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Yours is a lovely family story even if you never get to the bottom of it all.

Thank you.
Yes, I am enjoying it

one of them bought a baby boy over the counter of his pub from a destitute alcoholic woman.

Not that surprising to me. My mother had a 'great aunt', who was, apparently, given to / taken in by the family as a little girl of two or three. She was very well spoken and well-looked after. Nobody seems to know where she came from. Those who did know were, apparently, sworn to secrecy. I have met her daughter but have never been able to find her origins.

Look for a newspaper report on the bequests made by Lord and Lady Coventry.

Thank you. Yes. Good idea. I'll look into that.

There may well have been something, though my gggf would have been long dead by then, so maybe that was why he didn't get his bequest, rather than because he was unable to leave his sick wife. It's possible.

I think the Lady Coventry link is a good one to follow up, even though the dates don’t seem to match up with events.

Thank you. I agree.

I have been looking into this, further, and I cannot see how two such similar events could have happened around the same place, at the same time. This must be the story that my ggm knew. She would have been tiny when it happened, and both of her parents had died by the time reached her teens, so it is a case of relying on memories of what she heard, or was told, when she was a child.

Was her father involved? I was told that he was. That's all I can say. He lived in the right place at the right time and was a carter at some stage, but described as ag lab at other times. I have no doubt that any minions, who happened to be about, would have been expected to help - and a cart may have been useful. What I heard was that my ggm was quite certain that the injured woman told him: "I shan't forget you, David Neale."

He would not have needed to go to London for the reading of a will, and this couple didn't die until 1930, anyway. If there was a reward, then the alternatives are that, it was either bequeathed by someone else, who happened to be involved, or that it was not given as part of a will, but as a gift of gratitude from the living.

Alternatively, it may have been an offer that was totally unconnected to the story, but confused in the mind of a child. (However, one wonders how many landed people my gggf might have deserved a reward from.)

If the Coventrys did wish to reward David Neale, and they were very rich with lots of land, then they may have owned a small parcel, somewhere, that they didn't particularly need or want, and which may have been offered to my gggf. Then, he might well have had to go to London to sign for an exchange of Title.

Lots to think about
Thanks again for your input

The more I think about it, the more that story of Lord & Lady Coventry sounds too similar to be coincidental. It could be that David Neale helped by offering the use of his cart to convety Lady Coventry to safety. I don't know. But he would certainly have known the story. Even though Lady Coventry's death was not at the right time, I think I'll look into this further. Thank you