#52Ancestors, Week 9, Where There's a Will

So, a Will, or a fiercely determined (where there is a will there’s a way) person, or just someone named William.

I have decided to go with a Will this week, and discovering it took a fair bit of determination as well.

Susanna(h) Davies was born about 1774 in or near Wellington, Shropshire, England. Her parents, Thomas and Sarah, had her baptised at All Saints, Wellington on 8 April 1774. I don’t know anything more about her until she married Thomas Hulett at the same church on 15 April 1793. Did she have siblings ? What was her father’s occupation ? Where did they live exactly ? Those are questions to solve another time.

Susanna was my 4 x great grandmother. She and her husband Thomas raised a family of seven children who were all baptised at All Saints Wellington. They may have lived all the time in Lawley, as that is the place where Susanna is recorded as living on the 1841 and 1851 UK census’. Lawley is a small village between Wellington and Malinslee, now almost on the outskirts of Telford.

Their second daughter Sarah, was my 3 x great grandmother. Until recently I had focused more on her and her descendants than on her siblings, or on discovering more about her parents.  That was until a close match popped up in my DNA results which led me back to this family and one of Susanna’s sons. That find spurred me on to find as much as I could about all of Thomas and Susanna’s children.

I have managed to track them all through census’, bdm’s and probate indexes now. Only three married and had children. In my searching though I realised when Susanna had died and purchased a pdf of her death record from www.gro.gov.uk in their current trial. Thomas had died before 1841 as Susanna is widowed on the 1841 census.

I had always thought of my Shropshire ancestors as Ag labs, workers – as opposed to landowners or tradespeople. Nothing wrong with that; the majority of us come from simple, hardworking beginnings. On the 1851 census though, Susanna was recorded as being the “Occupier of a farm 90 acres, employing 2 men.” So not the owner of the land it would seem, but financially able to employ people to work the land for her. When I came across a copy of her will on Ancestry and deciphered it with much help from 4^th cousins and my Dad, it seemed they definitely were not “just” Ag Labs.

Susanna’s will named all her children apart from Sarah, who was already married at the time of her death in May 1856, and indeed at the time that Susanna wrote her will in December 1846. Did she feel that Sarah was already well taken care of ? Or perhaps she did not approve of Sarah’s marriage. (As an aside Sarah and her husband, an Ag Lab, had married at St Peter’s Wolverhampton in July 1836 when Sarah would have been at least 3 months pregnant, their first child was baptised in January 1837.)

This is the transcription of the will (with still a few odd words to decipher)

Lawley

IN THE NAME OF GOD AMEN

I Susanna Hulett being of sound state of mind do hereby ordain this to be my last will and testament renouncing and revoking all others. First I nominate and appoint as my executor and executrix my son John Hulett and my daughter Mary Ann Hulett. Secondly I give and bequeath to my son Thomas Hulett my daughters Mary Ann Elizabeth Hulett Elizabeth Hulett and Martha Hulett the whole of my property consisting of the household furniture live and the food stock on the Farm. Also my interest in One Hundred Pounds xxxx in the Long Annuities to be equally divided share and share alike after all my just debts and funeral expenses are paid. Thirdly it is my request that as my son John Hulett has received considerably more than his share of my property that he will afford every assistance in his power to my son William Hulett. This done and executed on the eleventh day of December one thousand eight hundred and forty six. In the testimony whereof? I hereby to submit my case in the presence of the following witnesses. Susanna Hulett

Witnesses – Robert Howden Heston – W Taylor

And an image of the original copy which was made when the will was proven and probate granted

The will itself follows the prescribed pattern that is still common today. Beginning by stating the place and name of the person making the will, and that they are lucid and aware of the details they are writing, or dictating to someone to write if they are unable to write themselves. After this the first action is to name the people chosen to be the executors. They are the ones who will give statements after the death to verify who they are and that they knew the person. They may have to give affidavits to the court as well.

The second action is to name the beneficiaries and the instruction. It was here where the surprise came. Susanna may have not owned the land she was farming, but she did own the livestock, bequeathing them along with all her household furniture and food which likely included crops being grown to her unmarried daughters and her son Thomas. In addition to this she directed that they share in her interest from some annuities. Now I’m not sure what those annuities were, but £100 is a fair amount of money to have in her own right in 1856, not at all what I was expecting to read.

Then thirdly a separate instruction regarding to her son John. She states that since he has already received more than his share of her property that he takes care to assist William, the eldest child of the family. At this point I am still not sure why she made this instruction and did not include William with her other unmarried children. Perhaps he had a disability. In the 1841 and 1851 census’ William had been living with his mother and working on the farm. In 1861 he was working on Lawley Farm, employed as a Cow Man.

Then to close the will is signed and dated, and witnessed.

The timing of the writing of the will could be significant. 11 December 1846. John was married in January 1846 and his first child born later that year. John was a publican, he had been a butcher when he married. Perhaps his mother gave him some financial assistance to change career and secure a lease on a hotel. I have spied some documents in county archives that may help answer that question, but first I need to save some money so that I can make a trip there.

To add to this change in my understanding of Susanna’s social standing. John’s eldest daughter can be found attending a school in Shifnal on the 1861 census, where the teachers included French and German. One of his sons became a Mining & Civil Engineer. Investigating all that can wait for another time though.