Trustee of a child - opinions please

[Lady Di]

Hi All,

I'd like your thoughts on the following:

Robert's WILL basically says: I give trusteeship of my grandaughter to my son.
(said son is uncle to the child)

Would you assume that the parents of the child to be deceased?

A few IGI submitted entries state that the child's parents continued to have children after the will was written but I'm rather sceptical of these so called "facts".

Would the trustee of a child be granted under any other circumstances other than the death of both parents?

This is in the mid 1700's.

Your thoughts would be very helpful.

Thanks

Di

[Dave the Walrus]

Hi Di,

A trusteeship, in modern times can be granted if the person is no longer capable of looking after the child, and in many cases this could be because the person had been declared mentally incapable or "lunatic" to be blunt.

In the 1700's I suspect that they may have stretched this quite widely, so that any form of inability to look after the child may have applied and it springs to mind that lack of finances may have come into this too, as well as being no longer physically fit enough to look after the child.

To sum up, the person granting the trusteeship, did not necessarily have to be dead. I hope this helps,

Best wishes,

Dave

[stanmapstone]

The "Commentaries on the Laws of England" By William Blackstone has some comments on trustees/guardians http://www.rootschat.com/links/0k74/
"Yet, till that age arrives, this empire of the father continues even after his death; for he may by his will appoint a guardian to his children"
Stan

[cati]

Was there a substantial amount of money left to the  grandson?  It may be that the uncle was appointed trustee in order to look after the inheritance (eg make sure that it wasn't squandered or appropriated by someone else) until the child came of age.

Does the will state how long trusteeship is to continue?  25 is not uncommon in trusts.

Cati

[Lady Di]

Thanks Dave, Stan & Cati for your comments.

I don't know when the young girl's father died so haven't found his (possible) will yet.

There was no set term for the trusteeship for the girl. One assumes it lasted until she came of age.
To me it looks like the parents died (or were incapable of looking after their children for whatever reason) and the grandfather was appointed guardian. When he died, this trust was given to one of his sons.

That's probably only one of many theories about why this poor girl was, seemingly, "handed on" from family member to family member. I'm sure there are many others.

Thanks for your thoughts on the matter

Di

[Marmalady]

Much later than your example, but in the late 1890's my GG-Grandmother left money in trust to an unmarried daughter for the benefit of my G-Grandfather's children

Both parents of the children were alive & well for many years after the will was proved, so for some reason GGGrandma did not trust her own son, but wanted her grandchildren to benefit

[Lady Di]

Much later than your example, but in the late 1890's my GG-Grandmother left money in trust to an unmarried daughter for the benefit of my G-Grandfather's children

Both parents of the children were alive & well for many years after the will was proved, so for some reason GGGrandma did not trust her own son, but wanted her grandchildren to benefit

Yes I have some instances where money has been left in trust for family members as well. I thought it strange/interesting that a child was "in trust" but when you think about it logically it just means that the grandfather was the guardian of his grandaughter - not an unusual situation I suspect in those days.

[Dave the Walrus]

Hi Everybody,

One further point occurred to me. Often, people with money, set up a trust, under a trust deed for their children. The children could not get any money from the trust until they were 18 and then, it was only the money, they could not physically, get their hands on the assets, until they were aged 25, say. This was done so that they didn't squander the money, as Cati has pointed out. This was very common amongst the landed gentry.

Best wishes,

Dave