Full of repetition and standard legal phrases of the day, the will continues: “First I give and bequeath unto my old Servant James Tapsell of Cowdend [sic] in the said County of Sussex Husbandman the Sum of Twenty Pounds of lawful Money of Great Britain to be paid to him within one Year of my Decease But in Case he shall happen to dye in my Life Time I order the said Legacy not to be paid but the same to be to the Use of my Executrix Also I give and bequeath unto my Kinsman Thomas Marshall of Udimore ... Husbandsman the Sum of Fifty Pounds of lawful Money ... And if he shall happen to dye also in my Life Time Then I give the said Fifty Pounds to and amongst all and every his Child and Children that shall be living at the End of one Year after my Death and to be paid to them at their several and respective ages of one and Twenty Years And if either of them dye under the said
This is the last Will and Testament of John Crundwell of Wadhurst in the County of Sussex Gentleman
Actually it is “A true Copy examined with an Office Copy this 23rd June 1788” bought on eBay at the end of June 2008 for £10.99 - it runs to six pages on heavy laid paper. The will was signed “this second Day of July in the twenty fourth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the second by the Grace of God of Great Britain France and Ireland King Defender of the Faith and so forth”.
The text as copied continues “and in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand and Seven Hundred and Fifty” and “This Will was proved at London the 8th January 1750 before the Judge by the Oath of Mary Crundwell Widow the Relict and sole Executrix to whom Administration was granted being first sworn by Commission duly to Administer”; this suggests faulty copying since the twenty fourth year of the reign of George II was 1707.
NEWSLETTER NO. 18 - Jul 2008
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WADHURST HISTORY SOCIETY
Age of one and twenty Years the part and share of him her or them so dying to go to the Survivors or Survivor equally at the age aforesaid”.
He then considers his wife: “Also I give and devise unto my dear and loving Wife Mary Crundwell All and every my Messuages or Tenements Farms Lands Hereditaments and Premises whatsoever and wheresoever I shall be seized of and scituate lying and being in the several Counties of Kent and Sussex To have and to hold all and singular the said Farms Lands Hereditaments and Premises with their and every of their Appurtenances unto my said Wife for and during the Term of her natural Life”. On her death John Crundwell continues: “after her decease then and not before I
[cont p138]