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Will of William Major, retired Dissenting minister, 1893 (proved 1904)
Oxford Probate Registry
This is the last Will and Testament of me William Major of Avenue Road Winslow in the County of Bucks Retired Dissenting Minister I appoint my friends Edwin John French of Winslow aforesaid Printer and Stationer and William Norris Midgley of the same place Solicitors Clerk (hereinafter called “my Trustees”) to be the Executors and Trustees of this my Will. I devise and bequeath all the real and personal estate whatsoever and wheresoever to which I shall be beneficially entitled at the time of my decease unto my said Trustees upon Trust to permit my Wife Elizabeth to have hold occupy and enjoy the same or to receive the annual income arising therefrom for and during the term of her natural life subject nevertheless to the payment of my just debts my funeral and testamentary expenses And upon the decease of my said Wife I direct my said Trustees to sell call in and convert into money my said real and personal estate and after the payment thereout of the expenses attending such sale calling in and conversion to pay the residue of the moneys then remaining unto and equally between and among my Sister in law Emma Davis and my Nieces Sarah Humphrey, the Wife of Joseph Humphrey, Mary Ann Waters, Emma Cox the Wife of Samuel Cox and Harriett Isham the Wife of George Isham. I declare that in the event of the decease of my said Sister-in-Law Emma Davis or of either of my said Nieces during my lifetime or the lifetime of my said Wife without leaving issue the share of the person so dying shall be divided unto and equally between and among the other parties entitled to the residue under this my Will but in the event of the decease of my said Sister-in-Law Emma Davis or of either of my said Nieces during my lifetime or the lifetime of my said Wife as aforesaid leaving issue such issue shall take (and if more than one equally between them) the share to which his her or their parent would have been entitled if living. Lastly I revoke all other Wills. In witness whereof I the said William Major the Testator have hereunto set my hand this Fifth day of December One thousand eight hundred and ninety three
W. Major [signature]
Signed and acknowledged by the above named William Major the Testator as his last Will and Testament in the presence of us present at the same time who at his request in his presence and in the presence of each other have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses.
Stanley W. Midgley [signature] Clerk to Messrs Willis & Willis, Solicitors, Winslow
G.A. Midgley [signature] Ironmongers Assistant, Winslow
On the Twenty ninth day of April 1904 Probate of this Will was granted at Oxford to Edwin John French and William Norris Midgley the Executors.
It is hereby certified that the foregoing is a correct copy
Dated this Fifth day of May 1904.
BE IT KNOWN that William Major of Avenue Road Winslow in the County of Buckingham, retired Dissenting Minister, who at the time of his death had a fixed place of abode at Winslow aforesaid, within the District of the Counties of Oxford, Berks and Buckingham, died on the 9th day of March 1904 at Winslow aforesaid.
AND BE IT FURTHER KNOWN that at the date hereunder written the last will and Testament of the said deceased was proved and registered in the District Probate Registry of His Majesty’s High Court of Justice at Oxford, and that administration of all the estate which by law devolves to and vests in the personal representative of the said deceased was granted by the aforesaid Court to Edwin John French, Printer and Stationer, and William Norris Midgley, Solicitors Clerk both of Winslow aforesaid, the Executors named in the said Will
Dated the 29th day of April 1904.
Gross value of estate £373 - 17 - 0
Extracted by Willis & Willis, Solicitors, Winslow.
Notes
William Major was aged 90 when he died in 1904. He was predeceased by his wife Elizabeth, who died in 1895 aged 86. The 1901 Census recorded him as living in two rooms in the Market Square, presumably as a lodger, and gave his birthplace as Radstone, Northants. According to obituaries in the Northampton Mercury and Chronicle & Echo, he entered the Congregational ministry in 1846 and served as pastor at Forton (Lancs), Charlton (near Brackley), Colyton (Devon) and Stoke Goldington. He went to Great Horwood in 1870, and he was still there in 1881 but described as retired. He was apparently living in Winslow by 1890, but hasn't been traced in the 1891 Census. His executors were two of the most prominent Winslow Congregationalists. His relatives don't seem to have lived in Winslow.