Birmingham age-herald., 1895-09-29
AN EDWARDS ESTATE HEIR In the Person of Mrs. F. A.
 PrOuty, Discovered. A BIRMINGHAM RESIDENT Tells of tRe, ttRe Vast Fortune Awaiting the Right
 :. full Claimants, OF : .CH SHE IS UNDOUBTEDLY ONE
 $
 ST Z las Employed Attorneys to Prosecute . Her Claim, Which in all Pro babil- ities VIII Bring Her ..s Round Million.
A BIRMINGHAM RESIDENT
: .CH SHE IS UNDOUBTEDLY ONE

The bare statement that there lives in the city of Birmingham a woman who Is one of the heirs of an estate amount ing to over 5000 900. 900 seems incredible.
 But such is undoubtedly fact and will be so proved when the time comes. The lady is Mrs. F. A. Prouty, and she con- ducts a boarding house at No. l Twen- tieth street, just across from the union passenger station.
 The great estate to which Mrs Prouty is one of the heirs is the Edwards estate. consisting of forty acres of land and the buildings and improvements thereon in the Trinity church district of New York. the wealthiest part of the city.
 The story Is an interesting one and has often of late years, since the agitation began, been told of in Alabama newspa- pers and Is familiar to the reading pub lie. The outline, as given to reporter by Mrs. Prouty, is as follows, and in many ways 1t resembles and rivals the famous story of Jarndyce and Jarhdyce, of which Dickens tells in his book, Bleak House:"
 An hundred and twenty years ago three brothers Robert, John and Thomas Ed wards, emigrated from Wales to Amerf- ca, and one of them. Robert Edwards, settled on a tract of land where a DOT ton of New York now stands, which he purchased from the king of England. In the year 17S3 King George III of Eng land, who speculated a good deal on his own hook, leased the land from Edwards for term of ninety-nine years, and the lease was recorded and filed in the ar chives of Westminster abbey, After wards King George subleased it to a man named Rowe. In the meantime the king died and after lapse of years Rowe sold 1t IS his own property and gave deeds for 1t.
 The matter rocked for years and years and the great city of New York sprung Into existence, and the wealthiest DOT tion of 1t was built on this forty acres belonging to Edwards, the Welchman. A conservative estimate of the value of the property at the present time is $2,- GOO 000 000
 The lease was given to King George in 17S3, and of course expired in 1881. Since that time shrewd lawyers, among whom. are Senator James J. Ingalls, of Kansas, Mayor Strong. Hornblower, Howe & Hummell of New York and many others equally prominent have been at work on the case, and they have about established the fact beyond dis pute that the land belongs legally to the heirs of the said Robert Edwards.
 But who are the heirs and can they establish the proof of their kinship? More than 100 hundred claimants have arisen, and an association of heirs, with a president and other officers, has been formed in South Carolina for the purpose of employing attorneys, etc.
 Mrs. Prouty can establish that she is a great grandchld of the original Rob- ert Edwards and entitled to a share of the estate. She is a daughter of pr. Thomas Edwards, who once owned Black Creek Falls, near Gadsden, who was a grandson of the careless New York land owner and she has in her possession papers which will certainly establish the fact of her rightful heirship. She has employed Slaughter & Collier, firm of lawyers of this city, to prosecute her claims.
 When Robert Edwards came over from Wales 120 years ago the prevailing style for neither garments was knickerbockers and Mrs Prouty has in her possession at the present time two large silver shoe buckles, with the name Robert Ed wards" engraved thereon. Mrs. Prouty has two sisters living in Gadsden and two brothers in Texas. Her husband Is dead. Her son, Junius Edward Prouty, a boy of Is, was once a carrier on the Age-Herald.
 Mrs. Prouty showed the reporter last night letters from Mayor Strong of New York and Senator J. J. Ingalls, of Kansas offering to prosecute her claims for a req sonable percentage of the amount se- cured, but she prefers to employ her owu counsel
 The New York papers say that an offer has been made to compromise the claim for $100, GOO 000 and if it is accepted by the heirs, and 1t probably will be, there will be $1, 900, GOO a piece for the heirs, even if 100 prove their kinship.
 Mrs. Prouty undoubtedly has the most authentic and best substantiated claim, and will come in for the lions share.