SMOKESCREEN



THE EMILY CHARLOTTE TALBOT TRUST

Emily Charlotte Talbot made a commitment to safeguard the family fortune (worth £6 million as far back as 1910, an absolute fortune in those days] by setting up a 500-year trust. The Royal Bank of Scotland has estimated the family's holdings at over £347 million in 1996, assuming the original money had been wisely invested.

Where is this huge legacy now? Where are the records of the ongoing progress of this Trust? Where is it registered?

If the Trust was intended to last for 500 years, how was it that the Copped Hall estate which it owned could be divided up? John Fletcher wrote in his memoirs on 18th August 1988 about a meeting in London where it was discussed that the Copped Hall estate should be divided into three parts between himself, his nephew Andrew Fletcher and Andrew's half brother Donald, to save on death duties.

The booklet "Copped Hall: A Short History" by Raymond Cassidy mentioned in 1997 that part of the Copped Hall Estate [to the north of the mansion] is still owned by The Talbot Trust.

So it looks as though the Trust is still in existence ..... or is it? Has this huge fortune been whittled away? Someone, somewhere, must know something about this .....

The Legal Document for the Emily Charlotte Talbot 500-year Trust is lengthy and pretty hard to wade through - the first page is shown below, along with the beginning of Part V which mentions John Theodore Talbot Fletcher.