Gateway Lawrence Smith of Virginia

[Nathan Murphy]

In online trees, I see statements that Lawrence Smith's mother Elizabeth Smith nee Towneley left a will in Lancashire, England in 1679. I'd like to read this will, but am having difficulty locating it.

In the published index, I see:
Elizabeth Smith, of Stonyrakes, 1679
https://books.google.com/books?id=InNEAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA247&lpg=PA247

I browsed through loose 'S' surname original wills, Consistory Court of Chester (Lancashire residents), for the years 1678, 1679, and 1680, but didn't find Elizabeth's will.
https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/126866

In that court's supra act book, I found:
7 Feb 1679[/80]
Test[amenta] cu[m] In[venta]rio bonor[um] &c Elizabethae Smith nup[er] de Stony rakes in Brerecliffe in Com[itatu] Lanc[] viduae def[un]c[t]ae exhibit[] et probat[] Com[m]issaque fuit executo[] eiusd[em] Tho[m]a Smith filio &c unico Ex[ecuto]ri no[m]i[n]at[] &c prius cora[m] Surr[oga]to pred[icto] iurat &c.
FHL Film 2106803, f. [1]; online restricted access, https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/289630

Does anyone have the image or a transcript of Elizabeth's will?

Thanks,

Nathan

[c***@gmail.com]

Dear Nathan ~

Thank you for posting your research on the family of the immigrant, Major Lawrence Smith [died 1700], of Gloucester County, Virginia.

My recent DNA test revealed that I'm a lineal descendant of Major Lawrence Smith through my 5th great-grandmother, Margaret (Harrison) Kercheval. So your Smith research findings are most welcome.

Best always, Douglas Richardson, Salt Lake City, Utah

Post by Nathan Murphy
In online trees, I see statements that Lawrence Smith's mother Elizabeth Smith nee Towneley left a will in Lancashire, England in 1679. I'd like to read this will, but am having difficulty locating it.
Elizabeth Smith, of Stonyrakes, 1679
https://books.google.com/books?id=InNEAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA247&lpg=PA247
I browsed through loose 'S' surname original wills, Consistory Court of Chester (Lancashire residents), for the years 1678, 1679, and 1680, but didn't find Elizabeth's will.
https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/126866
7 Feb 1679[/80]
Test[amenta] cu[m] In[venta]rio bonor[um] &c Elizabethae Smith nup[er] de Stony rakes in Brerecliffe in Com[itatu] Lanc[] viduae def[un]c[t]ae exhibit[] et probat[] Com[m]issaque fuit executo[] eiusd[em] Tho[m]a Smith filio &c unico Ex[ecuto]ri no[m]i[n]at[] &c prius cora[m] Surr[oga]to pred[icto] iurat &c.
FHL Film 2106803, f. [1]; online restricted access, https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/289630
Does anyone have the image or a transcript of Elizabeth's will?
Thanks,
Nathan

[Nathan Murphy]

Post by c***@gmail.com
your Smith research findings are most welcome.
Best always, Douglas Richardson, Salt Lake City, Utah

I found the answer to my question about Elizabeth Smith's missing will in a very nicely-researched article published in 1973:

'Our hopes of more positive evidence were raised by noting that an Elizabeth Smith of Stonirakes, widow, had left a will in 1679, still at the Lancashire Record Office. Our information from Lancashire, disappointingly, was that this will had completely deteriorated; but more recently Mrs. Jonathan Floyd Reeves of Nacogdoches, Texas … sent me a copy of the will made by ultraviolet photography, and though only the right half is clearly readable, this half, plus a few words deciphered in the more damaged portion, furnishes some valuable data.' (pp. 355-356)

Source: Mary Burton Derrickson McCurdy, 'The Townleys and Warners of Virginia and Their English Connections,' The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 81, No. 3 (Jul., 1973), pp. 319-367. This can be checked out at JSTOR by creating a free account: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4247812

The author collaborated with Sir Anthony Wagner, Garter King of Arms, George H.S. King, FASG, and John Frederick Dorman, FASG.

Nathan