The evening times., 1899-08-14
(From the Boston Transcript )

pedigree, he usually employs patient and
laborious dryasdust OF more or less skill
in the tracing Of genealogies, to drudge
through the parish and the probate records
in the quarter of England where he be-
lieves his ancestors fourished. Sometimes
the searcher finds enough evidence Of the
antiquity of the family and of the colonel s
descent from it to crafty his pride and
even to permit him to set up a coat-of-
arms. Oftener, the inquiry is so fruftless
or the results so meagre and unpromising
that the officer wearies of its tedium and
cost and soothes the vanity that prompted
it with the prudence that bids him re-
nounce it. In the desire of Englishmen
that have made their way in the world to
establish their connection with some old
family, branch of which they have caused
to flourish anew, the dryasdust has not to
wait long for fresh employment. Usually
he is among the most methodical, ac-
curate, and honest of men, we'll aware
that the results of his researches will be
carefully verified and sifted before they
persuade the herald's Office to grant
license to bear arms. Sometimes, in the
past, he did justify the saying that "a
pedigree maker will do anything, and
risked distortion, falsehood, and even
forgery to crafty his patrons wish.
Highly respectable county families have in
their time been thus founded" II he
now attempts such deception he generally
proves TO be not real dryasdust, but an
adventurer that has applied his talents to
genealogy and that repents his enterprise
in penal servitude.
OF such was Herbert Davies, who has
spent the last two years in the west OF
England in pursuit OF pedigree for one
Colonel Shipway, retired; who found it,
down to the last detail necessary TO
coat of-arms, and whose frauds and forger-
les hoodwinked his employer, the custo-
dians of records, and even experts In them,
until a chance enquiry set an investigation
afoot that has ended in the exemplary SEN
tence of the forger. Colonel Shlpway be-
lieved himself the descendant OF an old
Gloucestershire family, and he hoped TO es-
tablish his connection with it and then his
right TO arms. Davies was a suburban
schoolmaster with ambitions and an innate
skill in deceit that had already been ap-
piled in forged diplomas and testimonials
that might increase his salary and better
his social standing. Shipway engaged him
for s1.50 day and his travelling expenses
to make the necessary researches COM
pensation that the mildest and most un-
worldly of dryasdusts would have disdained,
and that would have kindled suspicion in
man more versed in the cost or genealogical
enquiries than was the retired ofncer. IL
the price was low the investigation was
long, and in the two years in which Dawes
examined the parish and the probate rec
ords of Gloucestershire the colonel paid
him nearly s., 500.
The result however seemed to justify
double the cost. Above all, Colonel Ship
way desired a coat arms, ana Dawes
had scarcely begun his researches before
he discovered an ancient seal which he al
legged bore the Shipway crest and motto.
Soon afterward he found the latter re-
peated on a watch of the last century.
Z +tn Of
say mythical, William Shipway. He next
turned to parish churches and registers.
The parsons and the clerks in whose Gus
tody they were believed him as trustwor-
thy as the other dryasdusts, and left him
to himself Forthwith Davies began to
accumulate references to the Shipways for
three centuries past as family OF ancient
repute and estate in Gloucestershire, long
| entitled to bear arms The baptism OF
one, the death of another, the marriage OF
| a third duly appeared in the registers
| The name of Shipway bloSsomed in uneX-
pected places-upon the hasps OF an an
| cient chest on the beam of an old belfry,
| upon a statue that had stood in church
| from tin3 immemorial, on the very collins
! of two graves which Davies obtained per-
mission to open. Better still, the coat-of-
arms often appeared beside it. Wears,
| clerks, and registrars of probate readily
| certified the copies of the entries and at
tested all the occurrences of the Shipway
name and the Shipway arms.
The Heralds' College had now-to be con-
vinced, and, while it accepted the extracts
| from parish records it desired further evil
dence from wills as to the pedigree and the
arms that Colonel Shipway craved. Davies
returned anew to Worcestershire, and soon
emerged triumphant-not with single will
or a single deed but with three, and one
| the testament of the very Shipway whose
| ancestral seal he had discovered eighteen
months before. An expert in manuscripts
of the sixteenth and of the seventeenth
centuries from the British Museum itself
bore witness to the genuineness of the
documents. Colonel Shipway's cup was
brimming. He had the SEAL watch, and
| chest of his ascestors. Parish records
established his descent from them. Pro-
bate records confirmed their high position
in the West Country, their considerable
estates, above all, their right to bear arms
under grant of Richard the Lion Heart
himself. There was only to lay the evil
dence before the Heralds' College, and It
would forthwith make the retired colonel
into country gentleman.
Unfortunately barrister with taste
for ancient records, leisure to cultivate it,
and minute knowledge of those of Glouces-
tershire had occasion, not long after Da-
| vies had discovered the wills, to consult
| the diocesan archives. To his surprise he
found a certain testament lacking and in
it's place that of one Shipway. He COM
! pared the records as they stood with a
| copy taken some years ago; the result
confirmed his suspicion and he notified the
authorities that a will had been distracted
and Shipways testament forged and sub
| stituted for it. A long investigation en-
sued, that gradually wrecked the colonel's
pedigree and revealed the endless deceit
that Davies had practiced. He had
chanced upon the seal and turned it to his
purposes. The hall mark of the watch
belied the date that he had engraved upon
it. He had carved the Shipway name in
old parish churches and the shipway arms
on old metal coffins With his own hand
he had made the Shipway entries, with a
hint or two from local histories in the
parish registers.
When he had done all this, he did not
hesitate over wills. If Shipway testa-
ments were necessary, he had only to draft
them and remove others to make place
for them in probate and diocesan records.
None of the custodians that had left him
alone with their archives had suspected any
Irregularities. He had made his entries
and written his wills SO skillfully-and the
forgery of legal document of the six
cate task-that even the British Museum
had been deceived. Chance revealed one
of his forgeries and opened the way for
the discovery Of the rest. His ingenuity
matched his audacity. He deserved
shrewder dupes than rural parsons. He
should have made the pedigrees of me-
dieval barons rather than of retired colo
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