Page:The English Reports v1 1900.pdf/1416

The appellant's father was, under the will of his late uncle, Edward Atkyns, Esq. seised for his life, with remainder to his first and other sons in tail male, of a real estate near Ketteringham in the county of Norfolk, of the annual value of £1700, and to the interest of the residue of his uncle's personal estate, directed to be laid out in the purchase of land in the said county of Norfolk, [409] and which having been since laid out, the estate was increased to the annual value of £2000. The appellant's father was also seised in fee of the manor of Coates, in the county of Gloucester, and of an estate there called Pinbury Park, of the gross annual value of £143 3s. subject to a clear annuity of £120, to Mrs. Elizabeth Fonnereau during her life; he was also possessed of some personal estate, and was likewise seised of the reversion in fee by virtue of the will of Sir Robert Atkyns the elder, Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer, and Knight of the Bath, of the manor of Lower Swell, in the said county of Gloucester, and of divers messuages, lands, tenements, and hereditaments, there and in Upper Swell, and also Stow-on-the-Wold, in the same county, which, in the pleadings in this cause, is called the Swell estate, subject to the several estates tail of the younger sons of John Tracy the elder, by Anne, the daughter of the said Sir Robert Atkyns, three of whom were living, viz. John, Anthony, and Thomas, as well as a son of Thomas, named Dodwell, aged about 18 years at the death of the appellant's father.

The appellant's father, in this situation of his affairs, and having a wife and four children, viz. the appellant not six years of age, his eldest son and tenant in tail of the estate in Norfolk, and the respondents John and Mary Atkyns, and also another son Robert since deceased, made his will, bearing date the 19th of April 1763, and thereby devised (inter alia) as follows:

I give, devise, and bequeath, all that the manor or lordship, or reputed manor or lordship of Coates, in the county of Gloucester, with the rights, royalties, and appurtenances, and also all and every the messuages, farms, lands, tenements, advowsons, and hereditaments whatsoever, of me the said Edward Atkyns, situate, lying, and being within, or adjoining to the said manor or lordship; and also all that my capital messuage or tenement, and all and every my lands, tenements, and hereditaments whatsoever, whether freehold or leasehold, situate and being at, in, or near Pinbury Park, or elsewhere in the said county of Gloucester, with their appurtenances; and all my estate, term of years, and interest therein, unto and to the use of my executors, their heirs, executors, and administrators respectively;

upon trust to sell, convey, and dispose of the same premises, and every part thereof, and the fee-simple and inheritance thereof, for the most money and best price and prices that could be reasonably had or got for the same; and should immediately upon such sale or sales, or so soon after as the same could be conveniently done, place out and invest the purchase monies upon the public funds, or on government or real securities, at interest, and should stand possessed of the principal monies so to be placed out, and the funds or securities in which the same should be invested, and all dividends and interest attending the same, in trust for all and every of his children, whether male or female, (other than and except an eldest or only son,) to be equally divided between or amongst them, if more than [410] one, share and share alike; the parts and shares of such as should be a younger son or sons, to be paid and transferred to him and them, when he or they should severally attain their respective ages of twenty-one years; or to be sooner advanced or employed for the advancement or preferment of such child or children, if his said executors should think proper; and the parts and shares of such of