The Private Trustee in Victorian England (Cambridge Studies in English Legal History)

The "trust" was a popular device used by the Victorian middle classes to preserve their private property. At the center of this legal institution was the trustee, who managed the property for the original owner. Victorian trustees found themselves in a society that was changing rapidly and extensively, which had a profound effect on their ability to carry out their duties. This book explores the legal response to the challenges faced by trustees, through the varied relationships which they experienced during their administration. The trust was a popular device among the Victorian middle classes to preserve their private property for the benefit of their families. At the centre of this legal institution was the trustee, whose duty it was to manage the property as the original owner wished. In their task of managing the property, Victorian trustees found themselves in a society which was changing rapidly and extensively, a new commercial and dynamic society which had a profound effect on their ability to carry out their duties. This book explores the legal response to the challenges faced by trustees, and does so through the varied relationships which trustees necessarily experienced in the course of their administration. A consideration of the legal dimension to trusteeship, this book sets the trustee in his legal, social and economic context. It will be of interest to legal historians, as well as to historians of nineteenth-century Britain. Foreword / Lord Templeman -- The Trustee -- 1. Challenges To Trusteeship -- 2. The Relationship With The Settlor -- 3. The Relationship With The Beneficiaries -- 4. The Relationship With Co-trustees And Agents -- 5. Trustees In The Commercial Context -- 6. Transgressions By Trustees. Chantal Stebbings. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. The trust was a popular device among the Victorian middle classes to preserve their private property. But Victorian society was changing rapidly, which had a profound effect on the trustee. Stebbings explores the legal response to the trustee and the varied relationships experienced in the course of their administration A study of the legal responses to the duties carried out by nineteenth-century trustees.