Wills & Testament

JustJean · Post by **JustJean** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 6:09 pm

Most of my folk (make that all but 1) so far have never had need of a last will and testament so I've not much practical experience with the searching of them. I've spent some time in the past nosing about in the Allison(Alison) family which family rumour always linked to my ancestry. I have the middle name to prove it but that's about all. When I search on SP for Wills there are 4 entries for that of Margaret Burge (nee Alison) as follow:

1 Burge Margaret Ann Forbes 26/03/1884 or Alison, Woodville, Colinton, County of Edinburgh, widow of William Burge, Q.C., d. 24/12/1881 at Woodville aforesaid, testate Eik Edinburgh Sheriff Court Inventories SC70/1/231 VIEW (£5.00)
(5 pages)
2 Burge Margaret Anne Forbes 30/03/1882 or Alison, Woodville, Colinton, widow of William Burge, Q.C., d. 24/12/1881 at Woodville aforesaid, testate Edinburgh Sheriff Court Inventories SC70/1/213 VIEW (£5.00)
(12 pages)
3 Burge Margaret Anne Forbes 23/06/1883 or Alison, Woodville, Colinton, widow of William Burge, Q.C., d. 24/12/1881 at Woodville aforesaid, testate Additional Inventory Edinburgh Sheriff Court Inventories SC70/1/224 VIEW (£5.00)
(6 pages)
4 Burge Margaret Anne Forbes 30/03/1882 or Alison, Woodville, Colinton, widow of William Burge, Q.C., d. 24/12/1881 at Woodville aforesaid, testate Will Edinburgh Sheriff Court Wills SC70/4/193 VIEW (£5.00)
(27 pages)

My question to any in the know.....what would I be likely to find in the series Eik found as #1.??

I've not purchased any views yet but will likely go for the will of 27 pages regardless..... just out of curiousity.

Thanks for any insights.....

Jean

Post by **AnneM** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 11:10 pm

Hi Jean

An eik is an additional inventory added after confirmation has been granted i.e. the executor has lodged the inventory and has been confirmed as executor to the estate by the court (Sheriff in most places, Commisary in Edinburgh). The eik deals with a piece of the estate which has been overlooked or was not known of at the time that confirmation was originally applied for and granted. Inventories are interesting in so far as they tell you what the deceased owned and the time of his/her death but I'd go for the will for choice any day!!

Anne

If any of this is clear as mud let me know and I will translate into English more effectively.

JustJean · Post by **JustJean** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 11:34 pm

Hi Anne

I was hoping you'd stop by

Thanks for the advice. Knowing myself as I do I'll probably end up working my way through the whole £20 before I'm done

....but did wonder what to expect. A 27 page will has got to good! Now if I can only find a link to an ancestor........

You can be sure I'll be back if I need further translations!

Thanks
Jean

Russell · Post by **Russell** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 2:44 am

Hi Jean

I had been looking for a relative who worked in Torwoodlee estate. One of the Pringle family estates in the borders.
I downloaded Sir George Pringles will - all 37 pages of it hoping he would leave something to his staff. The mean thing never mentioned them and made numerous amendments in favour of his daughter. It was repetitive and highly uninformative. All it showed was that he had no great love for his sons!
Yours' sounds like a more normal will and will probably be a much more interesting read.
I still thnk mine was worth it though just for an insight into how the high and mighty thought at that time

Russell

Post by **Tracey** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 9:31 pm

I have a 24 page one of my gtx3 and after page 15 i was falling asleep. He was a tight old......... If any of his children did this that or the other they were dissinherited, only legitimate children of his children could inherit, his daughter had borrowed £20 from him so this was to be deducted from her inheritance. He knew what seemed to be up to the exact inch of the boundary fences what was his land. If one of his sons misbehaved it was to go to the other son..............it goes on and on and really so much was repeated it could have been written on 5 pages.

I suppose because the land and farm was passed down and they all worked very hard on he just wanted to make sure it stayed that way.

My gt x2 took it over then his son ect and i think it stayed in the family till the 1940,s. I have a Minute of Agreement and Servitude dated then but cant make it out and this post had reminded me i had it

.another thing on the "to do" list

What i dont understand on my Geddes side why they would have had so many Bank Account with English Banks ?

Russell · Post by **Russell** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 9:55 pm

Hi Tracey

In Scotland there were a lot of small town banks and some of them went bust.
In Robert Burns time the Ayr bank went to the wall and left some people in dire straits. The best example was his friend John Lapraik, the Poet of Muirkirk. He went to debtors prison till his friends bailed him out.

English banks were tied in to the Bank of England and offered that security so they would be first choice I suppose.

all the way to the bank as it were!

Russell

Post by **Tracey** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 10:25 pm

Hi Russell

Just wondered why one of this lot would have so much Bank activity going on

and leaving £1065,9s in 1899 not bad for a gamekeeper

and leaving that to one of his brothers to bump up the sum of what he left.
The others i can understand being land owners.

Your saying about the smaller banks makes sense as a lot of the accounts were with Port Errol, Tyrie, Old Meldrum ect as well as The National Bank of Scotland - the main London one being Agra Bank.

More home work !

Thanks

Tracey

Post by **AnneM** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 11:33 am

Tracey

It was quite normal to make provision only for legitimate children of children. In fact until 1986 (I think, will have to verify) 'issue' was construed as legitimate issue and again until the same date illegitimate people had rights to succeed only to the estate of the persons responsible for their birth in the case of intestacy. So your relative was not unusual.

Anne

Morag · Post by **Morag** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 3:49 pm

One of mine stated in his will that his daughter ' has already received more than her legal share of my estate in the form of blankets removed by her from my house ' - her brothers and sisters recieved small amounts of money !

Morag

Post by **AnneM** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 4:33 pm

It's important not to judge our forbears by our standards but to remember that sucession law and family law in those days were to some extent about preserving land related property intact . For that reason the eldest son inherited all the land if there was no will. Where other property was concerned the emphasis was on ensuring that the spouse and children got a fair share. It is not now and never has been in Scotland possible to disinherit any surviving spouse and children totally. The children were entitled to an equal share of a certain amount of the moveable property between them, which is not unfair even by modern day standards. If one had had his or her share during the lifetime of the deceased, whether or not in blankets, that was taken into account. It has to be remembered that goods were not disposable then as they are now.

Poor planet

Having said that most of ours or at least certainly mine had hardly two halfpennies to rub together so the rules governing succession to property and thus I guess even marriage were not terribly relevant to them. I guess that accounts for the popularity of fornication among the rural poor (apart from the fun factor of course!!)

Anne