Thank you so much for transcribing and sharing those letters, which bring the people to life!
While Maria Bury certainly does not hide her feelings, other interpretations could be put on the facts she reports. How old James Berdoe was compared to Honor Prideaux is unknown, but one might surmise that it must have been a relatively late first marriage for him as well. And does it sound, though we cannot know, as if she may have been a bit impetuous?
Anyhow, she made her will* on 9 September 1700, only eight days before her burial, which suggests that she knew she was in danger, and it was proved by her brother Edmund on 28 September 1700. All she had to dispose of was 600 pounds, worth at least 80,000 pounds in 2015, that had been reserved to her by a prenuptial contract, since English law at the time automatically gave everything else to her husband. This money of hers she distributed among her own family, friends and servants, leaving nothing (so far as I can ascertain) to James or any of his relations.
James Berdoe's family from his second marriage had its ups and downs. Of the ten children, only three seem to have reached maturity and married. The eldest son James set himself up as a country gentleman in Kent while his younger brother John carried on the family business and expanded it, becoming a major supplier to the Royal Navy and owning two iron works. Sophia married a clergyman who became head of King Edward's School, Birmingham.
* PROB 11: Will Registers 1697-1704: Piece 457: Noel: Quire Numbers 124-162 (1700)
