That in case the said M' Boardman and Ann my daughter shall within Twelve months next after my decease sufficiently release and discharge my said daughter Alice Starkie and her heirs and the said lands so chargeable as aforesaid of and from the sume of £200 parcell of the said One Thousand Poundes and thereupon shall agree to accept of the sume of Eight Hundred poundes in satisfaction of and for the same One thousand poundes Then I give and bequethe to my said daughter Anne £200 but in case such release and discharge shall not be so made as aforesaid then I leave the said sum of £200 to my daughter Alice Starkie. [Residue of property he leaves equally between his wife and his two daughters, and appoints his wife sole Executrix.] 24th Aprill 1572. Witnesses: : Tho. Leaver [sgd.]. John Okey [sgd.]. Law: Hargreaves [sgd.]. [Inventory of goods of Alexander Norris of Tonge--heading destroyed by damp. The first list relates to a house unnamed which contained the following rooms: Kitchin, Buttery, Brewhouse, Seller, Greene Chamber, Yellow Chamber, Maids Chamber, Blew Chamber, New Chamber, Ladder loft, Red Chamber, Dining Chamber, Stable. This list is followed by another, also damaged in places, as follows:] PROBATE SUIT. NORRIS 7. BOARDMAN 17 Oct. 1672. In re will of Alexander Norres late of Bolton or Tonge. Anne Norres widow and sole Exix. v. William Boardman clerk, Rector of Grappenhall, Co. Chester, and Anne Boardman his wife. Depositions dated 18 Oct: 1672 John Okey of Bolton, Linen draper, aged 64. Was "present one day in April last with Mr Alexander Norres decd at his house in Bolton where he haveinge first sent for Mr Thomas Lever for that purpose gave the said M' Lever instructions for the drawing and making of his will." M' Lever committed the instructions to writting and then took them away with him and promised to draw the will in accordance with these instructions. About 4 or 5 days after M' Lever "brought the writing on paper now showed to this deponent" and read it over to deceased and deceased with his own hand "did write the latter parte of the said will" relating to the remainder of the personalty etc. Deceased heard the will read over to him and understood it and approved it. Deceased made the erazure in the first part of the will relating to a legacy of £200 "to daughter Starkey." Deceased was sound in mind and memory. Deceased published his will in "an upper rome or chamber at his house in Bolton about the midtime of the day and he was sometimes walkinge in the rome and sometymes sate downe." Deponent "considers the reale estate to be worth about eight score pounds a year which the widowe is to have, one thirde of duringe her life and this daughtir Mris Starkey is to have the rest according to a settlement made at her marriage." Deponent incidentally mentions "a bonde of £300 wh: the said Mr Starkey at his death stood indebted in unto the said deceased." Laurence Hargreaves of Huntroid, Co. Lanc: husbandman aged 40 years also gave corroborative evidence, was also present at the signing of the will which took place "between 4 and 5 in the afternoone." WILL OF BETTY CROMPTON OF HALL-I'-TH'-WOOD, PROVED 1799 (Chester Probate Registry). "In the Name of God Amen. I Betty Crompton (widow) of Hall-i'-th'-Wood in the Parish of Bolton, Co. Lanc. being very sick," etc. Desires that her goods be sold " except a pair of looms and one of my best gowns," and proceeds to be divided among "my own three children," viz. to Samuel Crompton1 one-third, to daughter Rebecca Horrocks one-third, and to daughter Mary Hamer one-third. "Leaves to granddaughter Mary Horrocks a pair of looms whereon she weaves with all the utensils thereto belonging." Exors. Son Samuel Crompton and brother John Holt. Margaret Orless [?] [sgd.]. [Value above £40 and under £100.] Exors. 14th December 1799. Proved by both 1 As so little, comparatively, is known of the family of Samuel Crompton, the above abstract of the will of his mother has been added as a slight contribution to the fund of knowledge on the subject. THE ABBEY OF ST. WERBURGH, CHESTER, IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY S1X By Miss E. K. McConnell, M.A. Read 26th February 1903 IX hundred years ago Chester, the town to which our Roll' principally relates, was a place of some importance. Situated on one of the highways of England, it was not shut off from the rest of the world by woods and marshes, as Liverpool then was, and its position as one of the border towns of Wales gave it great military significance, the King making it the base of his war expeditions into that country. This gives the Roll a wider interest, leading us on from the purely local view to the life of the country at large. To touch briefly on this larger side, one may notice first the working of the various Courts-the Abbot's own Court at Chester, the County Court, the Curia Regis in its different divisions, viz. King's Bench following the King "wherever in England he may be," Common Pleas at Westminster hearing private suits, and the Exchequer; here too in almost every suit is to be found the working of the jury system. As one would expect in a record of suits having regard to an ecclesiastical foundation such as the Abbey 1 The following notes are from an undated Roll relating to the Abbey of St. Werburgh in Chester, formerly in the possession of the family of Aston of Aston Hall, near Runcorn, but which is now in the British Museum. |