‘Surrogate daughter’ squatting in manor
Owner shut out after woman who helped manage Wotton House now claims she has lawful right to remain there
‘Ms White refused to move out and instead appears to have decided the house was her and her son’s primary residence’
WITH Capability Brown gardens and Sir Tony Blair as a neighbour, most visitors could be forgiven for wishing that Wotton House, a Grade I-listed mansion worth £15million, was theirs.
But one woman has been accused of taking those ambitions a step too far by setting up home and refusing to leave, despite the protestations of the owner.
David Gladstone, previously the high commissioner to Sri Lanka, originally invited his “surrogate daughter” Leigh White to move in to help manage the estate. Mr Gladstone moved out of the house during the first lockdown to shield from Covid-19, but now wants to return and claims Ms White is refusing to leave.
Ms White, however, claims she has a right to stay as “successor and heiress” to his fortune. The dispute began after the multimillionaire former ambassador allowed the 55-year-old lawyer to move to Wotton House in Buckinghamshire in 2017. The pair had become friends in the early 1990s and she began taking over the management of the estate as Mr Gladstone, 87, got older and increasingly frail.
During a two-week trial at the High Court, Mr Justice Trower heard that Mr Gladstone and his late wife April’s friendship with Ms White blossomed through shared interests in Sri Lanka, classical music and theatre.
The property, which dates from 1714, had been in Mrs Gladstone’s family for more than half a century, and boasts famous neighbours in Sir Tony and Lady Blair as well as extensive grounds with pleasure gardens and two lakes. When April died in 2014, Mr Gladstone, who opened the first British embassy in Ukraine, inherited the house.
Ms White claimed that from 2007 onwards, Mr Gladstone repeatedly assured her that Wotton House and two other properties making up his £20million estate would go to her when he died. She claimed that Mr Gladstone – who she said treated her as a “surrogate daughter” – promised it would be hers, a claim he disputed, saying he was “desperate” to spend his final years there.
Mr Gladstone is now suing Ms White, who currently lives at the property with her son and husband, for possession of the house. She is countersuing at the High Court, claiming that Mr Gladstone must have forgotten his earlier promises due to old age.
Penelope Reed KC, Ms White’s barrister, highlighted a lunch at the National Liberal Club that year “when David asked her if she would take on Wotton when he and April died, which she reasonably understood as meaning she would inherit it”.
It was only after he moved to Cumbria to shield with his new wife, Mary, during lockdown that the relationship and Mr Gladstone’s inheritance plans changed unexpectedly, Ms White said.
He demanded she left the property so that he could move in with Mary and announced he had written a new will, placing his estate into a discretionary trust for the benefit of his family, leaving nothing for Ms White.
Ms Reed, Ms White’s barrister, said it would be “unconscionable” for Mr Gladstone to go back on his alleged promises, arguing that Ms White had harmed her career as a lawyer on the basis that she was to inherit the estate.
But Tracey Angus KC, representing Mr Gladstone, denied that there had ever been a promise that Ms White would inherit Wotton and, as a lawyer, she must have understood that he intended for it to go into trust “for many generations”. She said the alleged promise at the Liberal Club “could not reasonably have been interpreted” as a promise that she would inherit Wotton or have any right to live there.
Mr Gladstone denies asking her to move in to manage the house, pointing out that he had managed it for many years while living part-time in London.
The court heard that Ms White gradually assumed a tighter hold over Mr Gladstone’s estate and financial affairs after moving in, “including sacking his long-standing accountant and appointing (her husband) in his place,” the barrister said.
“Ms White refused to move out and instead appears to have decided the house was her and her son’s primary residence,” said Ms Angus.
She added that Ms White was then joined at Wotton by her husband “at some point during 2022”.
“Regardless of who is at fault for this, David cannot return to Wotton whilst Ms White is there and it is unfair to exclude him from his home,” she said.
A ruling will be delivered at a later date.