Will of Robert Pollard Harding, plumber & glazier, 1832 (proved 1833)

Herts RO 269AW3

This is the last Will and Testament of me Robert Pollard Harding of Winslow in the County of Bucks Plumber and Glazier First it is my Will and I do direct that all such debts as I may justly owe at the time of my decease my Funeral and Testamentary expenses may be fully paid and discharged by my Executrix herein after named out of any real and personal Estate hereinafter given devised and bequeathed All and every my freehold Copyhold and other Messuages Cottages Closes lands Tenements Hereditaments real Estate and Premises whatsoever whether in possession reversion remainder or expectancy situate standing lying and being in the parish of Little Horwood in the said County of Bucks or elsewhere with the respective rights members and appurtenances thereunto belonging or in any wise appurtaining And also all my household goods and furniture linen ready money and Securities for money utensils and stock in trade book Debts rights credits personal Estate and Effects whatsoever and wheresoever and of what nature and kind soever the same may be which I may die possessed of interested in or intitled to and over which I have a disposing power To hold the said Real and Personal Estate Hereditaments and Premises with the appurtenances and all my Estate therein and thereto unto and to the use of my said Wife Lydia Harding her heirs Executors Administrators and Assigns absolutely according to the several natures qualities and tenures thereof And I do hereby nominate and appoint my said Wife Lydia Harding full and sole Executrix of this my last Will and Testament and do hereby revoke and make void all former and other Wills by me at any time heretofore made In Witness whereof I the said Robert Pollard Harding the Testator have hereunto set my hand and seal this nineteenth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty two

[signed]  Robert Pollard Harding

Signed Sealed Published and Declared by the said Robert Pollard Harding the Testator as and for his last Will and Testament in the presence of us who in his presence at his request and in the presence of each other have hereunto signed our names as Witnesses thereof
Mary Pollard
Rich Mayne
Dav Tho Willis 

Archdeaconry of Saint Alban       The 16th day of September 1833
Lydia Harding the Executrix in this will named was duly sworn as such and that the personal estate of the testator doth not amount in the whole to the sum of two hundred pounds to the best of her knowledge and belief
Before me          Mark Henry James Kerr Surrogate

Notes

Robert Pollard Harding was baptised at Swanbourne in 1786. He was apprenticed to Benjamin Dudley, plumber & glazier, in 1803. He had his shop at 10 High Street, where he was the tenant of Richard Walker, but actually lived (at least by 1832) at the Nag's Head, a business apparently started by his wife. He was the brother of Piercy Harding of 2 Horn Street (will proved 1816). The property in Little Horwood came from his maternal uncle Robert Pollard, a dairyman. He was buried at Little Horwood in 1832.

Robert Pollard Harding married Lydia Clarke of Mursley in 1809. Their children included Jane (bap. 1810; married John Clark; benefited under the will of her great-aunt Mary Pollard), Piercy (bap. 1825) and Harriet (bap. 1828) - baptism records are missing for the intervening period. In 1840 when Lydia sold the property in Little Horwood she was described as the wife of Matthew Hickson of Manchester pawnbroker.

Northampton Mercury, 3 & 17 November 1832