The intimate lifestyle of a Barbadian man, including his lovers and the children he fathered, took centre stage on September 24 in a United Kingdom High Court in a case involving the £2.7 million (BDS$7.3 million) estate of one of his sons.
McDonald Noel, a shopkeeper and property tycoon, who emigrated from Trinidad and Tobago to London in 1960 died in London in April 2018, intestate at the age of 84, leaving behind a vast estate including a £1.5 million home in Kensington.
While he had no spouse and no children several people have stepped forward alleging that they are his siblings/descendants, vying for his wealth so that it does not fall into government’s coffers.
Noel’s father, Barbadian Stanley Dorant is at the centre of the tangled genealogical web which involves his lineage.
According to several news reports out of the UK, DNA tests have been submitted to the court and the judge is being asked to carry out a rare legal “kin enquiry” and rule on who should inherit Noel’s estate as heir hunters have located relatives across the UK and the Caribbean as the court seeks to identify possible beneficiaries.
Noel was born in 1934 in Trinidad to Barbadian Stanley Dorant and Neutrice Dorant. Neutrice already had one other child, Stella born the previous year.
Stanley, went on to father another son, Francis, with his Barbadian lover, Clementina Forde, whom he married in 1939, after she joined him in Trinidad following the death of Neutrice in 1938.
Clementina already had two sons, Clyde and St Clair, and their descendants are now claiming that Stanley was their father too, having fathered them during visits to Barbados.
Francis’ son Shaka is laying claim to a share of the millions while Stella’s son Gerard Burton, is claiming the entire estate, if the court is satisfied that his mother was also Stanley’s child making her Noel’s full sister.
However, St Clair’s children, represented by his daughter Desiree Dorant, and Clyde’s grandchildren, represented by his grandson Tyler Dorant, are insisting that they too, are descended from Stanley and should share in the wealth.
Daniel Burton, the attorney for Desiree and her siblings, told the judge: “It is the romantic life of McDonald’s father Stanley which is central to the genealogical questions which arise in this case.”
The court heard that Stanley was born in Barbados in 1906 and died in Trinidad in 1968. Records were produced showing that he travelled between Trinidad and Barbados and fathered children on each island.
Burton told the judge: “The questions before this court in this trial are how many children Stanley fathered, with whom, and who they were.
“The outcome will determine whether Gerard is the sole beneficiary of McDonald’s estate or whether other branches of the family – those of Shaka, Desiree and Tyler – take as beneficiaries under the rules of intestacy alongside Gerard.”
He said that documentary evidence suggested Stanley and Clementina were from the same area and knew each other before he left Barbados for Trinidad.
“The court is invited to conclude that Clementina’s initial liaison with Stanley in Barbados resulted in the birth of Clyde,” Burton said, adding that a historical ship manifest showed Stanley had visited Barbados seven months before the birth of St Clair.
“There is compelling evidence that Stanley was St Clair’s father. This is documentary evidence, witness evidence and DNA evidence,” he added, claiming that together that evidence “refutes Shaka’s insinuation that (Clementina) would have had two children with a different partner or partners, then immediately marry Stanley, thereby passing off the children as his.”
He told the judge: “Put simply, Clementina was not that kind of person and strove to be a good role model for her children. She had one relationship and married that man, Stanley, after bearing his first two children.”
“There is no other credible hypothesis that St Clair’s father is anyone other than Stanley. The court is invited to make findings of fact or direct that McDonald’s estate be distributed on the basis that Stanley fathered McDonald, Clyde, St Clair and Francis,” he concluded.
Aidan Briggs, attorney for Francis’ son Shaka, urged the judge to take a different view.
“There are only two children on whose birth certificate Stanley Dorant is named as the father; McDonald and Francis,” he said.
“Although it is possible that Stanley fathered other children, the evidence which has been produced is equally consistent with him being treated as ‘father’ after his marriage to Clementina, or being “claimed” as father by Stella.
He said the judge should be wary of accepting evidence about the beliefs of Clyde and St Clair as to their parentage from their descendants, saying: “A child self-evidently has no knowledge about their own conception.”
He further told the judge that even if Stanley had acted as a father to all of the children, it shouldn’t be assumed they were his.
He said Stanley had lived in a society in which relationships outside of marriage were common and there was a trend for “mothers attributing paternity to men particularly for financial reasons – what is referred to in the British Caribbean as ‘giving a man a jacket’.”
“It’s important not to apply middle-class English norms to a Caribbean setting,” he said.
He added: “The DNA evidence supports Stella and Francis’ claims, and should encourage the court against the claims of Clyde and St Clair.
“The court must be satisfied on the balance of probabilities that Stanley had any other children. The claimant’s (Shaka’s) submission is that the court cannot be so satisfied on the evidence presented.”
The judge, Master Katherine McQuail, will give her ruling on the case at a later date.
