a large sum to bring it “to good heart.” In the following year, however, he was unable to pay the rent from the proceeds of the farm and was promising to pay it out of money belonging to his family in England. In 1852, the situation apparently no better, Major Littler gave instruc- tions that Mr. Swabey was “to quit on the expiration of his present lease.” In 1854 Mr. George Scott became the new tenant of Mount Stewart Farm.

Major Littler died on Feb. 18, 1856 and, by 1860, his widow, to whom Mount Stewart Estate had reverted, had married Thomas Aston Cokayne of Beechwood, Gloucestershire. In 1872 it appears that Helen Olympia, now Dame Helen Olympia Cokayne, determined to divest herself of her trans-Atlantic holdings once and for all. It was therefore on Aug. 20th of that year that all that remained of the lands of John Stewart of Mount Stewart passed into the hands of Malcolm McLeod, a Charlotte- town lawyer. Within two months, title had passed to Charles Palmer, another lawyer, who rapidly sold and conveyed his holdings to the tenantry.

.By 1875, Mount Stewart Estate, being less than 500 acres in extent, was too small to come under the scrutiny of the Land Commission. The nucleus of this old land holding was conveyed to George Scott by Charles Palmer on Nov. 22, 1878. The farm, consisting of 178 acres, remained in possession of the Scott family until Dec. 12, 1899 when it was transferred to Alexander MacEachern. Alexander and his descendants, Stewart and Ernest, farmed it for many years, and, only recently, it was purchased by Elmer Jay, the owner of a neighbouring farm. And so, after having been repeatedly fragmented into smaller and smaller holdings, the old estate has begun to grow back to its former stature.

The origins of the largest proprietory estate in the Mount Stewart area, that of the Bourke family, may be traced from January 24, 1792 when John Barker, who had moved to Dawlish in Devon, drew up an ex- traordinarily complicated will. Its provisions, which were soon to go into effect, “gave and devised” under George Chad all Barker’s estates in Prince Edward Island to the use of Robert Wilson and Charles Dunham for 1000 years, with power to convey to the male heirs of his brother James, or, failing males, to his daughters. James, by change of name, James Hether- sett, had no sons, but he did have five daughters: Sarah, Jane Maria, Ann Amelia, Isabel and Mary. Apart from Mary, who died an infant, the sisters all lived to reach the age of 25, the age at which they could legally inherit their uncle’s estate.

Sarah Hethersett, the first to inherit, married the Rev. George Reddin-g Leethes in Feb. 1820. She died without issue in Dec. 1830, and the property at Mount Stewart went to the next sister, Jane Maria, wife of Henry D’Esterre Hemsworth and mother of two sons, Henry William and Augustus Barker. In accordance with the terms of John Barker’s will, illustrative of his compulsive desire to manage the affairs of successive generations, the estate was next to go to Henry William Hemsworth, the eldest son. And, indeed, a conveyance to this effect was arranged during Jane Maria’s lifetime.

At this point, a transaction occurred to further complicate an al- ready complicated situation. It seems that one Arthur Napean Molesworth sought to make provision for his wife Harriett and their children, and, to this end, he entered into an agreement with Henry W. Hemsworth, where— by, in consideration of £500 the property at Mount Stewart was conveyed for the use of Mrs. Molesworth and the children, Jane, Caroline, Thomas

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