RICHARD EDEN: Frances, Duchess of Rutland, leaves daughter just $10,000 — but her dogs get $19,000
Her mother Margaret, Duchess of Argyll was shunned by the aristocracy after details of her lurid divorce – the most sensational of the 1960s – became known to the public, who were both appalled and transfixed by every revelation.
By contrast, Frances, Duchess of Rutland, adhered unwaveringly to the aristocratic code, as is made radiantly apparent in her will, published nine months after her death aged 86.
Frances, as beautiful in her youth as her mother had been, was known as “Frosty” and was often aloof from the family.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.When her husband, Charles, the 10th Duke, holidayed in Ibiza, “she never came”, I’m told.
But far from disinheriting her family or succumbing to the fashion of dividing her £5.6million (AUD$10.8m) estate equally between her three offspring, the Duchess drew up a will that would not be out of place in the pages of Jane Austen.
According to probate documents, Frances made a specific bequest to her only daughter, Lady Theresa, known in her exuberant 20s as lead singer of The Business Connection.
Long since married and a mother of two, Theresa, 61, was left £5000 ($9700).
The same sum goes to a slew of Frances’ grandchildren, including socialite Lady Violet Manners and her sisters Lady Alice and Lady Eliza.
They are the daughters of Frances’ elder son, David, 11th Duke of Rutland, who lives in one wing of the family seat, Belvoir Castle, while his wife Emma entertains her lover, Phil Burtt, the estate manager, in another.
There were other individual bequests: “To my Head Housemaid (Mrs Dorothy Plowright) the sum of £2,000 ($3800),” stipulated Frances.
Another, of £1000 ($1900), was to Mrs Osborne, “the widow of my former chauffeur”, while £10,000 ($19,400) was allotted to a Stephen Mellor, “together with any dog I may own at the date of my death”.
But most of what remained was to be held in trust for her son David’s eldest son and heir, Charles Manners, Marquess of Granby, 25.
When I ask the Duke if he is surprised his mother did not share her vast estate with his sister and brother, he tells me: “Not at all.”
