Thellusson, PETER

Thellusson, PETER, the son of Isaac de Thellusson, ambassador of Geneva at the court of Louis XV., was born in Paris, 27th June 1737, and settling in London as a merchant in 1762, acquired enormous wealth, which at his death (27th July 1797) he disposed of by a will that led to a special act of parliament and much litigation. After bequeathing large fortunes to all the members of his family, he left the residue of his wealth (estates worth £1500 a year and personal property to the amount of £600,000) to trustees, to accumulate during the lives of his three sons and of all their sons. The accumulated fund (estimated to be likely to produce some £19,000,000) was then to be used to purchase estates for the eldest lineal descendant of his three sons. The will was contested by the heirs at law, but affirmed in the House of Lords in 1805; though meanwhile the Thellusson Act (see PERPETUITY) had been passed (1800), restraining testators from devising their property for accumulation for more than twenty-one years. Thellusson's last grandson died in February 1856; and there was then a lawsuit as to whether the property should go to the eldest male descendant of Thellusson or to the eldest male descendant of Thellusson's eldest son. To the latter (Lord Rendlesham) it was finally adjudged on appeal to the House of Lords (9th June 1859); but, by reason of the large expenses, the total sum inherited was said not much to exceed the sums bequeathed by the testator.