Reference
R6/15/1/2
Title
Copy will of Lionel, 1st Earl of Middlesex
Date free text
21 August 1642
Production date
From: 1642 To: 1645
Scope and Content
Copy will of Lionel, 1st Earl of Middlesex “not being of perfect health and being grown in age and there by putt in mind of the nereness of my End”:
- to be buried in Gloucester Cathedral “where I have appoynted it privately without any pompe or vanitie”;
- appointing payment of a debt of £10,000 which was the portion of his daughter Frances on her marriage to Robert Sackville, Lord Buckhurst [later 5th Earl of Dorset];
- bequeathing to his second son Lionel [later 3rd Earl of Middlesex], a yearly rent of £200 arising from the Manor of Milcott/Melcott [Warwickshire] and its lands;
- bequeathing to his third son Edward, a yearly rent of £200 arising from the Manor of Milcott/Melcott;
- advising Lionel and Edward to be “counselled therein by their deare and Loveinge mother whoe hath and will have atender care of them”;
- devising to his wife Ann the lease of his late dwelling house in Great Saint Bartholomew, London for the rest of the lease with all household stuff and furniture before the testator moved out and, if she moved out, then the stuff and furniture to be given to the testator’s executor;
- bequeathing an annual rent to his wife of £1,200 arising out of his manors and lands in Warwickshire and Gloucestershire;
- bequeathing £5,000 to his son Lionel when he reached 21;
- bequeathing £5,000 to his son Edward when he reached 21;
- devising to the overseers of his will (his wife; Edward Sackville, 4th Earl of Dorset; Edward, 1st Baron Barrett of Newburgh and Nicholas Harman) his “mancent” house and parks called Copthall in Epping [Essex] and all other real estate in Essex; real estate in Saint John’s and premises in Clerkenwell [Middlesex] and “sepulcers in the Cyty of London or the subberbs thereof”;
- bequeathing to the overseers of his will all goods, plate, furniture, bedding, hangings and household stuff at Copthall in case default in payment was made of the bequests to Lionel or Edward and, on payment, Copthall and its household goods were to be for the use of his eldest son James, 2nd Baron Cranfield [later 2nd Earl of Middlesex];
- devising to James, Baron Cranfield, his manors and lands in Warwickshire, Gloucestershire, and Worcestershire and all other parts of England except his manors and lands in Essex, City of London and Middlesex; the Manor of Frizencotte [Gloucestershire] and Manor of Goldecotte [Worcestershire] to be appointed to any wife of James, Baron Cranfield as her jointure, remainder to their heirs and, in default, to any wife of Lionel as her jointure and their heirs, in default to any wife of Edward as her jointure and their heirs
- devising and bequeathing the residue of his real and personal estates to his eldest son James, his sole executor; the overseers to make inventories of all plate and household stuff at Copthall;
- witnesses: William Hatton, Thomas Bellamine; William Fraynes;
- proved 4th October 1645
Level of description
item