Page:Genealogical Memoir of the Chase Family.djvu/11



From investigations made by, esq., and the papers of the late, esq.

old story, and one often, though never wholly told, is that which at one time called "Lord Townley's Estate," at another the "Chase Inheritance," ran through our New England press about twenty years since, setting forth with much apparent precision the conditions under which vast landed estates with centuries of accumulated rental awaited the decision of the English Chancery Courts in favor of the lawful heirs of Aquila and Thomas Chase, brothers, who settled in New England soon after the landing of the Pilgrims.

Into the history of this delusion we have not the space, nor is the place to enter, although on some accounts desirable, as there are many respectable people in Massachusetts, shrewd and cautious otherwise in all their dealings, who still declare that there is "something in it,"