The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-04-08
WELL BORN ENGLISH PAUPERs.
Last of Many Famous Houses in Re-
duced circumstances.

1t is a fact we'll known to all students
of family history, said a genealogical lex-
pert to a writer for London Tit Bits, that,
If you want to find the s"bluest blood
and the longest descent, you must 60, not
to the peerage, but to the great middle
classes, and even lower. and that many
proud wearer of a dukes or an carr s
coronet to-day has a pedigree which will
not compare for distinction with that
of some of his tradesmen or tenants. Yes.
! know this is a surprising statement but
II is. a sober statement of the truth.
There are very few of our present peers
who can trace theirdescent from the great
mobiles of the days oe chivalry or earlier
The founder of one line of marquesses
was an inn-keeper: of a line of earls a
grazier, and so on and many of the
greatest aristoerats of our time owe their
rank and wealth to the enterprise and
luck of city apprentices To quote Burke ::
Let us look back only as far as the year
1887, and we shall find the great grandson
of Margaret Plantagenet herself the
daughter and heiress Of George. Duke of
Clarence.i following the cobbers craft
at Newport, a little town in Shropshire
Nor is this the only branch of the tree
of royalty that has dwarfed and wither-
edo
IF we were closely to investigate the
fortunes of the many inherltors of the
royal arms 1t would soon be, shown
that the aspiring blood of Lancasters'
flows through very humble veins. Among
the lineal descendants Of Edward of
Woods took. Earl of Kent, sixth son of
Edward l., King OF England, entitled to
quarter the royal arms, occurs butcher
and a toll Ratherer-the first Mr.. JOS
eph Smart OF Halesowen, the latter a Mr..
George Wilmot, keeper of the turnpike
gate at Cooper's Bank. near Dudley
Then again among the descendants of
Thomas Plantaganet, Duke OF Gloucester.
fifth son of Edward ILL.,, we discover Mr..
Stephen James Penny, the late sexton at
ST Georges Hanover Square-a strange
descent from the sword and sceptre TO
the spade and pickaxel''
The last head of the great Scottish
house of Lindsay, and de jure Earl OF
Crawford. died in i744 in the capacity of
ostler. in an inn at Kirkwall In the Ork-
neys: and in four generations the de-
scendants of Sir Richard Knightley of
Fawsley fthe head Of one of the Oldest
and most distinguished families in Eng
land) and his wife daughter of the great
Protector Somerset. ended as obscure
London tradesmen-drapers and oil men
outside the city gates
Sir Thomas Conyers. the head Of fam
lily which has held vast estates. owned
castles and enjoyed high rank in the
north OF England almost from the days
Of the conquest. died pauper IN Dur
ham workhouse. a grandson Of Oliver
Cromwell and . kinsman of Thomas
Cromwell. Earl of Essex. served behind
the counter In Snow Hill shop. while
one of his neices ended her days in
workhouse and of his great-nieces one
married a butchers son and the other a
COMMUNICATIVE shoemaker.
Among peasants and laborers, farmers
and small tradesmen are many descend
ants of tho great fcudal houses Of Scrope
and Greystoke. Neville and Darcy. and
many another noble stock who can claim
kinship with our bluest blooded peers
ard royal descents galore. while In the
pedigree OF the Duke OF Northumber-
land figure farmers and haberdashers.