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Title: W. J. C. Allen, Belfast to W. W. Montgomery, U.S.A.
ID439
CollectionIrish Emigration Database
FileCampbell Allen, William John/54
Year1860
SenderCampbell Allen, William J.
Sender Gendermale
Sender Occupationbusinessman
Sender Religionunknown
OriginBelfast, N.Ireland
DestinationAugusta, Georgia, USA
RecipientMontgomery, W.W.
Recipient Gendermale
Relationshipbusiness
SourceD 1558/1/1/213: Papers of William John Campbell Allen Depositedby F.D.Campbell Allen.
ArchiveThe Public Record Office, N. Ireland.
Doc. No.9802450
Date18/02/1860
Partial Date
Doc. TypeLTE
LogDocument added by LT, 09:02:98.
Word Count441
Genre
Note
TranscriptFaunoran, Greenisland
Belfast February 18 1860

Dear Sir,
I have to apologise for not sending an
earlier reply to your letter of December 6th. but I have
been very much occupied so as to be prevented from
giving the matter consideration.
It appears to me that there are insurpassable difficulties
in the way of your making good any claim to the property in
Tandragee. In the first place the deed of which you send me
a copy appears never to have been registered, and as your
great grandfather remained in possession when your
grandfather left Ireland, the former or some one
obtaining possession through or under him has
very likely, in the long series of years which has
since elapsed, dealt with the property by a deed duly
registered, and the claimant under such a
deed, not having notice if its prior indictment, could not
be disturbed by anyone claiming under the deed of 1778. To
ascertain whether any such deed has been executed would be
attended with very heavy expense. In the next place, the
Statutes of Limitation are a complete ban on your recovering
possession.
I say this was the supposition that your grandfather had
received the rents of these premises during his lifetime
but that he died more than twenty years ago: the period of
limitation in such cases fixed by Stat.[Statute?] 3 & 4
Will [William?] 4. c.27 for according to your letter,
as I understand it, no one since his death, claiming
through him, has either been in
possession of the premises or received the rents issuing
thereat. Under the provisions of the above [---d?] act;
the time [---?] of [---?] the claim set even though he be
[----?] And even though your grandfather had continued in
receipt of the rents up to the time of his death, and that that
was had occurred less than twenty years ago, still I do
not think that you as an American citizen could recover the
premises in question.
It is no doubt true that the son of a British subject born
in a foreign country has, under certain circumstances, been
held to be entitled to the priviliges of a British subject:
but it would be a strong proposition to contend that the
same priviliges should continue to descend through all
generations, no one of which had from the time of the first
emigration of their ancestor ever returned to Great Britain or
done any act to show that they had not intended to settle and
become citizens of the country in which they dwelt.
Such a dictum would be attended with great inconvenience,
and could not I think be maintained.
Letter of W. W. Montgomery
Auga [Augusta?] Gra [Georgia?] & my reply
as to property in Tandragee
Dec. 6. 1859