LADY SEAFIELD’S WILL

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7978, 8 December 1911, Page 11

LADY SEAFIELD’S WILL

PROVISIONS FOR DEALING WITH THE ESTATE. FROM OUB SPECIAL COBBBSPONDBNT. LONDON, October 26. ' Until the will of the late Caroline, Lady Seaiield, is proved, it is impossible to know to what extent the present Lari will benefit out of her ladyship’s private fortune. Certain authoritative details concerning her testamentary writings have, however, been supplied, to the Homo press. From these it appears that her will contains a number of private bequests, and the following legacies to charities and public institutions: To the Infirmary at Inverness, ,£1000; to the Chalmers Hospital, Banff, .£1000; to the trustees on behalf of the lan Charles Cottage Hospital, Grantown, .£IB,OOO. The residence and remainder: of her personal means and estates, as well as the furniture, pictures, etc., in her mansion houses of Cullen House and Castle Grant, and also tho whole furniture and movable effects, tho property of Lady S.eaficld, in all other houses or shooting lodges belonging to her or h<?r estates, aro directed to bo made over by her executors to tho trustees appointed under her trust disposition of the Seafield and Grant estates, to be held by them for tho purposes of that trust. Lady Seafield narrates -that she ceeded to the Seaiield -and Grant estates under the disposition and settlement granted by her son, who had tho power of disposal thereof at the time of his death, and she desires that after her death these estates be preserved for tho heirs who may hereafter succeed to the stylo and title of Earl of Beafield. She accordingly convoys the estates to her trustees, conferring upon them ample powers of management. The purpose of tho trust, after the payment of expenses and all burdens, is to make provision for tho present Lari of Seafield and for his successors in the title. Provisions are also made for the Bari's wife and children should he predecease them, and for the widow and younger children of Francis \Villiam, tenth Earl of Seafield. , Arrangement is made during the subsistence of the trust for the> occupancy by the Earl of Seafield for the time of the mansion houses or one or the other with tho shootings and fishings. Durinc tho continuance of the trust the trustees Are directed to apply the whole free surplus income from the estates in payment and reduction of the heritable debts affecting the estates and finally, on the expiry of the period specified in the trust disposition and additions thereto, the trustees are directed to entail the estates on the Earl of Seafield tor the time and successors in the title. Concerning the will the "'Times says: "Regarding as a whole. Lady Seafield s testamentary writings exhibit in a.singular way the policy, commenced by her husband and continued by her son, and as a sacred trust by herself, of managing tho family estates with the view of their proper devedopmont, to the reduction of debt, and to the comfort and well-being of tho tenantry and all connected with them. That task she Ims now handed on to her trustees. Her wonted generosity is displayed, not only iff her legacies to public institutions which have a territorial connexion, but also in the numerous legacies from her private fortune, which she has left to tho estate officials, employees, and servants, and in tho bequest of residue from her personal estate to her trustees for the purpose of her trust disposition.