Norfolk Annals, Vol. 2: A Chronological Record of Remarkable Events in the Nineteeth CenturyMackie, Charles
History
Norfolk Annals, Vol. 2: A Chronological Record of Remarkable Events in the Nineteeth Century
Mackie, Charles
Norfolk (England) -- History
26.—At the Norfolk Assizes, before Mr. Baron Parke and a special jury,
was tried the action, Fisher _v._ Nisbett. This was a will case, which
excited considerable interest on account of the large amount of property
in dispute and the number of persons concerned. The plaintiff was Miss
Mary Ann Fisher, and the nominal defendant Mr. Philip Blundell Nisbett.
The actual defendant was Mr. Richard Blundell Nisbett. The question at
issue was the validity of the will of a lady named Nisbett. The amount
in dispute was between £20,000 and £30,000 in real property, and a larger
amount in personal property. The father of Mrs. Nisbett was a Mr.
Fisher, a banker, of Yarmouth. Mary Ann Fisher, the plaintiff, was one
of his daughters. All the children were dead in 1854 with the exception
of Mary Ann Fisher. In the year 1811, when the deceased Mrs. Nisbett
married, her father settled on her the sum of £10,000, and gave her
during life an annuity of £500, while all that Mr. Nisbett brought was
the sum of £7,000. In 1824 Mr. Nisbett died. Of the marriage there were
three sons; two had died, and at the time of the trial the only one
living was the eldest, Philip Blundell Nisbett, a confirmed lunatic. In
the year 1835 Mr. Fisher died, leaving property to the amount of about
£100,000. Mrs. Nisbett, after her father’s death, left the bulk of the
property to Philip Blundell Nisbett. There now appeared on the scene Mr.
Richard Blundell Nisbett, a son of Mr. Nisbett’s brother, and nephew by
marriage to Mrs. Nesbitt. He took out a commission of lunacy against
Philip, who was found to be a lunatic and incapable of managing his own
affairs. Then he endeavoured to get a commission of lunacy against Mrs.
Nisbett, but the Lord Chancellor, on receiving the report of the medical
men who examined her, dismissed the petition, with costs. As soon as
Mrs. Nisbett discovered the course that Richard was pursuing, she made a
new will, the effect of which was that the property went to Miss Fisher,
the plaintiff, for life, and after her death to blood relations. On
November 10th, 1854, Mrs. Nisbett died suddenly, and these legal
proceedings commenced. After evidence had been given by medical men and
others, the Attorney-General (Sir Alexander Cockburn) who appeared for
the defendant, unexpectedly withdrew from the case, and a verdict was
entered for the plaintiff.
AUGUST.
1.—Died at Malta, of wounds received before Sebastopol, on June 18th, in
the attack upon the Redan, Lieut. Charles A. P. Boileau, of the Rifle
Brigade, aged 19, fourth son of Sir John P. Boileau, Bart., and Lady
Catherine Boileau, of Ketteringham Park.
15.—Stalham Corn Hall, erected at the cost of £300, raised by 82 shares
of £5 each, was opened.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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