Sunday 6 November 2022

Estate Planning 1855 style

This last week I've been waxing a tad dynastic on account of research triggered by a planned gathering of the clan. One document which has been circulating around the family is a crap photocopy of a copy of a copy of a Will written in 1855 by Hardress Lloyd, my grandfather's grandfather - almost exactly 100 years before I was born. The will-writer Hardress died five years later in 1860. His oldest 'natural' son John married Susanna Colclough in 1872, sired 7 children [including my grandfather] and died in Jan 1883. Susanna’s mother Mary Rossborough-Colclough owned 13,000 acres of Co Wexford in 1872 which have helped lubricate the wheels of estate. At the end of last month I bit the bullet and transcribed the 4 page photocopy and here launch it into the blogosphere.

Exec Summary: Sarah Auliffe, the red-headed cook and the mother of the Gaffer's five children, gets an annuity of £100 paid twice yearly. The oldest John is the residuary legatee getting Gloster house and estate and what’s left after . . . Henry, Trevor, Sarah & Thomas are top-sliced £3,000 each.  John and Sarah Jr are living in Gloster; Henry and Trevor are in Belfast; Thomas at School in Sandymount. Henry is additionally left a house and offices in Liverpool. When this father died in 1860 Henry and Trevor trousered their share of the boodle and set out for New Zealand. Trevor restlessly left NZ soon after and died in a boarding house in Upstate New York at the turn of the century. Henry stayed and founded a dynasty of antipodean Lloyds some of whom were talented 20thC artists and one a internationally renowned plant geneticist.

Notes on the will

  • The document is 1500 words long but the tl;dr Exec Summ above contains all the essential information in 75 words.
  • The convention was [is?] to leave out all punctuation from legal documents after several court-cases resulted from ambiguous interpretation of meaning of certain commas.
  • Prolix is fine: " I give devise limit and appoint leave and bequeath the same . . ."
  • Lots of extra words are required against the regrettable tendency of legatees to die before their benefactor. Even as late as the 1920s, my pre-teen father caught pneumonia and fluttered on the edge of oblivion for a week before "the fever broke" and his immune system got on top of the infection
  • £3,000 in 1855 was a fabulous fortune in money: agricultural laborers were getting £30 a year; laborers in town £50; and junior ranks in the Army or Civil Service £200/year. 
  • Further result from clan gathering archival research: In 1930, my grandfather was harbourmaster at Dunmore East at a salary of £10 a month! . . . allowing that this came with a tied-cottage on the quay. So the fortune in 1855 had been spent - quite possibly by Grampa in his whoop-it-up days in California in the 1900s
  • Somehow a tinted ~1850s daguerrotype of Hardress [see below R] has come down to me: the youngest son, of an only son, of the youngest son, of John the Residuary Legatee of the said last will and testament
  • Sarah Auliffe's annuity is to be paid on "gale days" an archaic term from Middle English gavel (“rent; tribute”)

Last Will and Testament of LtCol Hardress Lloyd,
of Gloster King’s County. 15th June 1855
.

Notes on transcription: The right-hand margin has been copier-trimmed so some words have been interpolated. [Bob’s notes are marked with these brackets]. There is no punctuation or line breaks in the document, which runs to 4 pages. I have started new paragraphs where the text flips to Capital letters indicating a new section.

I Hardress Lloyd [R!] of Gloster House in the King’s County – esquire being of sound mind memory and understanding do make publish and declare this to be my last will and testament in manner and following:
In the first place I direct that I may be buried in the churchyard nearest to my said residence at Gloster House as privately as possible
In the next place I direct that all my just debts funeral and testamentary expenses be fully paid and satisfied by my executor hereinafter named as soon as conveniently may be after my decease
And Whereas I am seized of considerable real ffreehold [sic] and other estates in Ireland and a small Copyhold Tenement in England and am also possessed of considerable personal property of money in the funds and other General effects

Now I give and bequeath to my son Thomas Lloyd now residing at Sandymount near Dublin and to my sons Henry Lloyd and Trevor Lloyd both now residing in Belfast and to my daughter Sarah Lloyd now residing at Gloster House with me the sum of X [probably three (3) from context] thousand pounds sterling each to be paid and payable without deduction of legacy duty or otherwise immediately upon my decease to such of my said children as have attained the age of twenty-one years and to such of them as are under that age immediately on their respective attaining of the age of twenty one years
And I Direct and declare that the said several bequests of three thousand pounds each so made to my said children shall be charged and chargeable upon and payable out of all my said real ffreehold and other estates in Ireland and expressly charge the same with the payment thereof I also charge on[?] my personal Assets and effects with the payment of said bequests 

I Further Give and devise limit and appoint unto my said son Henry Lloyd my copyhold Tenement and premises consisting of my Dwelling House Offices and Garden situate in Edge Lane Liverpool To Hold [end of Page 1] unto my said son Henry his heirs and assigns forever in as full and beneficial manner as I have heretofore held and enjoyed and now hold and enjoy the same Provided however and it is my will that in case either of them the said Henry Lloyd Trevor Lloyd and Sarah Lloyd who are now unmarried shall after my decease happen to die under age or without leaving a widow or widower or lawful issue him or her surviving and without having by deed or otherwise disposed of the said sum of three thousand pounds so bequeathed to each of them respectively aforesaid then and in such case I declare and direct that the said sum or sums of the three thousand pounds so bequeathed to the person or persons so dying or so much thereof as shall remain undisposed of at the time of his or her decease as aforesaid shall go to and I devise and bequeath the same to the survivors or survivor of them the said Henry Lloyd Trevor Lloyd and Sarah Lloyd in equal shares and proportions and in the event of all of them the said Henry Lloyd Trevor Lloyd and Sarah Lloyd  so dying in manner aforesaid then I will and declare that the portion of the said several and respective legacies so remaining undisposed at the time of their decease respectively shall form part of fall into and go with the residue of my personal estate and effects 

I give devise leave and bequeath to my House Keeper Sarah Auliffe for her natural life one annuity clear yearly rent charge or sum of one hundred pounds sterling per annum without any deduction for legacy duty income tax or otherwise howsoever and to be chargeable upon and to arise and issue and to be paid and payable to her yearly and every year during her life out of all my said real and ffreehold Estates in Ireland and I expressly charge the same with the payment there and I direct that such Annuity or yearly rent charge shall be [end of Page 2] paid and payable to said Sarah Auliffe by half yearly payment on every first day of May and first day of November in every year during her life and that the first half yearly payment shall become due and be paid on the first of said gale days which shall happen next after my decease And it is my desire and I direct that in case the said annuity or any part thereof shall at any time during ther [sic] life of the said Sarah Auliffe be unpaid to the said Sarah Auliffe by the space of twenty one days after either of the said mentioned days for the payment thereof that it shall and may be lawful to and for the said Sarah Auliffe at any time into and upon my said real and freehold property in Ireland or into any part thereof to enter and distrain and to distress then and there found to lead drive to and carry away and the same to dispose of according to law for satisfaction and payment of the said annuity and all arrears thereof and of the costs of making such distress and proceedings connected therewith 

And as to and concerning the rest residue and remainder of my property estates and effects of what nature and kind soever whether real freehold copyhold or chattle and wheresoever situate I give devise limit and appoint leave and bequeath the same and every part and portion thereof to my son John Lloyd now residing at Gloster with me and to his heirs executors administrators and assigns absolutely forever Provided however and I hereby declare my will to be that in the case my said son  John Lloyd shall happen to die without lawful issue living at or born after his decease and without having by deed or otherwise disposed of the said residue of my said estates and Assetts real and personal hereby bequeathed to him then and in such case I direct and declare that the residue of my said estates [end Page 3] real freehold and personal so hereby bequeathed unto the said John Lloyd or so much thereof as shall remain undisposed of by him at such time of his decease shall subject to the lawful dower of his widow if any shall be surviving go to and I hereby give devise limit and appoint and bequeath the same unto my said son Henry Lloyd his heirs and assigns forever 

Provided that in like event of the said Henry Lloyd dying under the age of twenty one years and without having made any disposition of said residue of my estates then and in such event I declare my will to be that the said residue of my estates then and in such event I declare my will to be that the said residue of my said estates real freehold and personal shall subject to the lawful dower of the widow of the said Henry if any shall be surviving go to and I hereby give and devise limit and appoint and bequeath the same unto my said son Trevor Lloyd his heirs and assigns forever and in case my sons John Lloyd Henry and Trevor Lloyd shall die without leaving issue them surviving or having made any disposition of the said residue of my estates then I give leave and devise same to my own rightful heirs forever 

And I Hereby make nominate and appoint my son John Lloyd the sole Trustee Executor and residuary Legatee of this my said will hereby revoking and unnulling [sic] all former and other will or wills at any time heretofore made by me
In Testimony whereof I have hereunto and to a duplicate hereof put my hand and affixed my seal this fifteenth day of June in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty five.

Signed sealed published and declared by the said    }
Testator as and for his last will and testament in presence    }
us who in his presence at his request and in the presence of     }    Hardress Lloyd (seal)
each other at the same time have hereunto set our     }
hands as subscribing witnesses    }
Andrew McArthur M.D. Shinrone
John Cuffe Steward Gloster 

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