THE CHINA MAIL, SEPTEMBER 12, 1939.
TO-DAY'S STRANGE STORY OF REAL PEOPLE
CHEVALIER ST. GEORGE
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By AUGUSTUS. ST; MARS, When Charles II of England died without issue, his brother, the Duke of York, succeeded him in 1685 as James II, but immediately became unpopular by favouring the Church of Rome in violation of the act excluding the Catholics from the throne. So his eldest child, Mary, and her husband, William of Orange, were asked to cross the Channel and "rescue the laws and religion of Eng- land."
ing great allies," was discharged. It was at the time of Anne's hearing that Frances Shaftoe's revelations were printed in a pamphlet which had great political effect in England. Shortly afterward Chevalier St. George whose chances in Scotland had been most promising, failed in his attempts to regain his rights. {017
In later years, Westbrook Place, the Oglethorpe seat, is said to have har- boured the Chevailer's son, "Bonnie Prince Charlie," the Young Pretender, and the old house had a secret vault where that prince could take refuge in case of a search, What truth there was in the various rumours purposed to repudiate the Chevalier St. George will never be known.
Louis XIV of France proclaimed him "King James III of England" and King James VIII of Scotland.” He made an unsuccessful attempt to in-.. vade Scotland with a French force and returned seven years later but was driven out, retiring to Rome. He is known in popular history as "the old Pretender."
UMBRELLA HIT BY LIGHTNING
During the previous year, 1888, it had been proclaimed that King James's consort was about to present him with
son, but. for some reason there was spread abroad in the realm suspicion that Her Majesty was about to palm off upon the kingdom a supposititious child. It was a time when all kinds of rumors were rife. To prevent such substitu- tions there was a law requiring that the highest court officials be present during each queen's accouchement. But those whose names were announc- ed as witnesses to the royal baby's
Frances Shaftoe Overheard Their Secret
birth did not command the public con- fidence.
After the return of Sir Theophilus to had at the time hurried to town with
A father and daughter, walking "Some persons who were peculiar- England, there came to his house to her own little son, James, who, being ly entitled to be present and whose help with the sewing a young gentle- only nine days older than the Prince arm in arm, were killed by lightning
who testimony would have satisfied all woman, Frances Shaftoe,
had of Wales, was substituted for him, which struck the woman's umbrella. minds accessible to reason were ab-come of good Northumberland stock. The truth had remained a secret be- Another daughter, who was not touch- sent," wrote Lord Macaulay. Thus Two young ladies who helped her with tween Lady Oglethorpe and the Queening either of them, escaped. was imputed to the King and Queen the sewing were presented to her as and all that the Oglethorpe girls knew This was stated at the Epsom in- their infant quest on Amos Wood, 82, of Dormans- the crime of foisting upon the realm, "friends of Lady Oglethorpe" and the at the time was that
land, Lingfield, and Mrs. Elsie May as heir to the throne, a male child not fact that their identities were cloaked brother had never again been seen. their own-that hapless little Prince, in considerable mystery led to her Realising that Frances Shoftoe shar-Card, 54; of Bucklands-lane, Lower killed while James Francis Edward Stuart, known suspicions. At length she discovered ed the family secret, the Misses Ogle- Kingswood, who were later as the Chevalier St. George. It that they were none other than Annethorpe, taking her to France, osten-crossing a field at Burgh Heath, Sur- was soon after the birth of this little and Eleanor Oglethorpe, who had sibly on a pleasure trip, shut her up rey, on Friday. Prince of Wales who James II had been smuggled
from France in a convent where they thought
A death by lightning stroke was hoped would be his successor that and were now hiding in their father's would be impossible for her to re-recorded. the King had to flee to France, where house that he might escape the pen- veal the fact that James Stuart was at the Court of St. Germain he. gath-alty for harbouring Catholics. After really their brother, James Ogle- ered about him his Jacobite follow- a time Frances Shaftoe, according to thorpe. But, after five years of im- her later revelations, overheard these prisonment, Frances managed to smug- During those troublous times there young women let drop the alleged fact|gle to her mother a letter stating dwelt in England Sir Theophilus that the infant Prince James, whose that she was being held against her Oglethorpe, a brave soldier, who had title to the throne had been so great will and was suffering various in- been brigadier general and principally doubted at the time of his alleged dignities. equerry to James II, and who, after birth, had died at Windsor of con-
ers.
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Dr. E. Gardner said that the light- ning passed from the tip of Mrs. Card's umbrella, where the edge of one of the ribs touched her head, and then passed through her father.
The coroner, Mr. G. Wills Taylor, that because the other remarked daughter was not holding either of As a result, Anne Oglethorpe was their arms she was not touched by
the latter's flight, refused to serve vulsions and that Lady Oglethorpe arrested and imprisoned, but, "hav- the lightning. against him. This refusal caused а
warrant to be issued against Ogle- thorpe on the ground that he was a Jacobite, and he also escaped lo France, although later returning to take the oath of allegiance to King William and to sit in Parliament. Among Oglethorpe's various children were two daughters, Anne and Elean-- or, who, during the family's exile in France, were brought up as Catholies and who befriended the exiled King..
The following story alleged to have been checked and proved at the time was believed by the partisans of Che- valier St. George but vigorously denied by those of King James (the bins):
Kitty
من
Jaco-
I can hear you didn't have your Ovaltine last night
8:2
An optimist is she who awakena with a song on her lips.
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