A FORTUNE DISCLAIMED

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 96, 1 August 1910, Page 8

A FORTUNE DISCLAIMED

£20,000 REFUSED. A strange bequest of £50,000 to the London Painters' Company haa been recalled 'by the death of an old lady, Miss Brooke, who, at the age of 75, thoiurh earning but a small sum weekly amntle-making, refused over £-20,000. The £50,000 was left to the company some years a£o by Mr. W. D. Barnett, of Addle-street, ondon, E.C., a leading member. The bequest came as a surprise, for Mr. Barnett was a man of frugal tastes and simple life, and no one associated him with great wealth. The money was bequested on condition that the company celebrated his birth day "for ever" by a dinner to the liverymen and maintained his torn "for ever." The Chancery Court, however, held that this pereptual bequest was invalid, and that the money should go to Mr. Bar.nett's heirs. A search was made for them, under the direction of Mr. T. H. Pritcliard, clerk of the company, and one of them was discovered to be the elderly mantlemaker. iShe was offered her share, over £20,000, but refused to take it. "The money was meant for the company," she said. She gave up her right to the legacy of £4 a week, and the £20,000 was handed over to the company. "We learned in the middle of last week that Miss Brooke had died," said Mr. Pritcliard on April !), -and the money becomes absoluely cue property of the company. The dinner—the second of the series to_ go on "for ever"—in memory of Mr. W. D. Barnett, took place on May 6. The cost of the dinner was about £l6O. The remainder of the income of the legacy is devoted to the various good purposes to which the funds of the company are put.