Hi rathmore
Yes, that is the will calendar entry for William Price. I know from excise minute records that he was working in Boyle at the time of his death. The mention of his wife being 'of Sligo' I assume just means that she was living there at the time she was applying for letters of administration, after his death. I've come across other widows who applied for probate from another place than where they had lived as a wife, because they were staying with relatives or friends.
Of course there is the possibility that he was buried in Sligo or elsewhere, but thinking of the distance and expense involved and lack of a breadwinner for a widow with small children, I thought he probably would have been buried at the town where he died.
As an excise officer, he was frequently transferred from place to place. The excise minute books at The National Archives are very helpful for tracking this movement. He joined the excise office in Chester in 1844. After his marriage in Glasgow in 1846, he went to Londonderry, then Cootehill, Drogheda, Carrickmacross, and in 1856-1857 he was at Ballygawley, where his youngest child was born. He got into some difficulties at work there, and was transferred to Ballymoney, near Coleraine, for a short time under supervision while they decided what his fate would be, then demoted him and posted him to Boyle.
The Boyle newspapers made no mention of his death, even in the three weeks following it, other than the death notice quoted at the start of this thread, which suggests to me that he died of illness rather than foul play. If he joined the excise office at the usual age of 19-25, he might only have been in his thirties when he died.
Of all the places he worked, Ballygawley is the closest in time and space to Boyle. He could have been there for about 16 months, and as one child was born there, his wife might have felt more of a connection to that place than to others. Maybe he was buried there. I didn't realise until now just how close it was to Sligo.
