Description:

Documents:
1. Will dated 13 October 1791
Beneficiaries: To Anne James, wife of William James of St Margarets Parish, £20.
To Mary Prichard, £20
To Esther Morgan of Clodock, one feather bed, bolster, bedstead, blanket and coverlid or rug together with £5 to be paid when she marries or reaches 21 whichever is the first.
To daughter, Elizabeth, £300 to be paid out of the profits from the estate together with the household furniture not otherwise bequeathed.
To John Powell, son, when he reaches 21, all freehold and leasehold estate etc held in fee simple in the Parishes of Clodock and St Margarets on condition that he keep his mother 'my wife, Helen, …in food and raiment' which if he fails to do Helen gets to take over the estate.
In the meantime wife, Helen, is enjoined to use the rents and profits from the estate to keep up interest and mortgage payments until John reaches 21. Should both John and Elizabeth die before reaching 21 or without issue the estate is to pass to testator's brother Samuel Powell.
No more than £100 worth of timber is to be felled and carted off before John reaches 21 except for houseboot and plowboot.
If wife Helen dies before the children attain 21 then friend, William Munkley, is appointed guardian and trustee with £10 for his trouble, if he is called upon to act.
To every poor adult in the parish of St Margarets, 3d and to every poor child, 2d.
If wife Helen remarries she is to be cut off with 1/-, but if she remains unmarried she is '…to enjoy possess my estates without exception or impeachment in order to maintain her', for her lifetime.
Finally the Executrix is instructed to purchase the estate of Samuel Powell should it come onto the market raising money against the estate if necessary.

Executrix: wife, Helen

Signed by testator

Witnesses: Thomas Edwards, John Jones and Thomas Bowen

Date of Probate: 26 March 1792

Observations:

No Inventory; but an interesting will of what must have been a substantial land owner. A bit of a philanthropist too with his legacy to the poor of the parish. Also a separate registration instruction; 3 sheets in all.