The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1895-03-29
MYTHICAL FORTUNES.
Improbable Stories Of Greet Eng
lish Legecies.
An Old Letter That Reveals tho scurriI.
Gus Scheme Employed by Sharks in
This Country for Duping Cred
ulou5 Americans.

Some recent romantic tales about i'm
mense English estates which belong to
American heirs suggest republication
of an opinion written by Judah P. Ben
lamin twenty-siX years ago, says the
Chicago Herald. Following is the great
lawyers letter:
Lamb Building, Temple, London,
Feb. 8, 1S60.-Editor New Orleans
Times VIII you permit me through
your columns to send q word of warning
to the public against scheme of
swindling which is now extensively
practiced in the United States?
"Since my call to the English bar
hundreds of letters have reached mo
from Louisiana and other parts of the
union, written by persons, many Of
whom arc educated and intelligent,
making inquiries relative to estates
represented as existing in this country
unclaimed and awaiting the appear
ance of heirs residing in America.
In every instance that has come to my
knowledge the statements are false.
and evidently made for the purpose of
defrauding parties out of sums, large
or small, under pretext of paying the
costs of records, copies, ETC., SAID to be
necessary for the assertion of the pre-
tended claim.
Zone claim may be selected us an ex-
ample. a banker by the name of
James Wood died in Gloucester in the
year 1886, leaving fortune of about
GS0o,O0 His will was the subject of
much litigation, but finally decided to
be valid, and the estate was ordered to
bc divided among the legatees under a
decision of the house of lords in 1877.
Anyone DESTROYS of having particulars
OF the litigation can trace it through
the different charts, as follows: l. In
the prcrogativc court of Canterbury
Canterbury reported in Curtciss,
p. 50. 2. On appeal to the privy coun-
ell in 'Moore's Privy Council Cases.
ut p. S35; and 3. In the house of lords,
in the case entitled The Corporation of
Gloucester VS.. OSBORNE House of
Lords Cases. p. 272. Although his es-
tate has thus been finally settled and
distributed for more than twenty wears,
do not at all eXaggcratc in stating
that not month passes without my re-
cciving one or more letters from per-
sons who are approached by some pre-
tended agent of some imaginary great
firm of London solicitors engaged in
seeking heirs of the great intestate
banker, james Wood, whose fortune,
amounting to e10,000,000, is lying in the
Bank of England awaiting claimant.
THE usual mode of proceeding adopt
cd is to propose to undertake the bust
ness free of expense, the proposcr to
receiver only share of what NAV be
recovered. This seems so reasonable
that in most cases the dupc readily
swallows the bait. A short time after
ward he is informed that all inquiries
and researches have resulted favorably,
and that nothing is wanted to insure
success except the cost Of few copies
of records and other papers, and that
the proposer, having already incurred
great expense in conducting the neces-
sary inquiries and researches, is left
without resources at the very moment
when few pounds would suffice to
secure the fruits of his labors and eXpen-
diture. Many are tho victims from whom
sums varying from EGO to $500 have
been thus extracted, and the number of
persons engaged in this system must be
very great, and the sums received by
them very considerable, if at all in pro-
portion to the number of letters re-
ccived here on the subject. Many
thousands of pounds are known to have
been expended by those who could i'll
afford to bear the loss in the pursuit of
the great Jennings estate; and some of
those who have spent money in this
way have actually been deluded into
writing to me their convictions that
they were entitled to dislodge the pres
ent duke of Marlborough from the
Dlenheim castle, by virtue of their de-
scent from the famous Duchess Sarah
Jennings. Most of the persons who are
dupcd are ignorant on two points,
which, in nearly every instance, would
satisfy them at once of the utter folly
Of the hopes they indulge. The first is
| that an alien cannot be an heir in Eng
| land when there is no will and that he
| cannot take real estate even if left to
him by will. The second is that In
England estates devolve upon the eld-
est son alone, and on his eldest son In
succession, and are not divided in shares
among all children as in Louisiana and
other states. Yet nothing is moro COM
mon than for persons to assert heirship
to the supposed shares of younger
brothers and sisters, or to claim as no
tives of the United States heirship to
Englishmen who had left no wills.
'In the hope that this exposure will
be of some use to my fellow citizens, in
whose welfare retain the deepest in
tcrest, and may protect them to some
extent from the sharpers who are plum
dering them, remain, very respectful
ly, your obcdient servant,
~. p. BENJAMIN"