The Great Jennens Case : Being An Epitome Of The History Of The Jennens Family. Compiled On Behalf Of The Jennens Family By Messrs. Harrison & Willis.

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A very good original binding, rebacked at somtime in the past. 8vo. 7.25" x 5" x 0.75" . [4pp.]/pp.6/[2pp.]/pp.228/[1p. - "corrections"] .Red cloth covered boards, with gilt crest and title to front board. Spine dulled and soiled, with gilt title: "Jennens Estates". Original brown endpapers. Early dedication to verso of the front board: "Edward Jennings from Horace B. Woodward". Inner hinges carefully strengthend at some time in the past. Light sptting throughout. Clear English text. Illustrated with 13 full-page lithographs (including frontis) and one fold-out pediigree. A very good copy of a scarce book. ** William "the Miser" - William the younger became nationally famous as 'the Acton Miser', a role he played so successfully that, at his death, he was the richest man in England, and found to be worth well over two million pounds, the equivalent of about half a billion in today's money. On 19 June 1798, William Jennings (or Jennens) died at Acton Place in County Suffolk, England, aged about 97 years. William was described as a "crusty old bachelor" and a miser, but he had amassed a fortune that some called the largest of any commoner in Britain. And he left no heirs, and no will. His death touched off a feeding frenzy among lawyers on two continents that lasted 135 years. Since William had no children and no brothers, by English common law the estate was to be divided among his first cousins, descendants of William's grandfather, Humphrey Jennings; and so the legacy became known as the Humphrey Jennings estate. By 1821 the succession had been essentially settled, with the family of Lord Curzon (made Earl of Howe that year) gaining the bulk of the real estate. But that didn't stop the lawsuits, which came first from British and Irish claimants, then, beginning in 1849, from America. At various times there were seventeen legal proceedings in operation, the last being filed (and thrown out of court) in 1934 on behalf of a group of American claimants. According to one account, the Bank of England had to employ seven clerks just to handle correspondence related to the claims, in spite of the fact that there was almost nothing left to fight over. The "Great Jennens Case" became such a symbol of legal dissipation and frivolity that Charles Dickens used it as the basis for the "Jarndyce and Jarndyce" case in his 1852 novel Bleak House. N° de ref. del artículo 47782

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