Scottish Court of Session Decisions

Subject_1 HUSBAND AND WIFE.

Earl of Wigton
v.
Countess Dowager of Wigton

1744, June 26.
Case No. No. 23.

Click here to view a pdf copy of this documet : PDF Copy

We found by a great majority that a disposition by Earl of Wigton to his Lady in 1741 of what cash she should have in her custody at his death, and of the bed and table-linen and sewings, tea-plate, and dressing-plate, was not revoked by a general trust-disposition in 1742, naming his trustees executors, and conveying to them all gold and silver coined and uncoined, goods and gear, that he should have at his death, with directions to sell the whole except the household furniture, which was appointed to remain in the house: Therefore we affirmed the Commissaries' interlocutor, ordering these to be given up to the Lady on caution. But we thought that did not extend to bonds or obligations granted the Lady for money by third parties during the marriage, and we gave no opinion on the allegeance that these obligations arose from money given in presents to the Lady with the husband's knowledge at entering vassals and granting leases, because we had no evidence of the fact, (only the President seemed to think it not relevant) and therefore would not order Mr Lockhart's two notes that were found in the Lady's strong box to be delivered up, but we ordered them to be registrated (since they had no clause of registration) in the register of probative writs, and themselves put into the Earl's repositories. There was also a pretty new question, whether dressing-plate was paraphernalia, Lady Clementina having claimed them as belonging to her mother the last Lady Wigton, and therefore not alienable by her father. I thought that they were not paraphernalia, and that nothing was such but the attire or ornaments of the wife's person. The President on the other hand thought them paraphernalia, and instanced the patch box. However, as Lady Clementina had not proved her right, we agreed that they also should be delivered to the Lady Wigton on caution.