On the first of March, 1909 in the courts of Madrid, a trial began which caused deep expectations both in Spain and in England of the early twentieth century, in particular in London. The trial was to dispute the inheritance of the multi-titled aristrocrat Lord Lionel Sackville-West, Count of Warr, Baron of Buckhurst, previous ambassador to Madrid, Paris, Washington and heir to the family estate of Knole, Kent.
Two Englishmen disputed the family estate including all its assets, titles and honors – one of the Lord’s nephews and one the Lord’s sons to the Spanish dancer, Pepita Durán with whom he lived in Arcachón. Several children were born to this relationship, one of which was Henry Sackville who today contests the inheritance. Lord Sackville had registered all of his children as legitimately born from his relationship with Pepita Durán in the civil registry in France. The successor named in the estate, in case of there being no descendants, was the Lord’s nephew who claimed that these children could not possibly be legitimate as Pepita Durán, at the time of the births, was married to a Spanish bolero singer called Juan Antonio Gabriel de la Oliva. The certificate of this supposed marriage appeared in the relevant parish archives, but exhibited some scratched-out changes, as a result of which a relation of Henry Sackville, with the surname Rophon and born and raised in Algeciras and José Sánchez, a local shopkeeper, were held accused. The outcome of the trial which was taking place in London during this period depended on the validity or the invalidity of this certificate.
Lord Sackville lived in Knole castle until 1908. Towards the end of 1896 an illness took hold of him which was to lead him to his grave, meanwhile his relatives began to worry about what would happen to his assets when the fateful outcome would eventually happen. Lionel Edward, blood nephew of Lord Sackville had married the eldest daughter of Pepita Durán and also lived in Knole Castle. He was aware that his wife, possible daughter of the Lord, was listed as being of unknown parentage, and he was also aware that the dancer was married to Gabriel de la Oliva and, consecuently, Henry, the only one that could contest the inheritance, was illegitimate. However, he needed to prove this and therefore sent two English lawyers, Brain and Harrison to Spain to obtain an authentication of the marriage certificate and proof from the file in the vicarage.
The file never appeared but they discovered a note in the book of entries and the license granted by the vicarage to hold the wedding. Having partly completed their task, the lawyers returned to England but Lord Sackville’s nephew, infuriated by the disappearance of the document, ordered a witness testimony in Gibraltar but this didn’t produce the desired results either.
On hearing about this unfortunate matter, Pepita’s nephew Enrique Rophon began making investigations of his own. Aware of the enormous fortunes at stake, together with the lawyer Francisco Lastres, he went to check out the archives of the Church of San Millan and confirmed that the wedding certificate had been interfered with. As a result, Enrique de Sackville reported the facts to the courts on the 30th October, 1901 and consequently the church assistant, Ricardo Dorremoces was prosecuted but, due to not being able to prove that he was the perpetrator of the falsification, the court dismissed the case.
Written by Jesús Castro
Translated by Rachael Harrison
Sponsored by www.costaluzlawyers.es
