Archibald Smifft's parents weren’t rich - they were jewel thieves!
This might account for their appalling handwriting. If neither of them had a decent education it could mean that their respective families couldn’t afford it. The rubies they used weren’t inherited, they were stolen. It might also explain why they didn’t raise Archibald themselves as being wanted criminals they couldn’t very well stay in one place for too long. It did strike this troper as odd that they paid in rubies as opposed to money if they were wealthy, but then if they had used money that would be an easier way to track them down what with the serial numbers and all, not to mention that whichever pawn shop owner they went to might have reported them! Just a theory though…
