From the Morning Leader, 20 May 1908:
“AN OCTOGENARIAN HEIRESS
STRANGE ROMANCE OF AN IRISH FORTUNE
DEVON COTTAGER OF 89 COMES INTO ESTATES WORTH 13,000 POUNDS A YEAR
The big Magan heir-at-law case has come to an abrupt ending in the Irish Courts.
By consent of all the contending parties, Mrs. Joel Bartlett, aged 89, of the Cot, Branscombe, South Devon, is declared the lawful heiress to the Magan estates worth 13,000 pounds a year, Captain Magan, who had been two years in possession as heir, yielding to her claim.
The search for the heiress makes a romantic story in the telling.
It appears that a Miss Magan, dying at an advanced age, left her property, consisting of 13,000 pounds a year in land and 8,000 pounds in securities, to ‘my heir or heiress at law.’
She was eccentric, and her will was not found for some time after her death, when it was discovered in a heap of rubbish at her residence.
Captain Magan entered into possession as heir at law to the landed property, but matters came to light which threw doubt on his title.
Mr McCredy, the solicitor for the executors, searched records of the navy, and found that Mrs Bartlett’s father, Arthur Magan, was in that service as a midshipman in 1814. He also found that in 1840 his daughter, the present heiress, was married in Brighton to a naval surgeon, and was divorced the same year.
Search was made in Somerset House for a record of her death, but, as no trace of it could be found, it was presumed that she was still alive, and a further discovery was made that she married a second time in 1854, her husband being John Rofe, who lived at Sutton-Grove, North Carshalton, Surrey.
The lady was then traced to Devonshire, and at last Mr McCredy succeeded in locating her at the Cot, Branscombe, where she was living with her third husband, Mr Joel Bartlett.
Her claim to the estate was then set up. A big ‘Bar’ was engaged on her behalf, and on that of Captain Magan. The claim was found to be irresistible, and a consent acknowledging her title was handed into court.
A ‘Morning Leader’ representative was the first to convey the news of her victory to Mrs Bartlett last evening.
Going over to Branscombe from Sidmouth he was met by her landlady, Mrs Thomas Bartlett, who announced that Mrs Joel Bartlett had just retired.
She was pleased, but not excited or surprised, to hear of her good fortune. She knew the case was coming off that day, and had fully expected to win.
Although 89 years old, Mrs Bartlett looks younger, and evidently feels younger, for only yesterday she had been for a good walk. She lives in a charming old fashioned little cottage, with an orchard (now brilliant with apple blossom) attached.
Until recently she had walked to Sidmouth to church every Sunday morning.
Before the case started Mrs Bartlett was sure she was the rightful heiress, but did not think it worth while, at her advanced age, to go to law. She has one married daughter, however, and it is said that this fact was largely responsible for her setting up the claim.”
The very young Robert McCredy, who had only been admitted as a solicitor in Trinity Term 1906, received compliments all round as a result of his extraordinary, and successful, search for Mrs Bartlett. Mr McCredy practised in Manorhamilton, County Leitrim until the mid-1930s when he took up residence in Enniskillen and built up a lucrative practice there. His obituary in the Fermanagh Herald of 25 November 1950 states that
“[a]s a sportsman, he had few equals. As a ‘shot’ he was noted throughout the countryside, and did much towards the preservation of game in the area. He was also a keen angler. Up to the commencement of the World War No 2., he never missed travelling to England to see the Australian cricket teams play. But it was as a concert artist that he will be especially remembered in Manorhamilton. Few concert bills were ever complete without the genial ‘Bob’… as a singer of Percy French songs, he was in a class of his own, and he won the competitions in this class at Sligo Feis Ceoil on numerous occasions.”
In an era before online digital searching, this must have been a Herculean task involving Holmesian detective work on the English Riviera. I hope the multi-talented ‘Bob’ McCredy managed to fit in a few cricket matches for his pains!
As for the eccentric Augusta Magan, the testatrix whose will set Mr McCredy off on the hunt for Mrs Bartlett, there is a wonderful account of her life, and photographs of one of her properties, here. Highly recommended!
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