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78

CONTESTED ELECTION AT COLLEGE.

who were also devisees of the late Provost Andrews; and who, in May, 1780, petitioned the House of Commons, in which they prayed the honourable House to interfere and investigate certain strong facts therein stated, of alleged injustice to which they had been subjected by the conduct of Dr. Andrews's successor, (Provost Hutchinson,) in evicting them from the leasehold property which had been devised to them by Dr. Andrews. An abstract of the proceedings in this curious and rather complicated case could hardly be given with sufficient clearness to be satisfactory to any readers but those of the legal profession, besides which it may be useful to shew, that bequests if not made with the greatest possible accuracy, may prove injurious instead of beneficial to the devisees for whose advantage they may be devised, as the statements at pages 81, &c., will prove.

On the 8th of December, 1775, it was ordered that the committee of the whole house, on the paving bill, should be empowered to raise a clause to remit the annual sum to be paid by the Corporation of Trinity College, Dublin, for paving, flagging, &c., such places as they have been accustomed to pave, flag, &c., which was done.

The following year a disputed election occasioned the following proceedings:

"A petition of the Right Hon. Philip Tisdall, complaining of an undue election and return for the borough of the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth, near Dublin, was read. "Ordered, that said petition be taken into consideration on the 13th day of July next."

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On the 27th of October 1777, the petition of Robert Madder and George King, on behalf of themselves and others, the electors of the College, &c., near Dublin, was presented to the House and read. It charges the Right Hon. Hely Hutchinson, Provost, with partiality as returning officer, and states that the Right Hon. Philip Tisdall had a fair majority of legal votes over Richard Hely Hutchinson, Esquire, although the latter was declared duly elected by the

PETITION AGAINST RETURN OF R. H. HUTCHINSON. 79

Provost the petitioners conceive themselves highly aggrieved by said return, and request, on behalf of themselves and other electors, that the House will order the name of the said Right Hon. H. Hutchinson to be expunged from the list, and that a new writ may issue for the election of a member for said borough in his room, (Mr. Tisdall died pending the business,) or for other relief. It was ordered that the petition should be taken into consideration on the 23rd of January following.

The committee met accordingly, and, after several adjournments, came at last, on the 9th of February, to the following decision, viz.

"Mr. Thomas Loyd reported that the select committee appointed to try and determine the merits of the petition of Robert Madder and George King on behalf of themselves and others, the electors of the borough of the College of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, complaining of an undue election and return for the said borough have determined:

"That Richard Hely Hutchinson, Esquire, was not duly elected, and ought not to have been returned a burgess to serve in this present Parliament for the said borough of the College of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin." His name was accordingly erased, and a writ issued for a new election.

SECTION V.

The serious dispute before alluded to, commenced at this time, between the devisees of the late Provost Andrews and the corporation of the College; the affair was brought before Parliament, as we shall see presently.

VENERIS, 12 DIE MAII, 1780.

Resolved, that an humble address be presented to his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant, that he will be pleased to give directions to the proper officer to lay before the House the memorial presented to the Lords Justices by Dr. F. Andrews in the year 1759, praying

80 PROFESSORSHIP OF MODERN LANGUAGES.

an augmentation of salary to the Provost of the College'.

“Ördered to be presented by such members as are of the Privy Council."

In the year 1777, during the Provostship of the Right Hon. John Hely Hutchinson, another important addition was made to the system of education in this University; this was the founding of the two Professorships of Modern Languages. In pursuance of the provost's application for that purpose, King George III. caused the following royal letter to be issued in October 1776, directed to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

"Whereas our right trusty and well beloved counsellor John Hely Hutchinson, Provost of our College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth, near Dublin, has introduced into said College, two professors or teachers of Modern Languages, the one of whom teaches French and German, and the other the Spanish and Italian languages. Now we being desirous of supporting the intentions of our said Provost, for the good of our said College, have given and granted to the Provost, Fellows, and Scholars of the College, yearly, the sum of two hundred pounds, payable out of such of our revenues in our said kingdom of Ireland, as are liable thereto, to commence from the 29th day of September last, and to be payable half-yearly, on the 25th day of March and 29th day of September. One hundred pounds of said sum to be paid yearly, to a professor or teacher of the French and German, and the other one hundred pounds to be paid yearly to a professor or teacher of Spanish and Italian. The said professors or teachers to be resident in the said College, and to be subject to such regulations and orders as the Provost and Fellows shall from time to time make for their direction and government. The said professors or teachers to be appointed by us, our heirs and successors, during our pleasure."

a Dr. Francis Andrews.

PETITION OF DR. ANDREWS'S DEVISEES.

81

In 1785, the professorship of French and German was divided into two, when Lieut.-Col. Hamilton was appointed professor of German, and the Rev. T. Bassonet, professor of French; but in 1797, the two languages were again united under one professor.

The following is the entry in the Journal of the 13th of May 1780, to which we have alluded at page 79.

"A petition of Robert Gamble and George Gamble, Esq., and Mrs. Sarah Norman, the devisees named in the will of the late Right Hon. Francis Andrews, deceased, was presented to the House and read, setting forth, that the said F. Andrews, who was provost of Trinity College near Dublin, departed this life the 12th of June, 1774, having first made his last will and testament in writing, and thereby did devise his leasehold interests in the counties of Galway and Meath to his mother for life, subject to the sum of £10 a year to the Infirmary of the county of Galway, and also of £10 a year to the Infirmary of the county of Meath; and did will and direct that after the decease of his said mother, his leasehold interest in the county of Galway should go to the petitioner Robert Gamble, subject to an annuity of £100 therein mentioned; and did direct that his said leasehold interest in the county of Meath should go to the petitioner George Gamble, subject to an annuity of £100 to the petitioner Sarah Norman for her life; that the said testator by his will devised all his paternal estate situate in the county of Antrim, of the yearly value of £665 and no more, to his said mother during her life, subject to certain annuities therein mentioned amounting to £120 yearly, and after the decease of his said mother he devised his paternal estate to trustees therein named and the heirs, upon trust, in the first place to raise by the receipt of the rents and profits thereof the sum of £3000, and pay the same to the provost, fellows, and scholars of Trinity College, Dublin, to be by them employed in erecting and furnishing an observatory; and that said trustees and heirs, after raising the said sum of £3000, should raise the annual sum

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82

PETITION CONTINUED.

of £250 for ever, to be applied in paying the salaries of a professor of Astronomy, and person skilled in taking Astronomical Observations; and subject to the said several charges and annuities, devised all his said estate to his said mother and her heirs for ever. That the Right Hon. John Hely Hutchinson, the present provost of said College, upon the death of the late provost, instituted several suits (as provost of the said College) at law and in equity for the purpose of evicting the said leasehold interests, alleging that the said leases had not been made according to strict legal powers, and after a variety of tedious and most expensive proceedings in a suit in the Court of Chancery in this kingdom, the provost appealed from the determination made against him therein to the Lords of England, who were pleased to dismiss the said appeal, but he, after being defeated in equity, then proceeded at law, and at length obtained the verdict of a jury, defeating the title of the petitioners to the leasehold interests in the county of Galway, so bequeathed by the said provost aforesaid. That the petitioners acquiesced under said verdict after having expended upwards of £2000 in said suit, and gave up, as well the lease of the lands in the county of Meath, as the lease of the lands in the county of Galway, without further trouble or litigation; and the present provost now holds and enjoys the said leasehold interests so devised to the petitioners by the late provost as aforesaid, and which at present yields a clear yearly profit of £800 or thereabouts. That it seems apparent from the said will that the said testator intended that his said mother Elizabeth should have the profits both of the said real estate and leasehold interest charged as aforesaid during the term of her natural life; that the petitioners Robert and George should have the leasehold interests after the decease of the said Elizabeth, subject to the annuities before mentioned; that the petitioner Sarah should have the annuity of £100 before mentioned, and that the charitable bequests were by the said will intended for the respective Infirmaries of Galway and Meath, but the said present

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