By G. Poulett Scrope, Esq., M.P. 



55 



To this statement is appended a detailed Pedigree of the claim- 

 ant and an abstract of the " Proofs " which he is prepared to adduce 

 in support of the different points of his case. 1 



It may be presumed that the claimant will have little difficulty 

 in proving the three first points of his case viz : — 



I. The creation of the Earldom of Wiltes in the person of Sir 

 William Scrope, " to be held by him and his heirs male for ever." 



II. That the said Earl was the eldest son of the first Lord 

 Scrope of Bolton by Isabel his wife, sister of the Earl of Suffolk, 

 and that he died without issue in the life-time of his Father. 



III. That Sir Roger Scrope, second son and heir to the said 

 first Lord Scrope of Bolton was next heir to the said Earl of 

 Wiltes. 



And further we may assume the correctness of the Pedigree 

 produced by Mr. Simon Thomas Scrope, which makes him to 

 represent in direct and continuous male line the said Sir Roger. 



It is evident, however, that the pinching question will remain 

 as the cardinal point of the whole case, whether the " affirmation 

 of the judgment against the Earl of Wiltes by the first Parliament 

 of Henry TV., within two months of his execution, entered upon 

 the Rolls of Parliament (printed copy vol. iii. p. 453) is or is not 

 to be considered an act of attainder, and consequently to have 

 caused a true forfeiture of the title." 



" On the part of the claimant it is argued that it is not, as it 

 (the entry) contains no express attainder or forfeiture of this dignity : 

 the law being that in order to forfeit a Peerage in tail, there must 

 either be a valid conviction of high treason, or an act of attainder 

 and deprivation, striking at the dignity by name. In this case, 

 the execution of the Earl at Bristol, by the Duke of Lancaster, 



1 It may be noticed here that Mr. S. T. Scrope descends from John Scrope of 

 Hameldon, second son of the sixth Lord Scrope of Bolton, whose eldest son 

 Henry married an heiress of Conyers of Danby on Yore, Yorkshire, where this 

 branch of the Scropes has ever since resided ; and that his claim arising from 

 the extinction of all male heirs of the subsequent five Lords Scrope of the elder 

 branch has no affinity to the right to the dormant barony of Scrope of Bolton, 

 which is supposed by Sir Harris Nicolas to be vested in a family of the name 

 of Jones as representing, through females, Sir Henry, ninth Baron Scrope of 

 Bolton. 



