The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 22, 1927, Page 8

The Story of Trinity Corporation if ese marry a black man and im that way get my divorce from the husband you chose for me!” If Anneke Webber had not uttered those defiant words some three centuries ago, her father, Wolfert Webber, Holland’s famous merchant king, would not have found it necessary to leave his persona) for- tune of twenty million pounds “to the seventh gener- ation of Webber heirs,” a certain Protestant church in New York would not have found it necessary to “borrow” for religions purposes the major portion of the trust fund, then in the hands of the govern- ment of Holland, and last but by no means least, a large number of Webber descendants, all members of the great Caucasian race, would not now be plac- ing difficult obstacles in the path of settlement of the century old Trinity Corporation dispute because of fears that the story of the famous Dutch princess’ marriage would lower the par value of their stock fm the social market. The foregoing paragraph, briefly, is the whole why and wherefore ef the mystery underlying the rather eomplicated question of Trinity Corporation’s strange quarrel to retain the vast property interests fm the most valuable section of the city of New York. The church, in so far as its own interest in the matter was concerned, would long ago have clear- ed itself of whatever blame attached to its steward- ship of the fabulously rich holdings in the very heart of the world’s richest city. But for certain pow- erful descendants of the Webber family, a number of whom are registéred in the Royal Blue Book of Great Britain,,and who stood in mertal dread lest disclosure of Anneke’s marriage to a black man would bring disgrace upon their heads, Trinity’s holdings, now known to have originated with funds obtained from Wolfert Webber’s strange bequest, would have returned to the Holland government, the origina] trustee. The world would not now know the true facts of this absorbing story but for one man, William -Web- ber Easton, a direct descendant of Anneke Webber by a marriage susequent to the black man iticident, and who gave four years of painstaking study as his contribution to an amicable settlement of the case. One of the strange discoveries made by Easton in the course of his researches was that the Edwards- Jans group of litigants have no claim upon the Tri- nity property, Edwards having been merely a captain of a merchant ship that belonged to Webber and the Jans sdlaimoresting; on no more secure foundation than that their sire was associated in a small way with Holland’s merchant prince, Only recently, after marshalling all the facts that resulted from his investigations and proving by his. knowledge of the case that the best course for Trin- Ky Corporation lay in the settlement of the old dis- pute, did Easton dare to confide any of the intimate details of his findings to outsiders. “It was luck almost from the very beginning that fed me on my course,” Easton explains. “When ene goes after his share of @ six billion dollar for- tune—that’s what Trinity Corporation is worth to- @ay—one mustn’t expect too much. In my case I had the rare good fortune to be in on the ground foor—my mother was a Webber—but even then four years passed before I had assembled all the facts pf what had been a deep mystery. “aw hy has ‘the fact of Anneke’s black marriage “ been suppressed so long—it all happened in the six- feenth century? Why has its suppression brought wealth and power to scores of undeserving persons? Well, for one thing, foolish pride. Many Webbers tre members of the English and Dutch nobility and these kept the fact secret as an alternative to social bankruptcy—a sort of nigger in the wood pile. “It was a romantic search and not without its dan- gers. If the full story of Trinity Corporation's de- fense of its fortune is ever made known it will con- tein many chapters of stark tragedy. Men engaged fm the task of penetrating the cloud of mystery have fisappeared as if swallowed by the sea and as I fearned of these things I confess that I was uneasy gm more than one occasion. “When one tampers with facts that may result in Bocial ruin for some old world aristocrat, it is best to look under the bed before retiring at.night. My quest led me to some out of the way places where it would have been the easiest thing in the world to wid an obscure person like myself, not merely of his @uriosity but his life as well, and I had to think twice before speaking with suspicious strangers. “I want to say at the outset that the so-called Bdwards-Jans faction seeking contro] of Trinity's holdings have not the remotest legal claims to the property. It is all Webber wealth founded with Wol- tert Webber’s money and left with the Dutch gov. ernment as trustee as a legacy ‘to the heirs in the geventh generation when the blood shall run clean,’ Old Webber, canny as » Scot, schemed fn vain and Qis crafty plan to leave his wealth just beyond reach of his daughter’s hand went for naught. Anneke, who was easily a match for her father in wits, suc- ceeded in getting a part of the estate. “My interest in the Trinity litigation was roused by a chance incident. ed a tradition in my family that some day its mem- bers would become wealthy. When my mother, Emily Webber, was 19, her grandfather, a native of Devonshire, England, told her that if she married the Webber name must always remain in the family. “Ht did not oceur to any of our relatives that the tradition of ‘money in the family’ involved the claim to an estate of six billion dollars in the heart of New York City and until] 1922 after I_had married and had reared a family I did not realize the full im- port of my ancestor’s words. “On the morning of August 29, 1922, I was in a restaurant in Winnipeg and while waiting for my portion of bacon and eggs glanced at the morning paper. My eye was caught by a statement about the Dutch government being asked to decide between claimants of a two million dollar estate left to the descendants in the seventh generation of Wolfert Webber. The name ‘Webber’ at once intrigued my notice and I telegraphed my mother in Toronto ask- ing if-we were of the same family. “My mother’s answer was: ‘Wolfert Webber was our ancestor.’ From that moment I was as if bound by a spell and I felt that I must learn more about the case than the meager tradition left by my mother’s grandfather. “I went almost at once to the Dutch consul and through him communicated with the Dutch govern- ment and asked if they had any further information. The news item had pointed out that the money in question had accrued from ‘Webber's estate in the Dutch East Indies and that the wealth had been left in trust with the Dutch government, “The Dutch government replied that a final settle- ment was issued in 1711. I was not satisfied with such a curt answer and after probing further got a letter in Dutch from the state department of Hol- land that the ‘last definite statement was issued in 1711.’ From ‘definite’ to ‘final’ was a great distance and I at once determined to conduct a thorough in- vestigation. “The Webbers, I learned, had left Holland and settled. in England and I felt that if some of these could be communicated with I might learn if I had a legal claim to the estate of Wolfert Webber, held in trust by Holland. Accordingly I addressed myself to Somerset House, the registration bureau of rec- ords, deeds and land titles, enclosing fee to cover * the cost of inquiry. “ “My astonishment can well be imagined when my fee was returned together with the surprising state- ment that the government had no power to make the records public. The reply, however, pointedly intimated that upon personal application to England and upon submitting proof that I. was the person I represented myself to be the records I sought might become available, “A fortunate circumstance at this moment en- abled me to make considerable progress in my in- vestigation. My son, Arthur Webber Easton, then ‘employed in Winnipeg, confided my expectations of wealth to a friend. The latter replied by declaring that his aunt, Mrs. W. H. Ward, was even then on her way to New York in search of some money left under conditions similar to the Webber provisions. “Not wishing to let even a remote possibility of success slip by me, I met Mrs, Ward and found to my amazement that the New York estate and the Dutch legacy .were identical. She said she had heard that ‘distant’ parties to the suit were Webbers and upon further investigating this clew I was con- vinced that the much-disputed Trinity Corporation property and the Hdwards-Jang claims, together with several other issues, were really one and the same thing. Later, of course, I learned that the Webbers alone were the legal heirs to all the property under discussion. “IT called a meeting of all the Webber heen and laid ‘before them what facts I had, They chose me spokesman and sent me to New York to. negotiate For many decades there exist- with the Trinity Corporation representatives, “In New York I got information that man named Alvin O, Edwards had been found dead on the streets a year before, Paperg found on his person proved he had come to the city to conduct investiga- tions similar to mine. ‘The coroner said he had died from heart failure. Well, maybe it wag heart fail- ure. When a fortune of six billion dollars is at stake one life more or less matters little. Neverthe- less, it was a lesson in caution and I took it in just that light. I determined not to die of heart failure. “I went to a well known firm of lawyers for ad- vice. They told me it was common knowledge that the Trinity Corporation had no title to the estate except a royal grant from Queen Anne. I got busy and got a chance to examine the grant. It was then in the hands of a firm of contractors, employed by the corporation for some work on the estate but whe would not go on with the job unless they had the grant in their hands as security. I made a careful copy of the boundaries of the property and after a personal inspection of the land I was astonished to find that the grant embraced but a third of the land held by the corporation. “Subsequently I discovered that it had been the custom of the corporation’s counsel to wave the grant in the face of claimants to the property so that they went home bluffed. The grant, after my comparison of the holdings with the description in the document, meant nothing to me, so I stayed longer than my predecessors. I looked the ground over almost an inch at a time and made Trinity's attorneys uneasy. It is needless to say that every avenue of information was closed to me after this and after pursuing my inquiries as far as was pos- sible I returned to Toronto, reporting my findings to a second meeting of the Webber heirs. “My next step was to get positive proof of my descent from Webber. I wrote to Holland and Eng- land for information about the Webbers from their very beginning and the replies was a steel engrav- ing, an autographed photograph of Lady Adelaide Webber, mother of Samuel Webber, my mother’s great grandfather, born in Oakhampton, England} in 1783. Until the receipt of this picture we had been unable to learn of Samuel Webber’s antece- dents and with this picture in my hands I had post- tive proof of my descent from the old Dutch nobility, Lady Webber was descended from William ‘Webber, ° brother of Wolfert Webber, “Luck was with me in my investigations from this point forward. By rare good fortune I met an individual—Mr, Blank, I will call him—who present- ed me with a copy of the Webber family tree and I was able to verify my findings concerning my de- scent from Lady Adelaide Webber. Having so much information in my possession was not enough, for I wished to have positive ‘corroboration from other in- dependent sources before presenting myself again to the heads of Trinity Corporation. “I therefore advertised in Engtish papers for rela- tives and this act brought me to the climax of my search. It wag a climax such as I would never have. permitted my thoughts to contemplate even in a moment of romantic fancy and resulted also in a whirlwind change of attitude on the part of ‘Trin- ity’s representatives. “Among the replies to my advertisement was & letter from the widow of a cousin, also a Webber, and after a brief correspondence I learned from her the 7: whole secret underlying the Webber mystery. ‘This relative it was who told me of the marriage of An- neke Webber to a black man, T quote from one | her letters: ‘Anneke married a black—this is ‘the whole trouble and the reason the money was lef ' in such fashion. Her father requested the money should not be inherited until the blood ran clean, which would be the seventh generation.’ “Por proof of the story my cousin’s widow has a tablet on which is engraved Wolfert’s charge to the Dutch government relative to his fortune of twenty million pounds. Subsequently I learned the story in greater detail, Wolfert Webber, it seems, was, anxious to consolidate his fortune in his East Indian possessions and hit on the scheme of marrying off his daughter to William Webber, a cousin and promi- nent shareholder in the company. “Anneke, however, had ambitions of her own. Her uncle was William of Orange and she realized that by marrying outside of her rank would forfeit her claim to the English throne, Old Wolfert, her father, was obstinate and insisted that she become the wife of his-cousin, the wealthy shareholder in the Dutch colonial ventures. So, to get her husband to diyorce her, Anneke married a black servant of her father’s while on a visit to the East Indies, “Wolfert’s rage upon receiving word of his daughier’s act can well be imagined, Although fate intervened and removed both of Anneke's husbands (Continued on page 3)