Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1902-05-19
TITLE TO MILLIONS HIS
DUKE OF PORTLAND GETS RICHEST
ESTATE IN GREAT BRITAIN.

If William John Arthur Charles
James Cavendish-Bent sleeps more
soundly than formerly there is good
reason. His right to the title and prop
arty of the Duke of Portland has been
confirmed by British tribunal.
The claim of Mrs. Anna Maria Druce
that her son, Sidney George Druce, a
sailor boy in Australia, is the rightful
duke, has been repudiated. William
John and so forth retains famous Wei
beck Abbey and the title Of Marquis of
Tichfleld, Earl of Portland, Viscount
Woodstock, Baron Cirencester, Knight
of the Garter, etc., not to mention a
trifing income of 100000 a year
from the dukedom.
The dukedom is one of the proudest
in Great Britain; its estate among the
richest. The present duke succeeded
to the title on the death Of the fifth
duke in 1870, and his right was not
questioned until Mrs. Druce appeared
on the scene. Mrs. Druce is the widow
Of legitimate son of Thomas Charles
Druce, q merchant on Baker street,
London. The elder Druce is supposed
to have died in 1864, leaving a will
bequeathing his property to Herbert
Druce, an illegitimate son: Mrs. Druce
brought a suit to have Thomas G..
Druce's estate awarded to her son as
the legitimate heir, but she has just
been defeated in the Probate Court.
In support of her suit Mrs. Druce
set up the remarkable claim that
Thomas @. Druce was really the fifth
Duke of Portland, who did not die
until 1879. She asserted that the al
legged burial of Druce in 1864 was q
fraudulent affair, and that the coffin
was loaded with lead pipe instead of
a corpse. Her explanation of this
double life was as follows:
"The marriage on October 80, 1851,
at New Windsor, Berkshire, between
my late husbands father and mother,
in which the names We're recorded as
Thomas Charles Druce and Annie May,
was in reality between the Marquis Of
Titchfield, afterward the fifth Duke Of
Portland, and the illegitlmate daughter
Of the fifth Earl Of Berkeley.
"The marquis and his brother, Lord
George Bentinck. We're both in love
with the same woman, but while the
younger's suit received the approba-
ton of her father the latter not only
discouraged the desire of the eldest
son, but treated him with insult and
referred in very gross terms to a skin
disease from which he suffered. The
climax to the quarrel between the two
brothers was reached September 21,
1S4S, when Lord George was found
dead near Welbeck Abbey-it was
stated from a spasm of the heart.
Whether this was the true cause of
his death will never be known, but it
Is certain that from that time my
husbands father suffered the keenest
remorse and abject fear.
p "He took various courses for his pro-
lection, and, adopting the name Of
Thomas Charles Druce, transferred
to himself as Druce an immense prop
erty from himself as Duke of Port
land. You know the manner in which
he undermined Welbeck Abbey with
subterranean apartments. He did pre-
cisely the same thing with the Baker
street bazaar, his desire in each case
being that he might always have ready
a place of refuge.
Realizing the risk of exposure to
which he was subjecting himself by
1atIh 10 vi L.. IL
end his life as Druce and caused a
coffin to be buried with his supposed
remains. Even after this his fears
were not quleted. At last he deter
mined to assume madness, that should
he ever be accused of crime, he might
have the plea of insanity to fall back
upon. Taking the name of Harmer
and conducting himself in the most
eXtravagant manner, he caused himself
to be placed upder the care of DR..
Forbes Winslow and succeeded entirely
in convincing that gentleman of his
madness. But after about a year of
incarceration he was permitted to
leave"
There were many peculiar circum-
stances to lend plausibility to this re-
markable tale. 1t is well known that
the fifth Duke of Portland was an ex-
ceedingly eccentric character, and that
he did honeycomb the grounds about
Welbeck Abbey with great chambers
and long passages. The. building in
London occupied by the bazaar Of the
elder Druce was also undermined with
labyrinth of tunnels, whose purpose
was not apparent ON casual observa-
ton.
He had a mansion in London, sur
rounded by a high wall, which shut out
prying eyes, and it was supposed he
went TO his town house, but Mrs. Druce
offered another theory. She declared
that when the Duke disappeared from
the splendid abbey he made his way
into the Baker street bazaar through
one of its hidden tunnels and became
transformed for the time being into
tht tradesman, Thomas Charles Druce.
After attending to business for a time
the merchant would disappear by way
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