June 20, 1903.
Messrs Daniel O Rorke & son,
Belfast, Ireland.
Gentlemen:-
I have your Letter of the 5[?]
re. estate of A.T. Stewart deceased.
We note that you have traced the
relationship of Mrs Speirs to the deceased and
find that she is a first cousin
In reply to your inquiries would say
that A.T. Stewart died sometime in 1871
or 1876 leaving a last will & testament
in which he bequeathed several
small sums to various persons (who were they)
one million dollars to an alleged
illegitimate son, named Henry Hilton,
and the remainder of all his property
amounting to several millions dollars to his
Widow Mrs Stewart. Within a very short
time after the will was probated Mrs
Stewart died when it was found that
Hilton has the bulk of her property and
that she was practically penniless
It appeared that Hilton has represented
that the properties held by Mrs
Stewart were worthless and that they
were so expensive that it was a
loss to hold them [and?] [so?] [secured?]
deeds for them from Mrs Stewart
(then he must be dead who represented him)
Hilton lived some time after this and
it is claimed that several suits were
commenced against him and in every
case some settlement was made with
the heirs.
The suit of John Stewart which was
tried last winter in New York was
an action in ejectment; they sought to
establish the pedigree of Plaintiff
and then it was to be proven that the
will of Stewart was secured through
Hilton's undue influence and under
duress. I had a conference with the
attorneys for John Stewart and they
informed me that it was perfectly feasible
to set aside the will and recover
the estate which is now in the hands
of a trustee (by whom appointed). It seems that there
was a syndicate formed in France to
find an heir for the Stewart millions
and break the will and these were
the people who were conducting the
case in New York for John Stewart
I informed the New York representative
of the syndicate that I could produce
a first cousin of Stewart. They
informed me if this could be done they
would undertake to break the will. As
I understand it, the case in New
York is now on appeal. It seems the
trial justice held that the plaintiff
being a foreigner, was too far removed
from Stewart to claim a part of his
estate. It seems he was a third or
fourth cousin. If I understand the
rule correctly there can be no doubt
but that first cousins [if females?] can claim in
this country even though they were
foreigners. On this point we are not
positive but can look the matter up
It had been our idea, providing we
could establish the pedigree of Mrs
Speirs to tie up with the Syndicate in
some way and let them break the will
and set aside the transfers which they
say confidently they can do. We would
like to get your idea on this point. Of
course it would be a very expensive
matter to break the will but should not
be a great task to establish the
pedigree of Mrs Speirs
We have none of the documents in the
case just tried but these could be
secured at a small cost and if you
desire them I think 50 dollars would
secure you copies of all the documents
and a digest of the evidence
produced on the trial. The pedigree
would have to be proven by the
witnesses in person; although it
would be perfectly feasibly [feasible?] to take the
evidence by deposition and have it
read before our Juries here.
I have tried to answer all your enquiries.
If you desire me to go further into the matter
in New York I will run down and look
up the records thoroughly although
this might be quite a task. If you
think it adviseable to endeavour to
get into communication with the
syndicate I will do so or will try to
secure further information from
their attorneys in New York.
Awaiting your further advices
we beg to remain
Very truly yours
E R deming
