BRIDE'S GIFT OF A FORTUNE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13722, 11 April 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

BRIDE'S GIFT OF A FORTUNE.

£200,000 FOR RELATIVES AND /, CHARITIES. Nkw York, February 27.—Mrs. Weightman Walker started a new fashion in" weddings yesterday when' she celebrated her marriage with Mr. Frederick Courtland Penfield, a former Consul-General to London, by distributing £200,000 among her relatives and certain charities. This leaves the bride a beggarly £11,800,000 with which to begin her newlease of married life. Mrs. Weigh tman Walker is the daughter of the late Mr. Wnliam Weightman, 'i Philadelphia chemist, who amassed an enormous fortune, and bequeathed it to her, with certain stipulations which Mrs. Walker states she is now carrying out. After Mr. Weightman's death other members of his family attacked the will, and long and expensive litigation followed. The marriage of Mrs. Walker and Mr. Penfield took place at St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Cathedral yesterday, and was practically secret, only 30 of the most intimate friends of the bride and groom being present. Archbishop * Farley performed the ceremony, and a telegram of congratulation was received from the Pope, through Cardinal Merry del Val. The wedding breakfast took place at the bride's New York residence, and the invited guests included the daughters of Mrs. Jones Wister, who were the principals in the fight for the Weightman millions. Announcement of the bride's "'wedding" gifts was made at the breakfast. She has given : — £20,000 each to a nephew and five nieces. £10,000 each to four great nephews and great nieces. £40,000 to charities. Nothing to Mrs. Jones Wister' s family. The bride issued a brief statement to the effect that she was carrying out her father's intentions, which she would have done earlier, but " the ill-advised, groundless and unsuccessful attack upon his will prevented this, and deprived the beneficiaries of what they might have enjoyed for the last three years." The distinctly sub-acid postcript to the bride's statement states that she intends "to do what she pleases with her own fortune, " undeterred by impertinent and intrusive suggestions." "

Mr. Penfield, who is a prominent NewYork lawyer, has been an author as well as a diplomatist. He was Consul-General to London in 1885, and afterwards Minister Resident in Egypt. He was married twice previously, his vsecond wife being Mrs. McMurdo, the wife of an engineer, who received a. large sum from Portugal in satisfaction of the Delagoa Bay railway claim.