The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-11-27
DUKE CARRIED
FALSE BEARD.
SHE SAYS
aged Woman SWears Noble
man and Bruce We're One
and The Same Person.

LONDON. Nov. 27.-The hearing Of
the bruce case. involving claims to the
Portland estates, was resumed In court
today, having adjourned from Novem-
Der p.
A feature of the day was the testi-
mony of Mrs. Margaret Hamilton, 70
years old, who swore that bruce and
the Duke of Portland were the same
person, and identified portraits of the
Duke as bruce. She said the Duke,
whom she described as an old friend of
her fathers, always had a false beard
In his pocket. The Duke, the witness
continued, had al one time intended to
marry her, but her father had refused
lis consene.
Mrs. Hamilton then said that on one
occasion she had asked the duke why
ne wore a false beard. He explained 1t
was necessary to have a beard when
he appeared as bruce. In 1864, the wit
ness went on, the Duke of Portland
said to her:
"Madge. I am going to die"
To this the witness replied:
You don't look like it."
Mrs, Hamilton then declared that her
father had explained to her that the
Duke of Portland was going to cease
to be "T. G. Druce,'' and she said she
was informed there was going to be a
funeral. In 1866 she again saw her
father and the Duke of Portland to-
gether In London, and on this occa-
sion she said chafingly to the duke:
Il thought you were dead n
buried"
She called him bruce and this an
noyed him.
Mrs. Hamilton said, among other
things, that when the duke spoke of
dying in 1864 she asked her father II
she could get the corpse from the hos
pital, but her father replied that that
would never do, as bricks must be put
into the coffin. The dukes comment
on this remark was that anything
would do to put in the coffin, she said.
The witness said also that In 1866
the duke had showed her a bundle OF
handkerchief with coronets worked in
the corners, which he said his Wife
had embroidered in spite of the fact
that he had made her promise that she
never would use the coronets. The
duke cut the coronets from the hand
kerchiefs and threw them in the fire.
One of the pieces of linen, however,
did not ignite, and this Mrs. Hamilton
kept for years until she was finally
told by her solicitor that there will
be no more bruce case"
When the case was adjourned to No
vember 20, Mrs. Hamilton was under
cross-examination in regard to discrep-
ancies between the evidence she gave
today and that given before another
court.
The examination of Miss Mary Robin
son, who was an amanuensis for bruce,
who is alleged to have been the fifth Duke
of cortland. was concluded. Miss Robin
son Twas shown letters ~purporting to have
beeF written by the Duke of Portland to
#. C bruce. She admitted that the hand
writing was not the same, and she failed
to Recognize the handwriting in letters
sign4d T.. C. bruce to Herbert bruce. de-
PENDANT in the perjury action growing
out of this case, as the handwriting of
her employer.
As confederation of Miss Robinson's
statement thai she met Charles Dickens in
Kensington Gardens shortly before his
death and her allegation that at that time
the novelist told her that bruce and the
Duke of Portland were one and the same
person. l.. A~therley-Jones, counsel for the
prosecution, read an extract from the
"reminiscences of Sir Wemyss Reid stating
that he had sen Mr.. Dickens walking in
Kensington Gardens with a young girl a
week before lie died.