Last Will and Testament of Charles Francis Allnatt

THIS IS THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT of me, CHARLES FRANCIS ALLNATT, now residing in Cheltenham in the county of Gloucester, Gentleman.

Having been compelled, through the diminution of my small income, to invest the chief part of my securities in the purchase of Life Annuities or Annuities for terms of years (the latter transferable or disposable by Will), I do hereby revoke any previous Will or Codicil made by me, and I declare the following to be my last Will and Testament.

I direct that the hereinafter-named shares in Companies now held by me (the certificates of which are now in the safe custody of Lloyds Bank, Cheltenham), or any other shares or annuities for terms of years that may be purchased for me in lieu of the same, may be sold as soon after my death as can conveniently be done by my Executors. The proceeds of the same are to be lodged to the credit of my account with Lloyds Bank, Cheltenham, after paying my just debts, testamentary, and funeral expenses (regarding which latter I have given previous directions to Mr. Joseph Francis Hughes, Builder, Suffolk Road, Cheltenham), and after paying the following small legacies, which I desire may be at once paid to the respective legatees or Societies named prior to the further settlement of my affairs, namely:

  • I bequeath the sum of ten pounds (£10) to Mrs. Jane Williams of 20 Belmont, Shrewsbury, or in the event of her death, to her daughter, Ellen Williams.
  • I bequeath the sum of thirty pounds (£30) to my good friend, the Reverend Dean Patrick Mulligan of the Catholic Church House, Llandudno, North Wales.
  • I bequeath the sum of thirty-five pounds (£35) to the Very Reverend R. A. Wilkinson of The Priory, Cheltenham, or to his successor, for the purpose of providing a proper and permanent ventilator in the roof of St. Gregory’s Church in that town, provided the said work be carried out to the satisfaction of a skilled Sanitary Inspector or Builder within three months from the time of my decease.
  • I bequeath the sum of twenty-five pounds (£25) to Miss Hampton, now residing at 28 Montpellier Villas, Cheltenham.
  • I bequeath the sum of ten pounds (£10) to Mrs. Anne Price Jones (wife or widow of a skilled Bricklayer in Rhyl, North Wales), who formerly, when Anne Mince, resided with me for some years as Housekeeper.
  • I bequeath the sum of fifty pounds (£50) to The Providence (Row) Night Home and Refuge for destitute persons in London, of which Institution Purssell, Esquire, is now the Honorary Treasurer.
  • I bequeath the same amount of fifty pounds (£50) to the Catholic Truth Society, of which James Britten, Esquire, and the Reverend W. H. Cologan, 126 Kennington Park Road, London, are the Honorary Secretaries.
  • I bequeath the sum of ten guineas (£10 10s. 0d.) to Doctor Johns, 3 Lansdown Place, Cheltenham, or to such other competent and well-qualified medical man as shall supply his place, in thoroughly and efficiently carrying out—after my death and before the removal of my body from the house in which I may happen to die—a Post Mortem examination of my body, including especially a Post Mortem examination of my heart and the complete severance of the head from the spinal column (the said operation to be carried out to the entire satisfaction of the trustees and Executors who act for me).
  • To the Landlady of the house in which I may happen to die, I bequeath the sum of five pounds (£5) in compensation for the trouble caused her in allowing the said work to be carried out in her house.
  • I bequeath the sum of five pounds (£5) to the Cheltenham Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital in that town.
  • I bequeath the sum of five pounds (£5) to the Sisters of Nazareth House in the same town for the benefit of the Poor under their charge.

And of the remaining capital sum resulting from the sale of my securities or forming my balance at Lloyds Bank, Cheltenham, I bequeath:

  • One-third (1/3) part to my nephew, Charles Hamer (now of Tynyreithen, near Newtown), or if deceased, to his wife, if surviving him, and his family;
  • Another one-third (1/3) part to his sister, Mary Bottazzi, now residing at Pistoia, Italy;
  • And the remaining third part of the said capital sum to the Right Reverend Bishop Allen, Roman Catholic Bishop of Shrewsbury, or in the event of his death or removal, to his successor at Shrewsbury, in trust for such religious and charitable purposes and Institutions as he may approve of.

I bequeath to my said niece, Mary Bottazzi, my Bank of England Annuity for the term of fifteen years (Bond No. 192, dated October 19th, 1899), amounting to twenty-four pounds and eight pence per annum.

I bequeath to my said nephew, Charles Hamer, or if deceased, to his widow or to their children, a Bank of England Annuity certain for the term of fifteen years, being twenty-four pounds, five shillings, and four pence per annum (Bond No. 198, dated June 8th, 1900).

I bequeath my Annuity “for nineteen years certain” in the North British and Mercantile Life Assurance Office (being Bond No. 5115 for twenty pounds, thirteen shillings, and six pence per annum, payable April 22nd and October 22nd to the end of the term of nineteen years) to my sister, Ellen Salt, now residing at 20 York Road, Tunbridge Wells, or in the event of her death, to her son, Henry Shakespeare Stephens Salt, who is now Honorary Secretary to the Humanitarian Society, London.

I bequeath to my sister, Emily Augusta, Lady Durand, now residing at Grindelwald, Switzerland, any Daguerreotype photographs of our family that I may be in possession of. If the same cannot conveniently and safely be sent out to her, I bequeath the said Daguerreotypes, together with my black leather Photographic Album and the framed photographic and Crayon portraits of my father and mother, to my grand-nephew, Lawton Hamer, of Glanmyrafon, near Oswestry.

I bequeath whatever other personal furniture and effects may remain to be stored in Cheltenham to my said nephew, Charles Hamer, or in the event of his death, to his widow.

I further bequeath to my said nephew, Charles Hamer, or if deceased, to his wife if surviving him, my Bank of England Annuity for the term of twelve years (Bond Number 104, bought February 17th, 1894, and yielding twenty pounds per annum paid quarterly to my account with Lloyds Bank, Cheltenham, as are my other Bank of England Annuities).

I bequeath the remainder of my said annuities between my said nephew, Charles Hamer, and his said sister, Mary Bottazzi, equally.

And I bequeath my other securities—videlicet, stocks and shares in Companies of which Lloyds Bank, Cheltenham, has the Bonds or Certificates, and of which Richard Sandford, Esquire, of Shrewsbury, and Mr. John Darter, of Suffolk Road, Cheltenham, have a complete list. These include:

  • 155 shares in the Anglo-Argentine Tramway Company;
  • 11 shares in the South Australian Company;
  • £500 ordinary stock in the Mercantile and General Investment Trust Company, and £100 preference stock in the same Company;
  • £400 preference stock in the International Investment Trust Company;
  • £300 ordinary stock in the Guardian Investment Trust;
  • £200 ordinary stock in the Bankers Investment Trust Company;
  • £50 (reduced) in the Alliance Investment Trust.

I bequeath these and other realisable securities (including the proportions of my annuities from the time of last payment up to the time of my death) and all the rest and residue of my personal estate whatsoever and wheresoever to be realised or got in by my executors, and the proceeds thereof to be paid:

  • As to one-third, to my said nephew, Charles Hamer;
  • As to another third, to my said niece, Mary Bottazzi;
  • And as to the remaining third, to the said Right Reverend Bishop Allen, or to his successor as aforesaid, in trust as aforesaid.

And in case of my hereafter becoming incompetent to manage my own affairs—either through failure of sight or through loss of nerve or brain power, which I myself unhesitatingly attribute to the deadly mesmeric or hypnotic practices that have been carried on against me for more than twenty-five years past through the malignant and deadly Agencies described in my printed pamphlet “The Secret of the Sects” (the said Agencies having been originally employed by certain persons who were animated by insanely malignant animosity towards my father and his representatives)—I do hereby direct that the small manuscript in notebook form that I sent in Midsummer of 1900 by registered letter to the care of the Manager of Lloyd’s Bank, Cheltenham, for safe custody, be opened and forwarded, as directed in case of my death or any other special calamity occurring to me, to the Lord Chancellor or proper Government Authority. I hereby direct that this manuscript be opened and read in the presence of two or more competent Magistrates, and that the facts there briefly detailed be made known to the proper Authorities. This I do in the hope that a direful disaster may thereby be prevented from breaking out and extending itself, blighting and ruining family life and happiness in generations yet to come.

And I appoint the said Richard Sandford, Solicitor, of Shrewsbury, the said John Darter, College Librarian, of Suffolk Road, Cheltenham, and the said Joseph Francis Hughes, Builder, of 8 Suffolk Road, Cheltenham, to be my EXECUTORS and trustees.

To each of the persons so named and acting as my Executors—who shall faithfully carry out my wishes and directions in all respects, and shall have personally seen that my wishes and injunctions regarding the Post Mortem operations to be performed before my interment have been fully and conscientiously carried out—I bequeath the sum of twenty-five pounds (£25) sterling.

I direct that all the pecuniary legacies bequeathed by me shall be paid free of legacy duty, and that such duty shall be paid out of the residue of my estate.

I declare that the said Richard Sandford shall, notwithstanding his acceptance of the Executorship of my Will, be entitled to charge and be allowed out of my estate all professional and other charges for his time and trouble which, if not being himself a trustee and executor, he would be entitled to make as a Solicitor or Agent employed by my Executors.

IN WITNESS whereof, I, the said Charles Francis Allnatt, have hereunder set my hand to this my Will, this sixth day of July, one thousand nine hundred and one (1901).

(Signed) CHARLES F. ALLNATT

Signed and declared by the above-named Charles Francis Allnatt, the testator, as and for his last Will and testament, in the presence of us present at the same time, who in his presence, at his request, and in the presence of each other, have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses:

  • JOHN W. CHADWICK, Solicitor, Cheltenham
  • WILLIAM C. YEANDLE, 9 Montpellier Villas, Cheltenham, Tailor

Codicil

THIS IS A CODICIL to the last Will and Testament executed in Midsummer of 1901 and deposited by me in Lloyd’s Bank Ltd., High Street, Cheltenham, of CHARLES FRANCIS ALLNATT, now residing in Llandudno, North Wales.

I give and bequeath to my good friend, G. M. M. Edes (in general residing at Barmouth, but now attending me as Lady Nurse and Companion), the sum of forty pounds (£40) sterling, in consideration of the kind attention that she has assiduously bestowed on myself and my invalid wants and requirements, and in the hope that the said sum may contribute towards the fund that she desires to raise for initiating the Nursing Home, the establishment of which she contemplates.

I leave to my good friend, John Darter, Librarian to Cheltenham College and residing in Suffolk Road of that town, the sum of twenty-five pounds (£25) sterling, in addition to the small legacy which I have already bequeathed to him as one of my executors in my said Will. I do so in order to show my personal esteem for him and as a small token of my grateful sense of the kindness and goodwill that he has on so many occasions exhibited towards myself.

I also leave to my friend, the Very Rev. Dean Mulligan, Catholic Priest of Llandudno, the sum of twenty-five pounds (£25) sterling, over and above the small legacy that I have already bequeathed to him in my said Will of Midsummer last, which Will I hereby confirm and ratify in all respects.

IN WITNESS whereof, I hereby affix my signature this 16th day of October in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and one (1901), in the presence of two witnesses who, in my presence and in the presence of one another, have hereunto affixed their signatures as witnesses.

(Signed) CHAS. F. ALLNATT

Witnesses to Testator’s signature:

  • W. O. JONES, Lloyd’s Bank, Llandudno
  • F. DOUGLAS JONES, Lloyds Bank, Llandudno

(Affidavit of due execution of Codicil filed.)

PROBATE NOTE:

On the 27th day of July, 1903, Probate of this Will and Codicil was granted to Richard Sandford, John Darter, and Joseph Francis Hughes, the Executors.