This chapter continues the narration of Hannah Beswick’s life, including consideration of her social circle. It offers minute examination of Hannah’s will, exploring the implications of her bequests. Using archival and genealogical sources, the identities of Hannah’s heirs and executors is revealed, including Mary Greame, a woman who has previously been overlooked in earlier versions of the story. The chapter gives biographical information about Mary Greame, suggesting a close but non-familial relationship between the two unmarried women. There is also some consideration of other previously overlooked, but nevertheless revealing, bequests in the will, including Hannah’s somewhat pointed reference to the practice of the ‘heriot’ (a form of feudal inheritance tax). The chapter argues that the will contains indications of Hannah’s character, as well as her final wishes in relation to property and money.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.