Help with dechipering Will text 1856

[PrueM]

No worries Anne.  I wish more people would post these types of requests, they're great fun!  Give the brain (and the eyes  ) a good workout.
Prue

[mrst]

Hi there
I live in Dumbarton and thought you might be interested to know that my friend lives round the corner from me in Latta Street !Must be a connection .
Mrst

[AMBLY]

Hi MrsT
I have heard of Latta Street there in Dumbarton, and believe it was named for the family of John LATTA  b1788-d 1874, who was at one stage a prominent counciller/town clerk, and a tanner, and his son Robert LATTA b1830-d1908  who succeeded him in the Tannery.  John's father was appparently also named Robert, and I believe his mother may have been Agnes CRUMB but not yet confirmed this.

I am trying to tie up the Dumbarton LATTA's and as yet I can't manage to link William LATTA b 1806-d1856 (he of the will above) whose father was also named William, to the "Latta St" lot!  By dates, William Snr could be a brother of John the tanner. But intriguingly, they both appear to have married a woman named Janet LANG. I don't think it's the same woman, as John's Janet was born abt 1800 (if a woman I found in C81 is her AND if the age she gave in it is correct ) while William Snr's Janet was having children in the early 1800's.   The William LATTA group seem to be very much involved in the shipping occupations.

As always, it'll all seem clear as crystal once one has spent countless hours at large, and a good few quid on Scotlands People  - all part of the fun of the chase :-)  Sigh, I wish I lived over there and could go on wonderful hunting safari's !

Thanks for your message !
Cheers
Anne

[ibi]

My tuppence-worth is that I'd lean towards Steele, but wouldn't rule out Hall before I had a chance to see elsewhere how this clerk forms his capitals.

BTW, the hand is far from pure Secretary hand, but a reasonably modern hand, retaining a few elements of Secretary hand, particularly in the capitals; and is that a yogh in the middle of the occupation?, - see http://www.scottishhandwriting.com/content/default.asp?page=s4_3_15

ibi

[mrst]

Well Ann , you would need to take a bloody big umberella to go on safari here in Dumbarton . Cannot believe it is July and is pouring with rain . 
Looks like you have got it sussed with the family investigation but if you need any info on Sunny Dumbarton let me know
All the best
mrst

[trellisick]

it seems to me that there is a piece of the paper at the end of the name missing and the name could be w c hector.
                                                                    kali.

[carolineasb]

Hi all

Not to throw a spanner in the works - but from the small piece of the document that you have scanned, it does not appear that it is a will but either a page from the "Dead" Book in the Commissariot of North Strathclyde at Dumbarton or a copy of the original Confirmation of the Estate - which may be one in the same back then.

The other name (I think) will be the witness to the Oath taken by the Executor at the time of application for Confirmation of the Estate.  Nowadays the Executor makes a declaration rather than taking an Oath.

If the document comes from the Scotlands People site, it appears that it is often the Confirmation that is online (well the ones I have downloaded anyway)

Rgds

Caroline

[Rena]

I was surfing when I accidentally came to this thread. 

I too think Robert Falconer,  and the occupation was a hosier weaving stockings.  Weaving would fit in with earlier Falconers who I came across in the 1700's when I was researching my branch of the Crum(b) family and the business link was still there in the 1870s when my g.grandfather went bankrupt - a Falconer being one of the creditors with his office in the same building in Vincent Street as my ancestor.

[Rena]

Hi Prue & Nell!

I did wonder why would  Falconer be described by his occupation "in Glasgow" while the others (Isabella, Janet, Catherine Ann & John Latta) are all only described as "residing in Dumbarton"? 

Cheers
Anne

Many tradesmen moved from, or commuted from, Dumbarton to Glasgow because of the port and the trade it generated. My Dumbartonshire family moved to Glasgow for the same reason.  I haven't got my notes handy but I think it was to do with officialdom and I can't recall why Glasgow won over Dunbarton but the advantages should be somewhere online.