In his will written in April 1846 (National Archives, PROB 11/2048), seven months before his unhappy demise described below, Benjamin Croot left legacies to his six children. He helpfully named them as Benjn, Mary Ann, Margratt, Elizabeth H., Alfred and Adalad (his spellings). Marriages and census returns have now been pinpointed for most of them, as well as likely death/burial records for those older children for whom baptisms had been found but who aren't mentioned in the will.
Apart from a sum of £100 for his son-in-law Charles Hawkins, to help him set up a 'little shop of business', the amount of each bequest was left blank in the register copy of the will. So my next port of call is the death duty register, to check out the value of Benjamin's estate and establish who received what. The index to death duty registers (IR 27 at the National Archives, accessible at Find My Past) provides me with the volume (1) and folio number (43) that I'll need to look for in the register for 1847, which is spread between four pieces. The folio reference leads, via Discovery, to piece IR 26/1765, which is now on my lookup list for Kew.
As regards Benjamin's origins, the 1841 census tells us only that he was born outside Middlesex. But the will gives us the names of his surviving siblings -- brothers Thomas, Henry and William Croot and a sister Mary Garratt. Taken together, they point to some likely antecedents for Benjamin Croot, in Bedfordshire.
Wills can be specially valuable for London research. For centuries the capital has acted as a magnet, its employment prospects attracting people from all over the country. Many of those who feature in our research were born, like Benjamin, in the 1780s and died in London before 1851, without leaving us a record of their place of birth. Finding the origins of these ancestors can be a real challenge. But a will may narrow down the options, by naming relatives whose place of birth can be identified, or by locating land or property 'back home'. A really informative will can serve as an effective battering-ram against this particular brickwall, so often encountered in London research.
Apart from a sum of £100 for his son-in-law Charles Hawkins, to help him set up a 'little shop of business', the amount of each bequest was left blank in the register copy of the will. So my next port of call is the death duty register, to check out the value of Benjamin's estate and establish who received what. The index to death duty registers (IR 27 at the National Archives, accessible at Find My Past) provides me with the volume (1) and folio number (43) that I'll need to look for in the register for 1847, which is spread between four pieces. The folio reference leads, via Discovery, to piece IR 26/1765, which is now on my lookup list for Kew.
As regards Benjamin's origins, the 1841 census tells us only that he was born outside Middlesex. But the will gives us the names of his surviving siblings -- brothers Thomas, Henry and William Croot and a sister Mary Garratt. Taken together, they point to some likely antecedents for Benjamin Croot, in Bedfordshire.
Wills can be specially valuable for London research. For centuries the capital has acted as a magnet, its employment prospects attracting people from all over the country. Many of those who feature in our research were born, like Benjamin, in the 1780s and died in London before 1851, without leaving us a record of their place of birth. Finding the origins of these ancestors can be a real challenge. But a will may narrow down the options, by naming relatives whose place of birth can be identified, or by locating land or property 'back home'. A really informative will can serve as an effective battering-ram against this particular brickwall, so often encountered in London research.
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