The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-09-07

Some year or two ago we saw it men
toned by Justice Walter Clark in an
article on the descent of Lord Tenny-
son, that the great poet was from roy
aIty. We said that il true it had not
been mentioned in two lives of the poet
we had and had never seen it referred
to in any critical papers we had read
upon him. Judge Clark recently sent
us this:
THE st. James Gazette gives Tenny-
sons authentic ~genealogy upto John
Savage, Earl Rivers. and adds: THIS
of course, gives him the ancestry OF
Earl Rivers, which we know histori-
cally includes the four Edwards, Jonn'
the first three Henry's, William the
Alfred, Ethelwoll and Eg-
bert. The mother Of Edward III being
Isabella, daughter of Phillippe-le-beL,
this places st. Louis, Philip Augustus
and Hugh Capet among his lineal an
cestors. Ferdinand III of Castle ana
Leon. Roderic BarbarOssOr, Charlie
lmaigne and several kings of Scotland
are necessarily so by reason of the in
termarriages Of his royal ancestors
In the article, I demonstrated math-
ematically that the probability is that
any given man of our race is descended
from Alfred and Charlemagne, but the
above gives the intermediate links as to
-Tennyson, something which compare
lively few ever do"
We do not attach Importance to q
claim set up by any n that he Is de-
seconded from some English earl or
duke or royalty itself. unless the con-
.nections are clear, the descent unDro-
ken. A broken link is fatal to an in
heritance and to descent also. We know
q gentleman Of his state who once
thought he was Of blood kin to several
governors, presidents of Harvard uni
versity, a distinguished baronet, to
many of the most distinguished literati
in Massachusetts. He had the author
ity Of an antiquary for this belief based
upon thirty years research as to one
Family, and results published in two
ponderous volumes. But an examina-
fion by another gentalogist showed
that there were two men of the same
name exactly, who came from the same
place in England, and both lived in the
same town in Massachusetts. the gen.
tIeman referred to learned that the
public records of that town for proba-
bly, 200 years showed that he was not
descended from the man he was led to
believe. but from the other of the same
name who was not related to the gov
ernors, Baronet, iiterati, etc. Neither
WAS there really any kinship between
the two men Of the same name, resi-
4dence, ETC., it does not appear. So gener-
aIogies may be very uncertain. We
know a North Carolina family, too
modest to proclaim the fact upon the
house tops, who have a genealogy made
out by a northern expert who unQues-
,tionably traces in direct line their de-
scent pack to several distinguished
men of the English nobility, and thence
10 Hugh Capet, of France, and to Otto
the Great, of Germany. We do not
doubt their genealogical record is as
o. clear, direct. unbroken as Lord Tenny-
SONS. We do not know as to the
soundness of our friends contention as
to Charlemagne and Alfred. If he had
said that all men of the white race
were descendants unbrokenly from
Adam we would have readily accepted
the theory. Some folks have descended
from a higher, nobler line than others.
We do not think any people on the
globe love rank ana distinction more
than do Americans. Many OF them
ought to read Thackeray's Book of
Snobs."