PROCEEDINGS OF THE REGENTS. 95 



bereaved relatives of the deceased, and that a copy of these resolu- 

 tions be transmitted to them. 



Besolved, That the Hon. S. S. Cox be requested to prepare a suit- 

 able notice of the Hon. S. A. Douglas to be inserted in the Journal 

 of the Board of Regents.* 



The resolutions were unanimously adopted. 



The Secretary stated that during a recent visit of Rev. Francis 

 Vinton to Washington he had obtained from him some additional 

 facts relative to the Wynns estate, of which the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion is the provisional legatee. 



Mr. Thomas Wynns, born in North Carolina, resided for a long 

 time at Grand Turk, Turk's Island, where he accumulated a consid- 

 erable fortune, and married at an advanced age Charlotte Arthur, a 

 daughter of John Arthur, a woman much younger than himself. He 

 afterwards removed to Brooklyn, New York, where he died about 

 1851, leaving his widow and one child, a daughter. To the former he 

 bequeathed a life annuity of $1,500, and to the latter his whole estate, 

 subject to the foregoing annuity. In case of the death of this daugh- 

 ter without issue, the estate, now valued at from $60,000 to $70,000, 

 is bequeathed to the Smithsonian Institution. The property is se- 

 curely invested in bonds and mortgages, and is under the care of Edw. 

 Coffin, now residing in London, and Rev. Francis Vinton, of Trinity 

 church, New York, as trustees. The accounts are rendered to the 

 surrogate of Kings county, New York. 



After the death of her husband, Mrs. Wynns returned to the West 

 Indies and married Captain Anderson. She now resides, with her 

 daughter Charlotte Arthur Wynns, in England. The latter is about 

 seventeen years of age. 



The Secretary gave an account of the circumstances connected with 

 the money left in England by Hon. Richard Rush, as the principal of 

 an annuity to the mother of the nephew of Smithson, and presented 

 the following communications from Pladgate, Clarke & Finch, of 

 London. 



40 Craven street. Strand, 



London, W. C, Blay 16, 1861. 

 Sir: We had the honor, in the year 1838, of acting professionally 

 for the President of the United States in the suit in the English court 

 of chancery, under which the funds for the l^oundation of the Institu- 

 tion (of which we address you as the manager) were decreed to be 



This eulogy will be found at tiie end of these proceedings, page 117. 



