
William Charles Niblett - Church Court, Temple, London, UK
N 51° 30.779 W 000° 06.603
30U E 700523 N 5710832
This memorial plaque is on a wall on the south side of Church Court opposite The Temple church made famous by the book, 'The Da Vinci Code'.
Waymark Code: WMF6TQ
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 09/02/2012
Views: 11
The memorial has three panels to it. The right-hand panel
contains the memorial that reads:
William Charles Niblett
1856 -
1920
was called to The Bar by the Inner Temple in 1882.
In 1915 he gave
his Singapore properties to the Inn, funding the construction of Niblett
Hall.
This plaque was erected in 2004 to perpetuate his
memory.
The left hand panel tells of the Niblett Pegasus that is
shown in the centre panel. It reads:
The Niblett Pegasus
used to adorn the
entrance to Niblett Hall.
Constructed in 1932 behind 3 North King's Bench
Walk to house lecture halls and meeting rooms.
On the Hall's demolition in
1992 the Pagasus was resited here.
This website [visit
link] tells us about Niblett from a family member's perspective:
"William Charles was born in Azamgarh India in 1851 the
son of Philip Niblett and Margaret McAndrew. Philip was the son of Philip
Niblett a sergeant in the Berkshire 1 Regiment of Foot who started the Indian
branch of the family around 1817. William was a problem child, always in
trouble, and he finally had to leave home. He left for England in 1879, joined
the Inner Temple, and was called to the Bar. He did extraordinarily well. He
travelled a lot in Europe and elsewhere and even did a stint of legal practice
in Nigeria for a while. When back in. England in the late 1880s an agent for the
Sultan of Johore recommended him as a barrister for the Rajah. This brought him
to Singapore where he settled down to an excellent law practice. He purchased
and leased large amounts of real estate and profited from their development as
they became immensely valuable. He now began to forget his family but kept in
touch occasionally with his two sisters, Henrietta and Ellen, also occasionally
sending them large remittances. In 1905 he returned to England having become a
very wealthy man.
In 1912, William, at age 61yrs, married Jessica Winifred
Tacon and took her on a honeymoon trip around the world, including two months in
Singapore. Here he resumed relations with a former mistress. His wife left him
and immediately returned to England where she was later confined to a mental
asylum. William also returned to England where his health deteriorated
considerably, and he looked around to see how he could spend his wealth.
William's nephew, Lance, used to relate a story that in 1915 he (William)
planned to return to India to decide on how to share his wealth with the family,
but his boat was torpedoed in the Mediterranean and after his rescue he returned
to England and abandoned the idea. In Dec. 1915 he conveyed all his property by
deed to the Treasurer and Masters of the Inner Temple in return for an annuity
plus income tax. He also made large donations! the Charing Cross and London
hospitals.
In 1917 William met and married Alice Susanne Deveson, a
widow aged 59 yrs, a "lady of superior position, kindness and consideration”
Apparently he hoped that, with his lawful wife being in an asylum, no one would
bring his bigamy to notice but Jessica’s father had been keeping an eye on him
and notified the Master-in-Lunacy who brought charges of bigamy against William.
Robin's account of the trial and its outcome are given in the history.
Eventually) because of his aged condition, poor health, and his wife’s mental
condition, he was sentenced to prison for only a month. Divorce proceedings were
commenced and a decree nisi followed, but in April 1920 William died from the
effects of an accident resulting from slipping on the footboard of a bus. He is
buried in Kensal Green cemetery in London.
William Charles Niblett
acquired great wealth but his end was lonely and tragic. He had given away most
of his wealth, but what remained was passed on as donations to various claimants
and to his sisters, Henrietta and Ellen. The Inner Temple built two modern
lecture halls in 1932 (the Niblett Lecture Halls) on the proceeds from his
estate. They escaped the German Blitz in Word War 11, but were later destroyed
by fire and were finally demolished in 1992 to make way for the new Littleton
Building. The wall of the Littleton building still contains a frieze of Pegasus
from the original Niblett Hall Scholarships were also created for some
relatives. Details of the story of the "unhappy millionaire" are given in
Robin’s record. There were also other family stories (verbatim-not in the
record) of how my lawyer uncles (Robin, Lance, and Basil) ,when back in England
at various times, had tried to arrange for Niblett family members to receive
money from William’s considerable assets held in Chancery by the Inner Temple,
but without success."