CLAIMS TO THE PORTLAND PEERAGE BY MRS. DRUCE AND MR. G.H. DRUCE.
Full of romance as the Portland peerage was up to recent years, there is
still another chapter to be added, in relating some of the statements
made in connection with the claims put forward by Mrs. Druce and Mr.
G.H. Druce to the honours and wealth of the Bentincks. It must be stated
emphatically that there is no intention whatever to comment upon these
claims or to prejudice their fair consideration, in the tribunals of the
land. No literary sketch of the great House of Portland would be
complete without it summarised the salient points in the Druce claims as
they have appeared from time to time in newspaper reports and in the
narratives of those who knew the fifth Duke in his lifetime. This
compilation is intended to epitomise the history of the illustrious
family of Bentinck in consecutive order of the events as they have
occurred, in such a manner as is not found in any other publication; but
in no way to influence opinion either on one side or the other. It was
in 1898 that public attention was called to the case, when Mrs. Druce
set up a claim to the Portland peerage on behalf of her son.
The ground on which it was based was that her father-in-law, Mr. Thomas
Charles Druce, and the fifth Duke of Portland were one and the same
person; that in fact the Duke had a double existence.
Mr. Druce was in a large way of business at the Baker-street Bazaar, an
enterprise opened about 1834 or 1835, with a capital estimated at
100,000l. At that time the Duke had not succeeded to his family
estates, but was Marquis of Titchfield. It was known that he and his
brothers had been successful in horse-racing and if, as Marquis, he
could spare 100,000l. to open this London business, some indication is
given of his winnings.
In the construction of the Bazaar it was said that there was an
underground passage leading from the back of the premises. By this means
of ingress or egress Druce could appear in the midst of his shopmen when
they least expected him and as suddenly vanish, possibly into an
underground passage, which it was believed was no myth, leading from
Baker-street to Harcourt House.
While conducting this important business at Baker-street, Mr. Druce
married in 1851 Annie May Berkeley, daughter of the Earl of Berkeley.
The Earl's marriage with this lady's mother had been disputed, and was
held by the House of Lords to be illegal.
That, however, has no bearing on the Portland romance, the question that
arose in 1898 was whether the Duke, under the alias of T.C. Druce,
married Miss Berkeley. The strange part of the contention is that Mr.
Druce died, or there was a mock burial of his body in Highgate Cemetery,
in 1864, whereas the Duke lived on till 1879. The allegation is that
there was no death of that particular person in 1864, and that the
coffin at the sham funeral was filled with lead or stones.
Mr. Druce had a residence at Holcolmbe House, Hendon, and it was here
that he repaired to die.
The funeral was on December 31st, 1864, and the vault was prepared in
Highgate Cemetery. There was a stately hearse accompanied by six
bearers. The coffin was noticed to be of enormous weight, and the
strength of the men were taxed when their duties came to carrying and
lowering it into the grave.
From this circumstance arose a curious idea that it did not contain the
body of Druce, who was not stout and heavy; but that it was filled with
stones or lead. There were no burial certificates forthcoming, but the
owners of the cemetery accepted the coffin for burial.
When Mr. Druce died there were two sons left of the alliance with Miss
Berkeley, one of whom continued the Baker-street establishment.
But what was the astonishment of some of the frequenters of the purlieus
of Baker-street to see the man who was supposed to have been buried
visiting the same haunts where they had seen him before.
To have witnessed or heard of the funeral of a man, and then to meet
that same man in his customary sphere of business afterwards, is of the
nature of a ghost-story. "What did the coffin in Highgate Cemetery
contain?" was the riddle.
Mrs. Druce's husband was a son of the late Mr. T.C. Druce, and it was on
behalf of her son that proceedings were commenced. She made an
application to the Consistory Court for a faculty granting her power to
have the coffin in Highgate Cemetery opened in order to see whether it
contained a body or only some heavy substance such as lead.
It was asserted that T.C. Druce had been seen alive some years after it
was supposed that he had been buried; that he was identified as the Duke
of Portland, and that there were persons cognisant of the fact that the
Duke and Druce were one and the same person before 1864. Dr. Tristram,
the judge, granted the faculty, but notice of appeal was given to
prevent the coffin being opened.
The case then came before the Divisional Court, which ruled that the
London Cemetery Company was right in resisting the order of Dr.
Tristram, and that the grave could not be opened without the licence of
the Home Secretary. The decision was in effect that Dr. Tristram had no
jurisdiction to make such an order, except as conditional on the
authority of the Home Secretary being obtained.
At length the case reached the Court of Appeal in December, 1899, when
Mrs. Druce made no appearance to support the faculty she had obtained,
and the appeal was dismissed with costs against her.
In the course of the proceedings the statements of two or three persons
who knew Mr. Druce were published in the Press.
Mrs. Hamilton's narrative was to the effect that from a girl she had
known the same gentleman both as Mr. Druce and the Duke of Portland, her
father, Mr. Robert Lennox Stuart, being a great friend of his from
boyhood days, and, it was averred, distantly related. There were
frequent visits both to Cavendish-square and to the Baker-street Bazaar,
and on one occasion, about 1849, Mrs. Hamilton says she was taken by
her father to Welbeck where they were met by Druce. Then, in 1851, her
father attended the marriage of Druce and Annie May Berkeley. At length
the time came when Druce determined to be dead to the outer world. "I
must die," he said to Mr. Stuart.
The arrangements for the death were duly carried out and there ensued a
sham burial, at which Mrs. Hamilton says her father was present.
Two years passed away and Mrs. Hamilton was greatly astonished one day
to see Mr. Druce enter the house where she and her father were staying.
"I thought you were dead," she said naïvely.
Druce was not well pleased at the remark and continued the conversation
with her father.
On another occasion Druce took Mrs. Hamilton, then a girl, to Madame
Tussaud's, at which her father was angry; he also gave her money for
sweets and flowers.
A great many transactions took place between her father and Druce
relative to a lady whom they spoke of as "Emmy," and who was eventually
sent to France, by Druce, who gave her 5,000l. This was in 1876, and
Mr. Stuart went to Welbeck to arrange for the departure with her two
children. She died not long afterwards. The last time that Mrs.
Hamilton says she saw Druce was in 1876, when he called at her father's
and complained of being unwell. He spoke of his visits to his old friend
Stuart as being the happiest hours of his life. Some little time after
the sham burial Mrs. Annie May Druce came to Mrs. Hamilton's father's
house, and was introduced to Mrs. Hamilton as "Mrs. Druce." Another
statement was made by Mrs. F. M. Wright, nee Robinson, nee Weatherell,
who said that when she was 20 years of age she lived near the
Baker-street Bazaar, owned by Mr. T.C. Druce, and frequently saw that
gentleman. After the supposed death and burial of Mr. Druce she saw him
often, and in her mind he was identical with the Duke of Portland. As to
her knowledge of the Duke her father was in the service of his Grace
when she was a young girl, and she was familiar with his features. Mr.
Druce had a large bump on the left side of his forehead, which appeared
to have been caused by a blow. The Duke also had a bump, and in her
opinion this resemblance was evidence that the owner of the Baker-street
Bazaar and the Duke were one and the same person. While these statements
were causing some amount of public interest there was a new development
in this extraordinary case. The legal proceedings commenced by Mrs.
Druce were widely reported in the Press and accounts of them reached
Australia, where they were read by a man pursuing the calling of a
miner. His name is Mr. George Hollamby Druce, who put forward a prior
claim to the Dukedom than that urged by Mrs. Druce on behalf of her son.
His contention is that the Duke, as T.C. Druce, married in October,
1816, Miss Elizabeth Crickmer, of Bury St. Edmunds, by whom he had a son
named George. This youth took to a sea-faring life and eventually
settled in Australia, where he had a son, namely Mr. George Hollamby
Druce, whose claim to the title takes precedence of that set up by Mrs.
Druce for the offspring of the second marriage with Annie May Berkeley.
The question of the exhumation of the body appears to be involved in
legal technicalities as to the ownership of the vault. At one time it
was vested in the son of Mrs. Druce who commenced the litigation. Then
there appeared this other claimant, Mr. George Hollamby Druce, and it is
said that the present owner of the vault, Mr. Herbert Druce, is not in
favour of complying with Mr. G.H. Druce's wish to open it, therefore the
secret of the grave remains unrevealed.
THE END
* * * * *
_The Anchor Press, Ltd., Tiptree Heath, Essex._
End of Project Gutenberg's The Portland Peerage Romance, by Charles J. Archard