Queen Victoria and her Inheritance from a Notorious Miser

"Family of Queen Victoria" by Franz Xaver Winterhalter

  Some time in 1852, Queen Victoria came across a substantial fortune which she inherited from a notorious miser by the name of John Camden Neild.  

John Camden Neild was probably born in St. James's Street, London, about 1780. He matriculated at Eton from 1793 to 1797, then at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in 1801, and was awarded his honorary M.A. three years later, as is standard at Cambridge. In February 1808, he was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn.

The only son of a wealthy London goldsmith, he inherited his father’s estate in 1814 after the latter’s death. At the time, it was worth an estimated £250,000, and since then, he developed into a confirmed miser. The last thirty years of his life were spent accumulating wealth and living in a large house, 5 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. While the elder man had been philanthropic, John, on the other hand, had other ideas. 

His large home in Chelsea was meanly furnished and for many years John Neild slept on bare boards. He was never seen in anything but the one suit of blue cloth and much patched, down at-heel shoes. He would never allow his clothes to be brushed because he thought that doing this wear them out. He carried an old umbrella when collecting his rents in the city or country, scorning topcoats for those with more money than he had.

While collecting his rents he always walked and would stay overnight in one of his tenant's cottages. His food consisted of dry bread and eggs. The latter he would buy from his tenants, usually getting the seller to bard boil them for him, so that he could carry his meals with him.

Among his estates were churches, but he would never eat a meal at any parsonage because he feared being asked to contribute to church funds, not that he never ever gave to church funds, he did occasionally, but most clergymen met rude rebuffs from him.

Neild, nevertheless, displayed rare glimpses of kindness. Upon learning that the son of one tenant showed rare promise, he persuaded the lad's father to allow him to pay for the boy's education. The protégé later became a dignitary of the Church of England, his legal knowledge to youth stood him in good stead and his love of classics stayed with him all his life.

After bequeathing a few legacies to various persons, he left the whole of his £500,000 fortune to "Her Most Gracious Majesty, Queen Victoria, begging her Majesty's most gracious acceptance of  same for her sole use and benefit and her heirs . ..."

The Queen was surprised when she learned that she was the beneficiary of such a substantial windfall from a complete stranger. “A very handsome fortune had inexplicably been bequeathed to me by a Mr. John Camden Neild. He knew I would not squander it,” was Queen Victoria’s thrifty remarks on her inheritance.   

Although two caveats were entered against the will they were subsequently withdrawn and Queen Victoria was able to take undisputed possession of the miser's property. She acted with graciousness, making provision for his housekeeper who had been in his service for 26 years and- to whom Neild had not left a penny. The Queen also obtained an annuity for Mrs. Neal, the wife of one of Neild tenants who had frequently lodged her eccentric landlord, mended his clothes and otherwise befriended him.

Three years later the new royal owner of the estate at North Marston restored the roof of the church and installed a commemorating stained glass window in the chancel, although the former landlord had once ordered painted calico placed in the roof for repairs, saving that it would see his lifetime out.

The poor people in the parish did not grieve their old landlord, in fact they were glad that they had a new landlord with Queen Victoria, as their leaky roofs were mended.

When all the financial obligations were settled, the Queen spent £32,000 of what was left from her inheritance to buy Balmoral estate, her Scottish retreat, which became a favourite holiday home of many generations of the British Royal Family