RESIDUARY BEQUEST OF JAMES SMITHSON. 



From Rep<yrt of the Secretary for the year 1861. 



Information has been received from London of the death, at an 

 advanced age, of Madame de la Batut, the mother of the nephew of 

 James Smithson, to whom an annuity was conceded as a compromise 

 by the Hon. Richard Rush, with a view to the more expeditious realiza- 

 tion of the Smithsonian legacy. The principal of this annuity, amount- 

 ing to £5,015 (about $25,000), will now be added to the bequest of 

 Smithson, of which it originally formed a part. 



From Proceedings of the Board of Regents^ May i, 186^. 



The Secretary gave an account of the circumstances connected with 

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

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

 following communications from Fladgate, Clarke & Finch, of London: 



40 Craven Street, Strand, 

 London, W. C, May 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 foundation of the Institution (of which we address you as manager) 

 were decreed to be paid over to him for the purpose of establishing the Institution. 

 We have now to make to you, as the manager thereof, the following communication: 



On referring to the papers connected with the Institution you will find that a sum of 

 £5,015 three per cent consols, part of the estate of Smithson, the founder, were retained 

 in the court of chancery to answer a claim of one Madame de la Batut. That person 

 was, in fact, entitled to a life interest in the fund, and at her death it was to revert 

 to the President as an additional fund for the purposes of the Institution. 



Madame de la Batut is now dead, so that the fimd has become transferable to the 

 President, and it will be requisite for him, or some person duly authorized by him, 

 to take the necessary steps to obtain a transfer. 



We have had some communication with the solicitor of the lady's family, who 

 writes as follows: 



"My client, Mr. La Batut, upon taking out administration to his late mother, 

 Madame La Batut, to whom Lieut. Col. Henry Lewis Dickmson, by his will dated 

 17th July, 1819, gave half of the income of his property for her life, will be entitled 

 to an apportioned partot such income from the last payment, on the 22d March, 1858, 

 to 10th September, in the same year, which would amount to about £70. 



" The property originally consisted of French 5 per cent rentes, payable 22d March 

 and 22d September, but by order of the court a sum of £5,015 three per cent consols 

 was mvested in the name of the accountant-general in this suit, to the separate 

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