The Sun.
London, England, 1838-04-20 00:00:00

CHANCERY COURT-(THIS DA. Y•)

The LORD CHANCELLOR took lunatic petitions.
IN THE MATTER OF DAVENPORT, A LUNATIC.
This case came before the Court upon two petitions,
o me on
behalf of the Committee of the lunatic, praying that Mr.. Per-
ceval Ward might be ordered to transfer into the name cif the
petitioner a 6,0001. East India Stock which had been trans-
ferred in trust to his father, the late Bishop of Sodor and Alan!
by the lunatic, Mr. Davenport, for religious purposes s
the other petition was on the behalf of Mr. Perceval INard
praying that the expences he incurred in attending the Com-
mission prosecuted against Mr. Davenport might either be
paid out of the fund, or by the lunatic's estate.
a eared
Mr. Wigram, Mr. Richards, and Mr. Chandless pp
on behalf of the first petitioner, and Air. James R ussell was
Counsel on behalf of Mr. Ward.
The granting of the prayer of the first petition being a
matter of course if the second was unsuccessful, In
Mr. J. RUSSELL proceeded. to open the Litter petition.
the course that had been adopted by Mr. Ward, he had beeh
instigated only by a desire to protect the charity to whit
the sum in question had been devoted, and not from any
pecuniary considerations, as he had no pecuniary interest-
In order to put the Court into possession of the sitna;
tion in which the late Bishop of Sodor and Man had
•
been placed, and the consequence of the course pursued,
he would state the circumstances that took place. Mr. George
Davenport, the subject of the Commission, was a gentleman
who, in 1834 came, upon the death of his father, under his
will, into the possession of a large property-20,6001., Or"
per cent Consols, and 41,0001., at his absolute disposal.
was a gentleman of religious habits, and had received a Pions
education ; and, being such, he devoted a portion cif his pr(?-
perty to the service of God and religion. He niarried
in
May, 1837, and in the interval between 1835 and th at Pella
he had applied about 20,0001. to the furtherance of relig'°.af.,'
and upon his marriage he settled a large amount upo n his "I -
-
and children. About a year previous to his marriage, in conse
quence of the building of new churches in the Isle of 31an'
an
intimacy sprung up between Mr. Davenport and the niSh°l3,lf
Sodor and Man. Mr. Davenport intended to devote him
to to the Ministry, and had selected the Isle of Man as th c
of his labours. On the 26th of August in that year, he vvr°ia
to the Bishop of Sodor and Man, stating his desire to transi
fer the sum of 6,000/. in India Dock Stock into the name °
the Bishop, for the purpose of being appropriated to the cause
of charity and religion in that isle. Having communicated
his intention to the Bishop, he took several jomneys to Lincoln,
Oxford, Scotland, and Ireland. In the course cf those journies,
he had intercourse with the Bishop and the Archdeacon nt
Lincoln, and with several persons of eminence at Oxford,
and also in Scotland; on the 24th of October in the same.:
year, he gain wrote to the Bishop of Sodor and Alan statinf
his determination to place the 6,0001. at his disposal. Mr.„t
Davenport returned to London in the November fallowing'
and on the 6th of that month the transfer of the Stos:k rig-a
made, of which he apprised the Bishop, stating that he j'.
appropriated the money to God and the use of his ChOrehgs
In the month of January following the Bishop was surpfis
to find a distringas placed upon the Stock; and Leo,
writing to the parties who had issued that distringas, he " t
informed that Mr. Davenport's relations were of opinion thl'r
he was of unsound mind, and that an application would 'I
made for a commission against him, and that under that ennid.
mission the Bishop would be required to re-transfer the stoel
In the interim Mr. Davenport again wrote to the BishTi
stating that the gift was considered by his relations to be .
proper, and that they wished him to re-transfer the stock,
roasts
he objected to do, stating that he would leave the eb
in the hands of the Lord, for the benefit of whose Chu;
it had been devoted. Upon the 27th of January in the ',.(,)slr
lowing year, the Bishop died, and upon the 31st of that In°-„,
Mr. Davenport, hearing of the event, wrote a letter of coe';,.
dolence to his son Mr. Ward, the present petitio.nert the
pressing a desire to know how things were going on 1°-
for
Isle of Man. Thus matters stood when the applicat the
the commission was made. The commission issued upc'n hick
30th day of January, the Saturday preceding Whig-
Mr. Ward had notice of the execution of the Combat
sion, and that :gentleman, considering the letters
had passed between his father and Mr. Davenl/,`9Nis.
all of them breathing a rational spirit, considering that L
tly
Davenport had been treated by all the world as a perfecse
sane man—considering the journies he had made, and th
high company that he had kept—thought it his duty as :e0
executor of his father and as the trustee of the 6,000/.,
ea
the commission issued, avowedly for the purpose of overre
ing that gift to watch the proceedings upon that
h Commissiakrie
Mr. Ward most properly, at the suggestion of his Lords
upon an application being made to him, agreed that the riss
writ.
perty should be placed under the control of the Court of Chancetf.
Te in case Mr. Davenport shld be foud a l.
remiss called on behalf ofou the Commnissionunatic were none Of th„
friends who had visited Mr. Davenport—no part of the cornr
tis
spondcnce that had taken place between hint and his Nierara
was produced ; and under such circumstances; Mr., ha.
thought he was bound to call the different persons vino, the
seen Mr. Davenport, all of whom stated that they had nol•
least suspicion that he was at all affected in his mind. „an
Ward thought it not right that proceedings excluding acrapS
from the rights of man should he be tried upon part la'
Testa
and expressions used in moments of irritation. T, •°,,,,rs to
of the Commission was, that the Jury found Mr. Day, `-'ll,,rst of
have been a lunatic, without lucid intervals, from thE at.,
July, The evidence of the medical gentlemen who bad the
tended the lunatic, rendered it unnecessary (111
part of Mr. Ward to offer any medical eviden eel
Dr. Sutherland dated the insanity from De comber
only, on the ground of Mr. Davenport having a boa
put upon his gate contaiving a text from the Scrip tures,
warning sinners to turn from their evil ways; Dr. Farr
founded his opinion of Mr. Davenport's lunacy upon a pa racy-
lar view he took of the Second Commandment, and upon bS.
refusing to take the sacrament, because the clergyman
described the table, upon which the bread and wine was pis Ice°,
as the altar of the Lord. In conclusion the Learned Cor insq
trusted that the Court would be of opinion, that Mr. It Ver.
bad acted in an extremely proper manner in watching the Prf,s
ceedings of the lunacy, and therefore was entisled to the 051
to which he had been put.
de
' The LORI) CHANCELLOR thought that the represent:lo/e!
of the Bishop of Sodor and Man had acted with a soun
scretioa in
situ non of
they had adopted, placed as D'j-
were in a ation of great difficulty. They found
j)tha..riteot:
certain sum of Stock had been transferred by Mrs.9tr 'lst, ee
port into the name of the Bishop of Sodor and Man,tl is
for certain charitable and religious purposes. FP.°n ti le
occasion of the Commission, they had applieatippi`i°coati.;i:
Court for liberty to attend it, and wizen that
was made they submitted upon being allowed to d d
to undertake that in case Mr. Davenport-1s being f"Cno jrt
lunatic, to re-convey the stock, to be dealt wit,i as the at-
should think lit. It must, therefore, be taken that they
tended before the Commission for their own protection. 2,S
Lordship entertained no doubt that the Bishop of ss`lodarthieg
Man had no personal interest in the transfer. There wasi°° vcri-
to lead to the suspicion that the Bishop knew that Mr. •,
able
port's mind was in a state as to render him 11
Of
to transfer his property. On the whole, his Lordship V' not
opinion, that the 6,000/. should be transferred into Cowls the
to be paid out without notice to the Attorney-General and 643
Executors of the Bishop of Sodor and Man. His Lordst'ive
would most willingly have relieved the representatives ofLasse
Bishop of Sodor and Man from the costs if he could bibs
done so, as it was a hard case upon them. But, ill)°,a
whole, his Lordship thought the representatives of the 13.hac5.,0
had got off at much less expense than they might ;',,,50
expected, considering the situation in which they had `-
placed.

ROLLS' COURT.-(THIS DAY•)

BENT V. REYNOLDS. ,
This cause, which was before the Court a few n'ee"s the
upon a motion for an injunction to stay proceeding,' la rod
Lord Mayor's Court, and which injunction was then gra, ou
(and the whose facts of which we then reported), now ca'l2rosta
upon demurrer. The object of the bill wa.s to have the to is
of a deed carried into execution, and the demurrer Was P
for want of equity and for multifariousness. f
the
Mr. TINNET and Mr. BLUNT appeared in support 0
demurrer.
dip
atm
Mr. PEMBERTON (with whom was Mr. Btxx) appear beep
support of the Bill, and contended that the demurrer 111,.0,11,
merely put in for the purpose of re-trying that which his -1-4
ship had decided upon the motion for the injunction.