He Dug Miles of TUNNELS So No One Would See Him. Then Strangers Dug Up a GRAVE: Duke of Portland

He Dug Miles of TUNNELS So No One Would See Him. Then Strangers Dug Up a GRAVE: Duke of Portland Officially, the fifth Duke of Portland was a shy, very rich Englishman who liked to build. But the building he loved went down, not up. Under the lawns of Welbeck Abbey he dug miles of tunnels, a library the length of a city block, and a ballroom where nobody ever danced. His servants were told to walk past him the way they would walk past a tree. He spoke to his household through two letterboxes in his bedroom door. Twenty years after his death, a widow in London swore that the duke had lived a second life behind a shop counter on Baker Street, under the name Thomas Charles Druce. Her claim became a lawsuit, the lawsuit became a company selling shares, and the shares paid for witnesses. On December 30, 1907, two hundred police constables closed Highgate Cemetery, and a coffin with one brass handle missing came up out of the ground. Chapters: 00:00 — The Grave at Highgate 03:06 — ACT I — THE SECOND SON 07:03 — ACT II — THE FACADE 12:09 — ACT III — THE WIDOW'S CLAIM 16:25 — ACT IV — THE COMPANY OF CLAIMANTS 20:43 — ACT V — THE AFTERMATH Source Material Visual material used in this production is obtained from publicly accessible archives, including Wikimedia Commons and Europeana. Copyright & Fair Use Notice This channel incorporates copyrighted material under the principles of Fair Use as recognized by U.S. law. Under Section 107 of the United States Copyright Act, certain uses of copyrighted works such as for analysis, commentary, educational purposes, research, and reporting are permitted without prior authorization from the copyright holder. Sources John Bentinck, 5th Duke of Portland (Wikipedia) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Be... Biography of the 5th Duke of Portland (University of Nottingham) — https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscri... The Druce Case (University of Nottingham) — https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscri... The dead man's beard, exhumation at Highgate (The London Dead) — http://thelondondead.blogspot.com/202... Tomb of the 5th Duke of Portland, Kensal Green (Historic England) — https://historicengland.org.uk/listin... #documentary #history #WelbeckAbbey #DukeOfPortland