The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-12-26 00:00:00

have just sig

explanation thereof. You will iind that, atter provimm
for my other relatives liberally, in my opinion, you are
the residuary legatee, which gives, you nearly £IOO,OOC
Now, you are aware how I did intend to dispose of th
bulk of this sum, but am prevented by a. legal difficult.

which is not immediately removable

ay will

I did intend to have left you an annuity of t

per annum, with house and furniture in the square, in-
cluding horses, carriages, plate, pictures, linen, &c., and
whatever appertains thereto, for use, which I believed you

would consider quite sufficient for all purposes when
Pleases God to remove me from you—an even -

hick, I

hope, is yet at some distance of time. May God bless you,
my dear wife, will ever be the prayer of your affectionate

enclosed with the will in an envelope, and given to Mrs.
Ripley in November, 1851. On the sth of August,
1852, the testator made a codicil to his will ; and,
after making some additional bequests, it proceeded

as follows (that is to say) :—" I ratify and confirm
d will." The testator, when he executed his
made the following endorsement on the letter,
dated the 6th of November, 1851, and enclosed with the
will :--1" My property having very much increased sine(
November, 1851, I think it right to increase the annuity
to £1,500, which I hope, my dear wife, you will long enjoy
—Thomas Ripley.—August 5, 1852." The bill alleged that

,ether Mrs

on the 13th of August, 1852, Mrs. Bland, the tes
sister, saw him, and that while they were to{
Ripley came into the room, and remained them

he was going

Mrs. Blind remarked that she thought he was going to
build schools, and that thereupon the testator requested
Mrs. Ripley to explain the matter toMrs. Bland, which she
did, by stating that there was to be a school on the same
plan as the Bluecoat Hospital at Liverpool, and that on
this statement being made by Mrs. Ripley, the testator
observed, " Yes, and it will be endowed with between
£3,000 and £4,000 a-year. I have left all to Julia (Mrs.
Ripley) ; the Mortmain Act compels me to do so, but I am
sure, my dear (addressing and looking at the said Julia
Ripley), you will religiousl, scrupulously, and conscien-
tiously carry out my views." The bill alleged that Mrs.
Ripley acquiesced in the last-mentioned observation of the
testator, and on its being made took up his hand and kissed
it, in token of her acquiescence therein, and that, if not in

words, she at least by her acts gave the testator to under-
stand that she would carry out his views, if he left his will
and codicil unrevoked. The bill also alleged that between
the 13th and 20th of August, 1852, the objects and pur-
poses of the testator with reference to the school were the
frequent subject of conversation between the testator and
Mrs. Bland, and that these conversations took place for
the most part in the presence of Mrs. Ripley ; and that
before the testator's death Mrs. Ripley told Mrs. Bland
that the testator had left her (Mrs. Ripley) an annuity of
£1,500, the house, and everything appertaining to it, and
that he had previously only left her £1,200 a year, but
that he had added another £3OO a year when he made his
codicil. These allegations were supported by Mrs. Bland's
evidence. The testator died on the 20th of August, 1852.
The 31st paragraph of the bill was as follows :—" The
purpose and object of the said testator, as expressed in the
will so cancelled as aforesaid, and as expressed to the said
Julia Ripley, and agreed to be carried out by her, was
that of buying land and building. an hospital or school
thereon and endowing the same; and had not the said
Julia Ripley (Mrs. Ripley) made such promise as afore-
said, the said testator would not have left her his resi-
duary, or have made his will as is hereinbefore set
fnrill and thA rpsidnary clause in the said will was.

in fact, inserted and made upon a secret under-
Rtauding between the said testator and his wife
that she would execute his wishess and defeat the
operation and effect of the statute made and passed in
the 9th year of his late Majesty King George 11., entitled

' An act to restrain the disposition of lands whereby the
same became unalienable," commonly called the Mortmain
Act. The bill was filed in May, 1i53, with the object
before stated. Mrs. Ripley, by her ansker to the plaintiff's
bill, denied that she had made any promise to the testator
to induce him to make her his residuary legatee, or that
she ever saw or knew of the contents of the letter of the
6th of November, 1851, until after the testator's death.
aShe also denied ever having heard any such conversation
is that alleged in the bill. Mr. John Ripley, the testator's
brother, and one of the defendants in the suit, in his
answer, said that the testator had repeatedly, both before
and after the will of the Gth of November, in Mrs.

Ripley's presence, stated that the residue, amounting to
£BO,OOO, or £1,00,000, would be applied in building and
endowing a charity at Lancaster. Mrs. Ripley denied
ever having heard any such conversation. It was not dis-
puted that the testator, for some time prior to, and down
to the period of his decease, had an intention of founding
a charitable institution for the benefit of his native
town; Lancaster, and that he did not attempt to conceal
that intention. Indeed, such was the expectation at Lan-
caster that he intended to confer some benefit on that town
that on the occasion of his funeral many of the shops in
that place were closed, and the Mayor and some of the
Town Council attended it. By the act 9th Geo. 11., chap.
36, commonly called the Mortmain Act, it is provided that
to land or money to be laid out in the purchase of land
shall be given for the benefit of any charitable use, unless
such gift be made by deed, executed in the presence of
two or more witnesses, twelve calendar months at least
before the death of the donor, and be enrolled in Chancery
within six calendar months after the execution thereof;
and unless the same be made to take effect in possession
for the charitable use intended immediately from the
making thereof, and be without any power of revocation,
reservation, trust, condition, limitation, clause, or agree-
ment whatsoever for the benefit of the donor or grantor,
or of any person or persons claiming under him. Shortly
before the testator made his will, dated in November,
1351, he consulted his solicitor as to the means of orry•
ng out his charitable intention. The solicitor took the
opinion of conveyancing counsel in London, and thereupon
informed the testator that the only means of effecting his
object was by a compliance with the provisions of the
Mort Main Act. The testator objected to buying land or
investing money in the manner required by that statute,
on the ground that it would abstract more than he could
spare from his business, and he determined to make a
will. He resolved to give the residue to Mrs. Ripley,
taking the chance, as he said to his solicitor, of
her applying it as he in his lifetime was himself
proposing to apply it. In forwarding the will to
the testator, his solicitor expressly told him that
upon any admission by Mrs. Ripley of a secret trust
the gift might be defeated, and that the whole matter
must be left to her as her own. "I had satisfied myself,"
also said the testator, " that any promise would vitiate the
will, and Mrs. Ripley also perfectly understood it." On
the sth of August,lBs2, the will, by desire of the testator,
was read over to Mrs. Ripley by his solicitor, and the tes-
tator gave the letter of the 6th of November to his soli-
citor, and desired him to read it to himself. His solicitor's
expression was, that he mentally read it, and then put it
into the envelope with the will. The testator gave back
the envelope with its enclosures to Mrs. Ripley to lock up
again in a safe. When Mrs. Ripley was sent to by the
testator for his will, the solicitor deposed that the testator
said to him, " I have not asked her for any promise, or
anything of that sort, as you told me I was not to do so."
Mrs. Ripley, so far as the 6th of April, 1853, writing to
Mr. John Ripley, the testator's brother, said,—" I cannot
help saying that one accusation is, that it is not my inten-
tention to carry into effect my husband's wishes as to the
charity he intended to found at Lancaster." And again,
in the same letter, " I declare to you it is my fixed deter-

mination, if it pleases God to spare my life, to carry
out what you know, as well as I do, were the wishes
Ind intentions of my dear husband, had he lived to
out himself: On this subject I cannot
In her answer to the bill Mrs. Ripley ad-
t the testator expressed his intention to
bulk of his property to charity, and in her
she stated that he never said anything to her
ldition on which the property was left to her,
any desire or wish as to what sloe was to do
iney, or any part of it, or gave her any di-
Mr•s. Ripley completed

say in

mitted that

aired b,

reply, (

'eserved his ju,

'INTER ASSIZE

TUESDAY

Mary Smil

!am En.

Liverpo

thhlP_ R

Ltenced to six

labour."

's' penal servitude, and tl

hard labour