1841 census and wills question.

[HarrysMum]

I have George Ware (b 1781) in the 1841 census at Bois Farm, Buckinghamshire. Says he's a "farmer".

George dies in 1844 and his wife Catherine is a "farmer with ****acres,etc) in 1851.

Question 1............Would George have to own the farm to call himself a farmer?

Question 2............George died in 1844. Would he have had to leave a will for Catherine to inherit the farm?

If so, any ideas where to find will???? I've searched the usual places, although I couldn't find something else that was staring me in the face...lol

Question 3............If Catherine owned the farm when she married George (she was a widow when they married) would the farm have gone to George when they married????? And...once again......if that was the case would George have had to "re-leave" it to Catherine?

Hope that makes sense.....

[ElizabethHerts]

Libby, I don't think that George necessarily would have had to own the farm to call himself "farmer". He could well have been a tenant farmer who rented the land of a large landowner. My ancestor Daniel Jeffcoat was a farmer in Buckinghamshire and he rented the land from the Duke of Marlborough, if I remember correctly.

[HarrysMum]

Thanks Elizabeth.................his widow has 88 acres in 1851 and I'm trying to work out where it came from......lol

[ElizabethHerts]

Libby, is this the site of the farm?
For position, see the contact tab.

http://www.beaconschool.co.uk/content.aspx?ID=5

[ElizabethHerts]

I have found a mention of Catherine Ware by searching Google books:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=5hMHAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA485&dq=%22Bois+farm%22+and+%22Amersham%22&hl=en&ei=LTByTKjsJtC6ONHc-aMN&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22Bois%20farm%22%20and%20%22Amersham%22&f=false

She is in the third column.

Libby, I discovered that my ancestor rented the farm on a visit to the Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies. Unfortunately, their links aren't working very well for me this morning, so I can't do the searches I want for you. They have a wills index there but it's not working for me.


http://www.buckscc.gov.uk/sites/bcc/archives/online_resources.page

[HarrysMum]

Thanks Elizabeth........that's the place.

I tried that will index earlier and it isn't working. I also tried this one...

http://yourarchives.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php?title=Online_Probate_Indexes

but Buckinghamshire has a padlock and won't open. Not sure what that is about.

[kiterunner]

Have you looked on the Index to Death Duty Registers on findmypast to see if there is an entry for George, Libby?

[HarrysMum]

No Kite.......will try that now.

[ElizabethHerts]

I looked briefly but couldn't find one, but I only looked for 1844 and part of 1845. Also, I could have missed it!

[Nell]

If Catherine owned a farm before marriage it would become his property - until the Married Women's Property Act 1882 a wife and her possessions were regarded as her husband's property (including any children).

If the farm was George's, it would become Catherine's on his death unless it was entailed - that is left to someone else in the family, generally a male. I think she'd get it even if he didn't make a Will, but it wouldn't be as straightforward.

I have a mystery uncle who is a very ordinary farm labourer in 1901. On his marriage in the 1920s he is described as a farmer and when he died he left considerable property, many charitable bequests and wodges of dosh to relatives. I know his wife was a farmer's daughter so some of it would have come to him with marriage, but it was an amazing wealth he died with, considering his humble beginnings.

[Joan of Archives]

I got the will index no problem, & there is no trace of a Ware for the right time there, sorry. As Elizabeth says, they were more often than not Tenant farmers, my 2 x great grandfather was a Tenant farmer as when he died my poor 2 x great grandmother ended up in the workhouse unfortunately :(

[Olde Crone]

Farming tenancies can be nearly as informative as wills because they were often granted on the "three lives" principle, which was normally father to son to grandson, but also very often husband to wife, if eldest son wasn't up to snuff or whatever.

I can follow one particular family through nearly three hundred years of tenancy of the same farm - three tenancies each granted on the three lives principle, giving me nine generations for the same family.

OC

[anne fraser]

I have lots of farmers from census records and BMD's but I think they were mainly tenants. Owners often call themselves yeoman farmers or gentleman farmers. A tenancy was often for 99 years and could pass twice to a close relative without a will. My grandfather had a small holding and the tennancy passed to his widow and then his eldest unmarried daughter. It is worth trying to do an address search for a farm as the new tennant is often a relative of the former tennant.

[HarrysMum]

I still haven't found George Ware's will. however I did find Thomas Abbey's will.

Thomas was the first husband of Catherine, who later became George's wife. That should at least tell me if Thomas left anything to Catherine.......so if she had something when she married George.