Bid to take title fails

Californian construction boss Paul Fitzgerald claimed he was the rightful holder of the historic title, the Duke of Leinster, granted by George III in 1766 and currently held by landscape gardener Maurice FitzGerald.

The Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, announced that the American's claim - which he made after years of research and with what he claimed was supporting DNA evidence - was not "made out".

The title will remain with Mr FitzGerald, 59, from Oakley Park, a private housing estate at Frilford Heath, whose father inherited the title in 1976.

The 40-year-old pretender, from San Francisco, claimed the fifth duke's middle son, Desmond, did not die in the First World War, as previously thought.

He had, he argued, in fact emigrated to Canada, where he established a new line of the family, and was, therefore, entitled to inherit the title when his elder brother died in 1922.

A spokesman for the Department for Constitutional Affairs said: "Following careful consideration of the competing claims to the Dukedom and Viscountcy of Leinster, the Secretary of State and Lord Chancellor is satisfied that the evidence produced on behalf of Maurice, Marquess of Kildare, establishes his claim to have succeeded to the Dukedom of Leinster in the Peerage of Ireland and the Viscountcy of Leinster in the Peerage of Great Britain.

"His name has been added to the Roll of the Peerage in accordance with the Royal Warrant dated June 1, 2004.

"The Secretary of State is not satisfied that the claim of Paul Maurice Fitzgerald has been made out."

Mr Fitzgerald's 81-year-old great aunt reportedly spent 30 years and more than £1.3m gathering evidence to back his claim.

The American dossier included DNA samples from her late father's exhumed body and sworn affidavits from former family servants.