BISHOP INHERITS LARGE FORTUNE

Shannon News, 30 March 1926, Page 4

BISHOP INHERITS LARGE FORTUNE

The Hon. and Most Rev. Benjamin John Plunket, D.D., who resigned the bishopric of Meath recently on the ground of ill-health, is probably the wealthiest church dignitary in Great Britain and Ireland. By the will of his aunt, Olivia Charlotte Lady Ardilaun,, he inherits property valued at about £BOO,OOO. The exact value of Lady Ardilaun's estate has not yet been ascertained, but it is estimated at about £900„000. Lady Ardilaun left personal legacies of aboujt £24,000, specific legacies mainly of family interest, and annuities of about £IBOO a year. She also left £BO,OOO to form the Lady Ardilaun Educational Endowment Trust, two-thirds of the income to be applied to the education of the sons of Irish gentlemen members of the Church of Ireland who are in reduced circumstances. The remaining third of the income of the trust is to be used for the education of the sons of clergymen of the Church of Ireland. Lady Ardilaun also left £SOO to Mercer's Hospital, Dublin, to be used to provide Christmas dinners for the patients and staff. There are* a number of charitable bequests, and the residue gofes to Dr. Benjamin Plunket. ' Lady Ardilaun was the widow of Lord * Ardilaun, formerly Sir Arthur Guinness, who was made a peer in 1880, the peerage becoming extinct when he died in 1915. He was an elder brother of Lord Iveage and a member of the famous Guinness family of Dublin. Lord Ardilaun's sister, Miss Anr*a Guinness, married the fourth Lord Plunket, Archbishop of Dublin, and it is their son,, Dr. Plunket, to whom Lady Ardilaun has left so large a fortune. Dr. Plunket is fifty-five years of age. ,