Montreal Gazette is in Newspapers.
25th October 1983. Earl of Craven fears old curse and kills himself
EASTBOURNE, England (AP) - The seventh Earl of Craven [deceased] — who lived in fear of a curse that all the males of his family would die young — has killed himself at age 26, police said.
Thomas Robert Douglas Craven fatally shot himself at the home of his mother, Countess Elizabeth Craven, police reported. His body was found Saturday.
None of Craven's direct ancestors going back to the 17th century reached the age of 60.
His father, the sixth earl, drowned at age 47 when he fell off a yacht during a party in 1965. Leukemia killed his grandfather, the fifth earl, at age 35.
The reputed curse says that all Craven boys will die before their mothers. Residents in the earl's village of Hampstead Marshall, Berkshire, said it was uttered by a village mother whose daughter was made pregnant by a Craven ancestor.
"They were a family that over the years never mixed closely in village affairs and I think the curse developed because of the antagomsm between them and the local folk," said one elderly man.
The young earl was unmarried. Anne Nicholson. his former girlfriend and mother of their seven-year-old son, Thomas, was quoted last year as saying:
"The curse of the Cravens does worry him (the earl) a lot. He rarely discusses it. but it's at the back of his mind most of the time. It's an awful thing because it seems to have come true in the past. It makes me worry about our little Tommy."
The earl's only son will not inherit the earldom because he is illegitimate. The title passes to the earl's 22-year-old brother, Simon George Craven [aged 22].
The Cravens can trace their line back to William the Conqueror, who invaded England and won its crown in 1066. The Craven estates were once among the largest in Britain, embracing 8,000 hectares in Berkshire alone, but they have dwindled to a few properties.