One hundred years ago
Yesterday week the Probate Court, acting with a jury, invalidated two wills of Mr William Henry Ray Smee, on evidence that the testator was under a delusion at the time of making both wills, to the effect that he was the son of George IV., and that a large sum of money was placed in the hands of trustees in trust for him by that monarch. In other matters, he remained sane, and indeed, master of considerable intellectual powers, up to the last, but the question was whether at the time of executing either will he had a sufficiently clear judgment concerning the state of his property, to be fit for such an am And the jury decided that neither the earlier nor the later will, both of which were executed after he was subject to the delusion, though only the latter betrayed the presence of the delusion, was valid.
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