William Jennens (possibly Jennings) (1701–1798), also known as William the Miser, William the Rich, and The Miser of Acton, was a reclusive financier who lived at

Acton Place Acton may refer to: Places Antarctica * Mount Acton Australia * Acton, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra * Acton, Tasmania, a suburb of Burnie * Acton Park, Tasmania, a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania, formerly known as Acton Can ...

in the village of

Acton, Suffolk Acton is a village and civil parish in the English county of Suffolk. The parish also includes the hamlets of Cuckoo Tye and Newman's Green. It is located three miles North East of Sudbury. Etymology According to Eilert Ekwall the meaning of ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. He was described as the "richest commoner in England" when he died unmarried and

intestate Intestacy is the condition of the estate of a person who dies without a legally valid will, resulting in the distribution of their estate under statutory intestacy laws rather than by their expressed wishes. Alternatively this may also apply ...

with a fortune estimated at £2 million, which became the subject of legal wrangles (''Jennens v Jennens'') in the

Court of Chancery The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid a slow pace of change and possible harshness (or "inequity") of the Common law#History, common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over ...

for well over a century despite the fact that all Jennen's real and personal estate had been distributed to his closest living relatives in a relatively short time after his death. The Jennens case is often cited as having provided inspiration for ''

Jarndyce v Jarndyce ''Jarndyce and Jarndyce'' (or ''Jarndyce v Jarndyce'') is a fictional probate case in ''Bleak House'' (1852–53) by Charles Dickens, progressing in the English Court of Chancery. The case is a central plot device in the novel and has become a ...

'' in

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

' serialised novel ''

Bleak House ''Bleak House'' is a novel by English author Charles Dickens, first published as a 20-episode Serial (literature), serial between 12 March 1852 and 12 September 1853. The novel has many characters and several subplots, and is told partly by th ...

''.

Biography

William was born in 1701 to Ann(e) (née Guidott 1675, daughter of Carew Guidott(i)) and Robert Jennens (Jennings), who were married in

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...

in 1700. Robert was aide-de-camp to

John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough General (United Kingdom), General John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, 1st Prince of Mindelheim, 1st Count of Nellenburg, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, (26 May 1650 – 16 June 1722 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.) was a Briti ...

. William's godfather was

King William III William III (William Henry; ; 4 November 1650 – 8 March 1702), also known as William of Orange, was the sovereign Prince of Orange from birth, Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from 167 ...

. Robert Jennens bought Acton Place from the Daniels, a

recusant Recusancy (from ) was the state of those who remained loyal to the Catholic Church and refused to attend Church of England services after the English Reformation. The 1558 Recusancy Acts passed in the reign of Elizabeth I, and temporarily repea ...

Catholic family, in 1708 and continuously remodelled it in the

Palladian Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

style until he died in 1725. William abandoned all rebuilding and lived in unfurnished rooms in the basement with his servants and dogs, eschewing visitors and social contact. William conducted his business in London, including lending to gamblers in the casinos. Thus he acquired his name and reputation as a miser whilst accruing his fortune. Nevertheless, he was a cultured man, serving as governor to the London

Foundling Hospital The Foundling Hospital (formally the Hospital for the Maintenance and Education of Exposed and Deserted Young Children) was a children's home in London, England, founded in 1739 by the philanthropy, philanthropic Captain (nautical), sea captain ...

, serving as a benefactor of the Emmanuel Society, which supported the blind, and subscribing to books, including Jeremiah Seed's ''Discourses'' (1743) and James Ogilvie's ''Sermons'' (1786). He was appointed High Sheriff of

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

in 1754 (or 1756).

Death and beyond

William died on 19 June 1798 and his body was interred in the family vault beside his father and mother. He was described as Britain's richest man at the time of his death. His estate was said to be worth over £2 million (though it was probably closer to £1.1 million), producing an annual income of about £40,000. ''The Times'' of 20 July 1798 published a tabulated list of his worth as capital of £432,509 and annual interest of £119,415. '' The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle'' reported in 1798 that:

A will was found in his coat-pocket, sealed, but not signed; which was owing, as his favourite servant says, to his master leaving his spectacles at home when he went to his solicitor for the purpose of duly executing it, and which he afterwards forgot to do.

His obituary read:

Died, 19 June, in his 97th year, Wm. Jennens, of Acton Place, near Long Melford, in the county of Suffolk, and of Grosvenor Square, Esq. He was baptized in September 1701, and was the son of Robert Jennens, Esq., Aide-de-Camp to great Duke of Marlborough (by Anne, his wife, and daughter of Carew Guidott, Esq., lineally descended from Sir Anthony Guidott, Knight, a noble Florentine, employed on sundry embassies by King Edward VI), grandson of Humphrey Jennens of Edington Hall, in the county of Warwick, Esq., Lord of the Manor of
Nether Whitacre Nether Whitacre is a small village and larger rural civil parish in North Warwickshire, Warwickshire, England. Topography It is one of 'The Whitacres': Nether Whitacre, Over Whitacre and Whitacre Heath which are in the upper valley of the Rive ...
in that county in 1680 and an eminent ironmaster of Birmingham. King William III was godfather to late Mr. Jennens.

Court decisions

Initially the Court of Chancery declared that the heir to his fortune was George Augustus William Curzon, a descendant of his aunt Hester Jennens. Curzon's mother, Sophia Charlotte Howe, administered the estate on his behalf but when he died young she passed it to her second son, Richard William Penn Curzon (1796–1870), who was later alleged to have been the illegitimate son of an unmarried woman named Ann Oake. The courts allocated William the Miser's personal property between his next of kin, Mary, Lady Andover, a granddaughter of Humphrey Jennens's daughter Ann, and

William Lygon, 1st Earl Beauchamp William Lygon, 1st Earl of Beauchamp (25 July 1747 – 21 October 1816), known as Lord Beauchamp of Powyke between 1806 and 1815, was a British politician. Early life Lygon was the son of Reginald Lygon (originally Reginald Pyndar), of Madr ...

(1747–1816), a grandson of Hester Jennens, and a descendant of Thomas Lygon. William's uncle William Jennens (15 November 1676), the youngest son of Humphrey Jennens and Mary Milford, was a British Army officer in the

American Indian Wars The American Indian Wars, also known as the American Frontier Wars, and the Indian Wars, was a conflict initially fought by European colonization of the Americas, European colonial empires, the United States, and briefly the Confederate States o ...

. If he was the William Jennings who married Mary Jane Pulliam, then many Americans were coheirs, including their famous great-grandson, U.S. Senator and Secretary of State

Henry Clay Henry Clay (April 12, 1777June 29, 1852) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented Kentucky in both the United States Senate, U.S. Senate and United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives. He was the seventh Spea ...

(1777–1852). Litigation on behalf of the American descendants commenced around 1850 and every descendant of anybody named "Jennings" was solicited. The accumulation of funds for litigation was initiated in England, but his Virginia descendants contributed large sums and even unrelated individuals named "Jennings" sent money in the hope of sharing the inheritance.

Jennings clubs

Starting in 1849, the Jennens fortune became so notorious that clubs were formed of people descended from Jennens and Jennings, who would hire agents to do genealogical research and file lawsuits in Britain. Such clubs are known to have existed in Great Barr, Birmingham, UK;

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

;

Walpole, New Hampshire Walpole is a town in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 3,633 at the 2020 census. The town's central village, where 573 people resided at the 2020 census, is defined as the Walpole census-designated place (CDP) a ...

;

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

;

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

;

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

; and

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, among many other places. It has been suggested that more than £100,000 was spent on research and retaining legal counsel. By the time these clubs were formed, the statute of limitations for claiming the fortune had already passed, unless fraud could be proven. The last claim failed in 1915. Unofficial claims in the media persisted for some decades thereafter.

''Bleak House'' by Charles Dickens

published ''

'' between March 1852 and September 1853, where a key plot device was the ongoing legal case ''

'' which exhibited some similarities to the Jennens case although differed in its fundamental, being that the fortune of Jarndyce, held in Chancery, was exhausted by its multiple claimants whereas William Jennens fortune was distributed to his beneficiaries and remained untouched by its many optimistic litigants.

References

Bibliography

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