270 
nary activity of mind, that he was 
so described by the learned phy- 
sician (Dr. Ferriar of Manches- 
ter) who had attended him for a 
slight paralytic attack in 1800, 
from which he perfectly recovered 
in a few weeks, and who saw him 
frequently afterwards till his 
death; that his having been so 
affected in 1800 could afford no 
inference against his acts in 1807, 
1808, and 1809, done in the pre- 
sence of unimpeached witnesses, 
who spoke fully to his capacity. 
That his letters, many of which 
were before the Court, shewed 
extreme shrewdness in resisting 
attempts at circumvention and 
fraud; and that the conduct of 
the opposing parties themselves 
was conclusive against their plea, 
they having, whilst the testamen- 
tary acts were going on, joined 
in a great variety of most impor- 
tant transactions of business with 
him, and having all of them de- 
rived great benefit from his libe- 
rality and judicious kindness to- 
ward them on those occasions: 
that there was not a tittle of evi- 
dence to shew that any one pro- 
vision in any of the papers was 
suggested to Mr. Atkinson; and 
as to the charities, it was most 
manifest, that they were the fa- 
vourite objects of the testator’s 
thoughts, after providing, with 
remarkable liberality, for all his 
friends and connections, particu- 
larly for Mrs. Henshaw’s family, 
who had large fortunes of their 
own, greatly owing to his good 
management of their property, 
and to his having given her sons 
a large share of his own business, 
It was stated, that Mr. Atkinson 
far from intruding himself into 
the family, had been one of the 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 
1815. 
oldest friends the testator had, 
from a period long antecedent to 
his second marriage ; that he had 
been on all occasions of difficulty 
resorted to as an arbitrator and 
adviser by the testator and all his 
connections, and had rendered 
them all most essential services ; 
that in the affair of Henry Hen- 
shaw’s will, George Hadfield had 
voluntarily released his interest to 
the amount of 60,000/. acknow- 
ledging under his hand and seal, 
that that will was executed when 
Henry Henshaw was in a state of 
incapacity ; that it did not appear 
that Mr. Atkinson had advised 
Hadfield to this step at all; but if 
he had, it was probably the best 
advice that could have been given, 
as no man would, without very 
strong reasons, have been induced 
to give up 60,000/. That, in short, 
there was not one syllable in the 
whole voluminous mass of evi- 
dence to show that any undue 
means whatever had been resort- 
ed to by Mr. Atkinson to obtain 
an influence either with the de- 
ceased, or with any of his con- 
nections ; that it was true the de- 
ceased had a high opinion of him, 
and always spoke of him in such 
terms as to induce their common 
acquaintance to believe he would 
leave him something very consi- 
derable. That this furnished a 
reasonable motive for, and solu- 
tion of, the bequest in the third 
codicil; that if this codicil was in 
Mr. Atkinson’s hand-writing, 
those in which he was not at all 
benefited were so too; that it 
was written in a large, plain, le- 
gible hand, all on one side of a 
sheet of paper; that the bequest 
to Mr. Atkinson occupied the up- 
per half of the page, the other 
