In re the Estate of Whitcomb

— This action was instituted for the purpose of construing a will. The appellant’s contention is, that the word “ recommend,” used in the sixth provision thereof, “is obligatory, and that its effect is to limit A. D. Tuttle’s interest to a life estate, and to dispose of the remainder by his Will, in accordance with the wishes of the testator.” The court below disagreed with this desired construction, and from its decree in the premises, *269 so far as the same affected the property mentioned in the sixth clause of the will, this appeal is taken.

That decree, among other matters, distributed the property in dispute “ to the said Adolphus Darwin Tuttle and his son Charles Whitcomb Tuttle, of Hancock, New Hampshire, in fee-simple absolute,” and further ordered that George Hagar, who held the legal title of the property in trust, should make conveyance of the same to them. The testator, A. C. Whitcomb, was a lawyer, who had acquired a large property in California. He left the state in 1867, and spent the last twenty years of his life in Paris, adding, while there, a good deal to his fortune. He died in 1888, leaving an estate which was inventoried at over four million dollars. A part…