An English Baronet

AN ENGLISH BARONET

Who Resides in Washtenaw County.

CHEATED OF HIS ESTATES

Was Just a Few Days Too Late in Filing Claims.

The Son of Baronet Fortman Now Lords It Over Valuable Property and Names Two Rectors of English Churches.

Washtenaw county has its English baronet, who has according to the Marquise de Fontenoy, been made the victim of a gross and shameful piece of injustice in the English courts for which there seems to be no remedy. He is a member of the well known Reade family, of which Charles Reade, the famous novelist author of "Never Too Late to Mend," is also a member. The story of injustice as given by the Marquise de Fontenoy in the Chicago Tribune reads like a novel. The Sir George Reade mentioned in the letter is George C. Reade, of Webster township, in this county, the son of Sir John Reade or John Stanthrope Reade, who settled in Dexter township in 1837. He was named after his uncle, the baronet mentioned in the following article. As a boy, the Sir John Reade, of this county, was, as a neighbor expresses it, "a little frisky" and his father brought him to Michigan and located for him 160 acres of land on Section 17, in Dexter township. The deed was made in such a manner that Sir John could never dispose of the property. On this he built a log house and soon afterwards married Louisa Walton, who was also, of Dexter. They had four children, of whom George C. Reade, the Sir George referred to in the following article was the only son. While Sir John Reade was obliged to rely upon his own resources, he was very poor and his family were often lacking in the comforts of life, but after his father's death, he went over to England, when he remained for about a year returning with enough money to buy a good farm in Webster township, of 340 acres. He was well educated, took great pride in his penmanship and was a writer of poetry, of which he was fond. One of his daughters, Mrs. Green, lives on N. Main st., in this city. He lived the industrious life of a farmer and was a good American citizen although in line for an English baronetcy. But here is the story as told by the Marquise de Fontenoy the Chicago Tribune:

"Sir George Reade, who makes his home in this country at Howell, Livingston county, Mich. , and who has not only an American mother, but likewise an American wife finds himself by a decision just rendered by the English courts the victim of a gross and shameful piece of injustice, for which there appears to be as matters stand now, no legal remedy.

"There are few stories more dramatic or romantic than that of the fortunes of this old Oxfordshire family, which has so many affiliations in the United States.

"Sir John Reade, the sixth baronet of the line, (an uncle of the Webster Sir John), after losing his only son, his wife, and two out of the three of his daughters, happened in a fit of passion to strike his butler a blow which knocked the man down stairs, injuring him fatally. There was but one witness of the deed, a footman of the name of John Wakefield, who immediately after the death of the butler was promoted to the latter's place, and from hat time forth assumed confidential relations with his master. There was no inquest held until three months afterwards, and when the body was exhumed for the purpose it was found to be so decomposed that an open verdict was returned, neither medical experts nor jury being willing to assert for certain whether his death had been due to violence or not.

"The was thereupon restored to ts grave, and the widow, embittered by her failure to receive justice, caused the following epitaph to be written on her husband's tombstone: 'It was a mortal hand that did the deed.'

"Thenceforth Sir John shut the gates of his grand old Oxfordshire country seat, Shipton Court, against all his friends, kinsmen, and acquaintances, restricting himself entirely to the society of the man Wakefield, from whom he was never seen apart. In fact, Wakefield allowed no one to have any access to him, and when the baronet died it was found that he had bequeathed every stick of property, Shipton Court, the heirlooms, and the possessions, in fact, everything of which he could dispose to his butler, Wakefield, stipulating that the latter should assume the name of Reade and the family coat-of-arms.

"Of course this will, which disinherited the old baronet's only surviving daughter, an epileptic, as well as his grand nephew and successor in the baronetcy, Sir Chandos Reade, now dead, aroused an immense amount of scandal and opposition. The imbecile Miss Reade was cited by the court of probate to oppose her father's will on the ground of use of undue influence. But, being a lunatic, and in charge of a keeper, she failed to respond and allowed judgment to go by default.

"Sir Chandos Reade, not being himself heir at law, nor "committee" of he woman, was not in a position to ask for a revoke of the probate. He die nine years ago, and was succeeded by the present baronet, Sir George Reade, who, as stated above, makes him home in this country.

"Sir John Reade - that is to say, the baronet who, through the manslaughter of his butler, placed himself in the power of his man Wakefield - (died in Jauuary, 1868. His imbecile daughter survived him until Nov. 15, 1897, when in these letters I called the attention of Sir George, cut in Michigan, to the fact that the moment had come for him to sue for his rights.

"There was no time to lose. For, according to an act of Parliament placed on the statute book in 1874, and destined to give to wealthy merchants, financiers, and manufacturers an indefeasible title of lands that they had purchased, all claims are barred after 30 years.

"At the time when Miss Reade died there were just lacking seven weeks to complete the term of 30 years from the moment of her father, old Sir John's, death.

"If during those seven weeks Sir George had filed his claim for the recovery of the Reade estates in England, and for the revocation of old Sir Johns will, he would doubtless have won his case, and been today placed in possession of his ancestral home and domains.

''But, unfortnately, these letters do not seem to have met his eye until too late and it was only a month after the expiration of the seven weeks in question that he instituted legal proceedings in England, which have now have been thrown out of court on the grouud that they are barred by the statute of limitation enacted in 1874.

"Of course. there is the excuse that Sir George was on this side of the Atlantic and did not hear of Miss Reade's death in time. But the English conrts, adhering to the letter rather than to the spirit of the statute have declined to accept this excuse as a valid plea. The estate, therefore, remains in the possession of the Wakefields, who now bear the name of Reade.

"The footman who terrorized his master by threats of bringing him  to the scaffold into bequeathing him his property, is now dead, and it is his son who is the present master of Shipton Hall.

"The first thing that the former menial did on inheriting the property from the old baronet was to put up at auction all the family portraits by Kneller, Romney, and other old masters, most of which were purchased by the American diplomat Meredith Reade, a lineal descendant of that Sir James Reade, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, and whose son settled on this side of the Atlantic.

"Shipton coart and the estate were purchased in 1663 by Sir Compton Reade, the first baronet of the line, who had defended his other ancestral home in Berkshire for King Charles until it was burnt over his head by the troops of Oliver Cromwell.

"There are monuments of eight baronets of this line in old Shipton Church, and one of them figures in history as one of the chief lieutenants of the first and great Duke of Marlborough.

"The Shipton court estate comprises two livings of the Church of England. That is to say, the son of the former butler is responsible for the appointment of the rectors of two important and densely populated parishes. He goes by the name of Mr. Joseph Reade, having dropped the family name of Wakefield. "