The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-04-01
POOR MEMS LEAPS
INTO PEERAGE
Tricks Played by Law of Sue
cession Often Bring Unex-
pected Titles.

To retire at night just an ordinary
citizen, poor man, and to rise in the
morning with noble title or two and
perhaps vast acres. with castles and
wealth, is an experience possible only
to a British subject. The law of sue
cessiOn regarding the nobility some
times plays strange tricks of this kind,
not only in fiction, but in real life.
Unexpected leaps from obscurity to
the peerage, from poverty to great
wealth, are not uncommon in England.
Many such instances have been record
ed in recent years. the elevations in
some cases going to persons who did
not even know they were in the line
of succession for a title.
The present Duke Of Hamilton, by
sequence of accidents, found himself
transformed seven years ago from an
unknown lieutenant to the premier
peership of Scotland. with three ducal
titles and as many marQuiSates, to say
nothing of earldoms and baronies suf-
fcent to equip half a dozen average
peers.
Luck of Duke of Hamilton.
How slight was the prospect of Lieut..
Alfred Douglas Hamilton ever succeed
ing to the family honors may be gath
cred from the fact that although he
Is the thirtieth Duke Of Hamilton, he
derives his descent from third son of
the fourth duke, who was born in the
PARKWAY seventeenth century, and that
ell his intermediate ancestors We're
younger sons. How many lives might
In the ordinary course have come be-
tween the young lieutenant and the
dukedom 1T is impossible to estimate:
but, as 1t was said in sporting parlance
at the time of his accession, the odds
were thousands to one against his ever
wearing the strawberry leaves.
By similar series of accidents the
present Duke of Portland succeeded to
the title and wealth of the Bentincks
The son of third son, who in turn
was third son of the third duke, there
seemed as much chance Of the young
subaltern of the guards ever being the
head of his family as of his becoming
emperor of China. The fourth duke
alone had four sons, all of whom were
considerate enough not to marry; and
the third duke was also blessed with
four sons, who were sufficiently ami
able to make the way clear for the
lucky young soldier.
Poor Boys Leap to Nobility.
When Master William Grey first
opened his eyes in Newfoundland fifty
years ago his prospects of a coronet
would have been considered dear at
half crown, for his father was but
the third son of the third son of an
f1dTI Oh STANFORD, ana there We're manV
lives between him and rank and for
tune. His father was a poor clergy
man, and the future earl had to face
many VlciSsitudes of fortune before he
was suddenly exalted from the posi-
ton of a London diocesan reader to be
Earl of Stamford and Baron Grey of
Groby.
Probably no one was more surprised
than the late Earl of Caithness when
he realized that he was heir to his
distant cousin. the fifteenth earl As
young man there had been so many
lives between him and the title that
he would have laughed at the sug-
geStion that he would one day wear
an earls coronet, and he made him
self quite happy as a bank agent in
Scotland, while his son, the earl of
today, tended his farm and herded
his sheep in the states
There was equally little chance Of
augustus Arthur Perceval ever quail
Tying for seat in the house of lords
for his father, poor army officer. was
a second son of the fifth son of the
second Baron Arden who himself was
not within measurable distance of tba
earldom of Egmont.
Hall Porter Becomes an Earl
There are few more dramatic stories
In the peerage than this of the ele-
walton of the hall porter of Chelsea
town hall to the rank of earl, viscount
and baron by series of accidents only
less remarkable than the hard blows
that fortune had dealt him before she