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Majesty, his heirs and successors, kings and queens of England, to the use of the sinking fund, in such manner as should be directed by act of parliament. He then directed that in case he should in his lifetime enter into any contracts for the purchase of any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, and should die before the necessary conveyanceswere executed,all such contracts should be com pleted and carried into execution by his said trustees after his death, and that the purchase-monies for them should be paid by them out of his personal estate, and that the deeds and conveyances should be made to them, their heirs, and assigns; and that they should stand and be seised and possessed of all and singular the premises to be conveyed to them, upon, under, and subject to such and the same uses,trusts,limitations, provisoes, and conditions as were by his will declared of the estates thereby directed to be purchased with the aforesaid residue of his estate and effects in manner thereinbefore mentioned. And he appointed his three trustees and his wife executors and executrix of his will.

The said Peter Thellusson departed this life on the 21st day of July, without altering or revoking his said will. At the time of his decease, his wife and his said three sons by her were living. The said Peter Isaac Thellussón was his eldest son and heir at law, and was then of the age of 56 years; the said George Woodford Thellusson was his second son, and was then of the age of 33 years; the said Charles Thellusson was his third son, and was then of the age of 28 years. His said three daughters were living. Maria, the eldest of them, was married to the said Augustus Phipps'; Ann (now the wife of the said William Lukin and Augusta Charlotte (afterwards the wife, and now the widow of the said Thomas Champion Crespigny) were both then unmarried. The said Peter Isaac Thellusson, at his father's decease, had issue John Thellusson,then of the age of 11 years; George Thellusson, Cc 2

then

1805.

THELLUSSON and Others

v.

WOODFORD

and Others.

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then ofthe age ofsix years; Henry Thellusson,then of the age of five years; Frances Thellusson, then of the age of seven years; and Caroline Thellusson, then of the age of four years. The said George Woodford Thellusson, at his father's decease, had issue two daughters, Mary Ann Thellusson, then of the age of seven years; and Georgiana Thellusson, then of the age of two years. The said Charles Thellusson the elder, at his father's decease, had issue one child Charles Thellusson, then of the age of five months. At the time of the decease of the said Peter Thellusson the wife of the said Peter Isaac Thellusson, was with child,and was soon after delivered of twin-born sons called William and Frederick. The said James Stanley renounced the executorship, and declined acting in the said trusts of the will of the said Peter Thellusson, and executed an instrument disclaiming the same. The property of the said Peter Thellusson, which he made subject to the accumulating trusts of his will, consisted of real estates in England of the annual value of 4500l., and of some real estates in the West Indies, and of personal property estimated at above 600,0007. Some time after the decease of the said Peter Thellusson, twosuits were instituted in the Court of Chancery respecting his will; one of them was upon a bill filed by his widow and children against the acting trustees and executors of his will, and against the two sons of the said Peter Isaac Thellussonborn afterthe testator'sdecease,and also against the Attorney-General, praying to have the trusts of the will declared void, and the real estate conveyed to the said Peter Isaac Thellusson as heir at law of the testator, and the personal estate divided among the Plaintiffs, according to the statute of distribution; the other of the suits was instituted upon a bill filed by the acting trustees and executors of the will of the said Peter Thellusson against all the other persons who were parties to the first suit, praying to have the trusts of the will established

blished and carried into execution, and the necessary directions given for that purpose. Both the originalandcross cause came on before Lord Loughborough assisted by Sir Richard Pepper Arden MasteroftheRolis, Mr.Justice Buller,and Mr.Justice Laurence in Lincoln's Inn Hall, on the 5th of December 1798, and were heard by his Lordship on that day and several subsequent days. On the 19th of February 1802, his Lordship pronounced his decree in both causes, and thereby dismissed the bill in the original cause, so far as it prayed that the limitations anddispositions contained in the will of the said Peter Thellusson of and concerning his said real estates, and the general residue of his personal estate, and the rents, issues, and profits of such estates, and concerning the estates directed to be purchased,and the rents and profits thereof, and the trusts thereof, might be declared void: and his Lordship in the cross cause declared that the will ought to be established and the trusts of it performed and carried into execution, and declared the devises and limitations of the estates contained in the will to be good and valid in law, and decreed and gave directions accordingly. The said Peter Isaac Thellusson, after the said decree, had three sons born, viz. Edmund Thellusson, Alexander Thellusson, and Arthur Thellusson; and the said Charles Thellusson (the elder) also had one son born, viz. Thomas Thellusson, all of whom were made parties to the said suit and proceedings; and the said Ann, one of the testator's three daughters, after the said decree, intermarried with the said William Lukin, who was likewise made a party to the said suit and proceedings.

The appellants apprehended they were aggrieved by the said decree,because it dismissed the bill in the original cause, so far as it prayed that the limitations and dispositions contained in the will of the said Peter Thellusson, concerning his real estates, and the general residue of his personal estate, and the estates to be purchased under the C c 3

trusts

1805.

THELLUSSON and Others

t.

WOODFORD

and Others.

1805.

THELLUSSON and Others

v.

WOODFORD

and Others.

trusts of his will, and the rents, issues, and profits thereof, might be declared void; and because in the cross cause his Lordship directed that the trusts of the will ought to be performed, and declared the devises and limitations of the estates contained in the will to be good and valid in law; and so far they appealed from it, for the following REASONS:

That the trust, attempted to be created by Mr. Thellusson's will, being of the class of executory trusts created by will,must depend for its validity on its being instituted for those purposes, and limited within those boundaries, which the law prescribes for trusts of that description; but it was neither instituted for those purposes, nor limited within those boundaries.

1st. It was not instituted for the purposes which the law prescribes for those trusts. The nature of it wasto create an equitable estate of inheritance, commencing at a future time, without limiting an intermediate equitable estate commensurate with the interval. By the old law, limitations of this kind were illegal. For the purpose of enabling parties to provide for those reasonable occasions of families, which could not be provided for except by allowing future estates of freehold to be limited without a limitation of such a previous intermediate estate, they were first admitted into wills; and afterwards when uses, were introduced, the uses raised by them were admitted among those which on account of the fairness and utility of their object, courts of equity thought binding on the consciences of trustees, and the performance of which they would on that ground compel by a subpœnâ. Thus the circumstance oftheir being created for the meritorious purpose of providing for the reasonable occasions of families, was the ground on which the uses raised by these limitations were admitted among those which Courts of Equity would execute; and of course, if they were not created for a purpose of that nature, the ground for the

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interference of Courts of Equity does not arise. In the present case there was no such ground: Mr. Thellusson's will is morally vicious, as it was a contrivance ofa parrent to exclude every one of his issue from the enjoyment even of the produce of his property during almost a century; and it is politically injurious, as during the whole of that period it makes an immense property unproductive, both to individuals and the community at large; and by the time when the accumulation should end, it would have created a fund, the revenue of which would be greater than the civil list, and would therefore give its possessor the means of disturbing the whole economy of the country. The probable amount of the accumulated fund, in the events which have happened, was stated in the Appellant's bill, and admitted in the answer, to be 19,000,000l.; and in case any of the persons answering the description ofheir male, when the period of suspence ends, should be a minor, and his minority should continue 10 years, it would increase the amount of that third to the sum of 10,802,373.; so that if the whole property should center in one person, and that person should have a minority of 10 years, after the end of the period of suspence, (a circumstance by no means improbable, particularly as Mr. George Woodford Thellusson has been long married and has no son,) the whole accumulated fund would amount to 32, 407, 1207.

2d. The trust was not confined within that boundary which the law prescribes for trusts of that description, (even though it be admitted that all the lives, during which the accumulation was to be carried on, were in existence at the time of Mr. Thellusson's decease,) as one circumstance, which materially affects the period of suspence, and which enters into every case in which the suspence of property has been held legal, does not enter into the present case.

1805.

THELLUSSON and Others

WOODFORD and Others.

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