The Private Trustee in Victorian England

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.

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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.