The Worshipful Company of Cutlers

www.cutlerslondon.co.uk

Captain Boot's Dinner

      

EXTRACT FROM THE WILL OF CAPTAIN FRANCIS GEORGE BOOT

By his Will CAPTAIN FRANCIS GEORGE BOOT, who served the Office of Master of the Company in the year 1894, gave the residue of his Estate upon trust for his Wife during her life, and after her death, ‘UPON TRUST [in the words of his Will] for the said Worshipful Company of Cutlers, of which Company I have been a member many years, and the Society of the members of which I have spent many agreeable hours; AND I declare that this trust is for the said Company in its corporate capacity absolutely for it to dispose of the property subject to the trust exactly as it may fancy, free from the control or interference of any Government, or Parliamentary Commission or body, or any other body or individual whatsoever or whomsoever; and while expressly declaring that I attach no trust conditions or directions to such a trust, I express a hope; First, that the income arising therefrom, or a part thereof, may be applied in defraying the cost of a banquet to be given annually in the Hall of the said Company on the 29th day of July (my birthday), or as near thereto as convenient, and to be known as “Captain Boot’s Dinner” when the Master, Wardens, Court of Assistants, and Livery of the Company, with or without visitors, will dine together and drink to my memory; and that at such banquet an extract from my Will may be read, and that the viands, wines, and appointments shall be the best of their kind, and that hospitality be dispensed with no niggard hand; and secondly that any balance of Income over, after defraying the cost of such banquet, be devoted to helping respectable, intelligent, and promising boys needing assistance in acquiring a knowledge of foreign languages, by sending them to France, Germany, Russia, Spain, Italy or elsewhere abroad.’