The Times 1821 - 1830 Nov 25 1825 Vice Chancellor's Court - St. Bees School

Nov 25 1825 Vice Chancellor's Court - St. Bees School

The Times, Friday, Nov 25, 1825; pg. 3; Issue 12820; col A                                     LAW REPORT.                                       --------------     VICE-CHANCELLOR'S COURT, THURSDAY, NOV.24.            ATTORNEY-GENERAL V. PEMBROKE HALL. This cause, which had been partly heard upon petition, came on to-day for final discussion. The SOLICITOR-GENERAL and Mr. PEMBERTON were engaged for the keepers and governors of St. Bee's free-school, who were the relators, and Mr. HORNE for the defendants. Archbishop GRINDALL by his will, dated 1585, bequeathed various sums of money, amounting to 54L. per annum, to be for ever applied in the following proportion - viz. £30 a year to the master, usher, and other officers of the school of St. Bee's, in Cumberland, and the remaining 24L., under certain restrictions and conditions, to the master and fellows of St. Mary's Hall, at Oxford, for the maintenance of a fellow and two scholars; and if certain accumulations should happen to be made, then for the maintenance of a third scholar. In pursuance of this will the executors purchased certain lands, and conveyed them to the governors of the school upon condition of their paying the 24L. annually to St. Mary's Hall. A part of the lands so purchased, called "Palmer's-fields," was underlet to a tenant for precisely that sum, for a term of years. Twenty years afterwards, the executors, in conjunction with the governors of St. Bee's School, made a lease to the heads of the college of these lands for 999 years, and as many more as the world should endure, upon condition that the fellow and scholars appointed by the will of the Archbishop should be admitted to an equal participation with the other fellows and scholars of Pembroke-hall, and that the college should pay annually to the governors of the school one red rose. The executors of the Archbishop at the same time paid 200L. to the college as a further consideration for extending their privileges to the Grindall fellow and scholars. The college continued to receive the rent of Palmer's-fields from the execution of the lease until the present time. During the years which had elapsed, the value of the property had so much changed that the land which had at the time of the lease been let for 24L. a year, now produced a rent of 500L. The land retained by the school of St. Bee's for their share of the archbishop's bequest, on the contrary, had not increased in value in any thing like the same proportion, and the governors of the present day being extremely dissatisfied with the arrangement that had been made by their predecessors, claimed that a more equal division of the property should be made. For this purpose a petition was presented to the Lord Chancellor, praying that the property purchased under the archbishop's will should be divided between the school and the college, in the same proportions with respect to their actual value as to that which they had borne at the time of the bequest, and alleging as a ground for the application that the alienation of the land could not be justified under the will. The VICE-CHANCELLOR, having heard the arguments, said the Court could not grant the prayer of the petition. There was nothing in the will nor in the statutes of the founder which prevented the arrangement that had been made, now 200 years ago, for the division of the property. All the parties interested had joined in that arrangement, and it was at that period thought to be a fair one, and consistent with the intention of the founder. That by an accident, which might as easily have happened the other way, the college had been materially benefitted, while the school was in the same condition as formerly, could not be urged successfully as a reason why a court of equity should undo the bargain so advisedly made. This lease could not be properly called an unjustifiable alienation; nor could it be treated as a mere lease. It appeared that at the time of making that lease the college had not a licence to hold lands in mortmain, which it had since obtained. This was the reason probably why, instead of a conveyance to the college, the executors and the other parties to the conveyance had chosen to adopt a form of grant, by which they only gave the college a chattel interest in the land; but still one which, for all the practical purposes of enjoyment, was as good to the college as the most absolute conveyance to it could have been, because it was in fact a grant for all time, at a nominal rent. The consideration on the part of the college was, that the Grindall fellow and scholars should be admitted to enjoy the same advantages as those of the original foundation. If this were not complied with to the fullest extent, it might be a reason why the Court would interfere on their behalf; but that consideration would not induce the Court to take from the college any part of the possessions to which it had become entitled under the will of the Archbishop, or by the subsequent acts of those who were appointed to represent him. The petition must therefore be dismissed.

 

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