R6/5/5/51

Attested copy will of Mary Riseley of Bedford, widow

18 October 1692

From: 1692 To: 1692

Attested copy will of Mary Riseley of Bedford, widow; - her body to be interred “with all frugality yet decently”; - devising to her granddaughter Elizabeth Bromsall a close of pasture in Bedford, Saint Paul called Dovehouse Close with the dovehouse standing in it in the occupation of William Woodward [Fourth Parcel of Property]; - devising to her servant William Riseley that lived with her, for his life, that part of her messuage in the occupation of Thomas Partridge with a malthouse and use of an adjoining yard [part of the First Parcel of Property] paying a rent of twenty shillings per annum to her executors; - bequeathing an annuity of forty shillings per annum to Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Partridge during the life of William Riseley; - devising to her servant Thomas Partridge for his life the malthouse she had lately purchased from John Wright [the Sixth Parcel of Property], paying rent of twenty shillings to her executors; - devising all her real estate, including the reversion of those devised to William Riseley and Thomas Partridge for their lives, and bequeathing all her personal estate to her executors Francis Brace of Astwood [Buckinghamshire], gentleman and William Beckett of Bedford, gentleman upon trusts below; - to pay out of the rents of the Peacock [the Fourth Parcel of Property] to Elizabeth Skelton of Bedford, Saint Peter de Merton, widow an annuity of fifty shillings per annum for her life and to Mary Wheeler of Goldington, widow, forty shillings per annum for her life; - to pay an annuity of forty shillings per annum to Elizabeth Partridge if she outlived Thomas Partridge and William Riseley so that she received a maximum of £4 per annum in her life [i.e. twenty shillings out of each property as well as the forty shillings she had already been bequeathed]; - bequeathing £20 each to her granddaughter Mary Throgmorton and her two children Susan and Elizabeth; - bequeathing to the ministers of Bedford, Saint Paul and Bedford, Saint Peter, £7 each to be distributed amongst the poor of their respective parishes; - bequeathing to the ministers of Bedford, Saint Mary, Bedford, Saint John and Bedford, Saint Cuthbert £3 each to be distributed amongst the poor of their respective parishes; - bequeathing £10 to the minister of Milton Ernest to be distributed amongst the poor; - bequeathing £5 each to the ministers of Northill and Sandy to be distributed among the poor of their respective parishes; - disbursing the residue of her personal estate and residual income from her real estate in the manner instructed by her daughter Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Bromsall of Biggleswade, in lieu of which a third of her estate was to be devised and bequeathed to Mary, wife of Robert Throgmorton, the remaining two thirds being devised and bequeathed to her granddaughter Elizabeth Bromsall the younger; - bequeathing £10 each to Francis Brace and William Beckett; - witnessed by John Bardolph, Thomas Walson, G. Brace and William Houlker; - certified a true copy of the original on 12 April 1693 by Alexander Bolton and William Houlker.

Latin

item

Riseley, Mary,
Bromsall, Elizabeth,
Woodward, William,
Riseley, William,
Partridge, Thomas,
Wright, John,
Brace, Francis,
Beckett, William,
Wheeler, Mary,
Throgmorton, Mary,
Throgmorton, Susan,
Throgmorton, Elizabeth,
Bromsall, Thomas,
Riseley, Elizabeth,
Throgmorton, Robert,
Bardolph, John,
Walson, Thomas,
Brace, G.,
Houlker, William,
Bolton, Alexander,
Skelton, Elizabeth

BEDFORD, widow, wills, burial, Bedford fields, dovehouses, servants, malthouse, annuities, Bedford Peacock, parochial charities, Saint Paul Bedford, Saint Peter de Merton Bedford, Saint Mary Bedford, Saint John Bedford, Saint Cuthbert Bedford, MILTON ERNEST, NORTHILL, general poverty, SANDY