The Will of Harriett Wombwell

Harriett Wombwell left an extensive will which made its way in original copy into Harold Eldridge’s box file. It is dated and signed 19th July, 1870, with Harriett’s address now being 29 Cottage Grove, Bow. Harriett was to die on March 8th the following year.

Cottage Grove today, now called Rhonda Grove. Harriett Wombwell lived out her days in one of the houses on this street. This smart town house is the current number 29, and may or may not be where she lived and died. From GOOGLE Maps.

Just like her mother, Maria West back in 1846, what preoccupied Harriett in her last days was the thorny issue of how to deal with business back in County Down, Ireland. She appointed two legal executors, William Nevin Wallace in Downpatrick (a distant family connection, it will be recalled) and Sydney Mayhew in London to tidy up her affairs, with recent events and court-cases very much in her mind.

First, it was time to call in debts. Thomas Gracey of Downpatrick owed her 1000 pounds, and Hugh Wallace of her own legal firm, 500 pounds. Certain notables of County Down had apparently been somewhat remiss in transferring what were presumably land rental debts. It is worth noting that even with a conservative estimate the purchasing power of 1000 pounds in 1871 would be more like 80,000 pounds today. Harriett had been doing very well indeed from her mother’s bequest.

The funds accruing from these debts were to be distributed equally amongst the eight surviving children, with a ninth share to be divided between the two children of her already deceased daughter, Catherine West Carter. Given the attempt through the High Court by Catherine’s husband to swallow up her sister’s legacy, there is an explicit instruction in her bequests to her daughters. The funds to be left to them, were to be left to them alone, and deposited in individual accounts. No wriggle room was to be left for opportunistic husbands, current or future, to engage in any more assaults on her birthright. Not that Harriett had done very badly financially out of the Robinson-Neale court case of 1865. According to the will, resulting just from this case alone, she had over 4,000 pounds of credit set aside.

It is in Harriett’s will also that the decision to sell the Irish lands originates, with Mayhew and Wallace being firmly instructed to auction off or privately sell the lands in question and equitably distribute the profits to her children. It was to take them a full ten years, until July 1881, to succeed in doing so, the delays, according to the lawyers at least, being due to uncertainties as to land boundaries, and other such technical details. 

Other funds left over, including those from Maria West’s will, were shared out on the same principles. By the time numerous legal fees and taxes had been subtracted, it looks like each of the children would have received an initial payout of around 180 pounds, which in those days must have come in very handy indeed.

Harriett by now also had a piano. This she left to her daughter, Rosetta, who appears in the 1871 census as a music teacher. Jewellery, linen and furnishings were also available in sufficient quantities to be distributed amongst her daughters.

The lives of the children of Charles John Robinson and Harriett Wombwell will be detailed in the sections that follow. As will be seen, this was an extremely large family.  Standard genealogical conventions will therefore be adopted to make the lines as accessible as possible.