him home to England.  He arrived in October 1741.  His uncle Richard had in the meantime succeeded, through default of issue, to the honours of Anglesea, as well as those of Altham, and became seriously alarmed at the presence of this pretender on English soil.  At first he asserted that the claimant, although undoubtedly the son of his deceased brother, was the bastard child of a kitchen wench.  He next tried to effect a compromise with him, and subsequently endeavoured to procure his conviction on a charge of murder.  It is also said that assassins were hired to kill him.  But it is certainly true that Annesley having accidentally shot a man near Staines, the Earl of Anglesea spared neither pains nor money to have him condemned.  He was tried at the Old Bailey, and being acquitted by the jury, proceeded to Ireland to prosecute his claim to the Altham estates.  On his arrival at Dunmain and New Ross, he was very warmly received by many of the peasantry.  His first attempt to secure redress was by an action at law.  An action for ejectment was brought in the Court of Exchequer in Ireland for a small estate in the county of Meath, and a bill was at the same time filed in the Court of Chancery of Great Britain for the recovery of the English estates.

In Trinity term 1743, when everything was ready for a trial at the next ensuing assizes, a trial at bar was appointed on the application of the agents of the Earl of Anglesea.  The case began on the 11th of November 1743, at the bar of the Court of Exchequer in Dublin, being, as is noted in Howell’s State Trials, “the longest trial ever known, lasting fifteen days, and the jury (most of them) gentlemen of the greatest property in Ireland, and almost all members of parliament.”  A verdict was found for the claimant, with 6d. damages and 6d. costs.  A writ of error was at once lodged on the other side, but on appeal the judgment of the Court below was affirmed.  Immediately after the trial and verdict, the claimant petitioned his Majesty for his seat in the Houses of Peers of both kingdoms; but delay after delay took place, and he finally became so impoverished that he could no longer prosecute his claims.

James Annesley was twice married; but although he had a son by each marriage, neither of them grew to manhood.  He died on the 5th of January 1760.

CAPTAIN HANS-FRANCIS HASTINGS, CLAIMING TO BE EARL OF HUNTINGDON.

The earldom of Huntingdon was granted by King Henry VIII. to George, Lord Hastings, on the 8th of November 1529.  The first peer left five sons, of whom the eldest succeeded to the title on his father’s decease; but notwithstanding the multiplicity of heirs-male, and the chances of a prolonged existence, the title lapsed in 1789, on the death of Francis, the tenth earl, who never was married.