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ElizabethHerts
23-06-13, 08:29
My 3x-great-grandfather Daniel Jeffcoat had 10 siblings.

One of his sisters, Ann Jeffcoat, married Samuel Purser, and they had a comfortable lifestyle, but sadly no children. When Ann died in 1853 she made various bequests, one being "... I give to my Sister Martha Cooling of Lower Winchendon Bucks my four wheel chaise and pony harness ..."

Martha had married George Cooling. He died in 1856 and Martha died in 1857. They had no children either, and some land and various household effects were sold at auction.

I have just found a newspaper advertisement for the sale of the household items and it included "four wheel chaise, gig, sets of harness, &c".

Just little details, but as soon as I read it I knew where the chaise had come from, and it brought a smile to my face.

Merry
23-06-13, 08:43
lol That's nice!

I know from her will that my 4xg-grandmather, Ann Walford, stitched a patchwork quilt to celebrate her marriage to Joseph Tyler in 1791. Sadly, rather than leaving the quilt to my 3xg-grandmother, she left it to one of her other daughters. Had it gone to my line there would have been a chance my hoarder ancestors would have kept it and it would have stood a good chance of ending up with me, but instead I have no idea what happened to it!

kiterunner
23-06-13, 11:04
My 2xg-grandfather Walter Horner Brown left a portrait (think it was a photo) of himself and his two daughters - he would have left it to my g-grandmother, but he effectively disinherited her and it went to another branch of the family and I don't know whether it still exists. I would love to see it.

Glen TK
23-06-13, 16:54
I'm fortunate that some items from the family not only survive but come up on auction sites at prices I can, (at times), afford to pay. They often link to newspaper articles and census returns so I have been able to build a real picture of one ancestor, sadly the one item I can't find is a photograph of him, I have bottles, certs, census, probate, news stories etc, a photograph would really round off the collection nicely.

Chris in Sussex
24-06-13, 10:46
Only yesterday a will resolved a mystery I have had for some time.

Tracing one of my paternal lines I had found a marriage licence for a couple in London that just had to be my direct line ancestors but somehow they didn't feel 'right'. The female's line back were landed gentry as were her male siblings or they were in the learned professions, the line coming down to me definitely were neither...Not even close!

After chipping away at the 'problem' for a number of years yesterday I was looking at wills of possible relations to try and find a connection and got a result.

The will of her Uncle, who had been her Guardian, confirmed her marriage, parentage and my connection and then explained the lack of money. She had received money at her marriage, as per the terms of her parents wills and then a further sum at a later date from his own funds. He obviously wasn't impressed with his niece and her husband as you can see by this telling phrase....

"They have not been good husbands to their portion and therefore will give them not more".

So she missed out on a share of his considerable personal fortune.

Thanks Roger and Frances :( henceforth known as the 'spendthrift' ancestors:d

Chris

anne fraser
24-06-13, 16:14
I have an ancestor who left her sister in law "My worst cow". I don't think relations can have been very good.

ElizabethHerts
24-06-13, 16:21
I have an ancestor who left her sister in law "My worst cow". I don't think relations can have been very good.

Priceless! Wills can be very revealing. I love the comments Chris' ancestor made.

Shona
24-06-13, 16:31
I have an ancestor who left her sister in law "My worst cow". I don't think relations can have been very good.

Didn't Shakespeare leave his second best bed to his widow?

Mary from Italy
24-06-13, 20:12
My GG-grandfather left his estate to be divided equally between his wife and four of his five children, but only left to his eldest son, my great-grandfather Arthur Inman:

"the sum of Ten pounds providing he stay at home and be a good help to his mother till he is twenty one years of age but all things to be as my wife thinks best".

I knew Arthur had been in trouble with the law, so I assumed relations with his father weren't too good. Then I found a cutting, dating from 1878, when he was 19, about his theft of a piece of meat from the market (he was actually a butcher, like his father).

A police sergeant said in court that he'd seen his father, who told him that "his son (the prisoner) was the very worst lad he knew of. He had been at sea on board a fishing-smack but had absconded, and they would not take him back on any consideration".

The will was made a month before the court case.

No idea whether Arthur's mother ever gave him his small legacy; he does appear to have lived at home till he was 21, then married his girlfriend, a month after their baby was born. His father died 3 months later, and the baby a week after his father. After two more babies were born and died in infancy, Arthur and his wife emigrated to Australia.

Lindsay
24-06-13, 20:28
Lovely stories :)

I was recently looking at the Will of an unmarried lady in my tree who died in middle age in the 1720s. She left a small sealed package, 'not to be broken up or meddled with by my executor' , to be given to her cousin John.

Old love letters, maybe? It's a shame I'll never know!

Mary from Italy
24-06-13, 20:39
Ooh, how intriguing!

Merry
24-06-13, 22:10
Lovely stories :)

I was recently looking at the Will of an unmarried lady in my tree who died in middle age in the 1720s. She left a small sealed package, 'not to be broken up or meddled with by my executor' , to be given to her cousin John.

Old love letters, maybe? It's a shame I'll never know!

Gosh, she must have really trusted her executor!

Lindsay
24-06-13, 22:12
Gosh, she must have really trusted her executor!

It was her brother! Perhaps she knew he was just incurably nosey.

Olde Crone
24-06-13, 22:57
"...but nothing to my son Xopher as he has already cost me one guinea to bring him into the country"

Another one, the widow of a very proper farming family, leaves various sums of money to nine of her ten children, but to the flighty daughter, mother of two illegitimate children "I leave my bed and bedclothes as she has use for them"

The saddest was the inventory for admon of a man who died on the IOM. The inventory went on for pages and contained mostly "half of a broken earthenware pot" etc. Total value of goods to widow was less than one shilling, late 1790s.

OC