"I went to Lancaster, where the will purports to have been executed,
and ascertained its genuineness by proving the signatures of the
attesting witnesses, and established also the fact of their death.
These affidavits'--holding up a bundle of papers--"show that I also
inquired as to the testator's identity; but I could learn nothing
except that the descendants of one of the witnesses who had bought
your ancestor's farm, upon his removal to the South, still had
his deed in possession. I copied it, and took a tracing of the
signature, which is identical with that which he subsequently used
--James Richards, written in a heavy and somewhat sloping hand,
for that time. I could learn nothing more in regard to him or his
family.
"Proceeding then to Marblehead, I learned these facts. There were
two parties named James Richards. They were cousins; and in order
to distinguish them from each other they were called by the family
and neighbors, 'Red Jim' and 'Black Jim' respectively--the one
having red hair and blue eyes, and the other dark hair and black
eyes."
"Yes," interrupted Mrs. Le Moyne, "I was the only blonde in my
family, and I have often heard my father say that I got it from some
ancestral strain, perhaps the Whidbys, and resembled his cousins."
"Yes," answered Pardee, "a Whidby was a common ancestress of your
father and his cousin, 'Red Jim.
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