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This Will was Proved at London before the Worshipfull Charles Pinfold, Doctor of Laws, Surrogate to the Right Worshipfull John Bettesworth, Doctor of Laws, Master Keeper or Commissary of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, lawfully constituted, the Fifth day of October in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Forty four by the Oath of Jane Seymour, Spinster, the Sister of the deceased and Sole Executrix named in the said Will To whom Administration was granted of all and Singular the Goods, Chattels and Credits of the said deceased, being first sword duly to Administer.
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On the Fourth day of July in the year of our Lord one Thousand Seven hundred and Seventy administration (with the will annexed) of the Goods, Chattels and Credits of Jane Seymour late of the Parish of Woodford in the County of Essex, Spinster, deceased was granted to Berkeley Seymour and Margaret Bradshaw, widow, the natural and Lawfull Brother and Sister and two of the next of kin of Ester Seymour, Spinster, a Lunatich the Niece of the said deceased, Sole Executrix and Residuary Legatee named in the said Will for the use and benefit of the said Ester Seymour and during her Lunacy having been First sworn duly to administer.
Wills 3
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The wills of Berkeley and Jane Seymour, the son and daughter of John Seymour, governor of Maryland (1704-1709) and Margaret Bowles, demonstrate several patterns of eighteenth-century family life, particularly about unmarried and childless persons views on inheritance. First, like nearly twenty percent of their cohort, neither sibling married nor had children, meaning their views of inheritance differed from those with spouses and children.1 High rates of never-married adults coupled with the thirty to forty percent of children who did not live to see their tenth birthday, made planning for future generations and inheritance a complicated matter.2 When their father was appointed governor of Maryland, his three surviving children ( John, Berkeley, and Jane) were adults and they remained in England. Berkeley inherited the Bitton Parsonage when his step-mother died in 1730.3 If he had had legitimate sons, the parsonage would have easily passed to one of them, but in their absence he, like many unmarried people, considered lateral kin instead of lineal kin. As their sister had died young and their brother John was married and settled, Berkeley passed his possessions to the person most vulnerable to the vicissitudes of financial survival: his single sister. Jane made a similar decision, but as nearly twenty years had passed by the time she wrote her will, she focused her efforts on her nieces and nephews favoring, again, the unmarried women. Jana Maria and Esther Seymour and Margaret Bradshaw, who were sisters, were in their 50s or 60s when they eventually inherited from their aunt. Jana Maria Seymour was christened 6 July 1702 in Oxford and Esther Seymour was christened 4 June 1717.4 Margaret Seymour married Peregrine Bradshaw on 22 December 1739 in St. Andrew, Plymouth, Devon.5 By the time their aunt died, Jana Maria was unmarried, Margaret was a widow, and Esther might have already been showing signs of mental instability explaining why they received much larger bequests than the men, or younger (and presumably marriageable) women like Christian, who was only nineteen when her great aunt wrote her will.6 Unmarried people often left bequests to other unmarried siblings, particularly sisters, and unmarried women often left legacies to nieces (particularly unmarried ones) in an effort to ameliorate a property and inheritance tradition that disadvantaged women.7 Notes
1. Amy Froide, Never Married: Singlewomen in Early Modern England, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). 2. Peter Laslett, The World We Have Lost: England Before the Industrial Age, third edition (New York: Scribner, 1984), pp. 11112. 3. H.T. Ellacombe, The History of the Parish of Bitton, in the County of Gloucester, (Exeter: privately printed, William Pollard, 1881), pp. 8790; A. Baine, History of Kingswood Forest Including All the Ancient Manors and Villages in the Neighborhood, (London: William F. Mack, Bristol, 1891).
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4. Jana Maria Seymour, daughter of John Seymour, christened 6 July 1702, Church of England, St. Giles, Oxford, Oxfordshire Parish Registers, 16811958, FHL British Film 887486; Esther Seymour, daughter of Dr. John and Mrs. Elizabeth Seymour, christened 4 June 1717, Church of England, Charles Church, Plymouth, Devon, index and images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/KC9X465 : accessed 1 December 2012). Other children of John Seymour christened in St. Giles, Oxford: John Seymour christened 7 March 1700; Bowles Seymour, christened 21 October 1707; Berkeley Seymour christened 2 June 1709. Other children of John and Elizabeth Seymour christened in Charles Church, Plymouth: Phineas Seymour, christened 1 January 1719. 5. Arthur Broomfield, Parish Registers for St. Andrew, Plymouth, Devonshire, England: Marriage 16181720, 17281744/5, (1961), Family History Library British Film 823684, item 6. 6. Church of England, St. Winnow, Cornwall, England Parish Registers, 16221812, FHL British Film 908076.Seymour, daughter of Bowles and Martha Seymour, christened 27 September 1743. 7. Amy Louise Erickson, Women and Property in Early Modern England, (London and New York: Routledge, 1993).
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