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Will of William Neal, innholder and farmer, 1883 (proved 1889)
Oxford Probate Registry
BE IT KNOWN that at the date hereunder written the last Will and Testament with a Codicil thereto of William Neal formerly of Winslow in the County of Buckingham, Innholder and Farmer deceased who died on the 22nd. Day of August 1889 at Shipton aforesaid and who at the time of his death had a fixed place of abode at Shipton aforesaid, within the District of the Counties of Oxford, Berks and Buckingham, was proved and registered in the District Probate Registry of Her Majesties High Court of Justice at Oxford, and that Administration of the personal estate of the said deceased was granted by the aforesaid Court to Thomas Price Willis of Winslow & aforesaid Solicitor, the Executor named in the said Will and Thomas Essex Neal of 46 Melbourne Street, Nottingham in the County of Nottingham Brewer Son of the Deceased and, Augustine George Stevens of Winslow aforesaid, Draper, the Executors named in the said Codicil, they having been first sworn well and faithfully to administer the same.
Dated the 11th. Day of March 1890,
Gross Value of Personal Estate £5,148.17.1.
Net value “ “ “ £3934.3.3.
Extracted by Willis and Willis
Solicitors, Winslow.
This is the last Will and Testament of me William Neal of Winslow in the County of Bucks Innholder and Farmer I appoint my Son William Samuel Neal and my Friends Thomas Price Willis of Winslow aforesaid Solicitor and John Morris of Hogston in the said County of Bucks Farmer Executors and Trustees of my Will and also jointly with my Wife Frances Guardian and Guardians of any Child or Children of mine during his her or their respective minority or minorities I give and devise all my freehold Copyhold and other real estates of which I shall be beneficially seized or possessed at the time of my decease unto my said Son William Samuel Neal Thomas Price Willis and John Morris their executors administrators and assigns respectively Upon Trust to sell my real estate together or in parcels by Public Auction or Private Contract and after payment of all the expenses incidental to such sale to pay and apply the residue of the monies to arise in augmentation of my residuary personal estate Nevertheless I expressly declare that no portion of my said real estate which consists of the Bell Hotel and the premises belonging thereto which I now occupy together with the Cottages adjoining thereto now in the occupation of Mrs. Jackman and others shall take place until the same shall have been offered to my Son the said William Samuel Neal at the price of Two thousand five hundred pounds (which sum is not to include my furniture or stock in trade ) and he shall have refused to purchase the same within twelve calendar months next after my decease I bequeath all the personal estate including my stock in trade as an Innholder and Farmer unto my said Son William Samuel Neal Thomas Price Willis and John Morris their executors administrators and assigns Upon Trust to convert and get in the same and out of the monies to arise from such sale and conversion to pay the mortgage or mortgages existing on any part of my real estate including that portion of my said real estate which I have directed to be offered to my said Son William Samuel Neal my just debts my funeral and testamentary expenses And upon further trust to raise out of the same monies the sum One thousand two hundred and fifty Pounds upon the trusts hereinafter declared concerning the same. And upon further trust to pay share and divide the net monies remaining after answering the purposes aforesaid unto and equally among all and every my present and future born children and child or such of them as shall attain the age of twenty one years or die leaving issue of his her or their body or respective bodies and their respective executors administrators and assigns for their absolute use and benefit in equal shares as tenants in common I direct that the said William Samuel Neal Thomas Price Willis and John Morris shall invest the said sum of One thousand two hundred and fifty pounds hereinbefore referred to in their own names in or upon any of the Public Stocks or funds or Government Securities of the United Kingdom or upon freehold copyhold leasehold or chattel real securities of England or in or upon the shares stocks or securities of any Company or Corporation whether commercial municipal local or otherwise carrying on business or constituted for any purpose in the United Kingdom. And may vary the said stocks funds shares and securities at their or his discretion. And shall pay the income of the said trust monies and the investments for the time being representing the same to my said Wife Frances during her life. And from and after the decease of my said Wife shall hold the said trust premises Upon trust to pay share and divide the same unto and equally among such of my children as shall be living at the time of the decease of my Wife And in case any child of mine shall die during the life of my said Wife leaving issue then I declare that such issue shall take the share to which his her or their parent would have been entitled if living I devise all my copyhold hereditaments to such uses as the said William Samuel Neal Thomas Price Willis and John Morris or the survivors or survivor of them or the executors or administrators of such survivor shall by deed appoint And in default of and subject to any such appointment To the use of the said William Samuel Neal Thomas Price Willis and John Morris their heirs and assigns according to the custom of the manors whereof the said hereditaments may be respectively holden and by and under the accustomed rents and services And I declare that the aforesaid power of appointment over and devise in default of appointment of my said copyhold hereditaments are respectively given and made Upon and to the intent that my said Trustees or Trustee shall sell my copyhold hereditaments and apply the monies produced by such sale in the same manner in all respects as if the same hereditaments had been included in the general devise hereinbefore contained of my real estate in trust for sale I direct that my Trustee Thomas Price Willis whether he shall accept the trusteeship or not shall be the Solicitor to my trust property and as such notwithstanding his acceptance of the Trusteeship be allowed all professional charge which if employed as Solicitor to my Trustees not being himself a Trustee he would be entitled to make I devise all the real estate which shall at my decease be vested in me as Trustee or Mortgagee to my said Son William Samuel Neal and the said Thomas Price Willis and John Morris their heirs and assigns subject to the trust and equities affecting the same respectively Lastly I revoke all other Wills In Witness whereof I the said William Neal the Testator have to each sheet of this my will contained on three sheets of paper set my hand this Twenty Sixth day of April One thousand eight hundred and eighty three
William Neal
This sheet and the two sheets of paper hereto annexed were severally signed by the said William Neal the Testator in the joint presence of us who at his request in his presence and in the presence of each other have hereunto subscribed our names as Witnesses
Arthur S Midgley ) Clerks to Messrs. Willis and Willis
William N Midgley ) Solicitors Winslow
This is a Codicil to the last Will and Testament of me William Neal formerly of Winslow in the County of Bucks Innholder and Farmer and now of Shipton in the parish of Winslow aforesaid Farmer which Will bears date the Twenty sixth day of April One thousand eight hundred and eighty three Whereas by my said Will I have appointed my Son William Samuel Neal and my friends John Morris and Thomas Price Willis to be Executors and Trustees of my Will and also jointly with my Wife Frances Guardian and Guardians of any child or children of mine during his her or their respective minority or minorities Now I hereby revoke the appointment of my said Son William Samuel Neal and the said John Morris as such Executors and Trustees and Guardians And I appoint my Son Thomas Essex Neal and my Son in law Augustine George Stevens to be Executors and Trustees of my said Will jointly with the said Thomas Price Willis and also Guardians of my infant children jointly with my said Wife Frances and the said Thomas Price Willis in the place of my said Son William Samuel Neal and the said John Morris And I declare that my said Will shall be construed to take effect as if the names of my said Son Thomas Essex Neal and the said Augustine George Stevens were inserted in my said Will throughout instead of the names of my said Son William Samuel Neal and the said John Norris And in all other respects I confirm my said Will In witness whereof I the said William Neal the Testator have hereunto set my hand this Sixth day of August One thousand eight hundred and eighty nine.
William Neal
Signed and acknowledged by the above named William Neal as a Codicil to his Will 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.
Arthur S Midgley ) Clerks to Messrs. Willis and Willis
William N Midgley ) Solicitors, Winslow.
Proved at Oxford, with a Codicil, the eleventh day of march 1890 by the Oaths of Thomas Price Willis, the Executor named in the Will and Thomas Essex Neal the Son, and Augustine George Stevens, the Executor named in the Codicil, to whom administration was granted.
The Testator William Neal was formerly of Winslow in the County of Buckingham, Innholder and Farmer, but late of Shipton, Winslow aforesaid, farmer, and died on the Twenty second day of August 1889 at Shipton Winslow aforesaid.
Gross value of Personal Estate £5148.17.1
Net value “ “ “ £3934.3.3
Willis and Willis
Solicitors, Winslow.
It is hereby certified that the forgoing is a correct copy
Dated this Twentieth day of March 1890 [stamp of the District Registrar, Oxford Probate Division]
Notes
William Neal retired from running The Bell in 1886 on the marriage of his son W.S. Neal. He was born in 1816 and had taken over after the death of his father Joseph Neal in 1842 and remarriage of his mother. He married Frances Gallard in 1850. Their last child was a son Marcus born in 1869, which is why the will refers to children being minors.
According to an obituary in the Buckingham Advertiser, he had a farm at Swanbourne and lived at Shipton after his retirement from The Bell. He was school manager and guardian for Mursley, and previously surveyor, guardian and chairman of the School Committee for Winslow. On the day of his funeral, "nearly all the business establishments in the Market-square were closed as a mark of respect to the memory of the deceased."
In 1891 his widow Frances Neal aged 60 was living at 3 Station Road with her daughter Edith aged 23. She was still there in 1911 with another daughter, Frances Alma aged 56. She died later in 1911 aged 82.
Augustine Stevens married Annie Gallard Neal in 1885.
Thomas and Mary Jackman lived in Bell Alley in a row of cottages now replaced by an extension to The Bell.