Star.
London, England, 1820-04-05 00:00:00

LAIY INTELLIGENCE.

VICE-CHANCELLOR'S COURT.

TUNBRIDGE. SCHOkOI...III/ ATTORNEY•GIDIERm.

TIIS 814INALRe CObIiANY.,

The question in this import-ant case was, whether
the defendants were entitled to employ, for the ge-
sacral put po.es of their Company, •a • property now
am :taming to between £4OOO and £3OOO per annum,
after paying certain small fixed sums, ordered in the
statutes and will of Sir Andrew Judde, the founder
of Tunbridge School; or whether they were not
trustees of the whole of the rents, for Abe purposes
of the School exclusively?
The Company have hitherto appropriated to them-
selo'eslhis surplus, under an impression that they
AVIr:C entitled to it by the residuary clause of Sir A.
J.-dtlis will; but tie inhabitants of Tunbridge hay-
kg. been advised that the, estates belonged to the
Corepany only in their corporate character of " Go-
vesnces of the Possessions of Tunbridge School,"
under the charter of foundation granted by Edward
the Sixth ; and, moreover, that if this were not so,
yet that they could take no lands, exceprfor chari-
table uses; an information was filed, praying that
the Company might be declared trustees of the
whole, for the uses of the Scheid, and that a scheme
might be presented for the appropriation, of all the
rents in augmenting the advantages of the foun-
dation. The case of Rugby School was considered
a precedent in point for the extension of the benefice
of the Institution, the circumstances being, in many.
-respects, precisely ; and the funds indeed, in
the case of Tunbridge, allowing mote complete pro-
vision fer the expenses of a College than the usual
average of the best exhibitions.at the Universities.
The facts are shortly these :—Sir Andrew Judde,
a Lord Mayor of London, and a Skinner, built a
Grammar-school at Tunbridge, the place f his na-
tivity, for the encouragement of classical learning;
it appealing by the statutes made by himself, and
confirmed by Archbishop Parker, and Dr. Nowell,
the. Dean of St. Paul's, that no boy should be. al-
lowed to be taught in his school " who could not
(upon his application to be admitted) write compe-
tently, and read English and Latin perfectly." He
had previously obtained his charter, in order to
create e corporation with the quality of perpetuity,
and with the capacity to hold lands to a certain
amount, " for the maintenance cf his School ;" but
the charter contained a clause of appropriation,
which directed the application of all the rents, after'
the reparations were done, " to the support of the'
Master and Usher, add to no other intents or uses
whatsoever."
Judde purchased lands in St. Pancras, then' a
small village in the country, and also some houses in
oracechurch-street, for the endowment of the School,
altogether within the value aathorized'by the Char-
ter. These lands, after his death, were rnveyed by
his trustee, one Fisher, to the Skinners, but they state
that this deed is lost. The Company, being com-
pelled to ollain two Acts of Parliament to protect
themselves front the attempts of Fisher's son, who'
sought t recover these estates upon several ground-
• lass pretexts, declared, in the preambles and enact-
ments, that these estates were vested in them as
" Governors of the School," under the 'Charter,
for the maintenance of the School ;" that they had
been purchased by Judde for its endowment; and
that they should be holden for ever for such " godly
uses." There being no surplus, for a great number
of years after the passing of these Acts, is the cause,
probably, why these provisions shn:ld not have been
acted upon till the present day. Had there been any
surplus at the time they were obtained, it cannot be
doubted but that ,liev would have been conclusive as
to the application of it. Judde, however, made a
will, and devised these estates (with a few other to-1
nernent.s) to the Company ; the date of his will was
four year, netuae conveyance ; it directed the
same payments so Le made to the Ma-:ter and the
Usher as n ere specified in Judde's own ordinances,
made in his life-time ; but gave in addition (the extra
property devised seimitting of it) some small pensions
to almsinen ; gratuities to the Master and Wardeits
of the Skinners. Company, who should go to Tun-
bridge at his visitation ; and the residue he ordered
should be laid cut in renairs, and " the overplus"
was bequeathed to the Skinners, " to order and dis-
pose of it a: their wills and pleasures." The present
considerable value of this overplus has been Occa-
sioned by the letting the Pancras land upon building-
leases, and by the improvements of Ltadenhall-mar-
ket. made a few years since.
Upon Mr. HA ReS ectrudtencing his reply, the Vice-
CHANCELLOR stopped him, saying, that this was a
case possessing noditficulties in point of law, but was
one entirely of fact. His Honour then took an ela-
borate view of all the documents, from which he de-
clared, there was no doubt but that these lands be-
longed only to the Skinners, as u Governors of the
School," and not as "the Skinners' Company." That
they had -declared this themselves in the 14th
and 31st Elizabeth, their own Acts of Parliament.
That they could substantiate no claim, therefore, as
the Skinners' Company, to any surplus of property,
the whole of which belonged to them as " Governors
of the School" only. The will could give them no
beneficial interest in this surplus*, for it could not
affect those lands which, at the time of the death of
the testator, and even in his life, constituted the en-
dowment of the School; and that 14sher must be
considered as a trustee for the School while the estate
remained vested in him, and this was decisive, with-
out considering the question of the capacity of a
Corporation to take lands (even since the construction
put upon the 45d Elizabeth), except for charitable
uses only. The Lawyers in that day never considered
this will operative, and therefore prepared the Acts
of Parliament without any reference to it. Under,
hOwever, all the circumstances (with the Charter
lying before him, which limited the application of
the 'revenues of this School to the use of the Master
nod Uilier exclusively), he should confine himself
now to declaring, that these lands were holden by
the Skinners as trustees for the School; that an ac-
count should be taken el the present value 6f them;
and that a scheme should be presented for their ap-
propriaziento the school: he thought are:elver should
be immediately appointed : this, however, was not
pressed for by the relators. The full costs of the
inhabitants of Tunbridge were ordered to be paid
to them.