S.F. contractor loses claim as Duke of Leinster to gardener
Decades of controversy over the right to one of the grandest aristocratic titles in the British Isles has finally been settled, after the Lord Chancellor ruled in favour of a gardener instead of a builder.
Paul Fitzgerald, the Californian head of a construction company, claimed that he was the rightful 9th Duke of Leinster, an Irish title granted by George III in 1766. But Lord Falconer of Thoroton decided that the title should remain with Maurice FitzGerald, whose father inherited the title in 1976.
The title brings a great deal of history but no wealth. The Leinster family built Maynooth Castle, the Palladian mansion at Carton in Co Kildare, and Leinster House, now the home in Dublin of the Irish Parliament. But the family’s vast estates, granted at the time of the Norman invasion, and its stately homes were sold, some to pay the gambling debts of Edward, the 7th duke, who was declared bankrupt three times.
The dispute arose after the death of the 8th duke, Gerald FitzGerald, in 2004. Maurice, his eldest son, lodged a claim with the Crown Office to prove his succession.
But Paul Fitzgerald, the 40-year-old pretender to the title from San Francisco, lodged a competing claim based upon his assertion that the 5th duke’s middle son, Desmond, had not died in the First World War, as previously thought. He had emigrated to Canada, where he established a new line of the family, and was entitled to inherit when his elder brother died in 1922.
Read entire article at Times (of London)
Paul Fitzgerald, the Californian head of a construction company, claimed that he was the rightful 9th Duke of Leinster, an Irish title granted by George III in 1766. But Lord Falconer of Thoroton decided that the title should remain with Maurice FitzGerald, whose father inherited the title in 1976.
The title brings a great deal of history but no wealth. The Leinster family built Maynooth Castle, the Palladian mansion at Carton in Co Kildare, and Leinster House, now the home in Dublin of the Irish Parliament. But the family’s vast estates, granted at the time of the Norman invasion, and its stately homes were sold, some to pay the gambling debts of Edward, the 7th duke, who was declared bankrupt three times.
The dispute arose after the death of the 8th duke, Gerald FitzGerald, in 2004. Maurice, his eldest son, lodged a claim with the Crown Office to prove his succession.
But Paul Fitzgerald, the 40-year-old pretender to the title from San Francisco, lodged a competing claim based upon his assertion that the 5th duke’s middle son, Desmond, had not died in the First World War, as previously thought. He had emigrated to Canada, where he established a new line of the family, and was entitled to inherit when his elder brother died in 1922.