Found another fabulous will!

[TressiliansStone]

This is how Gothic novels begin!

Bath April 30th 1842
The only directions my dearest James for what is to be given away is to my beloved Niece Lady Charlotte Fletcher my Tortoise Shell Cabinet just as it stands in the Drawing Room without being opened, it must be very carefully wrapt up in a Blanket before being put into a Wooden case which will be found for it in the Garret, the stand of it must be sent also she is also to have my watch that has my Cipher upon it

The testatrix also looked after her servants, giving us a lovely insight into wages in Bath in the 1840s. I'm a bit shocked by the differential between the male and female rates. Even "the boy" Joseph gets twice the wages of Ann the lady's maid "for whom I have a great respect"; while William the groom gets three times as much.

Bath April 30th 1842
Upon this Sheet of paper my dearest James I put down my wishes regarding what is to be given to the Sev[an]ts my old Serv[an]t Cook and his wife Elizabeth Kirk since I have been obliged to part with them I have promised they should have sixty pounds sterling a year for their life and wish you to pay them this as long as either of them live, in the beginning Feb[ruar]y I gave Elizabeth in advance twenty pounds and in July if I live I shall give her £10 pounds more that will be what is due for the half year and in Feb[ruar]y 43 the next half year will be due If I should die before them I should wish nineteen guineas each to be given them just as a remembrance from me – Fran[ci]s Trail.

William my Groom who’s wages are thirty four pounds a year to have his wages paid up which is allways paid in March and Sept[embe]r and to have fifty pounds sterling more given to him The boy Joseph Glover to have twenty five pounds a year payed half yearly in May & Nov[embe]r and ten pounds more given to him Mrs Lodge to have sixteen guineas a year paid in May and Nov[embe]r to have her wages paid up and twenty pounds more given to her Ann Miles my own maid for whom I have a great respect her wages are to be twelve guineas a year from Nov[embe]r last her wages to be paid up and fifty pounds sterling given to her more The girl Morris is to have from May 1842 Ten guineas a year her wages to be paid up and ten pounds more given to her. – Fran[ci]s Trail

Oh wow love that!! Need to know what was in that cabinet 😄

He must have opened it, am tempted now to leave instructions for loads of boxes to be distributed that must not be opened 🤫. It would drive Dh mad, give him something to think about other than my sad demise. My last gift.

I love how he looked after his servants after death. Unusual in those days.

Ohh, thank you weleasewoderick, you've flagged my transcription error. She's FrancEs.

She was the granddaughter of the Duke of Gordon, and married a maths professor who became a Church of Ireland minister.

She had no children of her own, but looking after people seems to be just what she did. Even before her marriage, she was the person chosen by her cousin to be the guardian of his natural children in the event of his death (instructing them to be taken from their mother Fetoona in India while tiny, to be brought up by Frances in the UK). She also legally adopted two boys from elsewhere in her family, one being "dearest James" her executor.

The will includes £100 each to her now-adult Anglo-Indian wards, one of whom was also given "his fathers picture which is above the Dining Room door". That lad named his own daughter Frances Trail, so there seems to have been a lot of affection there.

Nice change from some of the absolute gits on my previous will thread...

www.mumsnet.com/talk/history_club/4361531-Oh-my-word-Ive-found-a-STINKER-of-a-will-from-1837?page=1

This is a sad one, but I suppose reflects the realities of 1819.

It's just not the same worrying some careless future owner of a car.

I Give and bequeath to the Rev[eren]d Isaac Crouch Rector of Narborough Leicestershire my much valued Friend the sum of One hundred pounds my Chaise [and] harness Saddles [and] Bridles and my Horse requesting my Friend not to part with my Horse but to have him killed when he shall not have further occasion for him

I have another wonderful inventory, with a very sad tale behind it.

Robert Anderson was a ship’s captain who sailed for Hamburgh from Fife in 1763, while expecting his first child. His ship was wrecked and he drowned, but wife Elizabeth was so near her time the family decided to keep the news from her till she was safely through.

The baby arrived, and Elizabeth “often expressed her wish that he might return soon and see his little daughter” – but 11 days after childbed Elizabeth herself died, leaving little Robina Elizabeth (named for both parents) an orphan in July 1763.

Robina’s grandparents in Fife stepped in. Elizabeth’s father John made use of the fact that Robert had owed him £20 11s 9d to trigger a legal device whereby he could be declared executor of Robert’s estate “qua creditor”, rather than delay while the executorship was thrashed out among Robert and Elizabeth’s other relatives (many in London or Jamaica), most of whom could have made a claim to become the legal representative of baby Robina.

But in November 1763, John himself died.

John’s wife Isabella had now lost daughter, son-in-law and husband within four months. She took in baby Robina to raise, and in January 1764 arranged the sale of Robert & Elizabeth’s household goods “for ready money only […] the roup to continue till all is sold off.”

The advertisement states the auction was for “several fashionable mounted beds, feather beds, blankets, bed and table linen, a large mahogony table, and several smaller tables, a handsome boureaux [bureau] of manigneel wood, a set of fashionable elm chairs, drawers, kitchen furniture, wearing apparel china ware, and sundry other articles too tedious to mention.”

But not too tedious for me!

Below is the full inventory: a sad but fascinating glimpse into the happy home before it was broken up so tragically.

20th Dec[embe]r 1763
Rob[er]t Anderson
[…]
Follows the Inventary
In the first the said defunct had pertaining and belonging to him at the time of his decease aforesaid the Goods and gear under written of the Avails and prices following Viz~ Imprimis a Kitchen Grate, tongs, Spit and raxes Five Shillings Item one dozen plates three Ashets, Butterdish and Bason all puither six Shillings Item a coffee miln brass teakettle and lamp and a Copper tea kettle six Shillings Item five brass Candlesticks and two pair snuffers five Shillings Item a plate box and knife box four pence Item a brass footman two Shillings

and six pence Item a collop brander four Pence Item a Yettin pot two Shillings Item a Kitchen Press bed eight shillings Item a Lanthorn six pence Item a pair bellowsis One Shilling Item a Washing Tub a bucket and three water Stoups One Shilling Item three brass pans a coper sauce pan and Iron frying pan four Shillings Item a heater and three irons for smoothing one Shilling and six pence Item a Whiteiron dreeping pan and a drainer six pence Item one half dozen delf plates six pence Item Item eight dozen bottles twelve shillings Item two bisoms and a hard rubber and a herth bisom two Shillings Item two old Chairs and a timber Stool six pence Item a brass Cock One Shilling Item a Baulk and whiteiron Scales and one lib[ra] weight two Shillings In the room next the Kitchen a four stouped bed with check curtains and Window Courtins[?] of the same three pound Item Boureaux of Mangineell wood two pound Item six elm Chairs stuffed bottoms and check covers one pound four Item two foot stools with leather bottoms old one shilling Item a Carpet two Shillings and sixpence Item a small chimney grate and tongs one Shilling Item a looking glass five Shillings Item a little wainscot table Shillings Item a quadrant two Shillings and sixpence Item a large mahogney table and cover one pound ten Item a dozen leather bottomed elm chairs and two large elm ditto three pound ten Shillings Item a grate fender tongs & pocker ten Shillings Item a mahogney tea table and tea broad with two bottleflats and a small tea broad fifteen Shillings Item a window check curtain two

Shillings Item six silver tea spoons a tea tongs and ten silver weer Cupholders One pound one Shilling Item seventeen china cups and sixteen saucers six Shillings Item six coffee cups a tea pot, flat and milk pot five shillings Item four china bowls and a small china D[itt]o One pound five Shillings Item two China decanters five shillings Item a large china tea pot two Shillings Item twelve china broath plates and twelve plain D[itt]o fifteen Shillings Item eight large china saucers two Shillings Item a christal bottle and six Glasses two Shillings Item three stone tea pots and Whiteiron D[itt]o six pence Item four empty Cannisters six pence Item a Sea chest and a trunk in the closet with some part of Mr Andersons’ body cloaths five Shillings Item a silver hilted sword ten shillings Item three old cutlasses and a pair pistoles two Shillings and six pence Item a Fiddle and case two Shillings Item a Lettering steel six pence Item four small mahogny brackets one Shilling In the room of the Dining room a four stouped bed of elm & lined callico curtains and a window curtain of the same four pound Item Mrs Andersons Drawers with her body cloaths two pound Item a square plaintree table two Shillings and six pence Item a mahogny stand one Shilling and six pence Item two elbow chairs with stufed bottoms and check covers six Shillings Item a small chimney grate and tongs One Shilling Item a finneared cornered cupboard two Shillings and six pence Item a Carpet five Shillings Item a tea chest two Shillings and six pence. Bed cloaths bed and table linen three feather beds, three bolsters and three pair pillows three pound Item Six pair scots blankets and two english D[itt]o one pound ten Shillings Item three bed covers

twelve Shillings Item eleven pair Sheets twelve pillowboors and two bolsterslips two pound Item eleven table cloaths six new dornick napkins, two dozen and eight D[itt]o and fifteen Towels two pound item a Chaff bed and bolster in the kitchen two Shillings Books Spectators eight volums Lond[o]n MvijC~ and fifty four five Shillings Item Prideauxs connections four Volums Edin[bu]r[gh] MvijC~ and fifty one four Shillings Item Item Josephus history Volum second and third Edin[bu]r[gh] MvijC~ and fifty, two Shillings (Item) Item Memoirs of a Man of pleasure Vol[ume]s Second London MvijC~ and fifty seven six pence Item Websters bookkeeping Glasgow MvijC~ and fifty eight four pence Item Mantons Sermons London MvjC~ and seventy nine two pence Item Seceneca’s Morralls London MvijC~ and forty five six pence Item a guide for learning the low dutch. Amsterdam MvijC~ and fifty four two pence Item Terence Edin[bu]r[gh] MvijC~ a[nd] thirty One two pence Item Sir William Hope on self defence London three pence Item a Small treaty on Closet prayer two pence Item Jacksons Annotations on some books in Buchannon’s history, english fol[io?] London MvjC~ and ninty One Shilling Item a treatice on the Mediteranean Nav[igation?] in French Naples MvijC~ and five six pence Item a bible duodecimo Edin[bu]r[gh] MvijC~ and fifty eight P[e]r Kincaid two shillings Item a Case of mathematical or sea Instruments five Shillings. All sterling money Extending the Goods & Gear and others before Written in whole to the sum of thirty eight pound eighteen shillings and nine pence Sterling

The MvijC~ bits are jaj dates. Don't make explain them: they make me stabby.

All you need to know is that:
"MvjC~" should be read "sixteen hundred"; and
"MvijC~" should be read "seventeen hundred".

I think "Terence" (published Edinburgh 1731) must be an edition of this chap's plays: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence

I'd never heard of him. Every day's a school day!

I've loved reading those. How interesting. You might have unlocked a new special interest for me because I want to looking through old wills myself now.

Ooh, a new addict!

Do you have anyone specific you'd like to research, or are just going random?

If the latter, I'd recommend starting with wills held in England by the National Archives at Kew:
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/?research-category=online&sub-category%5B%5D=wills-death-duties

(Although wills held in Scotland are here if you want them:
https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/guides/record-guides/wills-and-testaments )

This is because:
a) since lockdown the England wills have been free to download (ignore all references to paying - the final screen will just show the price as £0);

b) in Scotland wills you may get bogged down in endless legal boilerplate seizing and infefting their heirs executors and assigns and the acceptors or acceptor and survivors or survivor of them.

Until very recently, Scottish property and inheritance law was insanely complex. Amongst other things, instead of owning and bequeathing land, you technically held the land as a vassal of a feudal superior and were recommending your legatee to succeed you in the vassalship, into which they then had to be infefted. Or something. I've probably used some technical term wrongly there.

As you can imagine, this kept generations of lawyers in business.

What is lovely, is that some of the properly archaic boilerplate was retained along with the feudal laws. For no good reason, I have a sneaking suspicion Scottish legalese may have inspired some of JK Rowling's language...

I hereby desire and require you and each of you jointly and severally my Baillies in that part to the effects aforementioned specially constituted that upon sight hereof you pass to the grounds of the subjects above mentioned respectively and successively after other [...] & deliver to my said Trustees or their foresaids Heritable state and seasine with actual real & corporal possession of all & whole the several Lands Heritages Houses Biggings yards parts and pertinents before designed lying bounded & described All aforesaid & here again held as repeated but always with & under the burdens provisions duties above and reservations afore mentioned and that by delivering to them as their certain attorney in the name of their assignees bearer hereof of earth and stone of & upon the Grounds of the said subjects and all other symbols requisite & this in no ways ye leave undone the which to do I commit to you & each of you jointly and severally full power by this my Precept of Seasine

Got another probate record... with a surprise lurking in the margin.

A C17th century lawyer – Mary Somerville's great-great-grandfather, in fact – writes a perfectly ordinary will.

“I Henry Douglas wryter [ie lawyer] in Ed[inburg]h Considereing my frailtie That it is fitt while the Lord allowes me helth and judgment to setle my worldlie afairs So that without disturbeance therfor I may the moir frielie and composedlie wait the good pleasure of the Lord when in his wise providence he Shall visit me [...] doe mak my Testa[men]t and L[ett]rewill as Followes
[...]
In witnes [quha]rof I have wr[itte]n and Sub[crib]t thes p[rese]nts with my hand at Ed[inburg]h the 19 day of feb[ruar]y 1697”

He dies in 1701 and his inventory is recorded in 1703. So far so normal.

Then I had a crack at deciphering the text crammed into the margin. It was two eiks, ie additions to the inventory.

“Ed[inburg]h the 29th August 1707 years First Eik Made heire to As Followes To Witt the s[ai]d Umq[ui]ll Henry Douglas Haveing Sub[criptions] one the books of the Company of Scotland Trading to to affrica & the Indies For the Summ of [?] Sterling to the Joynt Stock & Capitall fund of [th]e s[ai]d company [...] Which is due a[nd] adebted to the s[ai]d defunct a[nd] is Now payable in its propper Class by the Commissioners Named by her Ma[je]stie for Manageing a[nd] Disposeing of the equivalent And Wee Give a[nd] Comitt Where upon & S[i]r Patrick Scot of Ancrum Becam Cau[tioner]e As ane act Made there anent Bears

Edinburgh the 3d Feb[ruary] 1708 / 2d / Eik Made heire to As Followes To Witt By George Agnew Some tyme Ensign in Collo[ne]ll Douglas Regiment, here after one of the over seers Assistant to the affrican Companys Collony in the Indies the Summ of [...] in a ticket granted to him be the defunct dated the 26 Apryll 1695 years [...] And Wee give a[nd] Comm[i]tt Mr John Murray Advocat Becam caut[ione]r As ane Act made [the]re anent Bears”

So Mary Somerville’s gt-gt-grandfather was an investor in the Darien Scheme - the disastrous privately funded attempt to colonise part of Panama that left hundreds of people dead and squandered something like 20% of Scotland’s liquid assets.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_of_Scotland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darienscheme

The financial catastrophe was so great it led directly to the Union of Scotland and England in 1707, in return for England bailing Scotland out to the tune of £398,085 10 shillings. Or rather, as I’ve now discovered, bailing out individual middle-class Scots who’d lost money. “The Equivalent” is the name given to the bailout money: Henry Douglas’s children, including Mary Somerville’s great-grandmother, were beneficiaries.

Just to add yet another layer of interest, turns out Henry Douglas’s wife, Martha Lockhart, was related to Sir George Lockhart of Lee – the only Scottish negotiator to oppose the Union.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lockhart_(politician)

Every day is clearly still a school day!