We can vouch upon good authority, that the following statement
may be confidently relied upon, as containing the most important items in the last will and testament of the late N. M. Rothschild ; a docu- ment which, from many combining circumstances, will be looked to
interest nterest and curiosity throughout a great part of Europe. " The will gives no statement of the amount of the property accumulated, nor of the kind of securities in which it is invested ; so that upon that point public curiosity will remain ungratified. There are eight executors appointed under the will, namely, the four brothers of the deceased, Mrs. Rothschild, one of his sons, his son-in-law, and Benjamin Cohen, his brother. in-law. The executors are strictly pro. hibited from prying into or interfering with any thing in their official capacity beyond the line of their prescribed duties as administrators. The testator had given to each of his sons on their coming of age 25,( 30l., which the will directs shall be made up to It .;,000/. in each case ; the eldest son, lately married to his cousin-gertnan, having already received his amount in full. The business is left to the three sons that are now of age, without any distinction or pre- ference, and the youngest son, not yet of age, is in every respect to be placed on the same footing with his brothers on reaching his majority. The three daughters of the testator are also each to have 100,0C ; this sum being already paid to the eldest, mar- ried to her cousin. The two youngest, yet unmarried, to have the same sum paid, provided they marry with the consent of their mother and brothers, and not otherwise. If they remain unmarried they are to have 50,000/. each on reaching the age of twenty-five, and on arriving at forty they are to have the other 50,00U, and no reversionary claim whatever on the residue of the property. The will throughout expresses the warmest affection for, and places the most unbounded confidence in, Mrs. Rothschild. She is secured an annuity of 20,0001., clear of all incumbrance, during her life, and also the family town house in Piccadilly, and the country house at Barnesbury, with all their ap- purtenances, without any condition. The possibility of her again marrying is not once glanced at. The will declares that the testator had an interest in all the houses conducted by his brothers on the (7ontinent, and that they, Livings reciprocal interest in the house conducted by him in London, that the joint business shall in future be carried on as here- tofore by his sons, in conjunction with their uncles, for five years certain from his demise. That the sons shall be guided by the advice of their uncles, and enter into no new undertaking on their own account without previously advising with and obtaining the consent of their mother. The testator has bequeathed nothing to public charities, servants, or dependents. He has intrusted the whole of this arrangement to Mrs. Rothschild, to act upon her discretion, without any control from the other executors; there are very few legacies under the will, and the principal one is 10,0001. to his brother-in-law and executor,—Mr. B. Cohen ; with about 500/. to each of the testator's sisters, and a few small sums to others,—not exceeding in the whole 15,000/. to 16,000/. Tokens of remembrance to other friends and relations he leaves en- tirely to the discretion of Mrs. Rothschild. There are a few other minor matters embraced in the will, but they are of no importance to the public. As we have above observed, the document breathes through- out the strongest feeling of affection for Mrs. Rothschild, whom the testator describes as being in the strictest sense of the term a par- ticipator in all his joys and sorrows from the first day they had been joined together. Letters of administration will be taken out without delay, as no transfer of stock standing in the name of the deceased can be made until it be effected. Since the death of Mr. Rothschild all bills requiring protest have been done by representation." The will will be taken to Doctors' Commons this day.—True Sun, August 12.
Previous page
