In the year 1805 the ruin of the Jenkins was begun. It was the
work of a fallacious lady already mentioned, Aunt Anne Frewen, a
sister of Mrs. John. Twice married, first to her cousin Charles
Frewen, clerk to the Court of Chancery, Brunswick Herald, and Usher
of the Black Rod, and secondly to Admiral Buckner, she was denied
issue in both beds, and being very rich - she died worth about
60,000L., mostly in land - she was in perpetual quest of an heir.
The mirage of this fortune hung before successive members of the
Jenkin family until her death in 1825, when it dissolved and left
the latest Alnaschar face to face with bankruptcy. The grandniece,
Stephen's daughter, the one who had not 'married imprudently,'
appears to have been the first; for she was taken abroad by the
golden aunt, and died in her care at Ghent in 1792. Next she
adopted William, the youngest of the five nephews; took him abroad
with her - it seems as if that were in the formula; was shut up
with him in Paris by the Revolution; brought him back to Windsor,
and got him a place in the King's Body-Guard, where he attracted
the notice of George III. by his proficiency in German. In 1797,
being on guard at St. James's Palace, William took a cold which
carried him off; and Aunt Anne was once more left heirless.
Lastly, in 1805, perhaps moved by the Admiral, who had a kindness
for his old midshipman, perhaps pleased by the good looks and the
good nature of the man himself, Mrs. Buckner turned her eyes upon
Charles Jenkin. He was not only to be the heir, however, he was to
be the chief hand in a somewhat wild scheme of family farming.
Mrs. Jenkin, the mother, contributed 164 acres of land; Mrs.
Buckner, 570, some at Northiam, some farther off; Charles let one-
half of Stowting to a tenant, and threw the other and various
scattered parcels into the common enterprise; so that the whole