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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: helxx on Wednesday 17 April 19 19:47 BST (UK)
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Hi, Wills are something I know very little about and have decided to look into these a bit more. I've done a search of the boards to try and find the answer to my question but can't see the wood for the trees!
I found the will of my x5 great grandfather, Joseph Summerland, who died in Uttoxeter, Staffs in 1808, on Ancestry. I followed the link to the National archives and paid £3.50 to download but I'm a bit disappointed on the lack of information. Is it because it says 'abstract' of will?
There must be a more in depth will out there as someone has typed it up on a website online, which mentions his properties etc. Where can I find the full will? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks, Helen x
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You can find the original images of the will on Find My Past. Staffordshire, Dioceses of Lichfield and Coventry wills and probate 1521-1860.
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Thanks for that Girl Guide :) I shall have a look when I next take out a subscription. :)
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What you've found is an item from what are popularly called the Death Duty Registers (IR26). They can actually be very useful in finding the names of people whom a will might just call "my children", or sometimes in giving addresses or occupations of legatees where you don't have them from any other source.
In this case the will itself will be at Staffordshire Record Office, but as with a lot of Staffordshire wills, it can be viewed at FindMyPast (as Girl Guide says).
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Thank you for that Arthurk. It's all starting to make a bit more sense to me now :)
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The will on FindMyPast has 5 pages and a 1-page codicil. There were many amendments, and there is a separate list of explanations for these - 2 pages!
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Thanks for that Andrewalston. I look forward to viewing the pages! :)
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I shall have a look when I next take out a subscription. :)
If you don't have a subscription, (or want to buy one just for this), many libraries offer free access to findmypast.
You don't say where in the world you are, but even ones on the other side of the world do this!
Worth an ask.
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Hi goldie61, I'm in Staffordshire. I shall ask at my local library. Thanks for the tip :)
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If you live in Staffordshire, depending whereabouts of course, you could actually go to Stafford Record Office (in Stafford), and see and hold the actual will yourself! That would be exciting!
You can take photographs of documents - not sure what the cost of a photography permit for the day is now - about 5 pounds (sorry, no pound sign on this antipodean keyboard!).
Might be worth finding other documents held at Stafford RO if you're going to visit.
Their on-line catalogue is 'Gateway to the Past'.
https://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/leisure/archives/collections/OnlineCatalogues/GatewaytothePast/home.aspx
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Did Joseph and his son William have a falling out?
25 JAn 1798. Article in the Derby Mercury. Uttoxeter, JOSEPH SUMMERLAND and his Son WILLI AM, both of in the County of Stafford, mutually to carry on all Business and without any interference with each other.
(Plus recorded on other dates).
Joseph Summerland mentioned in this will of Margery Gilbert of Uttoxeter. (It's been transcribed).
http://www.mikelowndes.net/mike.lowndes/lowndes/gilbert.html
There's a fair bit about your Joseph, and his sons William and John, on here - not sure if you have seen it.
https://staffspoorlawbiography.wordpress.com/tag/summerland/
You have to scroll down a bit to find the right Joseph Summerland I think.
It gives a precis of his will.
"By the time of Joseph’s death aged 70 in November 1808 he had accumulated substantial real and personal estate. His probated will of 29 April 1809 made detailed provision for his surviving children William, John and Susannah, their spouses, and his servants. The executors were his son William Summerland, Thomas Lee Higgott (gent), and Samuel Botham (land surveyor). Joseph left personal estate to the sworn value of £5,000. His two dwelling houses in Tinkers Lane in the occupations of John Goodrich and Richard Johnson together with land known as Broad Meadow and Netherwood in Uttoxeter and in Leigh were to be sold publicly or privately with the executors using the proceeds to settle debts and discharge legacies. Additional property including a house and land at High Wood, Uttoxeter, in the holding of his servant William Felthouse was to be held by Joseph’s son John for his lifetime and afterwards by his wife for her lifetime. After their deaths the property was to be settled on John’s lawful children if he should have any. If John had no children then the property was to go to the children of his son William and to the children of his daughter Susannah Newton, the wife of John Newton.
The sum of £1,200 was to be placed by his executors in government securities with the interest to be paid to his son John and on his death to John’s widow Elizabeth was to receive £400 of the £1,200. The whole was then to be divided equally amongst their children once they reached the age of twenty-one. The executors were to invest £1,000 with the interest being paid to his daughter Susannah for her separate and exclusive use. After her death it was bequeathed to her husband John Newton and then equally to their children when they reached twenty-one. If Susannah died childless then the £1,000 legacy was to be divided amongst the children of John and William. John was to receive £200, but a codicil revoked this and the money was to be added to the £1,200 being administered by the executors for John’s benefit. Leaving money in trust to John, rather than him inheriting outright, may have been as a result of his mental instability. Susannah was to receive £500. Joseph’s servant was bequeathed £10, and his servant Mary Kendrick was to receive £20 if she was still in Joseph’s employment at the time of his decease. His messuage in High Wood, late the estate of Thomas Pitts, was bequeathed to his eldest son William, as was all remaining real and personal estate."
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Gosh, one of Joseph's sons, John, as quite famed as a test case for mental illness.
Same page as before.
"John Summerland (b.1767)
John Summerland was the son of Joseph and Hannah Summerland. He was born in Uttoxeter in May 1767. He has entered historical consciousness through Michael Foucault’s Madness and Civilisation in which Foucault describes Summerland’s treatment at the Quaker Retreat in York for mental illness. Using William Tuke’s description of John Summerland as a being a man of Herculean size and strength, restrained by chains upon arrival and subsequently rehabilitated through Tuke’s treatment, the case is often present as a pivotal moment in the treatment of mental illness. In 2015, however, Jon Mitchell used the archives of the Retreat to present a different image of the ‘wild’ John Summerland, as a man prone to periods of instability, but also a man capable of reasoned thought, contemplation and conversation.
From the correspondence between the Summerland family and the Retreat, it is evident that his father Joseph, his brother William, and his uncle Samuel Botham, all took an active interest in John’s progress organising his admission, funding his stay and hoping that he could gain useful employment as a gardener. Moreover, in his father’s will provision was made for John’s inheritance to be placed in trust. In the correspondence of Samuel Botham it is revealed that John had recently returned to Uttoxeter from America and whilst both in Uttoxeter and in America he had attended Quaker meetings on a regular basis."
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Hi goldie61, yes Stafford Record office is a good call, especially if I get to hold the actual will! Wow! I've visited a few times before, years ago, just to view parish records on microfiche. Yes, I've seen all of the above that you've mentioned. I actually descend from John Summerland (my x4 great grandfather.) I'm rather proud of him, I must say!
Thanks again for all your help! x
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Just to add, they're quite an interesting family. Joseph Summerlands mother, Rebecca, nee Shipley, was my x6 great grandmother and also Mary Howitts, nee Botham, grandmother! (The famous poet and writer.)