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From: <>
Subject: [EDWARDS-L] Edwards Estate
Date: Sat, 2 Jan 1999 13:58:06 EST

Hi all - Since there has been so much interest in the Edwards Heirs I
thought I would forward on the following article which is reprinted from THE
COURIER-JOURNAL, Louisville, KY., August 15, 1895, issue ( I am getting this
reprint
from THE EDWARDS JOURNAL Vol. 1, No. 1 dated Jan-Mar, 1983 ) It's a very
long article so I'll have to do it in pieces.

EDWARDS ESTATE

The story of the Edwards estate in New York was revived yesterday by a
dispatch which appeared in the Courier-Journal. A letter had been received by
Mayor Strong, of New York, from L> D> Miller of Bradyville, Tenn., inquiring
if a suit had been filed against the city for a settlement. He said in the
letter that a lady of Louisville had written him that a compromise had been
effected with the city for half the claim, the total of which is
$2,500,000,000. He said in the letter that the lady had agreed to file his
claim against the estate for $100. He asked for information about the matter.

It is well known that Mrs. W. T. Leachman, the wife of Dr. W. T.
Leachman, is the claimant of the estate from Louisville. She says she is the
nearest heir to the estate, that she was the great frand-daughter of Robert
Edwards, who by grants from King George acquired eighty-six acres of land in
what is now the most valuable part of New York city. A nephew of Robert
Edwards leased the land to New York for a term of eighty years, which lease
has now run out, she says, and the heirs now claim that the land should revert
to them.

Mrs. Leachman said last night that the lease expired about four years
age. She learned of the estate and that she was an heir from Mr. M>S>
Edwards,of South Carolina, who was also a direct descendant of Robert Edwards.
M> S> Edwards was looking through an old Hair trunk belonging to his
grandfather after the latter was dead and in the search found a number of
valuable documents which told among other things where the papers showing that
a lease had been made could be found. The lease, the papers said, was in one
of the English courts. He lost no time in gathering together money and going
over to England. He made a thorough search and his zeal was rewarded by the
discovery of the documents. These and other documents beaaring on the case he
brought to America and went to work on the case from this side. He was within
six months of getting together all the data on which to bring suit or with
which to force a compromise when he died. Mrs. Leachman said his experiences
during his search were varied and costly. After he deposited the documents in
one of the New York courts and went back to consult them he was startled to
learn that they had been stolen. Threemen who lived in Canada, one of whom
claimed to be an heir, it was asserted, had purloined the valuable papers.
They went into the Clerk's office to look over the records, and while he was
busied about something else one of them tore the records out of the book. A
handy Scotchman was peeping in at the door at the time and saw the man as he
tore the leaf from the book and shoved it hastily into his inside pocket.

There is much more to this story and I will try to get it typed up if this
will be of interest.

Let me know - Carol

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