Eatington Park, Stratford-on-Avon.
The following note will, I think, satisfy your correspondent R. W. DIXON
that the letter of William Sidney Spence which you inserted for him was an
imposture, and that Mr. J. H. Dixon was not without reason in rejecting the
information offered.
A friend of mine, assuming descent from "a good old" family of the same
name, which he was unable to prove, received, about the same time as MR.
DIXON did, a communication from Mr. William Sidney Spence to precisely the
same effect, and having no cautious brother to consult, readily took the
bait, and paid some pounds for a specious pedigree, setting forth his
"distinguished progenitors," with their armorial bearings, &c., purporting
to be authenticated as a true copy of one in Miss Cotgreave's possession
under that lady's own hand. The information so received being subsequently
submitted to a genealogical friend, some doubt was excited of its
genuineness in proving too much; and an inquiry, which I made through a
correspondent in Cheshire, tending to confirm this suspicion, a reference
was had to Miss Cotgreave herself, when it turned out that the whole was an
ingenious fabrication. Mr. Spence was then dead, and my friend, whose name
I do not mention, as the subject is rather a sore one, was obliged to be
content with the practical experience he had bought.
The probability is, that whenever Mr. Spence read in Burke's _Landed
Gentry_ that Mr. A. or {276} Mr. B., in preference to being considered as
the founder of a new family, supposed himself, or wished to be supposed by
others, to be descended from an old stock of the same name, he kindly
offered to supply the desired information, and was ready to execute a
pedigree to order.