The
Thellusson Will Case in an English trusts law case. It was a law suit resulting from the
willA will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his estate and provides for the transfer of his property at death. For the devolution of property not disposed of by will, see inheritance and intestacy...
of
Peter ThellussonPeter Thellusson was a French-Swiss business man and banker.His father Isaac had started a Swiss bank and then became the Genevan Ambassador to Paris. Peter's brother George-Tobie and he managed the successful bank in cooperation with Jacques Necker...
, an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
merchant (1737-1797).
He directed the income of his property, consisting of real estate of the annual value of about £5000 and personal estate amounting to over £600,000, to be accumulated during the lives of his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, living at the time of his death, and the survivor of them.
The
Thellusson Will Case in an English trusts law case. It was a law suit resulting from the
willA will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his estate and provides for the transfer of his property at death. For the devolution of property not disposed of by will, see inheritance and intestacy...
of
Peter ThellussonPeter Thellusson was a French-Swiss business man and banker.His father Isaac had started a Swiss bank and then became the Genevan Ambassador to Paris. Peter's brother George-Tobie and he managed the successful bank in cooperation with Jacques Necker...
, an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
merchant (1737-1797).
He directed the income of his property, consisting of real estate of the annual value of about £5000 and personal estate amounting to over £600,000, to be accumulated during the lives of his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, living at the time of his death, and the survivor of them. The property so accumulated, which, it is estimated, would have amounted to over £14,000,000, was to be divided among such descendants as might be alive on the death of the survivor of those lives during which the accumulation was to continue.
The bequest was held valid (
Thellusson v. Woodford, 1798, 4 Vesey, 237). In 1856, there was a protracted lawsuit as to who were the actual heirs. It was decided by the
House of LordsThe House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords". Parliament comprises the Sovereign, the House of Commons , and the Lords...
(June 9, 1859) in favour of
Lord RendleshamPeter Isaac Thellusson, 1st Baron Rendlesham , was a British merchant and politician.Thelluson was the eldest son of Peter Thellusson, a wealthy London merchant who had emigrated to Britain from France in 1760, and his wife Ann, daughter of Matthew Woodford...
and Charles Sabine Augustus Thellusson. Owing, however, to the heavy expenses, the amount inherited was not much larger than that originally bequeathed.
To prevent such a disposition of property in the future, the
Accumulations Act 1800 (known also as the "Thellusson Act") was passed, by which it was enacted that no property should be accumulated for any longer term than either
- the life of the grantor; or
- the term of twenty-one years from his death; or
- during the minority of any person living or en ventre sa mere
The French phrase en ventre sa mere refers to a fetus in utero. It is commonly used in legal English.A child which is still "en ventre sa mere" is accepted to be a minor, provided it is subsequently born alive....
at the time of the death of the grantor; or
- during the minority of any person who, if of full age, would be entitled to the income directed to be accumulated.
The act, however, did not extend to any provision for payment of the debts of the grantor or of any other person, nor to any provision for raising portions for the children of the settlor, or any person interested under the settlement, nor to any direction touching the produce of timber or wood upon any lands or tenements. The act was extended to heritable property in
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
by the Entail Amendment Act 1848, but does not apply to property in
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
. The act was further amended by the Accumulations Act 1892, which forbids accumulations for the purpose of the purchase of land for any longer period than during the minority of any person or persons who, if of full age, would be entitled to receive the income.
It is believed that the Thellusson Will case provided the basis for the fictional case of
Jarndyce and JarndyceJarndyce and Jarndyce is a fictional court case in Chancery in the novel Bleak House by Charles Dickens.The case concerns the fate of a large inheritance. It has dragged on for many generations prior to the action of the novel, so that, by the time it is resolved late in the narrative, legal costs...
.