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This is the last Will and Testament of me Anna Maria Susanna Donne Donisthorpe of Crewkerne in the County of Somerset Widow First I will and direct that my remains may be interred in my family vault at Puckington in the said county and that my funeral be conducted in such a manner as my Executors hereinafter named may think proper and which I desire may be respectable I give and bequeath unto the Minister and Churchwardens for the time being of the Parish of Crewkerne aforesaid the sum of two hundred pounds In trust to lay out the same in their names in the purchase of freehold lands hereditaments held for long terms of years or invest it in the Public funds of Great Britain And upon trust that they the said Minister and Churchwardens for the time being of the said Parish of Crewkerne do and shall annually on every first day of January for ever hereafter (unless that day should happen to be a Sunday in which case then on the next preceding day) pay and divide the annual rents dividends and produce arising therefrom amongst the poor persons living in the Old or Chubbs Almshouse in Crewkerne aforesaid in such shares propitious manner and form as the Minister and Churchwardens for the time being of Crewkerne aforesaid shall think proper I direct my trustees hereinafter named to see this my intention carried into effect as far as they can Also I give unto the female servant who may be living with me at the time of my death the sum of ten pounds Also I give to Elias Calpin of Crewkerne aforesaid Carpenter and Moses Partridge of the same place Carpenter the sum of ten pounds each Also I give unto George Hilborne Jolliffe of the same place Surgeon the sum of one hundred pounds Also I give to Thomas Wills formerly of Crewkerne aforesaid but now residing in London Gentleman the like sum of one hundred pounds Also I give to each of my executors and trustees hereinafter named the sum of two hundred pounds All which said several legacies and bequests I hereby direct shall be paid free of legacy duty out of my personal estate within six calendar months after my decease And whereas in and by a certain Indenture bearing even date .... with but executed before the execution hereof and made between Henry Parsons of Haselbury Plucknett in the County of Somerset Gentleman of the first part Elizabeth Mary Merefield Donne of Crewkerne aforesaid Spinster of the second part myself of the third part and Benjamin John Merefield Donne (brother of the said Elizabeth Mary Merefield Donne) and John Weston Peters Esquire of the fourth part (being a settlement made in contemplation of a marriage intended soon to be solemnized between the said Henry Parsons and Elizabeth Mary Merefield Donne) I have covenanted and agreed that in case the said marriage shall take effect my executors or administrators shall within two calendar months next after my death well and truly transfer purchase or invest in the names of the said Benjamin John Merefield Donne and John Weston Peters or the survivor of them or the executors or administrators of such survivor or other the trustee or trustees for the time being of the said settlement in the books of the Governor and Company of the Bank of England the sum of ten thousand pounds three pounds per centum consolidated bank annuities Upon the trusts in the said settlement mentioned And I give devise and bequeath all my messuages farms lands estates and hereditaments situate in the parish of Crewkerne aforesaid or elsewhere in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland And all other my real and personal estate and effects whatsoever and wheresoever and whether in possession reversion remainder or expectancy of or to which I or any person or persons in trust for me shall at the time of my decease be seized possessed or in any way entitled or over which I shall then have any power of testamentary disposition whatsoever unto and to the use of Charles Warre Loveridge of Chard in the County of Somerset Esquire and John Churchill Langdon of Avishays in the parish of Chaffcombe in the said county Esquire their heirs executors administrators and assigns respectively according to the nature tenure and quality thereof respectively Upon the trusts hereinafter declared (that is to say) As to all estates vested in me as a trustee or mortgagee Upon the trusts and subject to the equities affecting the same respectively but as to the monies secured to me as a mortgagee Upon the trusts hereby declared concerning my general residuary estate And upon trust that the said Charles Warre Loveridge and John Churchill Langdon or the survivor of them or the executors or administrators of such survivor or other the trustees or trustee for the time being of this my will do and shall within two calendar months next after my decease purchase transfer or invest in the names of the said Benjamin John Merefield Donne and John Weston Peters or the survivor of them or the executors or administrators of such survivor or other the trustees or trustee of the said ...... Indenture of Settlement of the said sum of ten thousand pounds three pounds per centum consolidated bank annuities And also pay my just debts and funeral and testamentary expenses and the said legacies by me hereinbefore given or bequeathed And subject as aforesaid upon trust to pay the rents interest dividends and annual proceeds of my said residuary estate monies stock funds and securities from time to time as the same shall become payable and be ........ unto the said Benjamin John Merefield Donne during the term of his natural life And from and immediately after the decease of the said Benjamin John Merefield Donne Upon trust to convey pay and divide the said estates monies and effects unto and equally between the children (if more than one) of the said Benjamin John Merefield Donne lawfully to be begotten as shall be living at the time of his death and the issue of such of his children as shall happen to die in his lifetime the issue of any such deceased child taking no larger portion or share of the said trust estate and effects than his her or their parents would have taken if living but if there shall be but one child of the said Benjamin John Merefield Donne or the issue of such only child then In trust to convey and pay the same to such only child or the issue of such only child on attaining his her or their age or several and respective ages of twenty one years But if any or other of the children of the said Benjamin John Merefield Donne shall die under the age of twenty one years and without issue then the part or share of him her or their so dying of and in the said trust estate and effects shall go and be paid and payable to the survivors or survivor of them who shall attain that age share and share alike as tenants in common and not as joint tenants And in case the said Benjamin John Merefield Donne shall depart this life without leaving any child or children or issue of any ..... child or children living at the time of his death then Upon trust to pay the rents interest dividends and annual proceeds of my said residuary estate monies stock funds and securities from time to time as the same shall become payable and be received unto the said Elizabeth Mary Merefield Donne for and during the term of her natural life for her sole and separate use and benefit exclusively of the said Henry Parsons her intended husband or any other husband with whom she may hereafter intermarry and not to be subject to his or their debts control or engagements And I hereby direct that their receipts alone shall from time to time be good and sufficient discharges to my said trustees for the same And from and immediately after the decease of the said Elizabeth Mary Merefield Donne upon trust to convey pay and divide the said estate monies and effects unto and equally between the children (if more than one) of the said Elizabeth Mary Merefield Donne lawfully to be begotten as shall be living at the time of her death and the issue of such of her children as shall happen to die in her lifetime the issue of any such deceased child taking no larger portion or share of the said trust estate and effects than his her or their parents would have taken if living but if there shall be but one child of the said Elizabeth Mary Merefield Donne or the issue of such only child then In trust to convey and pay the same to such only child or the issue of such only child on attaining his her or their age or several and respective ages of twenty one years And if any or either of the children of the said Elizabeth Mary Merefield Donne shall die under the age of twenty one years and without issue then the part or share of him her or them so dying of and in the said trust estate and effects shall go and be paid and payable to the survivors or survivor of them who shall attain that age share and share alike as tenants in common and not as joint tenants And in case the said Elizabeth Mary Merefield Donne shall depart this life without having any child or children or issue of any such child or children living at the time of her death then my will is and I hereby direct that my said trustees or trustee shall stand seized and possessed of my said estate and effects Upon trust and for the benefit of the children of my cousin Edward John Donne and of my cousin John George Donne deceased who shall be living and in being at the time of my decease their heirs executors administrators and assigns to be equally divided between them as tenants in common and not as joint tenants Provided always And I do hereby will and declare that it shall be lawful to and for the said Charles Warre Loveridge and John Churchill Langdon and the survivor of them and the executors and administrators of such survivor or other the trustees or trustee for the time being of this my Will during the minority of any person or persons who may be entitled to my said estate and effects to pay and allow out of the rents issues and profits thereto such sum or sums of money as they or he shall think proper for the maintenance education? and support of such person or persons during his her or their minority Provided also And I do hereby will and declare that it shall be lawful to and for the said Charles Warre Loveridge and John Churchill Langdon and the survivor of them and the executors and administrators of such survivor or other the trustees or trustee of this my Will during the minorities of any person or persons who will become entitled to the actual possession of the rents and profits of my estates lands or hereditaments to devise lease or grant all or any part of the said messuages lands and hereditaments to any person or persons for any term or number of years not exceeding twenty one years to take effect in possession but not in reversion or by way of future interest so as upon every such lease or leases ...... or ........ there be reserved and made payable during the ............ thereof the best and most improved rent or rents that can reasonably be had or obtained for the same with out taking any fine or income in respect of the ....ing thereof and so as none of the lessees to whom such lease or leases shall be made be by any clause or words therein contained ...... from impeachment of waste and so as in every lease there be contained a clause of ...... in case the rent or rents therein to be reserved be behind and unpaid by the space of twenty one days Provided also and my will and desire is that it shall be lawful for my said trustees or trustee at any time or times during the life of any person who shall be entitled to any estate for life under the limitations aforesaid with the consent and approbation of such person in writing to make sale and dispose of or convey in exchange all or any part of the said messuages lands and hereditaments herein before devised in trust as aforesaid for and in lieu of other messuages lands and hereditaments to be situate in Crewkerne aforesaid or elsewhere to any person or persons his her or their heirs executors administrators and assigns respectively either together or in parcels for such price and prices in money or such other equivalent in lands or hereditaments and money as to my said trustees or trustee shall seem .... and that upon every such sale or exchange as aforesaid the receipt or receipts of my said trustees or trustee shall from time to time be a good and sufficient discharge and discharges to my purchaser or purchasers or other person or persons paying the same for the purchase money for which the said messuages lands and hereditaments or any part or parts thereof shall be sold or for any money to be paid to my said trustees or trustee by way of equality of exchange or so much thereof as in such receipt or receipts shall be expressed or acknowledged to be received And such purchaser or purchasers or other person or persons and his her and their heirs executors administrators and assigns shall not afterwards be obliged to see to the application of the same monies nor be answerable or accountable for any loss misapplication or nonapplication of the same or any part thereof Provided nevertheless And my will is that when all or any part or parts of the said messuages lands and hereditaments hereby ..... saleable and exchangeable as aforesaid shall be sold and exchanged in pursuance .. the aforesaid proviso all and every the sum and sums of money which shall arise by a such sale or exchange shall with all convenient speed be laid out and disposed of by my said trustees or trustee with such consent and approbation as aforesaid and be vested in the purchase of other messuages lands and hereditaments in fee simple in possession or for any long term or terms of years absolute free from encumbrances to be situated lying and being in Crewkerne aforesaid or elsewhere of equal or greater value than the said messuages lands and hereditaments or any part thereof which shall have been sold and conveyed or exchanged as aforesaid and as well the said messuages lands and hereditaments so to be purchased as those to be taken in exchange as aforesaid shall be settled conveyed and assured to such and the same uses Upon such and the same trusts and to and for such and the same ends intents and purposes and subject to the same powers provisos limitations and declarations as are hereinbefore expressed and declared of and concerning the said messuages lands and hereditaments so devised by me Upon trust as aforesaid or as near thereto as the deaths of persons the nature and tenure of the premises and other contingencies will admit of And my will further is that until the money arising by such sale or sales exchange or exchanges as aforesaid shall be laid out and invested in a purchase or purchases as aforesaid it shall and may be lawful to and for my said trustees and trustee with the consent and approbation as aforesaid to place out such such sum and sums of money at interest in their or his names or name either in the public stocks or funds or in government or real securities or on premises held for long terms of years absolute and the interest dividends and annual produce arising from such stocks funds or securities until such purchase or purchases shall be made as aforesaid shall go be paid and applied to such person or persons and to and for such uses trusts intents and purposes and in such manner as the rents and profits of the said messuages lands and hereditaments hereinbefore by me devised as aforesaid would go and be paid and payable in case such purchase or purchases exchange or exchanges was or were then actually made Provided also And I do hereby declare that it may be lawful to and for my said trustees or trustee with such consent and approbation as aforesaid to sell and transfer all or any of the stocks funds or securities wherein or upon which any part of my property is invested and to lay out and invest the money to be produced by or from such sale or transfer in or upon any other of the Parliamentary stocks or funds of Great Britain or on any real securities or on premises held for long terms of years at interest and from time to time to vary alter and transpose all such stocks funds and securities for others of the like nature when and so often as it shall be desirable or convenient so to do with the like consent and approbation as aforesaid and that they my said trustees or trustee do and shall stand possessed of and interested in all such new or other stocks funds or securities upon such and the same trusts and for such and the same intents and purposes and with under and subject to such and the same powers provisos and declarations as are hereinbefore expressed or contained concerning the stocks funds or securities from the sale or transfer whereof such new stocks funds or securities respectively shall arise or such of them as shall be then subsisting or capable of taking effect Provided also that every receipt which shall be given by my acting trustees or trustee for the time being of this my Will for any money stocks funds securities and effects to be received by them or him under this my Will shall be a legal and conclusive discharge to the person or persons paying assigning transferring or delivering the same and effectually release him or them therefrom and from all liability claims and demands in respect thereof provided also that in case my said two trustees hereinbefore named or either of them shall depart this life in my lifetime or renounce or disclaim or in case they or either of them or any trustees or trustee to be appointed under this provision in their or either of their place shall die or decline refuse or become incapable or unfit to act in the trusts aforesaid or go to reside beyond the seas Then and in every such case it shall be lawful for the surviving accepting or acting trustees or trustee for the time being of this my Will or the last surviving accepting or acting trustee or his proving executors or executor or his executors administrators or my administrators or administrator of their or his sole authority by .. deed or deeds duly executed and attested to appoint some fit person or persons to supply the place of such deceased renouncing disclaiming or retiring trustees or trustee ..... so that there shall not be at any one time more than three trustees of this my will and that immediately after every such appointment the trust estate whatsoever theretofore vested under this my will in such deceased renouncing disclaiming or retiring trustees or trustee intended so to be shall so far as circumstances may for the time being permit be paid conveyed assigned and transferred so as to vest in such new trustees or trustee either solely or as the case may require jointly with the surviving or continuing trustees or trustee Upon the trusts aforesaid And that every such new trustee shall have and exercise the same powers and discretions as if he had been appointed by this my will in the stead of the trustee for whom he shall be so substituted Provided also that the said trustees herein appointed and such new trustees as aforesaid respectively and their respective heirs executors administrators and assigns shall be charged only for such monies as they respectively shall actually receive notwithstanding their respectively joining? in and as receipt or other act for conformity and that any one of them shall not be answerable for any other of them or any one of them for any loss damage or expense which may happen to the trust estate unless and except only so far as the same shall so happen by or through his own wilful act or default And that it shall be lawful for them respectively out of any monies coming to their respective hands by virtue of this my Will to reimburse themselves respectively and to allow to the others of them respectively all the costs charges and expenses which they respectively may pay or incur in or in relation to the execution of the several trusts powers and provisions of this my Will Provided also And I hereby further direct that in case the said Benjamin John Merefield Donne shall hereafter be in treaty for a marriage becoming? his condition in life and such as shall be fully approved of and sanctioned by my trustees or trustee for the time being then I hereby authorize and empower my said trustees or trustee to make a settlement upon such intended marriage of any part of the residue of my personal estate hereinbefore by me bequeathed in trust as aforesaid not exceeding the sum of ten thousand pounds the terms and provisions of which settlement shall be in the discretion of the said Benjamin John Merefield Donne And in case of such marriage approved of and sanctioned as aforesaid I hereby empower my said trustees or trustee to withdraw the same from the residue of my personal estate for the purpose of the said settlement and that such sum shall not afterwards be liable or subject to the trusts powers provisos and declarations hereinbefore expressed and contained my intention being that in case of the marriage of the said Benjamin John Merefield Donne approved of as aforesaid a suitable provision shall be made for his wife and I declare but not so as to limit the effect of any of the preceding provisions of this my will that the several trusts powers authorities discretions and indemnities respectively hereby vested in and given to my trustees and trustee respectively shall and may be respectively exercised and enjoyed by the acting trustees and trustee for the time being of this my Will And I appoint my said trustees the said Charles Warre Loveridge and John Churchill Langdon Executors of this my Will And I revoke all former Wills Codicils and testamentary appointments and dispositions whatsoever And I declare this only to be and contain my last Will and Testament In witness whereof I the said Anna Maria Susanna Donne Donisthorpe have to this my last Will and Testament contained in this and the nine preceding sheets of paper to each sheet thereof set my hand the twenty seventh day of January in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty one A M S D Donisthorpe Signed by the said Anna Maria Susanna Donne Donisthorpe the testatrix as and for her last Will and Testament in the presence of us present at the same time who in her presence and in the presence of each other have hereunder subscribed our names as attesting witnesses .....to the word "intended" in the second line of the fourth sheet having been first interlined
Wm Salter Robt Perrys

This is a Codicil to the last Will and Testament of me Anna Maria Susanna Donne Donisthorpe of Crewkerne in the County of Somerset Widow which bears date on or about the twenty seventh day of January one thousand eight hundred and fifty one I give and bequeath to Elizabeth Mary Merefield wife of Henry Parsons of Haselbury Plucknett in the County of Somerset Gentleman All my plate and plated goods linen and wearing apparel Also I give and bequeath unto the said Elizabeth Mary Merefield Parsons one half of my household goods and furniture china and glass jewels and trinkets also one half of all the money and cash notes which I shall have in my house at the time of my decease Also I give and bequeath to Benjamin John Merefield Donne brother of the said Elizabeth Mary Merefield Parsons the other half of my household goods and furniture china and glass jewels and trinkets and the other half of the money and cash notes which I shall have in my house at the time of my decease and also all my pictures and paintings and fixtures And I will order and direct that my said household goods and furniture china glass jewels trinkets and money shall after my decease be divided between the said Elizabeth Mary Merefield Parsons and Benjamin John Merefield Donne by the trustees of my said Will in such manner as they shall deem fair and just which shall be conclusive on the said Elizabeth Mary Merefield Parsons and Benjamin John Merefield Donne I confirm the settlement made by me on the marriage of the said Benjamin John Merefield Donne with his now wife and in all other respects I ratify and confirm my said Will In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand the eleventh day of August one thousand eight hundred and fifty four
A.M.S. Donne Donisthorpe signed by the said Anna Maria Susanna Donne Donisthorpe as and for a Codicil to her last Will and Testament in the presence of us who at her request in her presence and in the presence of each other have subscribed our names as witnesses thereto the erazure of the word “Donne” at two places and the interlineation of the word “Parsons” having been first made

John Bridge Moses Partridge

Proved at London with a Codicil 23rd of May 1856 before the Judge by the oaths of Charles Warre Loveridge and John Churchill Langdon Esquires the Executors to whom Admon was granted having been first sworn ...... the said Charles Warre Loveridge Esquire before the Worshipful William Robinson Doctor of Laws and Surrogate and the said John Churchill Langdon Esquire by Commission duly to administer

This Will was kindly transcribed and sent in by Heather.

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