Not That There's Anything Wrong With That

I've blogged before about Sir Benjamin Slade and his efforts to find someone to inherit his estate in Somerset. He neglected to mention in his advertisements that the estate comes equipped with a gay peacock.

He has put up warning signs at Maunsel House, his 1300-acre estate in Somerset, after the "peacock blue" Lexus was scratched and dented by the amorous bird.

The incident proves the bird is gay, according to Sir Benjamin, because peahens are brown and only males are blue.

He says the male damaged the car because it looked like "another peacock boy". [Link, via The Daily Dish]

Hope for the Heirless

An eccentric aristocrat I've blogged about before thinks he's found someone to inherit his $15 million home.

"He is my new best friend," Sir Benjamin Slade said of Isaac Slade, frontman for the rock group The Fray who could be in line to take over his 13th century mansion.

"He seems to be a very focused young man and wants to have lots of children. We will get the genealogists working on it to see how closely related we are. I would love to hand it over." [Link]

He'd Make a Lousy Realtor

More news today on Sir Benjamin Slade's plan to give away his Somerset manor house—this time from the New York Times.

Sir Benjamin says the new owner can't be a drug addict or a Communist, and "It's politically incorrect to say so, but he can't be gay, because he may not produce any children." Oh, yes, and he must be wealthy enough to fix the place up.

Slade's given up hope of producing an heir of his own, though he has made a deposit at a sperm bank ("they said I had nine months' supply, whatever that means"). And he's ruled out giving the estate to a close relative, none of whom take enough interest in their family history.

"If you ask any of them, 'Who was your grandmother?' 'What did Sir John Slade do in the Peninsular War?' they have no idea," Sir Benjamin said.

Slade himself came to own the manor under conditions less than ideal.

When he took possession of Maunsel House, it was a ruin, his surviving aunt confined to just two rooms.

"She lived on Mars bars and Milky Ways," he said. "She drank for Somerset. She had about 18 different driving offenses — hit and run, driving over a policeman's foot. When she died, she left £22.50, and she didn't leave it to me." Once, Sir Benjamin said, the aunt set the house on fire, hoping to collect insurance, only to have the fire fizzle out because of the pervasive dampness. [Link]

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]

The Best Slade Plans Often Go Awry

When Sir Benjamin Slade announced last December that he would give his Somerset mansion to whichever Slade most closely matched his DNA profile, he didn't realize how many Slades would crawl out of the woodwork.

'I've had 10,019 letters from Slades living all over the world and the variety has been amazing: there is an Indian man in a Delhi jail who claims my great-great-grandfather had a fling with his mother during the Indian mutiny, and two black women in America who claim to be relations,' says the 59-year-old baronet. 'There are even families in Australia, who probably come from an ancestor who fled there in 1820 because he was unable to pay the upkeep of the 22 children he had fathered back home in Devon.'

So now Sir Benjamin is digging up his oldest known ancestor—Walter Atte Slade, dead since 1120—in hopes of collecting some additional DNA and winnowing the field down to one lucky cousin. Naturally, the outcome will be decided on television.

The television series, to be screened later this year, will move the 20 families who pass initial genealogy tests into Maunsel House with Slade. Each week, Slade, a genealogist and a DNA specialist will confer to nominate a family for eviction, until a single heir remains. [Link]

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]

Who Wants to Be a Miserable Aristocrat?

From UTV (of Belfast, Northern Ireland), posted Dec. 21, 2005:

Aristocrat to give away 'terrible' mansion

An eccentric aristocrat is hoping to give away his 16-bedroom mansion to a complete stranger and then move into "the comfort" of a council house, it emerged today.

Without a heir to inherit Maunsel House and its 1,300 acre estate, Sir Benjamin Slade, 59, is desperate to find a distant and preferable wealthy American relative to take over his Somerset mansion.

The baronet will give a DNA sample to a team of genealogists, who will then search for the closest match among the 5,000 Slades living in the US.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

tags: genealogy, family history, family tree