What testators tell us about themselves

[Phoenix]

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/5111/images/40611_310885-00005?backlabel=ReturnSearchResults&queryId=b23a2afff55f306870e89b92568fde16&pId=958914


"Being asked if he had made a will, he answeared that he hadd made one, and that it was in a blacke boxe in his studdie, which was searched for and could not be found..."


"...And then being further asked whether he would likewise give unto his daughter five hundred poundes, he answeared noe, and being therefore requested to expresse what he would give her, he said he desired to be spared."



"being asked... what if his estate would not yeald such large porcons to his said children...what his sayd son Carewe should then have, he answeared that...he should have twice as much as anie other child of his"


I wonder how on earth his poor daughter fared after his death.

[Olde Crone]

"......but to my son Christopher I leave one shilling as he hath already cost me two guineas to bring him back into the country". The other four children got vast estates and plenty money. I do wonder what Christopher did, or didn't, do.

OC

[Lindsay]

How intriguing, Phoenix. I can't imagine it did much for family harmony.

Most of my family's Wills have been the standard 'x to my wife and the rest divided between my children', but I'd love to know what was going on in the village where one 18th century maiden aunt lived. First her Will:

'I give and bequeath unto my cousin Thomas Meachel of Wendover gentleman one small parcel sealed up in the presence of my Cousin John Neale and to be delivered to him the said Thomas Meachel at the time of my decease and not to be broken up or meddled with by my executor nor no other person but to be delivered to him just as it is now sealed up '.

Then a couple of years later the above Thomas Machel left a Will which contained generous bequests to the widowed female apothecary who lived in the village, stated that she was to organise his funeral, and added that she 'shall order what Ringers she shall think proper to ring a merry peale att the time that my body is laid in the ground and another merry peale on the morrow morning att sunn riseing'.

I can't help but think there's a lot going on there!

[ElizabethHerts]

I am in the process of transcribing a lengthy PCC will of a widow who is trying to reclaim ancestral lands for her brother in Cornwall. I have never seen a will like it. She gives names of ancestors long dead and cites various documents. I have only done two pages so far. She is obviously obsessed.

When I looked at her in more detail, she married but she and her husband agreed to live apart and he divorced her in America where he was living.

I don't know what happened in the aftermath of the will, but I would imagine it would be impossible to regain the lands. I think her arguments were dubious and the will rambles on and is slightly incoherent! There is also a newspaper report about her claims a few years before she died.

[Olde Crone]

Elizabeth's post has reminded me, not of a wiil, but a case in Chancery which rumbled on for over 70 years and through three generations, providing evidence of ownership of ONE FIELD since the 1300s! The judge finally ordered that the field be divided in half.......obsessed is not the word here.

OC

[marquette]

"......but to my son Christopher I leave one shilling as he hath already cost me two guineas to bring him back into the country". The other four children got vast estates and plenty money. I do wonder what Christopher did, or didn't, do.

OC

This reminds of Edwards Collis (of Twyford Berks) Will, dated 1759 - " As to my son ffarmbrough Collis and my daughter Elizabeth Fulkar, I give them nothing on account of their many ..... of disobedience".

Everything was left to his two sons Edward and Thomas.

[Merry]

" As to my son ffarmbrough Collis and my daughter Elizabeth Fulkar, I give them nothing on account of their many ..... of disobedience".


Is the missing word 'repeated'? The person recording this will seems to have made a bit of a bodge of the word and I wonder if they then missed out the word 'acts', as "many repeated acts of disobedience" makes a lot more sense.

*puts down deposit on a time machine* :D

[ElizabethHerts]

The will I am transcribing is the last one on this page. When you get to the second page you will see what I mean about her obsession!

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/5111/images/40611_309749-00174?usePUB=true&_phsrc=BOW17937&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=9764

[maggie_4_7]

I have never been able to read wills it's just impossible. I have had a few I needed to read and just couldn't do it so I have probably missed some vital information over the years.

[Merry]

I don't mind having a go for you Maggie. Send me a pm if you like.

[marquette]

Is the missing word 'repeated'? The person recording this will seems to have made a bit of a bodge of the word and I wonder if they then missed out the word 'acts', as "many repeated acts of disobedience" makes a lot more sense.

*puts down deposit on a time machine* :D

Yes, I did think it could be repeated, but it was a puzzle as I was thinking that it should be a word similar to acts.

And now, I wonder what they did? Can I join you in the time machine?

Di

[Pinefamily]

The worst old document I have come across was in Latin, and in court hand. My Latin is a bit rusty, and later Latin users often "bastardised" words. Normally I can muddle through, but the court hand script threw me.

[maggie_4_7]

I don't mind having a go for you Maggie. Send me a pm if you like.

I might take you up on that but I would have to see which one could be the more fruitful. I put the information on the back-burner because wills frustrate me so much. Most of them are like gobbledygook to me, I looked at the link Elizabeth posted and I can't read a word of it.

[Merry]

lol you are welcome. I don't have much to do in the afternoons/evenings. If they are online ones you could send me the link.

[JBee]

I went to the Scottish Archives and copied a will onto A3 and still couldn't read it - it was in pencil and an absolute nightmare. I gave up. Thankfully it wasn't really needed.

[maggie_4_7]

lol you are welcome. I don't have much to do in the afternoons/evenings. If they are online ones you could send me the link.

Perhaps it depends what mood I am in I just opened that link again and I can read some of it yesterday I opened it and it just looked like a muddle.

[ElizabethHerts]

Maggie, it does get easier. When I started transcribing wills I found it really difficult and now I can cope with most writing.

[Phoenix]

The good thing about wills is that there is a lot of common form wording. It's probably easier to read a will than a witness signature, but it is a question of getting your eye in. If I spend too long on Tudor wills, I cannot cope at all with censuses. But dialect words and alternate spellings can be challenging. Even when I made out inioie and neve, it took me some time to recognise enjoy and nephew.

[Mary from Italy]

My GG-grandfather George Inman divided his estate between his wife and four of his five children, then:

I give to my eldest son 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 for there sole use.


Whether Arthur ever got the money I don't know, but the reason for his exclusion became clear from a newspaper cutting about one of the many occasions when Arthur got into trouble with the law.

He stole some meat (although he worked as a butcher), with the excuse that he was starving.

But a police sergeant told the court that Arthur's father (who was not rich, but certainly not badly off) told him that his son 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."

[Mary from Italy]

I can't help but think there's a lot going on there!

That's an excellent story!