The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-03-23

have in their time been thus founded"
If he now attempts such deception, he
generally proves to be not real dryas-
dust but an adventurer that has APP
piled his talents to genealogy and that
repents his enterprise in penal servi-
tude.
OF such was Herbert Dayies, who
has spent the last two years in the west
of England in pursuit of pedigree for
one Col. ShipWay, retired; who found
it, down to the last detail necessary to
a coat-of- arms, and whose frauds and
| forgeries, hoodwinked his employer, the
custodian of records and even experts
| in them, until a chance inquiry set an
| investigation afoot that has ended In
the exemplary sentence of the forger.
| Colonel ShipWay believed himself the
descendant of an old Worcestershire
| family, and he hoped to establish his
| connection with it and then his right to
arms. Davies was Il suburban school,
master with ambitions and an innate
| skill in deceit that had already been APP
| piled in forged diplomas and testimon-
ials that might increase his salary and
better his social standing. ShipWay en-
gagged him for $1.50 day and his trav-
cling expenses to make the necessary
| researches--a compensation that the
mildest and most unWorldly of dyras-
| dusts would have disdained, and that
would have kndled suspicion in a man
more versed in the cost of genealogical
inquiries than was the retired officer
If the price was low, the investigation
was long, and In the two years in which
Davies "a M 81, nd "A
probate records Of Worcestershire the
colonel paid him nearly s3500:>
The result, however, seemed to justi-
fly double the cost. Above all, Colonel
Shipman desired coat-of-arms, and
Davies had scarcely begun his research
es before he discovered an ancient seal
which he alleged bore the Shpway crest
and motto. Soon afterward he found
the latter repeated on a watch Of the
last century, bearing the name of
mysterious, not to say mythical Will
liam Shipway. He next turned to par
ish churches and registers, The par
sons and the clerks in whose custody
they were believed him as trustworthy
as the other dryasdusts, and left him to
himself Forthwith Davies began to ac-
cumulate references to the Shipways
for three centuries past as a family of
ancient repute and estate in Gloucester
shire, long entitled to bear arms. The
baptism of one, the death of another,
the marriage Of third duly appeared
in the registers The name of Shipway
blossomed in unexpected places-upon
the hasps of an ancient chest, on the
beam of an old belfry, upon statue
that had stood in a chufch from time
immemorial, on the very collins In two
graves which Davies obtained permis-
sion 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
attested all the occurrences Of the Ship
way name and the Shipway arms.
The Herald's College had now to be
con, inced and, while it accepted the !
extracts from parish records, it desired |
further evidence from wills as to the |
pedigree and the arms that Colonel
Shipway craved Davies returned anew
to Worcestershire, and soon emerged
triumphant-not with a single will or
single deed, but with three, and one the |
testament of the very Shipway whose
ancestral seal he had discovered eigh- |
teen months before. An expert in man.
uscripts of the sixteenth and of the sew |
enteenth centuries from the British Mu- |
scum itself bore witness to the gem
uineness of the documents Colonel !
Shipway's cup was trimming. He had |
the seal, watch, and a chest of an an |
cestor Parish records established this
descent from them. Probate records
confirmed their high position in the |
west country, their considerable es-
tates, above all. their right to bear arms
under grant of Richard the Lion-Heart |
himself. There was only to lay the eNi-
dence before the Herald's College and
it would forthwith make the retired
colonel into country gentleman.
Unfortunately a barrister with a
taste for ancient records, leisure to Gull
tivate 1t and minute knowledge of those
Of Gloucestershire had occasion not
long after Davies had discovered the
wills, to consult the diocesan archives.
To his surprise he found certain testa-
ment lacking, and in it's place that of
one Shipway. He compared the records
as they stood with copy taken some
years ago; the result confirmed his
and he notified the authori-
ties that a will had been distracted and
testament forged and sub
stituted for it. A long investigation en-
sued, that gradually wrecked the
eolonel's pedigree and revealed the end
ess deceit that Davies had practised.
He had CHANGED upon the seal and
turned it to his purposes. The hall
mark of the watch belied the date that
he engraved upon it, He had carved
he Shipway name in old parish church
IS and the Shipway arms on old metal
,offins. With his own hand he had
made the Shipway entries, with a hint
n two from local histories in the par
sh registers. When he had done all
his, he did not hesitate over wills. If !
,hipway testaments We're necessary, he
lad only to draft them and remove
,thers to make place for them in pro-
,ate and diocesan records. None of the
that had left him alone with ,