Wills are a great resource for family history. Sometimes, they tell us information we’d not have found or been able to confirm elsewhere: the married name of daughters, for instance.
Often, they give us an insight into the person’s life: what items they held dear enough to pass on; which child they favoured or trusted most to sort their affairs…
And sometimes, they inadvertently make us do a double-take, or even smile.
In a previous post, I gave a few examples I’d chanced upon.
Here are a few more wills extracts.
Childhood things (Pattinson wills extracts)
When John Pattinson of Whitrigg drew up his will in 1756, he specified a couple of particular bequests for his son, also called John
Namely, he left John junior a gun and the kitchen table.
Young John was then aged about seven.
Fast-foward to 1787. John is now about 38, widowed since soon after the birth of daughter Elizabeth, and facing his own death.
The codicil to his will specifies that HIS son John should get his gun and the kitchen table.
Son John was then aged about six.
No sex, please (more Pattinson wills extracts)
John who died in 1756 left his widow Martha in charge of their three children. It’s common for men to want to protect their estate from ever going to a loved-one’s future husband. But John Pattinson takes it a step further.
Martha is to be guardian of their children:
‘as long as she remains unmarried and chaste’.
Useful bequests (Emerson wills extracts)
Widowed Catherine Emerson, of Eshgill, Alston Moor, died in 1712. Her yeoman husband, George Emerson, had died in 1693. Neither of them name children in their wills. Instead, the bequests go to nephews, nieces, cousins, friends…
She starts by leaving ‘cousin Hannah Dickinson, daughter of Thomas’ a LOT of household items, including ‘my best kettell’.
If I am right about ‘who is who,’ Hannah would have been still in her teens. And would have had the kettle (and curtains, and dishes and frying pan…) in her ‘bottom drawer’ for ten years before she married and had a home of her own. But it’s all a nice thought, I guess.
Catherine later leaves ten shillings each to a Thomas Dickinson and a Joseph Dickinson, without saying who they are. Before turning to either cousin Hannah or a different Hannah Dickinson and leaving her:
a Brewing Tub, three Barrels, two Stands, twelve Bottles, and two Skeels (water tubs) a Possett-pot; and a pair of Temps (some kind of sieve?).
No doubt very useful, if Hannah wished to follow Catherine and become a small-scale brewer.
However, Catherine continues:
I give Isabel Emerson, Kathern Ritson, and Abigill Batson, all the rest of my Bottles, equally to be divided amongst them.
Even in 1712, I wonder how grateful Isabel and the others would have been for a quantity of bottles.
It doesn’t even suggest they were full ones!
Fight the good fight
The best line in Catherine Emerson’s will – for the unlikely combination – goes to Thomas Dickinson.
This is possibly Hannah’s father; possibly the Thomas who has been left ten shillings (if they weren’t one and the same person); possibly another Thomas altogether.
The Emerson and Dickinson families of Alston Moor intermarried quite a bit. In fact, Catherine Emerson could well have been née Catherine Dickinson before she married George.
Whoever the lucky recipient was, Catherine’s will states:
Item. I give to Thomas Dickinson a Gunn and a Bybell.
You can find Catherine Emerson’s will on the North East Inheritance Database: