The Sun. — 1845-10-30 (London, England)

JENNER FM.) "ERRE V. PEACOCK 6.  The CHAIWIAN proposed the health of Mr. Lee Stevens and the stewards of the days. Drunk with all the honours. Mr. STEVENS briefly returned thanks for the kind manner in which the name of himself and colleagues had been re• ceived.  To-day this cause was again brought on for hearing. It appears that Sir Thomas George Apreece, Bart., late of Washingley Hall, in the county of Huntingdon, and of Margate, in the county of Kent, deceased, died on the 30th December, 1942, aged 51. He left behind him a sister, Mrs. Amelia Peacocke, who will be entitled in distribution, if it be established that the paper propounded be invalid. The deceased was possessed of large landed estates in the counties of Huntingdon, Essex, Leicester, and other parts of England, of the value of about 200,000/. and of a personalty of about 20,0001., exclusive of large amounts laid out in the Govern. ment annuities. The deceased left several other relatives, among whom are the Rev. Thomas H. Cole, a natural brother, &c. The sums invested in the Government annuities were 18,7001. and 28.0001., the dividends on which were never, as alleged, regularly received by him, the arrears at the time of his death amounting to about 7,0001., and having also in his banker's hands about 12,0001. The deceased committed suicide by shooting himself with a pistol, on the 30th December, 1842. The will in dispute was executed in the shop of a hatter, in Fleet-street, which is within a short distance of his legal adviser's. The will bears date on the 23d June, 1836, and by it the whole property is directed to be realised and bequeathed to St. George's Hospital. The validity of the paper is opposed on the ground of the insanity of the deceased. Her Majesty's Advocate, Dr. Addams, and Dr. Harding were in opposition to the validity of the will; and Dr. Phitlimore and Dr. Jcnner in support of it. For the force and validity of the paper, it was contended that the deceased had, ter to the period of the execution of the paper, managed his own affairs. Against the paper there are a multitude of eccentricities pleaded. The deceased is alleged to have been at all times strange and eccentric, even while a boy ; that in later years he believed that his heart and stomach were of a different construction from those of other people, and betokening premature decay When out in the rain, as it was his habit to be, both by slay and night, it was the deceased's constant practice to take off his hat, and stand for some considerable length of time with his head uncovered and exposed, evincing and expressing the comfort he received there. by. That on a stormy or rainy night happening in the year 1836, the deceased set off late for the Horse Guards, complaining bitterly of the (supposed) necessity of the journey, and that he walked all the way from Blackheath to the Horse Guards, though followed or attended by a carriage driven by his coachman, and also by a groom mounted and leading a saddle-horse. That as soon as he got to the Horse Gsurds, without calling anywhere, he turned about, and persisted in wa king back again to the foot of the bill, near to Blackheath, attended as before, a distance, in the whole, of not less than ten or eleven miles, notwithstanding that it rained heavily and incessantly. That upon his arrival at the foot of the said hill, and not, before, he was prevailed upon to get into iris carriage. In the cruse of the arguments against the will, it was contended especially by Drs. Adderns and Harding, that the;bequest to a public charity of the whole of so large a property was contrary to the ac • knewledged feelings of the deceased—that he was fond of boasting of his fami:y and pedigree—that his ancestors had been knighted by Queen Elizabeth, and, notwithstanding all this, in one line he had left the whole of his property to St. George's Hospital, including estates that had been in the family since Henry the Eighth. The reply remains to be heard.  The CITAIRMAN proposed Mr. Herbert Sturmy, their elec:ion agent, in a highly eulogistic speech. Mr.STLTRMY briefly acknowledged the toast. The assembly shortly afterwards broke up.