Mary Vrigneaux Will 1735 - does it say 'the niece by the brother' ?

[Flemming]

Attached is a clip of the Will of Mary Vrigneaux 1735 Plymouth. The beneficiary is her sister Hester L'oeil (minor and spinster; Marie L'oeil married Pierre Vrigneaux 1720 East Stonehouse).

At the top of the second page, it looks to read as follows.

'[...issued forth a commission] to John Pare, the curator lawfully assigned to Hester L’oeil spinster a minor the niece by the brother next of kin and universal legatee named in the last Will and Testament [?] of Mary Vrigneaux…'

If it does say 'the niece by the brother', how can this be if Hester's surname was L'oeil, not Pare? Might the wording have a different meaning if commas were added?

Any ideas and thoughts much appreciated.

[goldie61]

The word after 'Will and Testament' is nuncupative, which means she gave her wishes by word of mouth, rather than writing, or having it written, down.

Do you know who John Pare was? This clip doesn't say Hester is his daughter specifically.
If the testator's maiden name was Mary L'oeil, then the daughter of  any brother she had would also be called L'oeil'. So presumably Hester is the daughter of such a brother, as it says. He is not named in this clip.

You state that Hester was Mary's 'sister'. It doesn't say this in this clip, so presumably it says that elsewhere.
At this time the term 'sister' could encompass other female relatives the person may have, as well as  an actual sister as we would think. Relatives such as cousins, sisters in law and nieces would often be  termed 'sister'.

[Flemming]

You're right about the Will being given verbally, and you've correctly raised the question of whether Hester was Mary's sister or niece, because I now think it was the latter. I've attached the relevant clip which could be taken as 'Sister' but, given the formation of the word 'Niece' in the clip above, it does look more like the latter. What's your view?

[goldie61]

Yep. Definitely says 'Niece'.
Problem solved. 

[Flemming]

Thanks for that, although it does leave the question of how John Pare was related to Hester L'oeil, if at all.

Does 'niece by the brother' mean Hester was the daughter of Mary Vrigneaux nee L'oeil's brother, or does it mean Hester was the daughter of John Pare's brother?

I'm inclined to go with the former because the clip in the first post ends '...of Mary Vrigneaux...' If you were to open a bracket before 'spinster' and close a bracket after '...of Mary Vrigneaux...', it would read in this way.