Will of the Month: A Yorkshire Widow’s ‘Living Will’

Posted by e.m.vine@exeter.ac.uk

27 January 2026

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This month’s blog post takes us to Hornsea in the East Riding of Yorkshire, and to the will of a widow named Mary Young, who died in 1786.[1] Mary’s husband, the Reverend James Young, Rector of Catwick, had died in 1768, and the couple had no children. James had made his ‘dear Wife Mary’ the executrix of his own will, entrusting his funeral expenses to her and leaving her forty pounds a year in addition to the residue of his estate.[2] James was buried in the churchyard of Catwick, in the parish he had served.[3] When Mary made her own will some eighteen years later, she acknowledged that ‘it is very Probable that I shall dye here at Hornsea’ but wished for her body to be carried the five miles to Catwick to be laid to rest next to James. Indeed, she wished to be buried ‘so near to my late Husbands Grave that our Tomb Stones at the tops may touch each other’.[4] Today the inscriptions on James’s tombstone, and on those nearby it, are largely illegible, so it is unclear whether Mary is buried next to him or even in the same plot.[5]

‘if it shall please God to afflict me before my Death’

Mary’s desire to be buried as close as possible to her husband was poignantly described, but other aspects of her will are even more striking. Unusually, Mary did not only detail her wishes for after her death, but also for the remainder of her life: specifically, in the eventuality that she were to lose mental or physical capacity, require care, or be unable to live independently. Her will stated:

‘I desire further if it shall please

God to afflict me before my Death in the same manner

as my Uncle Henry Burrel was afflicted (viz) with the

Palsy that I may not be removed out of my

present Dwelling House nor even out of my present

Lodging Room whilst I live’.[6]

This clause suggests that her uncle Henry Barrell, a chapter clerk in Rochester, had been afflicted by a stroke or other debilitating condition in his final years. When Henry made his final will in 1745, he had been living with his nephew Francis. A codicil was added in 1746, but then his will was not updated again in the eight years before his death in 1754, perhaps suggesting, in line with Mary’s description of his affliction, that he lacked the capacity to do so.[7]

‘during my Supposed imperfect state of mind’

One reason why Mary included a formal record of her ‘living will’ is that she lived far away from her surviving family in the south of England. Unlike her uncle Henry, she may not have been able to—nor perhaps wished to—move to live with a nephew or niece to be cared for. Her executrix was her niece Ann Tasker, who lived in the large Elizabethan manor house of Franks Hall in Horton Kirby, Kent. Mary recognised that if she lost capacity, she would wish to stay in her own home, but that she would need to entrust oversight of her affairs to someone more geographically proximate. Accordingly, her will stated:

‘if my

Reason and understanding should fail or be much

impaired some time before my Death and I should

be thereby rendered incapable of Managing my own

Affairs my Will then is this that the aforesaid M^r

William Whittehead and his Wife shall have the

Direction of my House and Servant’.

While her servant would presumably provide daily care in this scenario, Reverend Whitehead, the vicar she had trusted to oversee her burial, would also be trusted with ‘the Support of myself and Household’ during ‘my Supposed imperfect state of mind’. Reverend Whitehead and his wife were granted Mary’s ‘Rents and Interest Money’ to pay for these outlays.

‘my silver Tumbler with the Barrels Crest on it’

In recognition of the Whiteheads’ anticipated work in managing Mary’s household and arranging her funeral, she made several other bequests to them, including ‘All my printed Books’, and ‘my largest Silver porringer’. Mary also made bequests to each of the Whiteheads’ four children, including ‘to their Youngest Daughter my Clock I give to their Eldest Son my silver Tumbler with the Barrels Crest on it’. The bequests of valuable items such as clocks and silverware were designed to recompense the Whiteheads’ work, but the gifts set aside for their children were perhaps also prompted by Mary’s own childlessness. Family heirlooms, such as the silver tumbler with the ‘Barrels Crest’, would normally be passed down to direct descendants, but Mary’s connection with younger generations was via her friends’ children.

‘five large Silver Table Spoons with her late Uncles Crest’

Other engraved items or family heirlooms were divided up amongst Mary’s nieces, nephews, and cousins. Her husband’s niece, Ann Ascough, was left ‘my Silver Coffee pot five large Silver Table Spoons with her late Uncles Crest on them Also four Tea Spoons and a Silver Strainer having the Initial Letters of her late Uncles Name upon them Also a pair of Silver Tea Tongs with these three Letters engraved on them IMY’. Ann’s brother, the Reverend Samuel Ascough, received ‘his late Uncles Silver Watch and a Studded Watch Case also a Cornelian Seal set in Gold a punch Laddle’. A cornelian or carnelian seal, like the one above, would be a red carnelian semi-precious stone with a design carved into it (often a family crest), which may have been pressed into sealing wax.

Many of the objects mentioned in Mary’s will demonstrate her and her family’s engagement with the consumption of global goods, some of which may have come into Mary’s possession via the port towns of Hull and Whitby. She listed coffee pots, punch ladles, (punch was made of imported ingredients including sugar, citrus fruit, and spices) and chinaware, and her ownership of tea strainers and tongs inscribed with the initials of her deceased uncle and husband shows that her family had owned these types of goods for several decades. The niece that Mary had appointed as her executrix, Ann Tasker, was also childless, and this perhaps explains why none of the engraved family silverware was left to her.

‘that I may not be removed out of my present Dwelling House’

Other than a servant, Mary ostensibly lived alone, and perhaps had done so for the entire eighteen-year period since her husband’s death. Her will exemplified her desire to carefully shut up her household and disperse of all her and her husband’s goods, with particular care taken to find a home for family heirlooms that would otherwise have passed directly to their children. It was perhaps her childlessness, and distance from living relatives, that prompted her to set down in writing her wishes for the end of her life, and to pre-empt any incapacity. As it was expected that wills were read and executed after death, it is unclear whether such ‘living wills’ would be considered before the probate process, but perhaps these wishes merely formalised hopes already discussed with friends and family.

Mary recorded her wishes for the end of her life, and for after her death, in May 1784, and she died around two years later. This was a much shorter time than had elapsed between the making of her uncle’s final will and his death, eight years later, afflicted by ‘palsy’. We can hope that Mary avoided falling into a long term ‘imperfect state of mind’—that she had planned for, and wished to mitigate the impacts of—and that she was able to stay in her own ‘Dwelling House’, and indeed her own ‘Lodging Room’, until the end.

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[1] PROB 11/1143/398, Will of Mary Young, Widow of Hornsea, Yorkshire, 30 June 1786.

[2] PROB 11/941/266, Will of James Young of Catwick , Yorkshire, 10 August 1768.

[3] https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/ERY/Catwick/Graveyard/Young0077

[4] PROB 11/1143/398, Will of Mary Young, Widow of Hornsea, Yorkshire, 30 June 1786.

[5] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/275171394/james-young/photo

[6] PROB 11/1143/398, Will of Mary Young, Widow of Hornsea, Yorkshire, 30 June 1786.

[7] PROB 11/810/457, Will of Henry Barrell, Gentleman of Rochester, Kent, 24 September 1754.