little miss austin

Because of Alice's relationship, all newspapers in London except the "London Morning Post" reported this "case".

After the death of the last Baron Leigh, Thomas Leigh inherited Stoneleigh Manor, the ancestral home of the Leigh family, in 1806. Thomas Leigh, like Reverend George, was an Anglican priest.He has no children, and his wife had died a few years ago. When he went to Warwickshire to take over the estate, he went with his cousin Mrs. Austin and her three daughters.

Chandos also went to Stoneleigh Manor with his father, James Henry Leigh.

Chandos was 15 years old at the time, and he admired Byron, thinking he was handsome and straightforward, a beautiful friend, and worthy of association.His father's cousin could play with Byron since he was a child, so he thought Alice's vision was great!

—but it would be better if she stayed with Byron.

He had had a big fight with Byron because of Alice, saying that even though they were friends, he would not forgive him for what he did to Alice.

Mrs. Austen said it was all about money when it came to Chandos.

Mrs. Austen’s elder brother James Leigh, younger brothers Theophilus Leigh and Thomas Leigh are all heirs of Stoneley Manor. The order of succession is based on blood relationship. Their father Thomas Leigh is the youngest son, James Leigh Henry Leigh's grandfather, William Leigh, was Thomas Leigh's eldest brother, so his line of succession came first.

The mother of William Leigh and Thomas Leigh, Mary Bridges, came from the family of the Duke of Chandos and was the sister of the first Duke of Chandos. Chandos Leigh was named after the Duke of Chandos.Mary Bridges had 12 children, some of whom had no offspring or sons, the two of which had boys were William Leigh and Thomas Leigh.

Reverend Thomas Leigh had no children, and his heirs were younger brother James Henry Leigh and his son Chandos Leigh.It would be shameful not to have a hostess in such a large manor, so from 1811, Chandos's mother, Mrs. Julia Judith, became the hostess of Stoneley Manor.

As the intended heir, Chandos has lived a prosperous life in recent years, so he can also lend money to Byron from time to time.

Pastor Thomas Leigh has lived in Stoneleigh Manor for 6 years, and the manor has been unoccupied for 10 years, so after changing the owner, it is ready to be renovated and repaired, and construction started in 1809.During the maintenance of the church family cemetery in Stoneleigh Manor the year before last, it was discovered that there was a tombstone of Christopher Leigh, the son of the first Baron Leigh, on the wall of the cemetery room, which recorded Christopher’s two marriages and his children. , so the question arises, the succession priority of Christopher's descendants is obviously higher than that of William Leigh's sons.

Christopher's descendant is named George Leigh. He has been claiming his right to inherit Stoneley Manor, but because his social status has sunk, Pastor Thomas Leigh and his younger brother have refused to recognize his legitimacy. He has no Money helps yourself to prove your family tree.

Of course, Mrs. Austin also refused to recognize the legal identity of George Leigh. She said that Christopher has been dead for more than 100 years. This should be at least 5 to 6 generations. It can be proved that he is a descendant of Christopher.

Both Cathy and Jane agreed, and Alice also felt that in the era without DNA kinship testing, such a long-term blood relationship, the family tree is not clear, and there is no contact with the previous Baron Leigh family, nor with their distant relatives. It is too unreliable to claim the rights to hundreds of thousands of pounds of family property based on the surname "Leigh".The surname Li is not unique to their family, there are many families with the surname Li.

Besides the family relationship, Pastor Thomas Leigh and the three sisters are the third cousins, and they have a close relationship on a daily basis. The cousin also kindly invited them to come to stay for a short stay. The meaning of a small stay is that the host covers everything, even the travel expenses. It's all covered.

Stoneleigh Manor is really a very large manor, with its own huge garden, pond, and a large woods that can't be seen. Byron came to play for two weeks last winter, and Chandos went hunting with him. .

The suspicion of Chandos’ murder was raised jointly by several local families. The male owners of these families were stonemasons who contracted the repair project of Stoneleigh Church, but after finishing the work, the team of stonemasons disappeared; The tombstones on the walls of the cemetery were removed and were never seen again; a few months later, two local residents claimed to know what had happened to the stonemasons, and they fell into the water one night; Those who claimed that the stonemason's disappearance was connected with the owner of the Stoneleigh estate had been terrorized, directly or indirectly, in the middle of the night.

The oddities have continued to this day, but the local sheriff didn't entertain them until it was claimed that Chandos had murdered the Reverend Thomas Leigh, who died one night in February.

Alice was very interested in these family secrets, but before she could arrange a trip to visit Stoneley Manor again, she suddenly heard that Ivo Gordon and George Byron had gone to Stoneley Manor.

She hurried over too.

After Alice got engaged, as long as she brought enough servants, it would not be a problem to go out to relatives' homes.She went abroad to play for more than two years, and after returning to China, she no longer abides by the lady's rules. Mrs. Austin has learned to ignore it as much as possible.Compared with those married wives and wives who had countless lovers, Alice's little deviant behavior was nothing serious, and few people paid attention to it at all.

Stoneley Manor is near Coventry, and it takes only 4 days to arrive in a carriage.

The last Baron Leigh never married and died of illness at the age of 44.A diagnosed mental patient, he left a complex will in which he donated all of the more than 1000 books in his library to his alma mater, Oriel College, Oxford; he was also an art collector, William Baker When Ford took Susan and Alice around the island a few years ago, he also visited Stoneley Manor.

Stoneley has been continuously built and repaired by several generations of owners, and now it is a magnificent 4-story brick and wood structure house, square and square.The exterior of the manor has been refurbished and a rear wing has been added, and the interior is now being worked on.

When Alice arrived, the butler and the servants greeted her at the main entrance.

"Where's Chandos?" she asked the butler as she got out of the carriage.

"Master, Lord Byron, and Mr. Gordon have gone riding."

She nodded, "Give me a horse too, and I'll run a few miles."

She hurried upstairs and quickly changed into her riding clothes. Jacob accompanied her. They rode halfway and met Chandos and the others.

When the three saw her, they all reined in their horses and slowed down, stepping aside.

Alice didn't stop, flew past Byron, raised the whip, and whipped him.

Chandos was dumbfounded, Ivo bowed his head in joy, and Byron was aggrieved.

"Why did she hit me again? I haven't said anything yet!"

Jacob stopped, "Lord Byron, Mr. Gordon, Master Leigh."

Byron asked, "Is she in a bad mood again?"

Jacob was taken aback, "Miss is in a good mood."

Ivo hurriedly said: "Follow up quickly, tell her not to run far, and come back quickly."

Jacob nodded, grabbed the horse's belly, and quickly caught up.

Back at the manor, Byron took off his shirt, and there was already a red and swollen whip mark on his arm.

He was irritable, "I was beaten hard last time, hasn't she relieved herself yet?"

Ivo snorted and declined to comment.

Chandos laughed, "Maybe you should hide from her."

"Why should I avoid her?" Byron shouted angrily, "If she hates me so much, I will just show up in front of her."

"Come on, are you still a child?" Ivo said bluntly: "You still think about how to ask her to forgive you after meeting her."

"Stingy woman! I don't care whether she forgives me or not. No, I didn't do anything to apologize to her. Why do I ask her to forgive me?!"

"Really?" Alice came in with a whip in her hand, "Are you right?"

"That's right! I have nothing to do with you! You're engaged to Oliver!" he yelled.

"It's not that you have made me lose face, I have no choice but to find someone to get engaged to, otherwise I will be regarded as a woman who was abandoned by you. Only I abandon you, you have no chance to abandon me. "

Byron glared at her angrily, "What did you say?"

"What? Can't you?" She raised her whip.

Byron jumped up. "You crazy woman!"

Alice rolled his eyes rudely, "If I really go crazy, you will never have a chance to see the sun tomorrow morning."

"Alice." Chandos called her, "Are you hungry? You'll have dinner in half an hour."

She pointed at Byron with a whip, "You are not allowed to appear in the restaurant for a while."

Byron looked aggrieved, "I'm hungry too, I want to eat a lot of meat."

She slammed the whip on the back of the chair so violently that it snapped.

"Jacob, go get me another 10 whips and get ready." She threw down the broken whip.

The current hostess of Stoneley Manor is Chandos' father, James Henry Leigh, and Julia Judith is already the official hostess.During dinner, Mr. and Mrs. Leigh sat in the hostess and hostess seats respectively. Byron was the last to enter the dining room. Alice glanced at him, but did not really drive him out with a riding whip.

Henry Leigh is young, born in the same year as Alice's elder brother James Austin, both are 48 years old this year, in the prime of life.In terms of seniority, Henry Leigh is Alice's cousin, and Chandos is her cousin.

Mr. and Mrs. Leigh doted on their beloved son very much. They were never stingy with money and generous to their relatives. They were the eldest son and inherited most of the family's property, but Henry Leigh was the youngest son, that is, the son after inheriting the manor. It took a few months to experience the life of the rich.

Ivo said that Stoneleigh Manor can have a land income of about 5000 to 8000 pounds a year, which is not a lot. The standard income of an ordinary baron will be almost the same after Oliver inherits the estate in the future.Land income will fluctuate due to the instability of the annual harvest, and investment in the industry will also suffer losses, but as long as you invest carefully, it is not a problem to add 1 to 2000 pounds a year.

This income is a huge sum of money for anyone, and Byron's Newstead Manor has not yet received such a large amount of income.

Henry Leigh welcomed the surprise visit of his young cousin, and Julia-Judice was delighted.She has become the official mistress of the estate, and is trying to show her relatives how happy she is now!

Chandos is believed to be involved in the death of Reverend Thomas Leigh because Thomas Leigh called Chandos to his room the night before, and Thomas Leigh died the next morning.Stoneleigh Manor soon held a funeral, and the estate was handed over to Henry Leigh.

This accusation was considered to be framed, and Chandos was very angry, but he was not in a hurry. The Li family was a big local landowner, and almost all the surrounding land belonged to the Li family. The local sheriff was originally the last generation of Baron Lee, who passed away. After that, a new magistrate was appointed, who was also familiar with the Li family.

Alice also believes that killing a 79-year-old man is completely unnecessary. Thomas Leigh has no children. Chandos will be the master of Stoneleigh Manor in the future. Thomas Leigh also loves his young nephew very much. Money has never been a problem. There was no need for Chandos to attack an old man who would die at any time.

Thomas Leigh also has a good relationship with his younger brother and sister-in-law, otherwise Julia Judith would not be in charge of Stoneleigh Manor, so murder is unnecessary, Henry Leigh's family of three just need to wait for him to naturally Death is all right.

Ivo basically agrees with Alice. The death of Pastor Thomas Leigh is not in dispute, it is a natural death.

Speaking of George Leigh, Alice said that the Austin family felt that George Leigh had no way to prove his genealogy, unable to prove that he was a descendant of Christopher Leigh, and the rights he claimed were not supported.

Both Ivo and Byron agree.

The husband of Mary Bridges, Theophilus Leigh, was a cousin of the first Baron Leigh. The family tree of Theophilus Leigh's ancestors and descendants is very clear, as long as the Baron Leigh family has no descendants who can be identified , Henry Leigh's succession is not in doubt.

Chandos loathes George Leigh. "This is a nasty fly! Once you feel that you can have a relationship with the Li family, you want to get the right to inherit the inheritance."

"Then is he a descendant of Christopher?" Alice asked.

"First of all, you have to know that in order to prove his legal status, he must have a legal marriage certificate from each generation of direct ancestors under Christopher. This should be available in the local church." Chandos said for her Explain, "There must also be baptism records for each generation of direct ancestors. Without these documents, it is not enough for anyone to claim rights? How then?"

Alice pondered, in the era without DNA testing, it can only be proved from the records.A marriage certificate indicates the legality of the marriage. If the marriage is illegal, the offspring can only be illegitimate children, and illegitimate children have no right to inherit family property. For example, Byron’s illegitimate son Monk does not even have the right to have the same surname as his father; in this era Women don’t go to the hospital to give birth, they still give birth at home, so there is no birth certificate, only baptism in the church after birth, the pastor will record in the diary of the day, the newborn of a certain couple on a certain day Baptism in this church.

Therefore, if the date of birth of many people in later generations does not have more detailed family documents or letters, it can only be marked with the date of baptism. Baptism is not necessarily a few days after birth. Some children may not be baptized until several months old. .

"So George Leigh doesn't have these papers?"

"Yes. Christopher has been dead for more than 100 years, and the church records may be lost. So the reason why Uncle Stoneley inherited Baron Leigh 10 years after his death is because of George Leigh."

Alice came to a sudden.When she came to Stoneleigh in 1806, she was only a girl of sixteen and a half years old, and she could not have thought of this at all.

George Leigh may indeed be a descendant of Christopher Leigh, but he can't produce enough proof documents, so it's okay.Besides, more than 100 years is about 4 to 5 generations. According to the ratio of 10% of legitimate children are the cubs of the old Wang next door, it is uncertain whether George Li is still of the Li family.

"Then why are the villagers saying that Henry removed Christopher's tombstone in the cemetery?"

"Because they are bored. You must know that we are 'outsiders'. We had nothing to do with Baron Lee and had very little contact with Baron Lee. Baron Lee has been ill for many years and can't manage many things. Although there is a treasurer, but He is not the real owner, and many tenants often only pay half of the land rent."

Alice was surprised, "It turns out that it is like this—" Thinking about it, Baron Lee is a mental patient, and he must not be able to manage the property himself. All tenants are like this. If you can pay less, you will never want to pay the rent honestly. Once one person starts, others will follow.The treasurer can't do anything to these people, at most, he just asks them to pay more. After all, the tenants don't pay the land rent, and you can't break into someone's house and drag their daughter and kid away to pay off the debt.

Moreover, the villagers are bored, so they have nothing to do at night. They can only be busy making people. Once a big event such as a fight for inheritance happens in the landlord's family, of course they will be very excited to spread all kinds of reliable and unreliable rumors.

Chandos did not directly answer whether he had removed the tombstone, and Alice felt that his family should have really done such a thing.It is hard to say how to deal with this matter. In fact, as long as George Leigh does not give up his claim on the inheritance, Henry Leigh will be accused of everything.The removal of the tombstone may have been done to destroy the evidence, or to dispel George Leigh's delusions.

The disappearance of the stonemasons is indeed very suspicious, but there is no physical evidence, that is, the level of "legendary", and the local sheriff ignores it.

Alice thought that what the local sheriff did was not wrong. After all, there was no evidence, so what else?Even if Henry Leigh and Chandos wanted to kill people, they couldn't do it themselves, and the villagers couldn't tell which servant from Stoneley Manor was involved in the murder, so they couldn't relate these disappearances and murders to the Li family. people connected together.

So this incident became a "headless case". The local villagers believed that the new owner of Stoneley Manor murdered the stonemasons and other insiders, but they could not produce conclusive evidence; They are all troublemakers, including George Leigh.

Alice, Ivo, and Byron went to see the cemetery of Stoneleigh Church.The cemetery is the family cemetery of the Leigh family, where family members from the first Baron Leigh are buried.The coffins of the first Baron Lee and his sons were placed in the tomb in the center of the cemetery, with their own tombstones on the walls, and some of the tombstones next to the coffins were missing.

There is a stale smell in the cemetery, the smell of underground soil that has not seen sunlight for more than 200 years.Stoneley Manor has been the residence of the Leigh family since the mid-16th century. There are several tombs in the cemetery, and there are many tombstones of different sizes around the tombs. If you come here at night, it can really scare people to death.

The cemetery is where the ancestors of the Leigh family are buried, including those of Alice's great-grandfather Theophilus Leigh.

There are also the graves of wives and children who died young, densely packed, and some tombstones have been dumped.

Chandos frowned, and ordered the servant to find someone to straighten the tombstone and refill the soil under the tombstone.

Alice thought that she had been to the family cemetery at Newton Manor, where Oliver's mother, Mrs. Gemma had been paid respects; to the family cemetery at Gordon Mansion, where Ivo's parents had been paid respects; to the Gordon family's family cemetery at Winchester. It's not too big, and it's only been used since Ivo's grandfather's generation; the family cemetery of the Bundfield family is like the family cemetery of the Li family, full of tombstones at a glance.

Oliver had told her on the night of the engagement ball that she would not be buried with him when she died unless she married him.In order to solve this problem, he went to the family lawyer to make a will. If he died before getting married, all his personal property would be handed over to his fiancée Alice Austin, and the place of burial after death would also be decided by his fiancée. The only condition for getting his inheritance is that she be buried with him after she dies.

So, in fact, he is also afraid of dying on the battlefield, right?

Listening to him calmly talk about the arrangements after death is quite surreal.Alice also calmly agreed, and neither of them felt that there was anything wrong with discussing the afterlife on the night of their engagement.

She thought, compared to Ivo's innocence and Byron's scumbag, Oliver is actually the most suitable man for her in every sense.

"What are you thinking?" Ivo asked her suddenly.

"I'm thinking—whether it's better for me to be buried in the family cemetery of the Bundfield family or in the family cemetery of the Austin family. I want to be buried near my parents."

Ivo was taken aback, "Why do you—"

Byron frowned, "Are you thinking too early?"

"No, in life, you should think of everything you need to think, so that if something happens in the future, you won't make a mess. Speaking of which, I should also make a will."

The author has something to say: *Stoneley Manor is said to be a prototype for a site in Mansfield Park.Jane Austen lived in Stoneleigh Manor with her mother and sister for a period of time in 1806.

*The Stoneley Manor Murders have been written by a Jane fan Judy Stove in a book about the incident, "The Missing Monument Murders The Missing Mo Murders", which is only available in English.

【The Missing Monument Murders is a dark tale of power, wealth, dark deeds and conspiracy. In 1806 Jane Austen's relative, the Reverend Thomas Leigh, entered the sprawling estate and the mood of the Leigh/Austen family was rapturous.But within a few years, strange events were the talk of the district: the removal and destruction of monuments in village churches, cheating, extortion and the eviction of tenants who dared to speak about the incident.The family has even been accused of murder to protect their estate. 】

*Stoneley House is now open for tours, along with Jane Austen tours.

*The level of naming by the British is really amazing, there are many people with the same name in a family.

*In other words, Mary Bridges and Theophilusley are the grandparents of Jane Austen's mother, and the grandparents of Chandosley's grandfather, and Jane Austen and Chandosley are related by cousin and nephew.