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,.oj!lIE DISPUTED BAJLOKETGY:…

A MAN TVHO LIVES ON HIS WITS.

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A WEALTHY WIDOW AND IIER WILL.

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A WEALTHY WIDOW AND IIER WILL. In the Court of Probate; on Saturday, before the Judge Ordinary, the case of Smith and Smith v. Tebbitt and others, was introduced. This was a suit to determine the validity of a will which would pass a property estimated at from 2400,000 to £ 450,000. The testatrix was Mrs. Ann Thwaites, late of ] 7, Hyde-park-gardens, and of Char- mandean, near Worthing. She was the widow of a tea- merchant, in Fenchurch-street, who died in 1834, leaving a personality valued at X390,000, with reality to the extent of from X12,000 to 20,000 more, the bulk of which he bequeathed to the uncontrolled possession of his wife. She was a person of low. origin and education, but after her marriage she made every effort, not with- out success, to fit herself for her position in society to which she had been raised. In 1835 she bought a house on Clapham-common,. and went to live there with her sister, Mrs. Tebbitt, who had formerly been a domestic in Mr. Thwaite's employment. She had married a fellow-servant, by whom she had a large family. One of her daughters had married an artist named Cooke another had married a Mr. Parrott and there were also four sons, Robert Tebbitt, Walter, Henry, and Alfred. Of these, two, Cooke and Walter Tebbitt, join with their mother in opposing the will. On the part of the plaintiffs, who were the executors, it was alleged that a quarrel soon took place between the testatrix and her sister. Mrs. Tebbitt was, how- ever, left at Clapham, and Mrs. Thwaites went to live at Herne Bay, which, however, she soon left, and came to reside in Finsbury-circus. Here she settled X30,000 upon Mrs. Tebbitt and her children. In 1840 she bought her house in Hyde-park-gardens, which she retained till her death, and she also purchased her property at Charmandean. One of the plaintiffs, Mr. John Sims Smith, was a medical attendant, to whom the testatrix imagined that she was, humanly speaking, indebted for a recovery from a dangerous illness. This feeling led to a warm friendship towards him. She invited him to Charmardean; she also adopted his two daughters and his brother; she also induced him to give up his practice and become her man of business He used to accompany her to the Continent and generally to manage her affairs. By 1840 her estrange- ment from her sister became complete, and they never met after that, though she continued to provide liberally for her and her children. She occasionally made pre- sents to Alfred Tebbitt and to Mrs. Parrott, and she gave Mrs. Cooke an annual allowance of X450. She gave X200 a year to Robert Tebbitt and afterwards to his wife. She also allowed Henry Tebbitt zC200, and Walter Tebbitt < £ 150 a year. She paid the expenses of Mr. Cooke while pursuing his studies at Rome. In 1848, however, he returned to England in a state of great distress owing to the revolution and then Mrs. Thwaites made him a present of X300. She afterwards gave him a house at Broadwater, and advanced him XI,000 to build him a studio. Mr. Cooke, however, spent the money in some other way, and a further demand of 4750 was made upon Mrs. Thwaites. For this she forbade him her house. About nine years ago she with- drew the allowance she had made to Robert Tebbitt, as penalty for deserting his family, and gave it to his wife. She also cast off Walter Tebbitt on his conviction of adultery in a divorce suit. On the 2nd of March, 1866, Mrs. Thwaites (who had made several previous testa- mentary dispositions) executed the will in dispute. She named the two Smiths, with two or three other per- sons, as her executors, and she gave them each £ 10,000. She gave a like sum to the Rev. Mr. Power, an invalid clergyman other legacies to different persons amounting to £ 46,000; bequests to charities, £ 13,000; gifts to nephews and nieces of her husband, £ 45,000 and ih legacies to her own nephews and nieces a like sum. These were as follows To the family of Walter Tebbitt, £ 5,000 to that of Robert, e7,000 to Mrs. Cooke and her children, £ 15,000; to Alfred Tebbitt, £ 8,000 to Henry Tebbitt and Mrs. Parrott, £ 5,000 each. To Mrs. Tebbitt she gave nothing beyond the house at Clapham and her share of the settlement. The residue, estimated at about X168,000, was equally divided between the two Smiths. To Mr. J. S. Smith she also left the Charmandean property and she had previously given each of his daughters a dowry of £ 20,000. The testatrix died on the 1st of April, 1866, at the age of 74. Probate was resisted on the ground of undue exe- cution, want of capacity, and undue influence. After the examination of several witnesses in support of the perfectly lucid state of the testatrix's mind when she made the will, the case was further adjourned.

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STRIKE AMONG THE TAILORS.

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OUR "CITY" ARTICLE. .I

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1:iie Money 2/Iarket.