In January 1859 the Birmingham Daily Post reported a meeting of 40 or so persons, attended by one of the American agents, Smith,155 and though it was said that they were claimants through John (Humfrey’s brother), the secretary was William Joyce, whose claim was through Joseph. It seems that disunity broke out very soon, resulting in a split into the ‘Joyce Association’ and a rival ‘Jennings Association’, the creation of George Hampton, backer of the ‘Edward line’. This began promisingly with 100 people meeting at Ludgate Hill and elsewhere but it ran out of funds and disintegrated after a couple of years.156 Joyce’s may have persisted for longer, though he denied any knowledge of such a body when his suit finally came towards a hearing.157 One must still have been active in the late 1860s, however, for Beauchamp complained that it was a ‘blackmailing organization’.158 The most formidable organization was the last of them, the brainchild of J.C. Jennens, who arranged a public meeting at the Temperance Hall, Birmingham on 2 March 1875 (continued on 17 March). It attracted 300 to 400 people and elected a committee of ten to manage its affairs.159 Jennens planned to raise no less than £15,000 through deeds of indenture, and since he subsequently sought a second tranche of funding, he may even have succeeded.160 At all events, it was a considerable achievement to have ‘brought together upwards of 200 other claimants from different branches of the family’161 for this purpose. The acute disappointment at the abrupt dismissal of Jennens v Bowater in 1878, however, probably brought about the rapid collapse of this ambitious undertaking.162 The glimpses we have of these English societies show them to be an exotic offshoot of the thrift clubs and self-help organizations so thoroughly commended by ‘respectable’ Victorian opinion. J.C. Jennens’s venture was essentially a business one but the earlier ones seem to have had a social side too. The Old Bell, in Spon Lane, where one of them met, had an upper room ‘decorated with pedigrees’ and the poor who met there brightened their lives with talk of the carriages they would one day have.
The above is from the link below.
http://www.moonzstuff.com/jennings/poldenarticle.pdf
It is truly amazing the vast numbers of people who felt, rightly or wrongly, that they had a valid claim on some of this money. Much seems to have been pure greed inspired. Many tenuous links, with similar names and connections through marriages, occur. This was due to the publicity given at the time - almost reminiscent of present day conspiracy theorists!
As with all disputes and claims, particularly as these particular ones involved litigation and people hired as researchers, and lasted well over a century. the only winners were lawyers. It is my view that whoever got their hands on the money was quick off the mark and due to their 'well connected' position managed to obfuscate their tracks.
