1830-1832 Sir SAMUEL SHEPHERD. JAMES ABERCROMBY, afterwards BARON DUN- No further appointments were made. See 2 Will. IV. c. 54; 2 and 3 Vict. REPORTS OF CASES heard in the House of Lords, upon Appeals and Writs of Error, SLANE PEERAGE CASE.* [Mews' Dig. vi. 606, 648, 697; x. 311, 312, 315. S. C. 5, Cl. and F. 23.] Upon reference of a peerage claim to a committee of privileges of the House of Lords, the following facts appeared: Richard le Fleming having accompanied Sir Hugh de Lacy to Ireland in the reign of Henry II., obtained a grant of the lands of Slane, in the palatine honour of Meath, of which Sir Hugh possessed the regalities; and Richard and his heirs and successors, tenants of the lands, were in ancient records styled Barons of Slane. In 3 Edw. 2. Baldwyn, Baron of Slane, was summoned to the parliament held at Kilkenny by writ directed Baldwyno le Fleming. After a succession of four peers of the family, who sat in parliaments during the reigns of Edw. 3., Hen. 4., and Hen. 6., Christopher, the fifth peer, died a bachelor, leaving two sisters; whereupon the lands of Slane went to David, his uncle of the half blood, who sat in parliament under a writ of summons, 2 Edw. 4. (1462), with the precedence of the old peerage. He was succeeded by his son Thomas, who died without issue, in 1471, leaving three sisters; whereupon the lands of Slane, with the other estates, went to his cousin, James Fleming, his male heir, who was summoned to and sat in parliament in the reigns of Edw. 4. and Rich. 3. (See stat. 12 Ed. 4.) He was succeeded by [2] Christopher, his son (1491), who sat in parliament 9 Hen. 7. He was succeeded (9 Hen. 8.) by his son James, who sat in parliament 41 Hen. 8., and died without issue, in 1577, leaving two sisters; whereupon the lands of Slane, etc. went to Thomas, his cousin and heir male. He was summoned to and sat in parliament 27 Eliz. ; and from him, by descent through a female, George Bryan claimed the barony of Slane, as heir general of the three last of the Barons Slane, summoned by writ and sitting in parliament, upon the grounds that in the several instances where the male line failed, the dignity was in abeyance between the female heirs, and that the summonses and writs in those several instances operated as new creations of peerage, or as determinations of the several abeyances in favour of the party summoned, and constituted peerages in fee. James Fleming claimed the peerage as heir male of Randall Lord Slane; he appeared by counsel only to oppose the claim of Mr. Bryan, not proceeding upon his own claim: The committee were of opinion and reported that Mr. Bryan had not established his claim. In the year 1827, a petition was presented to His Majesty by James Fleming, claiming the barony of Slane, as heir male of Randall Lord Slane, which was referred to Sir C. Wetherell, then Attorney-General, who heard evidence thereon, but made no report before he resigned his office. Mr. Fleming having left England in quest of evidence to support his petition, it was not then further prosecuted. In the year 1829, George Bryan, of Jenkinstown, in the county of Kilkenny, Esq. presented a petition to the King, stating that Thomas Fleming, of Slane, in the county of Meath, Esq. titular Baron of Slane, on the 26th day of April, 1585, the * This case was argued in 1834, and decided at the close of the session 1835. |