For others who may be searching in the future.As I interpret the Bill in Chancery.
Arthur the Earl of Donegall left in his will (30 July 1705) £300 to his brother John Echingham Chichester, not for his own use, but for such other uses as otherwise directed. Then the Earl wrote a separate letter to John telling him the £300 was for Leonora.
However, when Jane, Leonora’s mother, tried to get it John said yes, thats correct but I haven’t received the money from the estate yet.
I have the impression she was palmed off by them saying there were other debts legacies and annuities that took precedence.
But by 1739, John Morgan thinks
“
there hath been now raised out of the Said Trust estates more than sufficient to pay all the Debts & Legacies of the said Testator the said Earl of Donegall & particularly the said legacy of Three hundred pounds so given & devised for the benefit of your Oratrix with Interest for the same from the time the same ought to have been paid or that at least the said Trust Estate is now amply sufficient to pay all the burthens & charges thereon and in particular the said legacy of three hundred pounds & Interest.
Then they say that Katherine the dowager left his estate in England un-administered, (only proving his will in Ireland as that was where the bulk of his estate was, while the bulk of his debts were in England). so Administration of the English estate was granted to Thomas Hall a Creditor by Judgement. But Thomas Hall also died leaving it un-administered and now William Morgan has procured administration, and claims to be the Legal representative of the Estate and Effects in England un-administered.
Also
John Echingham Chichester died. His executrix Dorothy Dorinda Smith also died without proving his estate and William Morgan has procured administration of that too!
However it seems that John MORGAN & Leonora are grouping William MORGAN with the Countess and Earl (the son) and so perhaps he is no relation to them at all.
There are long answers from the Countess & the Earl I am wading through, they quite plainly don’t plan to pay, but frustratingly there isn’t one from William Morgan!
Considering that TNA have also “mislaid” the Will of William Morgan of Southwark this is doubly frustrating!
The Earl and Dowager Countess call it the ‘pretended legacy of £300’.
They think that Dorothy Dorinda Smith
did prove the will of John Echingham Chichester and that they 'cannot frame any belief' that William Morgan has procured administration
(In the answer of the Dowager there is a break down of the Estate finances (as she had to justify the period between the death of the Earl and the coming of age of her son as he took her to Chancery! So that is interesting as a separate matter. Her jointure is £1200 per year)
Satisfying and educational to read, but it doesn't get me any further ahead with the Morgans.
