Annotated Will of John Young

Betty Young Ashbaker took a class in reading old English handwriting and decided to annotate the will of John Young.

In theory, a person could make a will in England if he was a person of sound mind, free status, and good character -- who owned personal property that he/she wished to disperse. Wills generally applied to real estate (land) and required that males be over age 14 (21, if leaving property) and females over age 12 or widowed. Because fees were assessed, generally the will making included those above (yeoman farmer and husbandman) a certain status. Also, before 1882 a wife would make a will to disperse property after her death "with the consent of hy [sic] husband".

The basic organization and structure of most English wills follows:
Introduction

Begins with "In the Name of God Amen"
Includes the date according to the Julian calendar and according to the reign of the King,
Location of county, diocese, and occupation or status of the person making the will,
A statement of health and sanity
A statement that this is the last will and testament "in manner and forme following."

Disposition of the Body of the Testator

Statement of where the body is to be buried

Dispersal of Legacies

(A legacy is a gift made by a person in and by his will and is made effective on his or her death. Strictly speaking, a legacy is a gift of personal or moveable property only, a gift of land being devise, but the term legacy is commonly used for both).

Naming of Executors and Overseers

Names the executors and often states their relationship to the testator,
Often states the amount of money that they will receive "for their laboures,"

Closing Statements of the Will

Concludes with statements such as "In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal"
Lists the day, month, and year,
In the presence of___
To the witnesses sign or make their marks

Wills are an important source of information for families. They not only provide the name of the person making the will, and the parish and county of residence, but also spouses, children, and other relatives who were to be recipients of legacies or bequests in the will. Deceased family members, those who had already received their inheritance, children from a previous marriage, or a spouse who was not the parent of the children then living were generally not mentioned in wills.

A word about the politics of the time:

The abolition of slavery in 1833. The slave trade had been illegal since 1807, but so long as slavery was permitted in the British colonies, there was always a market for blacks smuggled across the Atlantic.
The Factory Act of 1833. An important act was passed for the protection of children working in textile factories. When it became known that young children were working for fourteen or sixteen hours a day, the public demanded reform.
The Poor Law of 1834. The Poor Law Amendment of 1834 was not passed to assist the poor, but to relieve the middle classes of the burden of the poor rates (a wage supplement).
The English Municipal Corporations Act, 1835. Old incorporations of towns were abolished. The government of some 70 of the smallest towns was merged with that of the shire. About 178 towns received new town councils to be elected by all householders who had resided in the town for three years and who paid the local rates (taxes).
Education -- In 1833 the Whigs began a modest grant of 20,000 pounds a year for the support of elementary education. The money was shared by two religious societies which sponsored schools for the lower classes: the British and Foreign School Society. There schools were not very good. It was believed at the time that children could be educated in large numbers, several hundred in a room, by the use of child monitors; but many of the children never learned to read or write and the experiment was gradually abandoned. By the middle of the century England had a system of public education, though it was grossly inadequate, half of the children of the poor never went to school at all.

A will is a legal document. In England, a will originally involved only real property (land), while a testament was concerned with personal property (such as clothing, utensils, furniture, etc.) Eventually the two were combined into one document, hence the phrase "last will and testament."

THE LEFT SIDE OF THE PAGES BELOW LISTS THE TRANSCRIPTION OF THE WILL. THE RIGHT SIDE IS BETTY ASHBAKER’S COMMENTS/ANALYSIS:

In the name of God Amen
I John Young of Tansley Matlock Cliff in
the parish of Matlock¹, and County of Derby,
being weak in Body, but of Sound Mind,
and Memory I do hereby declare this to
be my last Will and Testament, that
is to say. I give to my Son William
Young Five Pounds², and to Robert
the son of my daughter Ann Youn³-
Five Pounds, and to my Daughter
Mary Roberts Five Pounds, and to
my Daughter Ellen Young Five
Pounds, and to my Daughter Pheby
Wooding Five Pounds, and to my
son Benjamin Young Five Pounds,
Then I give to my lawful Wife
That ^Mary Young all my Personal Property
given on wheresoever
from her life and at her decease to
[I will] that my Son Benjamin
[Young] shall have whatsoever there
?_[remaining] after paying the above
_? I do allso apoint My Son
_? Benjamin Young and James Bobanks
Page Two
Tallow Chandler, Executors⁵ of this my
last will and Testament whereunto
I set my hand this 1 Day of May
One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty
Four
Signed
In the Presence of John Young⁶
Anthony Bown
James Bobanks
Elizabeth Boures
1. A parish is an ecclesiastical unit which directs the business of the church within a certain jurisdiction. Quite often the parish may be the equivalent of a city or town. A number of villages, and even small towns, generally belonged to one parish, and those living in the separate villages and towns had to go to the same parish to attend church.
2. The value of money changes from year to year and the conversion from dollars to pounds also varies. As best we can figure, using history books stating the annual income of the labor class of people, we figure this five pounds amounts to the equivalent of 5 to 6 months income for the average person.
3. John Young’s daughter Ann died before the will was written; therefore her share went to her son Robert.
4. Wills are a good source for genealogists because they do not usually mention those who are already deceased, and often you find other family members such as cousins, aunts, etc. Apparently those alive at the time of the will on 1 May 1834 were; wife, Mary Young, and the following children of John Young:
William Young
Mary Roberts
Ellen Young
Pheby Wooding
Benjamin Young
and the child of Ann: Robert (no last name listed).
5. Executor = a male named in a will to administer the estate. A female so serving is called an executrix.
6. As this signature is different than the rest of the handwriting of the will, it appears to be the personal signature of John Young.

After the death of the testator, the will would be brought to the appropriate court to be probated. The court would than appoint the executor(s) names in the will to carry out the terms of the will.

James Thomas Law, Clerk, Master of Arts,
Vicar General of the Honourable and Right
Reverend Father in God HENRY, by Divine
permission, Bishop of LICHFIELD and
COVENTRY, To
Richard Noand?
Clerks, jointly, and severally Sendeth Greeting: WHEREAS it has been alleged, before the
Reverend George Buckeridge, Clerk, Master of
Arts, our Surrogate that John Young late of
Matlock in the County of Derby and Diocese of
Lichfield and Coventry, Weaver¹
deceased, duly made and executed, his last Will
and Testament in writing and therein named
Benjamin Young and James Bobanks
Of the Parish of (this has been lined-through)
Executors thereof;
²We therefore by these presents, Commit and
Grant, to you jointly and severally, full power
and authority to administer the Oath under
written, to the said Benjamin Young and or his
executors
and also to Swear the Persons whose names are
Subscribed to the Affidavit annexed to the truth
thereof, and the said Oath being administered,
you are to certify the same to US or our said
Surrogate, and subscribe your Name thereto,
together with these presents, within three
Months from the date thereof. Provided
nevertheless that this Commission shall be of
no effect, unless so certified and transmitted to
US within that time. Dated at LICHFIELD, the
First day of March in the Year of our Lord,
1836. 1. Below the gentry was the middle class. Members of the urban middle class included the following in descending order of importance:
Merchants: Business, trade and commerce.
Professionals: Lawyers, doctors, teachers, bankers.
Artisans and Skilled Craftsmen: Carpenters, blacksmiths, butchers, weavers, cabinet makers, bricklayers, ...
Apprentices: To become an artisan or a craftsman, one was usually apprenticed to a master at an early age upon payment of a fee ( at least 40 shillings per year and in some towns 60 shillings) to the master. The period of apprenticeship was generally seven years or until the age of twenty-one years.
2. The rest of the form includes The Oath where the executors named in the will testify that John Young is deceased and that he died Nov 1, 1835. It is signed by Benjamin Young and dated the Fifth of March 1836.
3. The probate appears to be a standardized form with spaces to be completed. (Shown as the underlined sections.)

Notes:
2000, April 5: Converted to HTML by Matt Young.