Her bequest was almost certainly in fulfilment of the wishes[1] of her late husband Sir Richard Wallace, 1st Baronet, who together with his father and grandfather, the 3rd and 4th Marquesses of Hertford, had amassed the majority of the collection.

[1] Julie Amelie met her illegitimately-born husband Richard Jackson in Paris and their illegitimate son Georges Henry Edmond Castelnau was born in 1840, 30 years before they were legally married as M. & Mme.

[2] Richard Jackson was a companion to her three children and by 1842 he, Julie Amelie, and son Georges were living nearby her together with Maria's youngest, Lord Henry Seymour.

[1][3] The bulk of her husband's art collection was left in her "bequest to the Nation", in a gesture that was unprecedented, as it stipulated that admission must be free of charge, which has continued up to the present day.

This bequest became an example for many other art collectors, because it was exempt from the recently (16 April 1894) instituted estate duty, and which avoided the tax that would otherwise have impacted Scott’s inheritance, who was not related to Lady Wallace in any way.