Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-08-16

The Great TheI1us.on win Case.

pers of vanity and pursue with eargeness the
phantom of a name, attend to the history of
one richer than Rasselas-even to the history
of one Peter Thellusson, late of the city of
London. merchant. 1t is partly detailed in
the columns of our this days Law report, but
scarcely plainly enough to be understood with
! out labor by non-legal minds.
1t is now slXty-two years since Peter Thel-
| lusson took stock of his worldly possessions,
and found that he had e600, 900 in money and
| lands of the annual value of e4.500. Peter
| Thellusson had satisfied the ordinary ambi-
| ton of an English boRgeoise he had founded
a family. Peter Isaac, the son of his youth
and the prop of his house. was heir to e35.-
| 600 year in money and land, and might
claim to be a born gentleman.
Peers and peeresses might hereafter spring
in intermediate succession from the loins of
that denizen of dingy little back parlor be-
hind the Bank The best men upon Change
envied the rich and prosperous Peter Thelus-
who had no object of ambition unsatisfied.
Peter was of different mind he had not
nearly money enough. Let other men be
satisfied to found one family. Peter was luc-
ky enough to have three sons, and he would
found three families.
1t was not that he loved his sons or his
sons sons, but it was the hope and desire of
this magnificently pOsthumous miscr to asso-
ciate his name in future generations with three
colossal fortunes. If he did not love his sons
he did not hate them; he was simply indiffer-
ent to every thing except to his own cherished
object. Peter Thelusson took the very best
legal advice, and made will. He left a few
trifing legacies, probably to show that no
unnatural antipathy to his children tainted
that will with mania; but his great fortune
was all conveyed to trustees. 1t was to ac-
cumulate until every man, woman, and child
of the offspring of Peter, and alive or begot-
ten at the moment OfPeter's death should
also be defunct. No one of the children or
grandchildren who had ever looked Peter in
the face, or trembled in his presence, or squal
led at the sound of his harsh, hard voice
should ever be the richer for Peters wealth
And the rich man also died" Twelve months
after making this will, and sixty-one years
from the present time. Peter was gathered to
his unknown fathers. The will was opened
aud created sensations which vibrated through
the land in widening circles Our law books
picture 10 Us the blank disappointment OF the
then living relatives. the gentle ordinations
of a past generation of lawyers, and the gap
ing wonder of the general public. Tn re
were three sons and six grandsOns of this
malignant old merchant then alive, all des-
tined to live the life of Tantalus; to see this
great pagOda tree growing up before them,
yet never to pluck one unit of its fruit. The
terms of the will enjoined that when the last
children should yield up his breath then the
charm was to end; the great mountain of ac-
cumulattd wealth was to be divided into three
portions and One-third was 10 be given TO
each of the eldest male lineal descendants
of his three sons. Having thus done what be
lk, d with his own. and excluded all his living
progeny from all the benefit, he ends with a
whine to the Legislature worthy of Shylock
appealing against mercy-he had earned his
money with honesty and industry and he
hoped the Legislature would not alter his will
Of course the first thing that followed was
chancery suit of the latest bnlk.
The common sense view Of the case would
have been to set aside the win as the product
of a diseased mind-a mind rendered morbid
as to its dispOsing powers by dwelling upon
an irrational object. But Lords Loughborough
and Alvanley and EldOn, and judges of kin
dred sympathies. seem to have been led by
their love Of art to admire the skill with
which the Tcchnicalities Of our blessed real
property law had been adapted to the object
of this old trader. The litigation went up to
the House of Lords ard the will was confirm
ed. This affair naturally made great noise.
The Legislature took it up, and although
they would not set aside the will by an cL
post factO law. they branded Peter TheliuSsous
memory with the imputatiOn of vanity, IL
liberality, and folly" and enacted by statute
seth and 10th George Ill cap SO, that the
power of dcvising property for the purpose
of accumulation shall be restrained in gene
raj to twenty-one years after the death Of the
testator. Persons of an arithmetical and sta
tistical turn of mind also occupied themselves
with the matter. and, with the aid of life in
surance tables and Cocker. they calculated
that this fund, accumulating at compound in
terest, could not amount to less than nineteen
millions at the mOment.Of distribution and
VnUIH nrph1hlVy roach tho tra
figure of thlrty-two millions. But nothing is
$50 false as facts. except figures" The cal
culators had forgotten TO take account of
that unknown quantity which must, in
practical matters, be represented. not by the
letter II, " but by the word obligation" Con-
temporaneously with the chancery suit to set
aside the will there was crOSs-suit to have
the trusts of the will performed under the
direction of the Court of Chancery. That
suit is now sixty years old, and though child
rem and grandchildren are dead, the suit is as
hale and lively as it was in their earliest
youth. That suit was the true heir to Peter
Thellusson and it is still spending his money
like frolicksome young cOrnet Necessarily
there were other suits.
There were suits about pOst-testament &C
questions of real property, there were suits
about vowsOns, there were suits about other
matters, so humorous that even equity lay
WtIS- nOJ StlllPN OI THEIR words. are nam TO
describe them as various" The careful and
management of the Court of Chan
Gerry has also exercised its influence upon this
estate. The Yorkshire estates have participa-
ted in that excellent system, which has been
so uniform in its action that when we a
house all widowless and implanted, lettering
and decaying, we can predicate with tone of
undoubting conviction, that property is in
The last survivor of the nine lives died in
February, 1856, and four new bills were i'm
filed. The property is now TO be
divided. not into thirds, but into notifies.
There Is, however, question raised as to who
is entitled. Who were the eldest male
lineal descendants of old Peter Thellusson in
FEBRUARY, 1856? There are two who are
eldest in point of lineage, and two who are
eldest in point of personal age. This piont
is still sub JUDGE 1t would not be very diff
iicult to guess how it will be decided; but
that is no matter of ours nor would il have
been a matter of the least interest TO old
Peter Thellusson.
His object was to make the heap very large;
he evidently cared not one lock of wool as to
which of his descendant might be the posses
sor. Public interests in this long line of
litigation is confined to its general aspect.
Peter Thcllusson's scheme has turned out a
foolish failure. No single Thellusson will
stake over the land overshadowIng our dukes
and crushing our barous by the magnitude of
his territorial possession. No thirty-two
millions ofmoney are expanded into broad
acres where men may travel and say, "Behold
the conquests of the great Peter Thellussonl'
Whether Lord Rendlesham and Charles
Sabine Augustus Thellusson divided the
estate as the eldest in lineage, sor whether
Thomas and Arthur take as eldest in years,
we should equally desire to he able to cali up
old Peter Theiiusson 10 the division OF
his anticipated accommodations. The Court of
Chancery has so clipped and pollarded his
oak that il is not larger than he left il. Ii
would be tit punishment for that purse proud,
vain, cruel old man to see that be dsinherit-