United Kingdom House of Lords Decisions

The late John Wilson of Kelvinbank, who died in 1806, left his property by certain deeds in trust, directing the reversion, after payment of legacies and annuities, to be made over to the late William Rae Wilson, his nephew.

The sixth purpose of the (last) trust deed, which was executed in Nov. 1802, was—“to pay to each of my nieces, Mary, Isobel, Jean and Ann Raes, £1000 sterling, payable the interest thereof to each in liferent, and the principal to their issue in fee, payable in the same terms, and under the qualifications, limitations and conditions specified in any former deeds in their favour hereby referred to.”

The most important previous provisions to the nieces were in his original deed of settlement in Aug. 1792—“To Mary, Isabella, Jean and Ann Raes, also children of my said sister and the said Patrick Rae, and to any other daughter or daughters procreated or to be procreated of the body of my said sister, equally among them, share and share alike, and the heirs of their respective bodies, the sum of £2000 sterling, payable on their respectively attaining to marriage or majority, or one year after my decease, which of these shall last occur, with interest thereof from my decease till payment; and in the event of the decease of any of my said nieces without heirs of her own body, before succeeding to her said legacy, or before marriage or majority, or without disposing of the same after the succession opens to her, and after her marriage or majority, I appoint her legacy to be paid to her sisters equally, or such of them as may be then alive, and to the issue of such of them as may be dead, in right of the parent.

In this deed there also occurred the following clause:—“And in explanation of the foresaid clauses substituting my said nephews and nieces to the legacies of each other, in case of the decease of any of them without issue, I declare my intention and will to be, that none of them shall have power to convey their legacies to any except their own issue by any deed that may be executed before the succession opens to them, nor afterwards, till after majority or marriage; and in case of the death of any of them after marriage or majority without issue, and without disposing of their bequest, the substitution before established shall take effect.”

In another deed, executed in May 1797, there occurred the following provision in reference to his nieces:“And likewise, instead of the legacies formerly left to Mary Rae, Bella Rae, Jean Rae and Ann Rae, I leave to them, and any other female issue of my said sister, £2800 sterling equally among them, share and share alike; and I provide that the annuities and legacies now constituted in lieu of those in my former deeds, shall all of them be payable in the same manner, and subject to the like limitation, qualification, conditions and substitutions as are annexed to the former annuities and legacies, which are here holden as repeated for shortness sake.”Of the nieces Jean Rae died in 1825, after having attained majority, without issue and intestate.

William Rae Wilson, to whom, as principally interested, John Wilson's trustees had devolved the management of the estate, treated the legacy of £1000 to his sister Jean Rae as a lapsed legacy. After his death in 1849, the pursuer Mrs. Mary Stewart or Paterson, who was the only daughter of the now deceased Mary Rae or Stewart, the eldest sister of Jean Rae, and who had survived till 1847, brought the present action against Mr. Rae Wilson's trustees, in which she claimed right to one-third part of Jean Rae's legacy, in virtue of the substitution contained in John Wilson's trust deeds.