The record-union., 1899-05-02
PURSUIT OF A PEDIGREE.
METHODS FOLLOWED By AM
BILIOUS ENGLISHMEN.
Forgeries Of Schoo1master-Six-
teenth Century Wills and Rec
ords That Deceived Experts.

cradle Self-impOrtance fancies that he
needs pedigree, he usually employs a
patient and laborious dryasdust, Of
more or less skill in the tracing of gen.
ealogies, to drudge through the parish
and the probate records in the quarter
of England where he believes his an
ceStorS fourished Sometimes the
searcher finds enough evidence of the
antiquity of the family and of the Col
onels descent from it to crafty his
pride and even to permit him to set up
a coat of-arms. Oftener, the inquiry is
SO fruitless or the results so meager
and unpromising that the officer wear
les of its tedium and cost and soothes
the vanity that prompted it with the
prudence that bids him renounce it. In
the desire OF Englishmen that have
made their way in the world to estab-
fish their connection with some. old
family, branch of which they have
caused to flourish anew, the dryasdust
has not to wait long for fresh employ
ment. Usually he is among the most
methodical, accurate and honest of
men, We'll aware that the results of his
researches will be carefully verified and
sifted before they persuade the Her
aids Office to grant a 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" If he
now attempts such deception, he gen.
orally 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 a pedigree for
one Colonel Shipway, retired; who
found it, down to the last detail neces-
sary to a coat-of- arms, and whose
frauds and forgeries hoodwinked his
employer, the custodians of records and
even experts in them, until a chance in
quiry 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 a
subuT ban schoolmaSter, with ambitions
and an innate skill in deceit that had
already been applied in forged diplomas
and testimonials that might increase
his salary and better his social stand
ing. Shipway engaged him for 81 80
a day and his travelling expenses to
make the necessary researches-a COM
pensation that the mildest and most
unworldly of dryasdusts would have
disdained, and that would have kindled
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 ex-
amined the parish and the probate rec
ords of Worcestershire the Colonel paid
him nearly $500.
The result, however. seemed to justify
double the cost. Above all, Colonel Ship
way desired. a coat-of-arms and Davies
had scarcely begun his researches be-
fore he discovered an ancient seal
which he alleged bore the Shipway
crest and motto. Soon afterward he
found the latter repeated on watch
of the last century, bearing the name
of mysterious, not to say mythical,
William Shipway He next turned to
parish churches and registers The par
sons and the clerks in whose custody
they believed him as trustworthy
| as the other dryasdusts, and left him
to himself.
Forthwith Davies began to accumu
late 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 a 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 m a church from time
| immemorial, on the very collins in two
graves which Davies obtained permis-
sion to open. Better still, the coat
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
convinced, 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
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 seven
teenth centuries from the British Mu
scum itself bore witness to the genuine
ness of the documents. Colonel Ship
ways cup was trimming He had
the seal, watch, and a chest of his an
cestors. Parish records established his
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
evidence before the Herald's College,
and it would forthwith make the re-
tired Colonel into a country gentleman.
| Unfortunately a barrister with taste
for ancient records, leisure to cultivate
| it and minute knowledge of those of
Worcestershire had occasion, not long
after Davies had discovered the wills,
to consult the diocesan archives. To his
surprise he found a certain testament
lacking, and in its place that of one
Shipway. He compared the records as
they stood with copy taken some
years ago: the result confirmed his sus-
picion, and he notified the authorities
! that will had been distracted and
Shipway's testament forged and sub
stituted for it. A long investigation
ensued, that gradually wrecked the Col
onel's pedigree and revealed the endless