John Foster Elmslie

London solicitor, partner in Elmslie, Forsyth and Sedgwick (later Elmslie, Forsyth and Elmslie). Son of James Elmslie (q.v.), grandson of John Elmslie senior (q.v.) and husband of Helen Elmslie, his cousin and the daughter of John Elmslie junior (q.v.). Helen Elmslie was co-heir to her mother Eliza Elmslie's (q.v.) arrears of her annuity on Jamaica estates in 1852. His reported wealth at death - £50 - is out of line with that of a London solicitor active for at least 20 years, and also anomalous in the context of the wealth of a number of his sons, implying either in vivo transfers or a financial disaster overtaking him and his firm. The absence of his son and partner Graham Elmslie (who predeceased him) from the probate records, implying Graham Elmlsie died intestate, perhaps suggests the latter.

1. James Elmslie, then of Boulogne-sur-Mer apprenticed his son John Foster Elmslie to the London solicitor William Henderson in 1827.

2. John Foster Elmslie of Ythanside, Alexandra Road Gipsy Hill, Upper Norwood died 21/01/1900 [sic]: administration of the will was granted to John Elmslie Elmslie in 1909, effects under £50.

London Gazette 24714 25/04/1879 p. 3010; ibid 25292 27 November 1883 p. 6012. Of his sons, John Elmslie Elmslie (identified as a naval architect in his father's probate) left £8,087 in 1925; Boynton left £21,629 in 1929; Francis Logan £2,600 in 1925; William £15,660 in 1933; and Wilmot Edward £23,000 in 1927). Elmslie, Forsyth and Sedgwick acted for George Hudson, the Railway King, in the contested election at Whitby in 1865, Robert Beaumont, George Hudson: The Railway King (2016) p. 189.

1. Ancestry.com, UK, Articles of Clerkship, 1756-1874 for John Foster Elmslie 1827 [database online].

2. National Probate Calendar 1909.