I've transcribed a lot of old wills, many of them leave conditions for inheritance, the most common being that a widow would lose anything should she re-marry but this one from Georgian farmer John Hackman from Pellingbridge in the parish of Lindfield in 1779 protects his beloved fruit trees:
"I Will and direct that neither of my said Children shall cut down grub
up or otherwise destroy and Fruit tree growing on any of my Lands and premises at the
time of my decease or be suffered to do before all of my said Children shall have attained
their respective ages of Twenty one years under the Penalty of laying and forfeiting to
the rest of my said Children Forty Shillings for every Tree so cut down or
destroyed"
He was reported in newspapers as having produced a record breaking apple crop, and another gives an account of the festivities following his annual squirrel hunt where his wife and household had produced 500 apple pies.
A will of 1852 for a Lindfield man in my husband's tree, Thomas Compton, leaves his youngest daughter Ann an income for life (£60p.a.) to cease should she marry. Further investigation revealed from the 1871 census that she was classed as an "idiot" so did not have mental capacity, so it was to protect her from a predatory marriage.
Has anyone else got any interesting wills?
"I Will and direct that neither of my said Children shall cut down grub
up or otherwise destroy and Fruit tree growing on any of my Lands and premises at the
time of my decease or be suffered to do before all of my said Children shall have attained
their respective ages of Twenty one years under the Penalty of laying and forfeiting to
the rest of my said Children Forty Shillings for every Tree so cut down or
destroyed"
He was reported in newspapers as having produced a record breaking apple crop, and another gives an account of the festivities following his annual squirrel hunt where his wife and household had produced 500 apple pies.
A will of 1852 for a Lindfield man in my husband's tree, Thomas Compton, leaves his youngest daughter Ann an income for life (£60p.a.) to cease should she marry. Further investigation revealed from the 1871 census that she was classed as an "idiot" so did not have mental capacity, so it was to protect her from a predatory marriage.
Has anyone else got any interesting wills?
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