Will of Rebecca Webb, widow, 1851
National Archives, PROB 11/2141/253
This is the last Will and Testament of me Rebecca Webb of Winslow in the County of Bucks widow I request my Niece Harriet Pakes to divide all my household goods and furniture linen jewellery plate china wearing apparel and ornaments of my person between herself and my other Nieces in equal shares as soon as conveniently may be after my decease I bequeath to David Thomas Willis of Winslow aforesaid Gentleman and John Salmon of Maidsmorton in the said County of Bucks Butcher (my executors hereinafter named) the legacy or sum of five pounds each to be paid in precedence of the other legacies hereby given and bequeathed as an acknowledgement for the trouble they will have in the execution of my Will I give and bequeath unto Thomas Hinton (Son of my brother Thomas Hinton) the legacy or sum of fifty pounds and unto James Alexander Hinton Ann Hazzard Walker Edward Hinton and Harold Hinton (children of my late brother Alexander Hinton deceased) the legacy or sum of twenty five pounds each, to Catherine Barton and Richard Barton (children of my late sister Catherine Barton deceased) the legacy or sum of nineteen guineas each unto Mary Lomath and Susannah Forster (daughters of my late brother Benjamin Hinton deceased) the legacy or sum of fifteen pounds each and unto the five children of my late nephew Peter Hinton deceased namely \Mary/ Roberta Hinton Harriet Hinton Sarah Ann Hinton Mary Catherine Hinton and William
[p.2] Henry Hinton the legacy or sum of fifty pounds to be equally divided between them part and share alike I direct my executors to pay share and divide the residue of my ready money securities for money and Other the Personal Estate and Effects not hereby otherwise bequeathed of which I shall be possessed or have a disposing power at the time of my decease (after payment thereout of my just debts funeral and testamentary expences and the several legacies hereby bequeathed unto and equally among William Hinton (Son of my late brother Joseph Hinton deceased) and Catherine Hinton Ann Tattam Mary Hobbs Harriet Pakes and John Hinton (Children of my late brother Peter Hinton deceased) and in case of the decease of either or any of the said Legatees hereinbefore named without leaving issue or leaving issue none of whom shall attain the age of twenty one years I direct that the legacy of each and every of them so dying shall be paid and equally divided unto and among all and every his or her then surviving brothers and sisters if any and in default thereof among my other nephews and nieces hereinbefore named in proportion to their said original legacies and in case of the decease of either or any of the said Legatees leaving issue I direct that the legacy of each and every of them so dying shall be paid and equally divided unto and among all and every his or her children if more than one on their severally attaining the age of twenty one years and from and after my decease during the minority of any Legatee or Legatees under this my Will I empower my said trustees to invest his her or their legacy or legacies in their own names in some Bank for savings or in the public funds or on Government securities in the united Kingdom or on real securities in England And I empower my said trustees to vary such investments at their discretion for any other of the kinds prescribed And I empower my said trustees to apply all or any part of the yearly income for which under any of the bequests or dispositions herein before contained each or any infant legatee shall be entitled towards the maintenance and education or otherwise for the benefit of such legatee during his or her minority I devise all the real estate which shall at my decease be vested in me as Mortgager or Trustee to my said trustees their heirs and assigns subject to the trusts and equities affecting the same respectively I declare that the receipts of my trustees for any money to be paid to them in that character shall exonerate the persons paying the same from all liability in respect of the application thereof and I declare that if the said trustees or either of them shall disclaim or they or either of them or any trustees or trustee to be appointed under this Clause shall die or shall decline or become incompetent to act as trustees or trustee of my Will it shall be lawful for the trustees or trustee for the time being of my Will competent to act whether disclaiming or declining further to act \or not/ or if none for the executors or administrators of the last surviving trustee or either or any of them by any instrument in writing to appoint any person or persons to be a trustee or trustees in the place of the trustee or trustees disclaiming dying or declining or becoming incompetent to act and I further declare that the clauses hereinbefore contained so far as they concern my trustees here before named shall extend and be applied to the trustees or trustee for the time being of my Will And I further declare that the trustees or trustee for the time being of my Will shall not be answerable for each others acts or receipts nor for any losses happening without their own respective default and shall be at liberty to retain and allow
[p.3] to each other all expences incident to the execution of the trusts and powers of my Will and that notwithstanding his appointment as a trustee and executor of this my Will the said David Thomas Willis shall be entitled to his proper fees and charges for any professional business he may transact in the execution of the trusts hereinbefore contained or in anywise in relation thereto And I appoint the said David Thomas Willis and John Salmon to be Executors of my Will and revoke all former and other wills In witness whereof I the said Rebecca Webb the Testatrix have to each sheet of this my Will contained in three sheets of paper set my hand this seventeenth day of March in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty one.
Rebecca Webb
This Sheet and the two sheets of paper hereto annexed were severally signed by the said Rebecca Webb the Testatrix in the joint presence of us who at her request in her presence and in the presence of each other have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses thereof the words “jewellery plate china” being first interlined between the second and third lines of the first sheet.
Ann Bowler Benj(amin) Cole Attorneys Clerk Winslow
Proved at London 27.10.1851 before John Eliot Robertson Doctor of Laws by the oaths of David Thomas Willis and John Salmon the executors to whom Administration was granted.
Notes
Rebecca Webb, nee Hinton, was baptised at Middle Claydon in 1788. She lived at Winslow with her mother Sarah Hinton (will proved 1837). In 1841 she married Robert Webb, blacksmith of Maids Moreton, whose first wife and two children all died in 1839. He died in 1847, when she must have returned to Winslow; she paid church rates 1847-51. In the 1851 Census she was living alone in Horn Street and described herself as "proprietor of houses". Her relatives in Winslow included her brother Joseph Hinton (d.1834) who kept the Crooked Billet, and his daughters Susanna Forster and Mary Lomath. Another brother Alexander Hinton kept the Rose & Crown in the 1830s, and then lived at 25 High Street where his widow Mary remained as a china dealer. William Hinton, probably her brother, was a grocer in 1839.