Reference
R6/5/6/1
Title
Copy will of John Faldo of Bedford, gentleman and alderman of Bedford
Date free text
8 Octobert 1657
Production date
From: 1657 To: 1657
Scope and Content
Copy will of John Faldo of Bedford, gentleman and alderman of Bedford “being sick in body”;
- to be buried in Saint Mary’s, Bedford “there to rest as a depositum untill the resurrection and then to be made happy in the eternal presence and enjoyment of God in the Society of saints and angels;
- appointing his brother William as executor;
- devising to his wife Anne the land he had made her jointure: his farmhouse “at the bridge foot” in Bedford, Saint Mary, with malthouses, barns, stables, hovels, outhouses, gardens and yards; land lying in the butts in Saint Mary’s; half an acre of meadow in Goldington Mead; for her life;
- devising additionally to his wife a cottage with a pightle of pasture adjoining at Elstow formerly in the occupation of Richard Robinson and Widow Whitley and a shop or stall in the Tuesday Marketplace in Bedford;
- devising all property devised to Anne to his nephew William Faldo, eldest son of his brother William after Anne’s death; then to William junior’s eldest son, in default of which the devise was to pass to John, second son of William senior;
- bequeathing his household goods to William Faldo junior after the death of Anne, she making a bond that they will not be “imbesselled but that the same att the tyme of her death shall be safely delivered”; an inventory of the goods was to be made directly after the testator’s death;
- bequeathing £150 to Anne “which I am bound by writeing obligatory to Leave her att the Tyme of my death”… “I do not know the particular Contents of the said writeing obligatory for a full explanaton of my meaning my will is that the said wife shall not have the 150 pounds herein bequeathed and the 150 pounds which I am bound to Leave her but shall have no other summe of money out of my Estate but only the annuity hereafter mencioned and the 150 pounds which I am bound to Leave her or that my Executor is to pay her as aforesaid” provided she allowed his executor to access his property to make an inventory, if she did not she was to receive nothing;
- appointing his executor, within six years of the testator’s death, to lay out £2,000 to buy property to be settled on William Faldo junior, in default of heirs of his to John Faldo his brother; if this did not happen William was to receive £1,500, the other £500 being bequeathed to William Faldo, grocer, son of the testator’s dead brother Thomas;
- bequeathing £500 to his nephew John Faldo when his apprenticeship ended or when he became 24, whichever happened first, remainder if he died before that to his brother William;
- bequeathing £200 to William Faldo, grocer;
- bequeathing £50 each to the daughters of his brother William to be paid at their respective marriage; if any died before marriage her share was to descend to John Faldo;
- devising to his brother William the farm he had lately purchased from William Abby’s agent;
- devising to his wife an annuity of £4 per annum “over and above what I have herein before given her”;
- bequeathing £15 to his brother Matthew;
- forgiving Matthew all debts he owed the testator;
- bequeathing £5 to Mary Hewitt, widow, daughter of his dead brother Richard;
- bequeathing £10 to his nephew Thomas Christie, whom he made supervisor of the will;
- bequeathing 4d each to sixty poor people of the parish of Bedford, Saint Paul;
- bequeathing 4d each to eighty poor people of the parish of Bedford, Saint Mary;
- bequeathing 4d each to twenty poor people of the parish of Bedford, Saint John the Baptist;
- bequeathing 4d each of twenty poor people of the parish of Bedford, Saint Peter de Merton;
- bequeathing 4d each to twenty poor people of the parish of Bedford, Saint Cuthbert;
- bequeathing twenty shillings to his cousin Christie’s wife for a mourning ring;
- witnessed by Thomas Christie and Nicholas Kinge
Level of description
item