Will of Frederick Richard Matthews, builder, 1926 (proved 1931)

Oxford Probate Registry

I FREDERICK RICHARD MATTHEWS of Number 23 Avenue Road Winslow in the County of Buckingham Builder hereby revoke all former Wills and testamentary dispositions made by me and declare this to be my last Will and Testament

1. I Appoint DENNIS GILBERT SMITH of Winslow aforesaid Auctioneers Managing Clerk and GEORGE HATT-COOK of Winslow aforesaid Solicitor to be the Executors of this my Will

2. I GIVE AND BEQUEATH to the Royal National Life-Boat Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck London Incorporated by Royal Charter the sum of Fifty Pounds for the use of the said Institution and I declare that the said Legacy shall be paid free from Legacy Duty and that the receipt of the Treasurer of the said Institution shall be a sufficient discharge for the same

3. SUBJECT to the payment of my debts funeral and testamentary expenses I Give Devise and Bequeath all the rest residue and remainder of my real and personal estate whatsoever and wheresoever including my freehold field known as "Nordens" situate in the Parish of Winslow aforesaid and also including all my share in the partnership of the firm of Messieurs R.J. Matthews & Son of Winslow aforesaid Builders in accordance with the provisions of the Partnership deed unto my Wife Elizabeth Mary Matthews absolutely

4. And I declare that the said George Hatt-Cook being a Solicitor may be so employed or being a sole executor may so act and shall be entitled to charge and be paid for all work done and time expended by him or his firm in relation to the executorship including acts which an Executor not being in any profession or business could have done personally

IN WITNESS whereof I have hereunto set my hand this first day of March One thousand nine March [sic] hundred and twenty-six

[copy signature] F.R. MATTHEWS

SIGNED and acknowledged by the said Frederick Richard Matthews the Testator as and for his last Will and Testament in the presence of both of us together we being present at the same time and we at his request in his presence and in the presence of each other have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses.

Sylvia N.R. Gates, Clerk to Mr. G. Hatt-Cook, Solicitor, Winslow

Wm. T. Screeton, Chartered Accountant, Horn Street, Winslow (5 Folios)

[stamp] On the 5th day of May 1931 Probate of this Will was granted at Oxford.

[Grant] BE IT KNOWN that FREDERICK RICHARD MATTHEWS of Orford House Horn Street Winslow in the County of Buckingham (formerly of 23 Avenue Road Winslow aforesaid) died on the 21st day of February 1931 at Orford House aforesaid

[administration granted] to DENNIS GILBERT SMITH of 22 Horn Street Winslow aforesaid Auctioneers Managing Cler and GEORGE HATT-COOK of Winslow aforesaid Solicitor the Executors

Gross value of Estate £5410 9s 4d
Net value of Personal Estate £4372 5s 9d

Extracted by Hatt-Cook & Vale, Solicitors, Winslow

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Notes

Frederick R. Matthews was 50 when he died in 1931. He was outlived by his father Richard James Matthews (1857-1942) who still lived at Arundel House. The Matthews family building firm had been running under various names since 1777; see William Matthews (d.1878). By this date it was R.J. Matthews & Son (see the billhead below), and an announcement in the Buckingham Advertiser on 7 March stated that it would continue "under the personal management of Mr. R.J. Matthews". In May, W.J. Brooks & Sons of Swanbourne took over the undertaker's (or "funeral furnishing") side of the business. Frederick had no children and was the last of the male line of Matthewses.

According to the obituary in the Buckingham Advertiser (28 Feb 1931), F.R. Matthews was one of the 11 founder members of the Winslow branch of the British Legion and its first chairman in 1925. Legion members formed a procession at the funeral. He attended the Royal Latin School, then served an apprenticeship at Tring before entering the family business. He was wounded in WW1 while serving in the Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry, and was transferred to the Royal Air Force. The Aylesbury Branch of the Old Comrades' Association was also represented at the funeral. He was also local secretary for the RNLI.

Mourners included his father and cousins H.J. Hemley, W.R. Hemley and J.H. Turnham.

F.R. Matthews' uncle William Thomas (d.1934) and wife Emma (d.1928) lived at Sunnyside in Horn Street, next to their builders' yard (now Old Tan Yard Close). Frederick was still in Avenue Road in the 1929 rate book. It's not clear where "Orford House" was. The name was presumably in tribute to Aldeburgh House (9 Station Road).