Information found in the recently-discovered wills has now been added to various Ripley homestead pages on this website. I have also updated the footnoted document in which I have summarized all of the information about the Ripley homesteads found on this website. You can find a downloadable copy at the bottom of the Ripley Homesteads and Grants page of this website. I much prefer working on the website where I can be more informal and easily include photos and live links. However, the document is definitely more portable.
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Reading so many wills from the late 1700's and 1800's has given me a more personal perspective on a time when women had very few rights. On the one hand, I'm touched by the lengths most of my great grandfathers went to in order to provide for their wives after their deaths. On the other hand, I have to wonder whether the sons fulfilled their father's direction that they provide yearly incomes for their mothers. Recently, I was going through the estate papers of Robert Ripley, whose wife was Rebecca Vickery, my second great grandmother. Robert's will was made the day before he died in March of 1865. Although Rebecca was to be provided with a yearly income, she did have to petition the court for food, livestock, and furniture from the estate to provide for her family while the estate was settled. One of the papers was a decree that made Rebecca's brother-in-law. Thomas Ripley, the legal guardian of Rebecca's 8 children. Rebecca lived the rest of her years with her son James and his family and died in 1903. On October 18, 1929, the British Privy Council decreed that Canadian women were "persons" under the law.
Descendants of William Ripley and Hannah Coates, I have a question for you. Was anyone aware that William Ripley had left not only a lengthy will but a lengthy codicil and a slew of estate papers as well? If so, I'm the last to know about it. You can imagine my amazement at stumbling across this treasure bleary-eyed late one night just paging randomly through the online documents at Family Search! I swear I blinked a few times and even took a quick stroll around the room to ensure that I was truly awake and wasn't just dreaming. By examining a large number of deeds, I'd already determined that sons Robert and James took possession of William's original 420-acre homestead in Maccan while son Thomas purchased properties elsewhere. So you can imagine my surprise in discovering that, in an 1844 codicil to his will, William clearly indicated that his property should be divided among his three sons Thomas, Robert, and James instead of among Robert, James, and daughter Jane as he had originally intended. By the way, William and Hannah had cool stuff like an actual carpet, a bureau, a spinning wheel and loom and Windsor chairs in addition to ordinary chairs. Still no books and no guns. Was this a religious thing? Didn't they even shoot game? But I'm spoiling the surprise. Check it out on the new page William's Will. P.S. What's a weldings lot? I recently discovered a will for Robert Ripley of Maccan which you can view online (see Estate Files #1710-#1892). This is the Robert Ripley, born 1766 in Yorkshire, who was married to Jane Rushton. Robert must have died sometime between 13 Jun 184o when he made his will and the granting of probate 30 Aug 1843. Robert left 50 pounds to his son William and his farm to be divided between his son Thomas Ripley and a Charles Storey. Including the house, right down the middle!
He also made provisions for his three granddaughters Margaret Ann Ripley, Jane Ripley, and Sarah Storey under his guardianship and previously unknown to me. I believe Margaret Ann and Jane were the children of his son Henry who had presumably died by this time. I believe Sarah Storey was the child of Robert Ripley and Jane Rushton's daughter, previously unknown to us, who had a child with Charles Storey. Gord Ripley and I have been exchanging emails trying to sort this out. Gord found a great clue which provided enough of a trail to partially unravel the mystery. I now believe that Sarah Storey married Jamison Brown. If you enjoy a good mystery, you can start with the clue. Or you can read my best guesses on the Robert Jr.'s Will page of this website. |
AuthorHi there! My name is Mallory Burton and I started researching the Ripley family in 2011. I'd describe myself as a careful amateur who's more interested in story than names and dates. I hope you enjoy my website and blog. I also have a public Mallory/Ripley tree on Ancestry with over 4,000 names. To contact me, please comment on any one of my blog posts. Archives
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