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  1. #1
    Rock48
    Guest

    Default Help with some words

    Hello there,
    I'm new to the site and I am having a bit of difficulty with some wrods in a testament.

    I have placed my transcription of the first section on my website with the problem words highlighted in red. The other small gaps I can live with!

    See the following web page for Transcript and copy of testament, PDF file link lower left...

    https://
    sites.google.com/site/joerocksresearchpages/home/mara

    I would be very grateful for any help with the words identified. I am particularly interested in the name of his married sister. I would also be interested in any comments on what appears to be a bequest to his 'honoured mother'.

    Cheers,
    JR
    Last edited by olliecat; 19-03-2012 at 11:35 AM. Reason: Removed direct link to personal website. Please see Terms of Service

  2. #2
    janbooth
    Guest

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    Hello JR and welcome to the Forum. I can't bring up the actual document from your link, but of the names you have already transcribed, Bartholomew NENNY & Thomas SNAPE appear as witnesses on the parish register record of the marriage of Edward MARA & Elisabeth LANGHAM at St Helen Bishopgate on 3 June 1777, Edward being shown as of the parish and Elisabeth as of the parish of St Michael Cornhill (source Ancestry London Parish Registers). The marriage you mention at St Helen Bishopgate on 27 February 1735/6 is between Robert HAYWARD and Margaret MAYHEW - very clear writing on the parish register record.

    There is a marriage at St James Clerkenwell on 29 December 1782 by licence of a Francis MARA & Elizabeth ABCHURCH of St Luke, Middlesex - could this perhaps be Edward's friend Francis MARA?

    Janet

  3. #3
    Coromandel
    Guest

    Default

    Hello there, and welcome

    I agree with your readings of 'honoured mother' and 'Robert Reid'.

    The sister's first name is Jane, I think (compare the first letter of her name with the 'J' in John Mara a couple of lines above); her surname could be Malion rather than Maliou: 'n' and 'u' are difficult to distinguish in this hand.

    Bartholomew (whose surname could be Nenny, which would fit with Janet's findings) is described as of 'Enfied Chase', presumably an error for Enfield Chase. If you google for "Bartholomew Nenny" you'll find a reference to one of this name in 'Endfield' in 1789, on the London Lives website.

  4. #4
    Brick wall demolition expert!
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    South London
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    3,678

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    An attempt at filling in the parts you have left out or are unsure of, leaving your brackets in place…

    This is the last will and testament of me Edward Mara of Great St Helens, London, gentleman which I make and [declare] as follows. I give [devise] and bequeath unto my dear wife Elizabeth all my estate and effects of what nature or kind soever and wheresoever and which I may [die] possessed of or be interested in to and for her own sole and separate use forever [she] paying my just debts funeral expences and [the legacies] hereinafter mentioned and performing the trusts contained in this my will. I give to my [honoured mother] Margaret Mara of Dublin the sum of forty pounds to be paid or comitted? to her within three months after my death. I give to my brother John Mara of Dublin aforesaid the sum of one hundred and fifty pounds and to my sister [Jane Malion? or Mahon] now in London the like sum of one hundred and fifty pounds to be paid to them respectively within [twelve] months next after my decease. I give to my trustees hereinafter named the sum of three hundred pounds to be placed out at interest in the public stocks or funds to pay the product and interest thereof to my said mother during her life and from and -------- after her death to pay the principal and such interest as may be due the sum equally between my said brother and sister and to the survivor of them in [case] one of them only should be living at my death. I give to my friends Francis Mara (Merca?), Robert [Reid] and Thomas Snape all of London, gentlemen a mourning ring of one guinea value. I give to Bartholomew Nenny? of [ Enfie(l)d Chase ] in the county of Middlesex, gentleman five guineas for a ring and lastly I hereby constitute and appoint my said dear wife together with Mark Sprott of Lambs Conduit St in the County of Middlesex, Esquire trustees and executrix and executor of this my will and in consideration of the said Mark Sprott's taking upon him the trust and executorship of this my will, I give the sum of twenty pounds and hereby revoke all former wills by me heretofore made and declare this alone to be my last will and testament dated this third day of April in the year of Our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and ninety. Edw^d Mara.

  5. #5
    Coromandel
    Guest

    Default

    Oh, well done olliecat, I was too lazy to do the whole thing.

    I am going off at a bit of a tangent now, but after the death of Edward's widow there was a Chancery case about some £2500 of 4% Bank Annuities and £1500 of Old South Sea Annuities which had been hers before her marriage.

    Elizabeth Mara died the 1st of December, 1795; and the bill was filed by her executors, claiming the stock as a resulting trust for her, against Nenny, surviving trustee under the settlement, and against Sprott, claiming as personal representative of Edward Mara.

    For details of the case (Langham v. Nenny, 1797) see

    https://
    books.google.co.uk/books?id=XnADAAAAQAAJ&vq=mara&dq=%22edward%20mara% 22&pg=PA467#v=onepage&q&f=false

  6. #6
    Rock48
    Guest

    Default

    Well, I am just amazed! Thank you one and all.

    In the (short!) interval, I have been doing some further digging and found a testament for Elizabeth Mara in the NA. This is slightly clearer and it does confirm Bartholomew Nenny of Enfield Chase. I will add it to my site and transcribe it there too. She had two brothers, Richard of the Asylum St. [Martin's?] Fields and William, of Bartletts Buildings, Holborn, gentlemen.

    I also found a ref in the London Gazette for the Langham V Langham case in 1801 so it will be great to find out what that was all about. I think Elizabeth left herself open to problems by changing her testament in a very scrappy way. There is even a note in the margin about it. She seems to be trying to take care of two children Thomson and William [Edmeston?] and I think she may have named their parents but scraped it all out. Puzzling.

    I would be really interested to know which church in Bath they are both buried in.

    Many, many thanks again for all the help.

    Cheers,
    JR

  7. #7
    janbooth
    Guest

    Default

    I don't know if this is connected at all, but there is a will for a Francis MARA dated 1788 of St James Clerkenwell on Ancestry's London Wills and Probate in which he mentions a John MARA. It is a relatively uncommon name in Middlesex, so perhaps connected in some way.

    Janet

  8. #8
    Rock48
    Guest

    Default

    Many thanks for this latest. It is in fact John Mara that is my main interest and I'm afraid he is a genealogist's nightmare. He is itinerant in the United Kingdom between 1760 and 1788, he spends time in prison - at least twice and he changes his name - at least four times!

    I am grateful for all your help but I think you will be pleased to know that, in the end, I will take responsibility for this one myself!

    Cheers,
    JR

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