The Scotsman - July 31st, 1998
HOW THE REAL HOUSE OF USHER FELL FROM
GLORY
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THE fall of Scotland’s house of Usher has been a drawn-out process. The death of Sir John was the latest in a sequence of personal tragedies and misfortunes to have descended on the family during the past 35 years. But it was a very different story in the first half of the 20th century when Sir Robert Usher, the second baronet, earned the title of Whisky King with a warehouse at St Leonard’s in Edinburgh able to accommodate 25 million bottles, most of them, for export. When he died in l933, Sir Robert left six sons and a host of financial bequests, including £l0,000, to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, along with generous sums for other charities and medical institutions. The farms and estates of Wells, Hallrule and Bedrule between Hawick and Jedburgh covered more than 6,000 acres. Other Usher properties included the lands of Norton, near Edinburgh airport, and Pitheavlis Castle near Perth. The family continued to flourish as the Usher title passed to Sir Robert’s son, John, and subsequently to his brother, Stuart, who inherited the baronetcy in 1951. These were halcyon days, an endless round of house parties, grouse shoots, hunting and fishing. The Ushers were often seen in the winners’ enclosure at Kelso races where they rubbed shoulders with the rest of the aristocracy. But it was Sir Stuart’s death at a meet of the Buccleuch Hunt in 1963 that marked the beginning of the decline in the family’s fortunes, according to his nephew, also Stuart, who is now trying to recover millions of pounds for the Usher executry. |
The fourth baronet’s two sons, Peter and Robert, both suffered from Down’s syndrome, and were therefore unable to control their own affairs. Their father’s unexpected demise coincided with the expiry of the Usher Baronetcy Trust, drawn up in 1911 to safeguard the family’s future interests. Stuart Usher said it had been assumed the title and estate would transfer from his uncle Stuart to his father, William Usher, by-passing the handicapped brothers in the process. It was therefore something of a shock to his branch of the family when Peter was confirmed as fifth baronet and the first individual Usher to own everything outright. “Sir Peter and his brother, Robert, held the title between them from 1962 to 1994, and because they could not make wills, the estates had to be liquidated and sold off under the laws of intestacy after paying off the two sets of death duties,” explained Mr Usher. While the Wells and Hallrule estates were being managed for the successive: incapax landlords by a legally appointed guardian, Sir John and his brother Stuart were in South Africa, where they farmed and set up property and construction businesses. “Our aim was to make our own fortune out there so that we could buy back the estate on the death of the second incapax and keep Wells and Hallrule in the family,” Mr Usher said.
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But before the Bedrule Ushers were in a financial position to implement their plans, Sir Robert died and the much reduced estate was sold for £2.25 million in 1995. Soon after that the contents of the mansion at Hallrule - around 300 items of furniture, paintings and objets d’art - were auctioned for £205,000. Mr Usher had returned from South Africa and saw the family silver and other possessions go under the hammer at Christie’s in Edinburgh. Since then, Mr Usher has been studying his family’s affairs and is consulting solicitors before raising court actions for damage and loss. He says one of those claims will be a “multimillion pound action”. He said: “The estate passing out of the family could have been avoided quite easily, it now appears but first my father and then my brother’s and my own efforts to this end were always thwarted. “From 1948 onwards it was clear that only Sir John and myself could continue the Usher of Norton and Wells branch of the family. It was the wish of my father, who died in my arms in 1969, and my brother John, that the fight for the estate which was lost to the Ushers in tragic circumstances should continue. John’s death at the weekend has certainly re-galvanised me to battle on and pursue legal action against those, who have cost our family dearly.”
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© Mark Usher 30 Aug 2003 |
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