Definition
The Thelusson Act is the popular name for the English statute 39 & 40 Geo. III, c. 98 (1800), which restricted the period during which income from a trust or estate could be directed to accumulate rather than be distributed. The Act capped permissible accumulation periods at twenty-one years from the testator's death, preventing settlors and testators from directing that trust income compound indefinitely across generations. The legislation was Parliament's direct legislative response to the will of Peter Thelusson, a wealthy London merchant whose estate plan directed income to accumulate for the lifetimes of his sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons before final distribution — a scheme that, had it run its course, threatened to concentrate an enormous fortune over multiple generations before any beneficiary received a penny.
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Common Confusion
The Thelusson Act is sometimes loosely described as an anti-perpetuities statute, but this conflates two distinct doctrines. The Rule Against Perpetuities governs when a future interest must vest; the Thelusson Act governs accumulation of income during a period when interests are otherwise valid. A trust can comply with the Rule Against Perpetuities and still violate the Thelusson Act's accumulation limits, and vice versa. Researchers encountering either term in historical sources should confirm which restriction is actually at issue before treating the authorities as interchangeable.
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Why It Matters in Research
The Thelusson Act is primarily a historical English statute with limited direct application in American jurisdictions, but it is a recurring reference point in nineteenth-century American treatises and equity opinions whenever accumulation trusts, perpetuities, or testamentary restrictions on distribution are discussed. American courts and commentators frequently invoked the Act as persuasive authority or as a benchmark even in the absence of equivalent domestic legislation, so researchers working in antebellum trust and equity materials should expect to encounter citations to it as though it carried broader force than it technically possessed.
The Act's significance in the Law Mind corpus falls into three areas. First, cases and treatises addressing accumulation clauses in wills — whether in England or the United States — will often cite or distinguish the Thelusson Act, making it a navigational anchor for that line of authority. Second, the Thelusson litigation itself (litigated extensively in equity before the Act's passage) generated a body of chancery analysis that influenced American trust doctrine independent of the statute. Third, later English reform legislation, including the Accumulations Act 1892 and eventually the Law of Property Act 1925, modified and partially superseded the Thelusson Act; researchers working in late nineteenth- or early twentieth-century English sources must account for this layered statutory history.
One navigational trap: Bouvier cites the statute as "89 & 40 Geo. III," an obvious typographical error for 39 & 40 Geo. III. Researchers relying on Bouvier's citation should verify against the correct regnal year.
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Historical Dictionary Support
All three historical dictionaries in the Law Mind corpus agree on the essential description: the Thelusson Act is 39 & 40 Geo. III, c. 98, passed to restrict accumulations in consequence of objections to Peter Thelusson's will. Black's (2nd Ed.) adds the specific limitation period — twenty-one years from the testator's death — which Black's (1st Ed.) reproduces in essentially identical language. Bouvier frames the Act's purpose more broadly, describing it as aimed at "preventing the creation of perpetuities," which is somewhat imprecise and illustrates the common conflation between accumulation restrictions and perpetuities doctrine. Neither Black's edition nor Bouvier addresses subsequent English legislative modifications or American reception of the Act's principles. The historical dictionaries treat the term as a simple statutory reference rather than exploring the doctrinal consequences of the Thelusson litigation itself, which was the more intellectually generative event.
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Jurisdictional Note
The Thelusson Act is English statute law and does not apply by its own force in American jurisdictions. American states addressed accumulation trusts through their own legislation and equity doctrine at varying times and with varying rules. Researchers working in American materials should identify the applicable state's own accumulation law rather than assuming the Thelusson Act's twenty-one-year limit transplanted wholesale.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia — Perpetuities; Accumulations; Testamentary Trusts; Charitable Trusts (for related context on long-duration trust structures)
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