One of those odd cases of title to landed property
which novel- ists are so fond of, but which seldom appear in Court, came before the Appellate Court on Wednesday. One F. H. Barker, in 1813, sixty-four years ago, owned the Rushout Farm, on the Thames, near Wallingford, now worth £50,000. The estate had been entailed in 1775, but his son joined him in cutting off the entail, and it was transferred, as alleged for inadequate consideration, to C. Greenwood, then tenant of the farm. A son of Admiral Barker, heir-at-law of the entailer, now claims the estate, on the ground that the conveyance was fraudulent, Mr. F. H. Barker's son being illegitimate, and, having therefore no right to join his father in cutting off the entail,—a story that would give Mr. Wilkie Collins a splendid plot. To carry out the scheme, it was necessary to destroy the parish registers, and they were destroyed. No evidence as to the facts has yet been produced, but the Court have allowed certain interrogatories to be administered to the defendant, a man above eighty years of age.
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