The Sun.
London, England, 1827-11-17 00:00:00

LAW INTELLIGENCE.-(THIS DAY.)

COURT OF CHANCERY.

ATTORNEY-GENNRAL V. WILSON.

His LORDSHIP delivered judgment iu this ease. Lord
Gainsborough, in 1698, at that time Lord of the Manor of
Hampstead, granted six acres of the waste land, by his
steward, to be held by Copy:of Court Roll, according to the
custom of the manor, at a rent of ss. On that day, a deed
was executed, declaring the property so granted to be
held for the sole use and benefit of the poor of the parish,
for whose use the profits were to be applied. Some years
afterwards an information was filed by the then Attorney-
General against the Lord of the Manor of the day, for the
purpose of establishing and perpetuating the trust ; that in-
formation stated, that no provision was made in the origi-
nal grant for continuing the trust. In 1726 a decree
of this Court was made, which directed that the number
of trustees should be fourteen ; that when reduced to five,
a new nomination of as many as would snake up fourteen,
should be made by the Lord of the Manor, which were to
be submitted to the Master, and if he approved of them,
that they should be appointed, that they should be admitted,
that the estates should be surrendered to them, and that
they should pay a fine. This decree was adopted, and
has been acted upon until lately, when Sir Thomas Wilson,
the present Lord of the Manor, made a nomination of new
trustees, who were subsequently admitted, &c., and then
Sir Thomas claimed a tine of upwards of 5,000/.,
which was ten tunes as much as had been paid on
the last renewal of the full nnmber of the trustees.—
The object of the present information was to reform the
decree of 1726, which invested, or was supposed to
invest, the lord of the manor for the time being, with such
power as to enable him to demand a fine so great, and also
to restrain the lord from proceeding at law to recover the
fine or proceed to a forfeiture, which he threatened.
The defendant demurred to the bill. The Court was of
opinion, that the decree had hitherto been properly acted
upon, but that this Court would keep the controul of the
property within itself, and not allow the Lord of the
Manor to avail himself of part of the'decree, by taking some
steps under it in this Court as he had done, and then turn
round, go into a court of law, and ask for its assistance too.
Should this Court feel difficulty upon apy point of law
that might arise, it would direct the opinion below to be
taken, but it could not suffer the parties, at their
pleasure, to go to law respecting this property destined
for charitable purposes. The result was, that the Comer
overruled the demurrer, and on
Mr. TRESLOVE'S motion for it,
His LORDSHIP directed an injunction to issue, to restrain
the proceedings at law. .He added, the parties might bring the
facts before this Court, and it would take the means of
assessing the proper amount of fine, should they not now
agree upon the amount.
OPERA HOUSE.

Mr. SUODEN stated that a petition in this matter pressed
very much for hearing, and he had, therefore, to pray
his Lordship to allow it to be heard on an early day. The
petition was to have the question decided, whether the
Opera House was to be oiened this season or not.
His LORDSHIP supposed that at all events the House
would not be opened before Christmas ; but that the peti-
tion might be set down for hearing on the 24th.