The Quaker Connection

This was only one of several similar reports. The final hearing was reported in the Cheltenham Chronicle for the 27th of July 1907; it makes interesting reading! We should be reminded of the details of the Will of Emily Arabella (BROME)ALDIS to appreciate the size of Osborne’s inheritance. The re-swearing of the Will followed, presumably, the sale of property and land in Barbados. The joint trustees had to ensure that daughters Emily Arabella and Laura Lefroy got, respectively, £10,000 (approximately £500,000 in today’s value) and £5,000. Osborne was due for the remainder, and he was sole executor. There was the matter of the £4,000 allocated upon the marriage settlement (of which he got just over half), plus funeral expenses, expenses for administering the estate, and solicitor’s fees for which he would have been responsible. There is no suggestion that either of his sisters had debts that would also have reduced the estate. So Osborne must have inherited a considerable sum of money which he managed to squander on property purchase, extravagantly genteel living, and injudicious business ventures. A meeting of his creditors held in Bristol was duly reported in the Western Daily Press for Thursday the 10th of July 1892.