The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-10-19
"PRINCE0 HAS
NO RIGHT TO TITLE

title that of Lord Fisher, so that thu
family name might be in this FASH
ion preserved.
1t is doubtful whether the old adj
mirai, whose controversy with Lord
Bile between Lady Charles and Lady
Fisher, at Malta, set the entire Brit
ish navy by the ears. would have
been given a seat in the House OF
Lords had 1t not been for this be-
quest to his son by old Josiah Va
vasseur; for the crown is very reluct-
ant TO bestow peerages upon those
who cannot furnish guarantee that
not only they. but also their sue
ceasors in the honors. VIII be able to
maintain them In fitting manner.
True, peeraSes are sometimes granted
on their retirement, even when they
have no large independent fortune of
their own but this is only when they
have no children to inherit the title
and there is an assurance that 1T will
become extinct at their death. In all
other instances something very much
akin TO an endowment OF the honor. in
the shape of entailed landed property,
is a sine qua non
There was no connection of any kind
between the family of the late Josiah
Navasseur and old Sir William Va
yasseur, who was gaZetted a bankrupt
stances just at the very time when
Cecil Fisher was inheriting his for
tune; and the comments of some of
the English newspapers, TO the effect
leaving his money to n young man
in no way related to him, would have
done far better TO save the ancient
house of Vavasseur from the stigma
of bankruptcy. were altogether un-
justified
The names of Vavaseur and Va
vasseur were used in ancient times to
designate person Just below the rank
n "a n
knight and 1t Is employed in this
sense In the prologue of the "Canter-
bury Tales" while in Doomsday Book
a certain Mauger is recorded as being
the vavasseur or valvasour, that is
TO say the sub-vasSai, of the Earl
of northumberland. with respect to
a considerable number of manors and
estates.
the IMPENDING marriage Of Miss Jane
Morgan to the son of Lord Fisher. TO
state that there is no word of truth
in the story current, and repeatedly
printed, to the effect that the mother
of the Admiral of the Fleet was a
Cinghalese. woman, and that he him
self. therefore. was an Euras1an. Ac-
coriing to Lord Fishers own expla-
nation, his mother was Miss Sophie
Lambe, and she was born in London,
within sound of Bow Bells. Her great
uncle was Sir John Boydell. Lord Mayor
of London in 1890 His niece and
heiress, Anne Philpott, married Lambe
of New Bond Street. by whom she had
Ia daughter, Sophie. The fact that this
Sophie l.ambe became the wife OF
Captain Fisher. of the Seventy-eighth
Highlanders. at the time when he was
aide-de-camp to Sir Robert Horton.
the Governor of Ceylon, is probably
accountable for the tale that the wife
of this officer was a Cinghalese woman.
Captain Fisher was killed one dark
night by a fall from his horse, leay-
ing his widow and her only boy, Jack.
very badly off. She managed, how
ever, to get him into the navy at the
age of thirteen, and he went through
all those hard and bitter trials which
fail to the share of young officer of
the royal navy who is entirely with
out private means, and dependent upon
his meagre pay: until finally he landed
in the House of Lords, with the rank
of admiral of the fleet, which is the
naval equivalent of field marshal of
the army.
Copyright. 1910, by the Brentwood
Company