Robert Sutherland’s Will
Posted on May 28, 2007
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Will of Robert SUTHERLAND of the Island of St Vincent in the West Indies.
Records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury and related Probate Jurisdictions. PROB 11/1749More SUTHERLAND family information
I Robert SUTHERLAND of the Island of St Vincent in the West Indies and of Millmount in Rosshire, North Britain. Hereby revoke all my former wills, codicils and other testaments, dispositions, except a certain Testamentary Instrument bearing the date herewith whereby I have given and disposed all my real and personal estate in Scotland as herein mentioned and I declare this to be my last will and testament. I bequeath to my beloved wife Jenetta Catherine the sum of two hundred pounds for a mourning and twenty guineas for a ring or a ring of that value as also my carriage and carriage horses if I have any such in Great Britain at the time of my decease I bequeath to my dear mother Mrs Elizabeth SUTHERLAND, my sister Mrs Katherine MACKENZIE and my sister Mrs Mary Maxwell SUTHERLAND and my sister in law Mrs Jean SUTHERLAND widow of my brother George Sackville SUTHERLAND the sum of one hundred pounds each for mourning and ten guineas each for rings or rings of that value and to my father and mother in law Colonel and Mrs Robert Murray MACGREGOR their daughter Barbara Murray MACGREGOR, my brother in law Robert Impey MURCHISON Esq. And Mrs MURCHISON his lady the sum of ten guineas each for rings or rings of that value.
I also bequeath the following annuities namely to my said mother Mrs Elizabeth SUTHERLAND the yearly sum of four hundred pounds during her life commencing from my decease by half yearly payments the first whereof to be made at the end of six calendar months from my decease. To each of my said sisters Katherine MACKENZIE and Mary Maxwell SUTHERLAND the yearly sum of two hundred pounds during her life commencing from the decease of my said mother by equal half yearly payments, the first whereof to be made at the expiration of six calendar months from the decease of my said mother. To my said sister in law Jean SUTHERLAND the yearly sum of two hundred pounds during her life commencing from my decease by equal half yearly payments the first whereof to be made at the expiration of six calendar months from my decease and I direct that after the decease of each of them, the said Katherine MACKENZIE, Mary Maxwell SUTHERLAND and Jean SUTHERLAND the annuity hereby provided for her shall arise at the time herein before mentioned for the commencement thereof or shall be continued so the rest may be for the benefit and shall be paid to or amongst her daughter or daughters who shall be living at her decease and the survivors and survivor of such daughters during their respective lives and life and to such daughters and survivors where more than one in equal shares as tenants in common.
I also bequeath to each of my nephews, George Mackay SUTHERLAND and Ewan Baillie SUTHERLAND the yearly sum of thirty pounds commencing from my decease by equal half yearly payments until he shall obtain a Lieutenants commission in the service in which he is engaged or leave the same service or shall become entitled to any part in my West India Estate herein after devised, the first half yearly payments thereof to be made at the expiration of six calendar months from my decease and to my coachman William DON if he shall accompany me to the West Indies the yearly sum of ten pounds during his life commencing from my decease by equal half yearly payments the first whereof to be made at the expiration of six calendar months from my decease and if he shall so accompany me and his present wife survive him the same annuity shall after his decease arise or be continued (as the case may be) and be paid to her during her life and I direct that upon the final expiration of any of the said annuities the proportionate part thereof shall be paid to the person entitled thereto, his or her executors or administrators from the then last half yearly day of payment or the commencement thereof (as the case may be) up to the time of such expiration provided always and I hereby declare that the several annuities herein before given to females are intended to be for their separate independently of their present and future husbands respectively and for that purpose I direct that all payments of every such annuity shall be made to such persons and for such purposes only on the female entitled thereto if married shall notwithstanding her coverture from time to time by any writing signed by her with her own hand appoint but not as not to deprive her if during such coverture of the benefit thereof by sale, mortgage charge or otherwise in the way of anticipation and in default of and until such appointment into her own hands for her sole benefit exclusively of her husband and without being in any wise subject to his debts control, interference or engagements and the receipts of such formale or of such person or persons as she shall from time to time appoint to service the same payments respectively or any part thereof shall notwithstanding her coverture be effectual discharges for the money therein acknowledged to be received. I release to my nephew Duncan Forbes SUTHERLAND the sum of one thousand two hundred pounds or thereabouts which he owes me.
I bequeath to my said wife and to my said sister Katherine MACKENZIE, their administrators and assignees the sum of six thousand pounds payable after my said wife’s decease but to bear interest in the meantime at the rate of five pounds for one hundred pounds by the year upon trust to invest the same sum when serviced in the public funds or upon government or real securities in Great Britain and to vary the investment at their direction and to apply the interest and annual product of the said sum of six thousand pounds or of the funds and securities in which the same shall be invested at their discretion for the maintenance and education of my two reputed daughters Elizabeth and Mary SUTHERLAND now at school in England until they shall respectively marry or attain the age of twenty five upon either of which events out of moiety of the said sum of six thousand pounds and of such funds and securities shall amount absolutely vested in her who shall so marry or attain that age. But upon the death of either of them under that age and unmarried the whole thereof shall remain upon the life trusts for the benefit of the survivor and upon the death of both them under that age and unmarried the whole thereof shall either not be raised or if raised shall sink into the residue of my personal estate. I bequeath to each and every of my nephews and nieces (the purportive children of my said deceased brother George Sackville SUTHERLAND and my said sisters Katherine MACKENZIE and Mary Maxwell SUTHERLAND) who shall be living at the decease of my said wife and shall have then attained or thereafter shall attain the age of twenty one years or (as to my said nieces) shall then have married or thereafter shall marry under that age (except such thereof my said nephews as shall be entitled to my said West India Estates under the devise thereof hereinafter contained) the sum of one thousand pounds, but I declare that if any of the said sums of one thousand pounds shall become vested before the expiration of the period of ten years from the date of this my will the same shall not be payable nor bear interest until the expiration of that period and if any of my said nieces shall have married before the time of payment of her said legacy of one thousand pounds the same unless otherwise disposed of by the marriage settlement shall be paid and applied to such powers for such purposes and in such manner only as she shall notwithstanding her coverture by some writing under her own hand appoint and in default thereof into her own hands for her sole use and benefit exclusively of her husband and without being in any wise subject to his debts control, interference or engagements and the receipts of her or other appointees shall notwithstanding her coverture be effectual discharges for the money therein acknowledged to be received and as to my Sugar Plantation or Estate in the said Island of St Vincent called the Waterloo Estate and the Slaves, Cattle, Machinery, implements and other live and dead stock upon or belonging the same and my moiety of another Sugar Plantation or Estate in the same Island called the Orange Hill Estate and of the Slaves, Cattle, Machinery, Implements and other Live and Dead Stock upon or belonging to the same which moiety I have formerly contracted to sell at a valuation to Thomas PATTERSON late of the said Island Esquire the proprietor of the other moiety but I consider the said contract to be now at an end.
And also as to all the rest and residue of my Real and Personal estate and effects in the West Indies and elsewhere and herein before disposed of nor in the said Testamentorum Testament relating to my estate in Scotland and such real and personal estate and effects as by virtue of any power I am able to dispose of by this my will I devise and bequeath the same respectively subject to and charged with all my just debts and my funeral and Testamentary expenses and also to and with the several annuities and pecuniary legacies herein before bequeathed and all annuities and pecuniary legacies to be given by any codicil or codicils hereto made and to the use of the three oldest of such of my seven nephews the sons of my said brother George Sackville SUTHERLAND as shall be living at my decease in equal shares as tenants in common and the heirs, Executors, administrators and assignees of such my three oldest nephews respectively provided always and I hereby declare that if I shall leave any legitimate child or children living at my decease or born in due time afterwards then all the legacies of one thousand pounds each herein before bequeathed to my said nephews and nieces and the devise and bequest herein before contained of my said West Indies Estates and the residue of my property to my said three oldest nephews shall be void and the same legacies shall not be raised or if raised shall sink into the residue of my personal estate and in that raised devise and bequeath my said estates and effects in the West Indies and all other the residue of my property seized subject and charged as aforesaid except as to the said legacies hereby made void unto and to the use of my said legitimate child or children in equal shares if more than one as tenants in common and his her or their respective heirs, executors, administrators and assignees provided further nevertheless that if any such child shall depart this life under the age of twenty one years and without leaving issue of his or her body living at his or her decease or born in due time afterwards then his or her share as well original as arriving shall go to the others or other of such children in manner aforesaid and if all such children or such only child so depart this life then the said legacies and the said devise and bequest herein before made void shall revive and be re-established but not so as to entitle + any legatee to interest otherwise than from the event upon which such revival shall take place or the time when his or her legacy become payable subsequently to such event.
And I hereby appoint my Nephews the said James SUTHERLAND, George Mackay SUTHERLAND and the said Duncan Forbes SUTHERLAND my said brother in law Roderick Impey MURCHISON the said Thomas PATTERSON, Mungo Miller CAMPBELL Esquire of the house of John CAMPBELL senior and Co. Merchants in Glasgow. John Hopton FORBES of Ely in place in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman and Joseph GORDON of Edinburgh writer to the signet, executors of this my will and I hereby appoint my said executors and also my said wife and my said sister Katherine MACKENZIE and the survivors or survivor of them guardian of the persons and estates of my legitimate children (if any) during their respective minorities and I also appoint my said wife my said sister Katherine and the survivor of them guardians of the persons and the estates of my said reputed children Elizabeth and Mary SUTHERLAND during their respective minorities and I hereby declare that the receipts and writing of my said trustees or trustee for the time being any money payable to them, her or him under this my will shall notwithstanding their or her continual official discharge the person or persons to whom the same shall be respectively given from being obliged to see to the application and from being answerable for the misapplication of the money therein respectively acknowledged to be reserved and as often as any of my first or future trustees shall die or desire to be discharged from or refuse or decline or become incapable to act in the trusts hereby in them reposed as aforesaid or shall desire to be affoisted by any new co trustee or co trustees before the said trusts shall be fully executed I empower the said trustees or such of them as shall then survive or continue or the executors or assignees of the last surviving or continuing trustee by any Deed or Deeds, Testament or Testaments in writing to be by them or her, their seals and delivered in the presence of and attested by two or more witnesses to appoint any new Trustee or Trustees in the place of the Trustee or Trustees dying or desiring to be discharged or refusing delivering or becoming incapable to act as aforesaid or any additional Co Trustee or Co Trustees and as often as any new trustee shall be appointed as aforesaid all the new monies and promises then subject to the trusts aforesaid shall be thereupon with all convenient speed assigned and transferred in such manner that the same shall be legally and officially vested in the person or persons so to be appointed as aforesaid in them jointly or jointly with the surviving or continuing Trustee or Trustees as occasion shall require upon the trusts herein before declared covering the same and then subsisting and capable of taking effort and every such new Trustee shall immediately upon his appointment have all the powers of the Trustee in whose room he shall be substituted or of the Trustee or Trustees with whom he shall be associated in conjunction with then her or him. And I lastly that the said several first and future Trustees and every of them and Executors, Administrators and assignees of them and every of them shall be chargeable respectively for such monies only as they respectively shall actually receive by virtue of the trusts hereby in them reposed and notwithstanding their or any of their joining in giving or signing any receipt or receipts for the sake of conformity and any one or more of them shall not be answerable for the other or others of them or for involuntary losses and also that they may with and out of the monies which come to their respective hands by virtue of the trusts aforesaid retain to and reimburse themselves respectively and also allow their Co Trustee or Co Trustees all damages and expenses which they or any of them may sustain expend or be put unto in the execution of the aforesaid trusts or in relation thereunto.
In witness whereof I the said Robert SUTHERLAND the Testator have to three parts of this my last Will and Testament each part contained in nine sheets of paper set my hand and seal that is to say to the first eight sheets thereof my hand and to the ninth and last sheet of each part my hand and seal this Eleventh day of September in the year of Our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Twenty Four.
Robert SUTHERLAND.
Signed, Sealed, Published and Scribed by the said Robert SUTHERLAND the Testator as and for his Last Will and Testament in the presence of us, who in his presence at his request and in the presence of each other have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses
David ROBERTSON, Sackville Street, London, Gentleman.
James BURGESS, clerk to Messers SPOTTISWOODE and ROBERTS, 40 Sackville Street,
Samuel FROST, clerk to Mr S. FORBES Esq.
Memorandum: that the Testamentary Testament referred to at beginning of my before written Will as bearing the date therewith whereby I had given and disposed of all my real and personal estate in Scotland was not executed until the 14th day of September 1824 on which day it bears date Witness my hand this sixteenth day of September 1824.
Robert SUTHERLAND
Witness Sam FROST.
Proved at London 2nd December 1828 before the Worshipful John DANBURY, Dr of Laws and Surrogate by the Oaths of James SUTHERLAND and George Mackay SUTHERLAND Esq. The Nephews, two of the surviving Executors to whom administration was granted as to all the effects of the deceased save and except his personal estate in Scotland having been first sworn duly to administer power reserved to Duncan Forbes SUTHERLAND the nephew, also Roderick Impey MURCHISON, Thomas PATTERSON and Mungo Miller CAMPBELL, John Hopton FORBES and Joseph GORDON the other surviving executors
*Will transcription by Hamish C. WILSON (via Joan LEGGETT) © 2006
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