Phoenix
07-02-15, 22:07
Poor Grace Blackmore died of an illness of the guts or bowels a few days before Michaelmas in 1689. She was only 22.
Her father died when she was small, her mother landed in prison for debt, and when she was 6 or 7, her cousin Arthur Hele (their mothers, unnamed! were sisters) and brought her up as if she were his own child. She could not write, but she could read. At one stage she was sent to school in Dartmouth.
She was, by all accounts, deeply grateful to her cousin and said if she had a thousand pounds, she would bestow it all on Arthur, as he was the only one who cared what happened to her.
When she lay ill, she wanted to write her will. Arthur didn't think it proper that he should draft the will, so suggested either the vicar or Arthur's brother in law should do it. John Prowse, Arthur's brother in law was sent for, Arthur went out of the room and John drafted the will. Grace was propped up with pillows. She wasn't well enough to read the will, but it was read out to her, in the presence of witnesses, she agreed to it and signed it.
All the witnesses to this event say that she was in her right mind, she understood what making a will was, and it merely expressed the intention she had always had. They add that they were not being bribed to say this!
The will would not have been disputed were Poor Grace still poor. But an uncle who had ignored her as a child now left her something like eight hundred pounds. A London uncle - who had said he would lay out money for her should she marry someone of Arthur or his choosing, but had patently ignored her as a child, now stepped in, as next of kin, to contest the will.
Thus the background. There is not a dissenting voice in any of this, save from the uncle. To a 21st century mind, the will stands.
Her father died when she was small, her mother landed in prison for debt, and when she was 6 or 7, her cousin Arthur Hele (their mothers, unnamed! were sisters) and brought her up as if she were his own child. She could not write, but she could read. At one stage she was sent to school in Dartmouth.
She was, by all accounts, deeply grateful to her cousin and said if she had a thousand pounds, she would bestow it all on Arthur, as he was the only one who cared what happened to her.
When she lay ill, she wanted to write her will. Arthur didn't think it proper that he should draft the will, so suggested either the vicar or Arthur's brother in law should do it. John Prowse, Arthur's brother in law was sent for, Arthur went out of the room and John drafted the will. Grace was propped up with pillows. She wasn't well enough to read the will, but it was read out to her, in the presence of witnesses, she agreed to it and signed it.
All the witnesses to this event say that she was in her right mind, she understood what making a will was, and it merely expressed the intention she had always had. They add that they were not being bribed to say this!
The will would not have been disputed were Poor Grace still poor. But an uncle who had ignored her as a child now left her something like eight hundred pounds. A London uncle - who had said he would lay out money for her should she marry someone of Arthur or his choosing, but had patently ignored her as a child, now stepped in, as next of kin, to contest the will.
Thus the background. There is not a dissenting voice in any of this, save from the uncle. To a 21st century mind, the will stands.