 Stephens bought Lynford Hall near Thetford in 1856, intending to develop its with mansion house, parkland and lake as a hunting retreat, and commissioned the architect William Burn to refurbish it.His death in 1861 set off a frenzy of fortune hunters, who went so far as to tamper with their family trees in order to bolster their claims to the estate.The fortune had been amassed by William Stephens of Cornwall, an illegitimate child born in 1731.