Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-05-12
WELL-BoRN ENGLISH PAUPERs.
Last of Many Famous Houses in Re-
duced Circumstances.
From Tt-Bits.

From Tt-Bits.
It Is fact well known to all students of
family history. said a genealogical expert,
that IL you want to find the "bluest blood
and the longest descents, you must 60,
not to the peerage but to the great mid
die classes, and even lower, that many
proud wearer of a dukes or an
earls coronet today 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
it Is a sober statement of the truth.
There are very few Of our present peers
who can trace their descent from the great
mobiles of the days of chivalry or earlier
The founder OF one line of marquesses was
an innkeeper; Of a line of earls a grazier
and 80 on; and many of the greatest aristo-
Gratis of our time owe their rank and wealth
to the enterprise and luck of city appren-
tees. 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 daugh-
ter and heiress Of George, Duke Of Clarence
following the cobbler's craft at Newport
a little town in Shropshire. Nor is this the
only branch OF the tree Of royalty that
has dwHarfed and withered.
If we were to closely investigate the
fortunes OF the many inheritors Of the
royal arms, It would soon be shown that
Ihe aspiring DIOOU OF Lancaster nOWS
through very humble veins. Among the
lineal descendants of Edward Of Woodstock
Earl Of Kent, sixth son of Edward T. King
of England, entitled to a quarter the royal
arms, occur butcher and toll gatherer-
the first Mr.. Joseph Smart Of Halesowen
the latter Mr.. George Wilnot, keeper Of
the turnpike gate at Cooper's Bank. near
Dudley.
Then again. among the descendants of
Thomas Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester
fifth son of Edward III, we discover Mr..
Stephen James Penney, the late sexton at
ST. Georges Hanover sQuare-a strange
descent from the sword and scepter to the
spade and pickaxe."
The last head Of the great Scottish house
of Lindsay. and de jure Earl OF Crawford
died in 1874 In the capacity of hostler in an
inn at Kirkwall. in the Orkneys; and In four
generations the descendants of Sir Richard
Knightley of Fawsley (the head OF one of
the oldest and most distinguished families
In England) and his wife, daughter of the
great Protector Somerset. ended as obscure
London observation-disclosures and oil men out
side the city gates.
Sir Thomas Conyers, the head OF family
which had held vast estates, owned
castles and enjoyed high rank in the north
of England almost from the days of the
conquest, died pauper in a Durham work
house. A grandson of Oliver Cromwell and
kinsman of Thomas Cromwell, Earl of
Essex, served behind the counter in a Snow
Hill shop, while one of his nieces ended her
days in a workhouse, and OF his great
nleces, one married butchers son and the
other Cambridgeshire shoemaker.
Among peasants and laborers, farmers
and small tradesmen are many descendants
of the great feudal houses of Scrope and
Greystoke, Neville and Darcy, and many
another noble stock who can claim kinship
with our bluest-blooded peers and royal
descents galore, while in the pedigree of
the Duka OF Northumberland figure farm
ers and haberdashers, husbandmen and
paperstainers