AN EXTRAORDINARY WILL CASE.

Southland Times, Issue 720, 6 September 1867, Page 2

AN EXTRAORDINARY WILL CASE.

i^.A suit was commenced in the" Probate ?and Divorce Court, on Saturday, the 27th April, whose issues will involve the disposal of upwards of £400,000. It-is a suit tjio test the validity of a will. The testatrix was Mrs Ann Thwaites, late of 17, Hyde Park Grardens, and of Charmandean, near Worthing. She was the widow of a tea merchant, who died in 1834, leaving a personality valued at £390,000, with realty to the extent of from £12,000 to £20,000 more, the bulk of which he left to the uncontrolled possession of his wife. She was a person of low origin and education, but after her marriage she made every effort, not without success, to fit herself for the position in society to which she had been raised. In 1835 she bought- a house on Clapham Common, and went to live there with her sister, Mrs Tebbitt, who had formerly been a- domestic in Mr Thwaites's employment. She had married a fellowservant, by whom she had a large family. One of her daughters had married an artist named Cook, another had married a Mr Parrott ; and there were four sons, Eobert Tibbitt, Walter, Henry, and Alfred. Of these, two, Mr Cook and W. Tebbitt, 'joined with their mother in opposing the will. On the part of the plaintiffs, who were two executors, it was alleged that a quarrel took place between the testatrix and her sister. Mrs Tebbitt was, however, left at Clapham, and Mrs ■ Thwaites went to live at Herne Bay, which, however, she soon left, and came to reside at Finsbury circus. Here she settled £30,000 upon Mrs Tebbitt and her children. In 1840 she bought her house in Hyde Park Grardens, which she retained till her death ; and she also purchased her property at Charmandean. One of the plaintiffs, Mr John Sims Smith, was a medical attendant, to whom the testatrix imagined that she was, humanly speaking, indebted for her recovery from a dangerous illness. This feeling led to a warm friendship towards him, which continued to the end of her life. She also became exceedingly intimate with his brother Samuel, A^hom she at last in- . vited to take up his abode at Charmandean as her man of business. He used to accompany her to the continent, and generally to manage her affairs. She adopted his two daughters, and when they married she gave each of them a dowry of £20,000. By 1840 her estrangement from her sister had become complete, and they never met after that, though she continued to provide liberally for her and her children. She occasionally made presents to Alfred Tebbitt and to Mrs Parrott, and she gave Mrs Cook an annual allowance of £450. She gave £200 a-year to Eobert Tebbitt, and afterwards to his wife. She also allowed Henry Tebbitt £200, and Walter Tebbitfc £150 a-year. She paid the expenses of Mr Cook while pursuing his studies at Home. In 1848, however, he returned to England in a state of. great distress, owing to the revolution, and then Mrs Thwaites made him a present of £300. She afterwards gave him a house at Broadwater, and advanced him £1000 to build a studio. Mr Cook, however, spent his money in some other way, and a further demand of £750 was made upon Mrs Thwaites. For this she forbade him her house. About nine years a^o she withdrew the allowance she had made to Eobert Tebbitt, as penalty for deserting his family, and gave it to his wife. She also cast off Walter Tebbitt on his conviction of adultry in a divorce suit. On the 2nd March, 1866, Mrs Thwaites (who had made several previous testamentary dispositions) executed the will in dispute. She named the two Smiths, with two or three other persons, as her executors, and she gave them each £10,000. She gave a like sum. to the Eev. Mr Power, an invalid clergyman; other legacies to different persons amounting to £46,000 ; bequests to charities, £13,000; gifts to nephews and nieces of her husband, £45,000 ; and to her own ■nephews and nieces a like sum. These were as follows : — To the family of Walter Tebbitt, £5000 ; to that of Eobert, £7000 • to Mrs Cook and her children, £15,000 ; to Alfred Tebbitt. £8000 ;to . Henry Tebbitt and Mrs Parrott, £5000 each. To Mrs Tebbitt she gave nothing beyond the house at Clapham, and her share of the settlement. The residue, which was estimated at about £168,000, was equally divided between the two Smiths. To Mr J. S. Smith she also left the Charmandean property ; and she had previously given his son, a barrister, £10,000 consols. The testatrix died on the Bth of April 1866, at the age of seventy-four. Probate was resisted, on the ground of undue execution, want of capacity, and undue influence.