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 divided equally among the ‘eldest male lineal descendants of his three sons then living.’ If there were no heir, the property was to go to the extinction of the national debt. At the time of Thellusson's death he had no great-grandchildren, and in consequence the trust was limited to the life of two generations. The will was generally stigmatised as absurd, and the family endeavoured to get it set aside. On 20 April 1799 the lord chancellor, Alexander Wedderburn, lord Loughborough [q. v.], pronounced the will valid, and his decision was confirmed by the House of Lords on 25 June 1805. As it was calculated that the accumulation might reach 140,000,000l., the will was regarded by some as a peril to the country, and an act was passed in 1800 prohibiting similar schemes of bequest. A second lawsuit as to the actual heirs arose in 1856, when Charles Thellusson, the last grandson, died at Brighton on 25 Feb. It was decided in the House of Lords on 9 June 1859. As George Woodford, Peter's second son, had no issue, the estate was divided between Frederick William Brook Thellusson, lord Rendlesham, and Charles Sabine Augustus Thellusson, grandson of Charles Thellusson, the third son of Peter. In consequence of mismanagement and the costs of litigation, they succeeded to only a comparatively moderate fortune.

[Agnew's Protestant Exiles from France, 1886, ii. 381; Gent. Mag. 1797 ii. 624, 708, 747, 1798, ii. 1082, 1832 ii. 176; Annual Register 1797, Chron. p. 148, 1859 Chron. p. 333; Hunter's Deanery of Doncaster, i. 317; Lodge's Genealogy of Peerage and Baronage, 1859, p. 452; G. E. C[okayne]'s Peerage, vi. 337; Burke's Peerage, s. v. ‘Rendlesham;’ De Lolme's General Observations occasioned by the last Will of Peter Thellusson, 1798; Notes and Queries, 8th ser. xii. 183, 253, 489; Law Times, 1859, Reports, pp. 379–83; Observations upon the Will of Peter Thellusson; Vesey's Case upon the Will of Peter Thellusson, 1800; Hargrave's Treatise upon the Thellusson Act, 1842.] 

THELWALL, EUBULE (1562–1630), principal of Jesus College, Oxford, fifth son of John Thelwall of Bathafarn, near Ruthin, and Jane, his wife, was born in 1562. He was educated in Westminster school, whence he was elected to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1572 (, Alumni Westmon. p. 50), graduating B.A. in 1576–7. On 14 July 1579 he was incorporated at Oxford, where he graduated M.A. on 13 June 1580. He was admitted student at Gray's Inn on 20 July 1590 (, Reg. Gray's Inn, p. 75); he was called to the bar in 1599, and became treasurer of the inn in 1625. He was appointed a master in chancery in 1617, was knighted on 29 June 1619, and represented the county of Denbigh in the parliaments of 1624–5, 1626, and 1628–9. In 1621 he was elected principal of Jesus College, Oxford, an office he held until his death. So ample were his benefactions to the college that he has been styled its second founder; he spent upon the hall, the decoration of the chapel, and other buildings a sum of 5,000l. He also obtained a new charter for the college from James I in 1622. In 1624 the king employed him to assist in framing statutes for Pembroke College, Oxford (, Hist. Pembroke Coll. 1897, pp. 183–5). He died unmarried on 8 Oct. 1630, and was buried in the college chapel, where there is a monument to him, erected by his brother Sir Bevis Thelwall. He gave to his nephew John the house he had built himself at Plas Coch in the parish of Llanychan, Denbighshire. There is a portrait of him as a child, in Jesus College.

[Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; Enwogion Cymru, Liverpool, 1870; Chalmers's History of the Colleges of Oxford, 1810; Clark's Colleges of Oxford; Dugdale's Orig. Jurid. and Chronica Series; Pennant's Tours.] 

THELWALL, JOHN (1764–1834), reformer and lecturer on elocution, son of Joseph Thelwall (1731–1772), a silk mercer, and grandson of Walter Thelwall, a naval surgeon, was born at Chandos Street, Covent Garden, on 27 July 1764. On his father's death in 1772 his mother decided to continue the business, but it was not until 1777 that John was removed from school at Highgate and put behind the counter. His duties were distasteful to him, and he devoted most of his time to indiscriminate reading, which he varied by making copies of engravings. Discord prevailed in the family, his eldest brother being addicted to heavy drinking, while the mother was constantly reproaching and castigating John for his fondness for books. To end this state of things he consented to be apprenticed to a tailor, but here again exception was taken to his studious habits. Having parted from his master by mutual consent, he began studying divinity until his brother-in-law, who held a position at the chancery bar, caused him to be articled in 1782 to John Impey [q. v.], attorney, of Inner Temple Lane. Here, again, his independent views precluded the pursuit of professional success. He studied the poets and philosophers in preference to his law-books, avowed his distaste for copying ‘the trash of an office,’ and refused to certify documents he had not read. His moral exaltation was