an old bric-a-brac shop in Plea
dilly, London"
Tell me-" the writer asked, els he
or is he not a real French noble dating
from the old regime?"
''You make me SMILE" was the an
swer. ''French Marquisites like those
in other countries were either granted
by the king or inherited from the direct
ancestor to whom the monarch gave the
title, for himself and his hneal descend
ants only. Now this is French title
pure and simple, and an extinct one to
boot, for no descendant Of the first Mar
quis de Leuville, Louis Oliver. who died
in 1868, can be found on this earth.
They have died out without leaving is
sue. There was such title and it APP
pears in the old French peerages, but
there is not living soul to-day who
has any right to claim it, much less an
Englishman like the present pretended
owner to the title, whose real name is
William Redivious Oliver, and who has
not drop of French blood in his veins"
But did not the sot-distant Marquis de
Leuville correctly assert when he visit
ed America that the French books OF
nobility acknowledged him to be a
marquis?" was asked.
THAT is so. There are some book
publishers in Paris which put him down
as n marquis You can have the same
thing done on anybody else If you pay
the people who compile them and who
will rig you up pedigree dating from
the time of Noah's ark, if you give them
enough money for it. We had that
thing in New York some time ago when
the late lamented pedigree fakir
Welles ran on University pace, his
alleged college of Heraldry, which was
a swindle of about as big proportions as
he was, for we found out of the pro-
fessor's record that he once upon a
time served term in Sing Sing. The
gentleman calling himself Marquis
de Leuville is probably victim of one
of these humbugs. for they most GER
tainly have forged for him bogus
pedigree. With some other antiquaries
| have been through il step by step, and
discovered that all the links arc not
only uncorroborated, but that the per-
sons named in il in many instances
never existed. or that they married
other people. or died without issuA For
example there is a supposed alliance
with an Oliver. and one of the famous
family of De Lacy in the fourteenth
century. Burke, Betham, Banks
and other authorities absolute
lv repuiiate the affair. Why
they have made him de-
scendant Of an earl OF Suffolk, and. II it
were correct. he ought now to be the
monarch OF England instead of Queen
Victoria. and so IL goes all the way
through. based on the fiction that he il
descended from family OF which a
member emigrated to France several
hundred years ago-it Is generally sup
posed the Normans came % England in
that way-and there founded the house
OF Oliver, which held the title of Mar
1uis de Leuville. This is fabrication
altogether. and the story Of the French
divers other than tais particular Oliver
family being extinct is all nonsense, for
you VIII find in the directories of Paris.
Marseilles, Lyons and other big cities
Of France any quantity of people Of the
name. They did not come from Eng
land At all, and they are Just as pure
French stock as the marquis. 50 called.
and all his family are English; and
peasant stock At that until Mr. William
T. divers father, through his natural
renius, became water colorist and
Taught drawing and painting in LONDON
boarding schools.
- friend II mine has copy II his GER
tihcates Of birth and he Is simply de-
scrihed therein az the sen 81 an oryii-
nary person Of the name q Oliver. lie
vas bssrn In fss} and Il was not until ne
was shout twenty sve years Old or al
that he bio~soTnes opt into the mar