First I give and devise to my Son Robert his heires forever my Messuage or Tenement Lands and Prmisses [Premises] with the Appurtences [Appurtenances] lying and being in the parish of St. Johns, alsoe my Messuage or Tenement in the Occupacon of Thomas Julfe and the Lands thereunto belonging now in my Occupacon Alsoe all my parte, Interest right title and share of the house and Lands wherein I now dwell, also six Acres of Land more or less, which (were) given by my wifes grandfather after the decease of her Mother now the wife of Thomas Gore of St. Peters and lieth in the parish of St. Lawrence att such time And when my Son Robert shall attaine the Age of twenty Yeares
Item I give and devise to my daughter Elizabeth Crofts and to her Heires forever ten pounds a Yeare to
be paid issuing and going out of my Messuage and Lands at Petham called Swarling in the County of
Kent and in the Occupacon of John Strong
Item I give and bequeath unto my loving wife the like sume of ten pounds a Yeare for and during the Terme of her naturall Life
to be paid to my said daughter Elizabeth and Wife [Elizabeth] by halfe Yearly
payments, that is to say, the Feast of St. Michael the Archangell and the Annunciation of the blessed
Virgin Mary The First payment to be made and begin at (the) First and next of the Feasts which shall First happen after my decease
And if it shall happen that the severall Annuities shall happen not to be paid to my said wife and daughter as I have directed then my will and meaning is that it shall and may be lawfull for my wife and daughter to enter upon the prmises and distraine and the distress and distresses so taken to load, drive, carry away and impound till they shall be fully satisfied and paid with the charges of distraining
Item I give and bequeath all my Stock Crop moveable goods and husbandry goods to be equally divided betweene my wife and children
I give to twenty poor widowes of St. Peters aforesaid one shilling a peice to be paid within ten dayes after my decease by my Executrix
And I hereby constitute and appoint my loving Wife my sole Executrix (who I desire would give me a
decent burial) And I hereby revoke all former Wills by me made
Robert Crofts
Signed sealed published and declared by the said Robert Croftes to be his last Will in the prsence of
Nicholas Wilde - Hester Clun her marke - Silas Johnson
Probatum fuit: To Elizabeth Croftes Septimo die Septembris [7th September 1706].
Notes:
£10 in 1706 is worth more than £2,400 today. [Source: Bank of England Inflation Calculator]
Robert Croft, 28, Bachelor, Husbandman of St. Peter in Thanet married Ann Mockett, 21, Spinster of St.
Peter in Thanet, at St. Mary Northgate, Canterbury on 29th August 1658.
Robert Croftes married Elizabeth Noldridge 29th December 1700 at St. Peter, Isle of Thanet.
Transcribed by Shelagh Mason 13th June 2020.
Return to Kent GenealogyWill of Robert Croftes