The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1896-02-27
TITLED AMERICANS.
Romance of the Heritage of English
Noblemen.

Romance of the Heritage of English
Noblemen. -
! By decision of the house of lords in
$500 in favor of Rev. Bryan Fairfax the
title of Baron Fairfax of Cameron was
acquired and quietly pigeonholed along
with other outworn vanities by the
FairfaXes of Virginia and Maryland.
In like manner the heir to the title and
estates of Kingsale and Ringrone, the
oldest barony in Ireland, which includ-
ed the questionable right to wear the
baronial hat in the presence of roy
atty, is at this present writing enjoying
bucolic peace and ease on his ancestral
grounds of Cheston-upon-Wye in
Queen Anne's county, contemplating
with satisfaction his cattle and sheep
appropriately beasts of gentle blood
and high degree) and wondering, if
ever he gives thought to the matter,
how a gentleman, because he happens
to be u premier baron of Ireland, can
fail to dotf his beaver to a lady because
she happens to be merely queen of Eng
land. This is DIR. William Henry De
| Courcy, of the ancient stock of that
Aname, whereof branch was trans
Iplanted to Maryland about 1853 by
younger sons of the house of Kingsale
descendants of that doughty earl of
Ulster, whose prowess is celebrated in
the ballad:
" So they gave this hearty honor
To the bold De Courcy race,
RYN. -, &I.os.. l-Iw.
to wear
Before the kings own face"
"And when every head is unbonneted,
They walk in cap and plume"
The actual holder of the title inherits
from a sailor who hailed from Rhode
Island, and whose elevation to the dig
mites and emoluments of the barony
was accomplished by an ingenious and
complicated scheme of imposition after
the death of Gerald, the oath baron, i'll
1853, that recalls the notorious Itch
borne conspiracy. 1t is even probable
that Arthur Orion or his abettors may
have found their inspiration and in
structionsin the case of the De Courcys,
of MY Lords Gift and Cheston-upon-
Wye in Maryland. The daughters of
Gerald warmly espoused the cause and
claim of the Maryland family. A lady
of the Kingsale connection, writing
from London to William De Courcy, OF
Cheston, in 1868, says:
"The late earl was, in his latter days,
weak in his understanding and open to
Imposture, being greatly anxious to
continue the honors of his Family with
his name. A certain great Parsonage,
| and a party who had their own views,
| foisted in this man as his relation, tho
t is plain he is an Impostor, and de-
ceiyed the Earl by information drawn
from himself. IT is not the purpose to
give an account of him. They call him
despicable Slave, who was bred a
ropemaker and waterman. He is, how
ever, the first peer in the Kingdom, and
has actually exercised the Privilege of
wearing his hat in the Royal presence"
In petition to the Right Honorable
the Lords Spiritual and Temporal i'll
| Parliament assembled" the daughters
of the earl of Kingsale assert that for
some years before, and to the time of
his death, his lordship "laboured under
constant Indisposition of Mind, and
was weak in his Understanding, easy
of belief, open to imposition, and prop
er object for designing Persons to work
upon, by whose Creatures he was con-
stantly surrounded; that in this Mel
ancholy state of Mind it was first con-
trived by improper insinuations to
ALLEVIATE his Affections from his said
children, and then to introduce, as the
real Heir male of that Antient Family
a person of the name of John Courcy
or De Courcy, brought from state OF
Obscurity and the lowest Degree in
life--a Common Boatman, then plying
for Hire at Portsmouth in Great Brit
ain; Person before unheard of, and
unknown to the Family. 4
Your petitioners are well assured, and
doubt not to prove if they are permitted
TO do so, that William De Courcy, Esq,
! of Queenstown, in Maryland, is the real
and true Heir male of the Family, and
as such respected and considered in
that Country; and the late Lord, be-
fore he fell into that Melancholy state
of Mind, and the Hands of designing
Persons, did publickly declare that Will
| liam De Courcy, son of Miles De Courcy
was the next Heir male of his Family"
But these eastern shore De Courcys,
being content with their terrapin and
oysters and ducks, and the honorable
regard of their neighbors, and especial
ly wary of tedious and costly litiga-
ton, just ''let the old thing CO." while
they concerned themselves rather for
the independence of the colonies, and
proceeded to equip a gallant young cap
tain for the army of the revolution.
So the Rhode Island boatman had it
all his own way, and, singing:
"Fare thee well, my trim-built wherry.
Boat and oars and badge, FAREWELL
took coach for London and Immediate
ly began to talk to his betters through