Will of Mary Bellow, spinster, 1877 (proved 1891)

Oxford Probate Registry

BE IT KNOWN, that at the date hereunder written, the last Will and Testament of Mary Bellow late of Winslow in the County of Buckingham Spinster deceased, who died on the 8th day of February 1891 at the City of Oxford was proved and registered in the Principal Probate Registry of Her Majesty’s High Court of Justice, and that administration of the personal estate of the said deceased was granted  by the aforesaid Court to Rosa Bellow of Winslow Cavendish Road Dean Park Bournemouth in the County of Southampton Spinster the Niece of the said deceased the sole Executrix named in the Will - she having been first sworn well and faithfully to administer the same.
Dated the 5th day of March 1891
Gross Personal Estate £175. 3 . 5

This is the Last Will and Testament of me Mary Bellow Spinster of Winslow in the County of Buckingham. I give and bequeath all my personal estate and all my real estate of what nature and kind soever unto my Niece Rosa Bellow for her own absolute use and benefit And I appoint the same Rosa Bellow sole Executrix of this my Will. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand this twenty second day of May 1877 Mary Bellow [signature] Signed by the said Testatrix Mary Bellow as and for her last Will and testament in the presence of us who at her request in her presence and in the presence of each other all being present at the same time have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses Alfred Matthew Preston [signature] Vicar of Winslow Bucks and William George Nixon Earthy Inland Revenue Winslow

On the 5th March 1891 Probate of this Will was granted to Rosa Bellow Spinster the sole Executrix.

Notes

Mary Bellow lived at 11 Vicarage Road (where Mr Preston was her landlord), and had been mistress of the Infants School. She was 76 when she died, presumably in hospital at Oxford. She was born in Winslow according to the censuses but didn't have an Anglican baptism although some of her siblings did. She was apparently the daughter of William and Phoebe Bellow, and was recorded as a lacemaker in the 1841 Census. She had become schoolmistress by 1851.

Rosa the niece was the Rosetta Bellow who was recorded as a parlourmaid at the Vicarage aged 38 in 1881. Her birth was actually registered in 1840. She seems to have been the illegitimate daughter of Mary's sister Joanna. In 1891 she had gone with the vicar's widow Mary Preston to live at "Winslow", Holdenhurst, Bournemouth.