LORD LEICESTER'S WILL.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13892, 1 May 1909, Page 3

LORD LEICESTER'S WILL.

Although the Earl of Leicester s will was proved in" London on February 27th, it is impossible at present to arrive at its full value. The total will probably reach £2,000,000, m which case the death duty will amount to £IOO,OOO on the first million and 000 on the second, apart from wmen there will be substantial sums for the State iu the form of succession duties. Meanwhile the estate, apart from settled property—he was owner or lite tenant of nearly 50,000 acres, prmcipallv in Norfolk—is sworn at £B<9,oy-l gross, of which tlie_ net personalty amounts to £427,645. One of the most interesting clauses in the late earl's will (a volumnous document of over 20,000 words) is that giving directions for his funeral. Anything in the way of ostentation tne earl considered a waste of money, and lie declared: — •: . , "I desire that my body be buried in the churchyard at Holkham, enclosed in a single plain, deal coffin oulv, without any brasses or ornament whatever, and 1 ■ request my executors not to provide any gloves or hat bands or to allow any other foolish expenditure at my funeral. The late earl stated that the Holkham Hall Estate had been settled by an indenture, dated March 1897, but of the effects at Holkham Hall lie left a diamond tiara to his widow for life, with remainder to follow the settlement of the heirlooms accompanying the Holkham Hall Estate. All other effects not already devolving as heirlooms on the Holkham Hall Estate hp left to liis son, the present earl. He left the Weaseuham Hall and Wellingham estates, and all other his estates, in the parishes of Weasenham All Saints and Weasenham St. Peter, to his widow for life, with remainder to his son, the Hon. Richard Coke, and his heirs in tail, and, as regards this estate the trustees are to have a sum of £30,000 from his residuary estate, to be expended in the suitable alteration, furnishing, and fitting of Weasenham Hall. The testator left the Kempstone estate upon trust for his son Wenman for life, with remainder to his heirs in tail male, whom failing to the testator's other sons, successively, unless he shall succeed to the Longford estates in Derbyshire, it being the testator's intention that only one of these three estates shall be held by any one of his sons and tlieir descendauts, and in the event of one of them who has succeeded to one of the estates bcoming entitled to another, the succession to^one of the estates is to be passed on to the next in succession. Besides numerous other family bequests, £2,000 is left to Viscount Coltham. as executor, a life annuity of £SO to Thomas Banner, formerly his clerk of the works, and a life annuity of £3O to Thomas Sparkes, one of his coaclim<AU other liis real and personal estate he left to the present earl.