A
writ of error was at once lodged on the other side, but on appeal the
judgment of the Court below was affirmed. Immediately after the trial
and verdict, the claimant petitioned his Majesty for his seat in the
Houses of Peers of both kingdoms; but delay after delay took place,
and he finally became so impoverished that he could no longer
prosecute his claims.

James Annesley was twice married; but although he had a son by each
marriage, neither of them grew to manhood. He died on the 5th of
January 1760.

CAPTAIN HANS-FRANCIS HASTINGS, CLAIMING TO BE EARL OF HUNTINGDON.

The earldom of Huntingdon was granted by King Henry VIII. to George,
Lord Hastings, on the 8th of November 1529. The first peer left five
sons, of whom the eldest succeeded to the title on his father's
decease; but notwithstanding the multiplicity of heirs-male, and the
chances of a prolonged existence, the title lapsed in 1789, on the
death of Francis, the tenth earl, who never was married.

In 1817, there was living at Enniskillen, in Ireland, an ordnance
store-keeper called Captain Hans-Francis Hastings, and this gentleman
there made the acquaintance of a solicitor named Mr. Nugent Bell, who,
like himself, was ardently devoted to field-sports. The friendship
subsisting between the pair was of the closest kind; and it having
been whispered about that the captain had made a sort of side-claim to
the earldom of Huntingdon, Mr. Bell questioned him about the truth of
the rumour. As it turned out, the circumstantial part of the story was
totally false; but it nevertheless was a fact that Captain Hastings
had a faint idea that he had some right to the dormant peerage.
However, as he said himself, he had been sent early to sea, had been
long absent from his native country, and had little really valuable
information as to his family history. He said that his uncle, the Rev.
Theophilus Hastings, rector of Great and Little Leke, had always
endeavoured to impress upon him that he was the undoubted heir to the
title, and that fourteen years previously he had himself so far
entertained the notion as to pay a visit to College of Arms in London,
to learn the proper steps to be taken to establish his claim; but that
when he was told that the cost of the process would be at least three
thousand guineas, he abandoned all notion of legal proceedings, which
were simply impossible because of his scanty resources. Mrs. Hastings,
who was present during the con