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Yolland family documents
Above: Memorial in Ashburton churchyard to some of the Yolland family. Some of it is difficult to read - probable inscription is in italics.
Sacred to the memory of Stephen Yolland who departed this life May 23rd 1867 aged 48
Also of Stephen Upton Yolland son of the above died March 12th 1863
Also of Annie Marie Yolland daughter of the above who died 22nd November 1868
All the documents on this page are from my own collection
On October 1st 1818 two children, William and Stephen, were baptized, the sons of Stephen and Susanna Yolland. Stephen is a yeoman, and the couple live at Mead in the parish of Ashburton.
Parish register
1842 Stephen Upton Yolland, aged 62, was buried March 11th.
Parish register
In 1861 Stephen Yolland, aged 42, a corn and seed dealer, was living with his 28 year old wife Sarah in East Street.
1862 Stephen Upton Yolland, the son of Stephen and Sarah, is baptized on June 17th. Stephen is described as a merchant.
Parish register
1867 Stephen Yolland dies aged 48, and is buried on May 28th
Parish register
By 1869 Sarah, a widow, borrowed £24.
Dated 2nd July 1869, the bond (below) has the title: Mrs Sarah Yolland to Messrs George Wills Yolland and Charles Yolland, Bond for securing £24 and interest.
Stephen Yolland, George Wills Yolland and Charles Yolland were all brothers.
See The Ashburton Yolland Family on http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ for well documented evidence
See also the 1870s section of the virtual museum for a receipt connected to Stephen Yolland
Right: An invoice sent by Mssrs Whidbourne and Tozer to Mr G W Yolland for work done in 1870.
It reads as follows:
1870 March Having heard from you that part of the trust funds under your marriage settlement* were about to be invested and requesting us to prepare the necessary documents writing in reply Letter to Mr Sawdye for particulars of the security and thereon.
15th. Having heard from Mr Sawdye that the investment was proposed to be made in your name and to know if same was legal and desiring us to write you thereon Letters to Mr Sawdye and yourself accordingly that the investment could not properly be made other than in the trustees names
July 20th. Attending you at Newton taking instructions for your will also with you at West of England Bank to ascertain mode of obtaining payment of dividends on stock in their bank standing in names of your settlement trustees direct ot you and the manager was to enquire and let us hear
Carried forward
Reverse of invoice
Brought forward
1870 July 22nd Drawing will and fair copy for (?) 15
Letter to you therewith for approval and fully thereon
23rd Having heard from the manager of the Bank with form of direction for signature by trustees letter to you therewith
27th Attending you and Messrs Symons and Sawdye at Newton Abbot and attesting the execution of your will
The invoice totals £2 1s 10d and was paid on the 20th February 1871
* George Wills Yolland married Mary Ann Symons in the Newton Abbot registration district, March quarter 1867
In the 1871 census George, a chemist and druggist, is living with his wife Mary Ann next door to James Yolland, tailor, and his wife Elizabeth. The two properties are between the New Bottle Inn and the Sun Inn in North Street.
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Right: A copy of the will of Mary Ann Yolland
It reads: This is the last will of me Mary Ann Yolland of Ashburton in the county of Devon widow.
I appoint my nephew Richard Harris Symons of Claremont Higher Brixham Devon and Henry Mallaby Firth of Ashburton aforesaid gentleman executors and trustees of this my will I direct my executors to call in the sum of three hundred pounds due to me from my brother Thomas Symons and I bequeath the said sum of three hundred pounds to six of the children of the said Thomas Symons namely Elizabeth Mudge the wife of Richard Mudge of Higher Brixham aforesaid Master Mariner Lucy the wife of Henry Maye of East Leigh Harberton Devon Mary Ann Symons the said Richard Harris Symons George Symons and Alfred Symons or the survivors of them share and share alike......
I bequeath to my nephew the said Richard Harris Symons the sum of twenty five pounds and to the said Henry Mallaby Firth the sum of twenty five pounds in case they shall respectively prove my will which two last mentioned bequests shall be free of legacy duty..........
I devise and bequeath all the residue of my estate and effects whatsoever and wheresoever and whether real or personal to which I may be entitled at my decease under the will of my late husband or otherwise howsoever....unto and to the use of my said nephew Richard Harris Symons and the said Henry Mallaby Firth (to) pay my funeral and testamentary expenses and debts and legacies and divide the residue equally between the above named six children of my said brother Thomas Symons James Yolland of Ashburton Tailor Frances Yolland and Mary Yolland daughters of the late Joseph Yolland of Teignmouth Devon Henry Yolland Susan Yolland and Mary Yolland children of the late John Yolland of Pitley Ashburton Richard Hext and Lucy Maria Hext children of Richard Hext Of Yolland Hill Ashburton and Mary Ann Elizabeth Austin wife of Joseph Austin of Bristol and Florence Maria Symons daughters of the late Richard Harris Symons and I declare that all legacies hereinbefore bequeathed shall be payable to such of the said legatees being minors on their attaining the age of twenty one years or marrying under that age and the receipt of the said legatees shall be sufficient discharge for the same.........and I further declare that all legacies hereinbefore bequeathed to females shall be for their respective separate use........
In witness thereof I the said Mary Ann Yolland have hereunto set my hand this nineteenth day of June one thousand eight hundred and eighty six
Signed by the said Mary Ann Yolland as and for her last will in the presence of us both being present at the same time who at her request in her presence and in the presence of each other have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses
William Mann Ashburton Devon Auctioneer
Thos P Bastow Ashburton Devon Solicitor's Clerk
[A codicil to the will increases a ten pound sum bequeathed to Henry Mallaby Firth to twenty five pounds. Dated the third day of February one thousand eight hundred and eighty eight, it is witnessed by Charlotte Richards Ashburton Devon and Thomas Preston Bastow Ashburton Devon]
Mary Ann Yolland, relict of Geo Wills Yolland, died on February 9th, 1888
Western Times 11 February 1888 p2 col4
Right: Two pages from an account made by the executors of Mary Ann Yolland for the Inland Revenue.
Under the column 'Money received and property converted into money' is written -
Cash in the house 18s 4d
Cash at the bankers £470
Furniture, plate, linen, china, books, pictures, wearing apparel, jewels and ornaments £32 5s 11d
Mortgages and interest due at death, sold with accrued interest £100
Bonds, bills, notes, and interest due at death
£649 15s
Railway shares, viz £350 Great Eastern Railway Preference stock £421 7s 8d
Other shares, viz £90 Mill Bay Soap Alkali and Soda Co shares (nothing written) There is no market for this security probable value £80
Page 2
The stocks or public securities of foreign states, viz
£20 Egyptian Unified debt bond
£100 Converted Ottoman debt series
£40 Egyptian Preference bond
Sold together for a total of £69 1s 6d
Property not comprised within the above description viz
2 shares of £100 in the Honduras Inter Oceanic Railway Co Ltd
One share of £20 in the Teign Valley Ry Co
Both these securities are valueless.
Mrs Yolland's property came to a total of £1823 8s 5d
From this, payments were made as follows:
Probate or administration £67 15s 9d
Funeral expenses £15 0s 3d
Expenses attending executorship or administration £37 17s
Debts on simple contracts, rent and taxes, wages etc due at the death of the deceased £105 9s 2d
Pecuniary legacies per account annexed £380
Leaving net amount of property £1217 6s 3d
Above and above right: One of the receipts for duty mentioned above.
The bond (below left) reads: Know all men by these presents that I, Sarah Yolland of Ashburton in the County of Devon widow am held and firmly bound to George Wills Yolland of Ashburton aforesaid chemist and Charles Yolland of the same place butcher in the penal sum of forty eight pounds of good and lawful money of Great Britain. To be paid to the said George Wills Yolland and Charles Yolland or their certain attorney executors administrators or assigns for the true payment whereof I bind myself my heirs executors and administrators and every of them firmly by these presents sealed with my seal dated this second day of July in the thirty third year of the reign of our sovereign lady Victoria by the grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen Defender of the Faith etc. and in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty nine.
The condition of this obligation is such that if the above bounden Sarah Yolland her heirs executors administrators some or one of them shall and do well and truly pay or cause to be paid unto the above named George Wills Yolland and Charles Yolland their heirs executors administrators or assigns the full sum of twenty four pounds of good and lawful money of Great Britain on demand thereof, together with interest for the same in the meantime at the rate of four pounds per centum per annum without fraud or further delay then this obligation to be void and of none effect or else to remain in full force and virtue.
Sealed and delivered (being first duly stampt) in the presence of Robert Dobell stamp office Ashburton.
(Signed) Sarah Yolland
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Left: A list of documents connected with the 'settlement' (presumably the marriage settlement) of Mr and Mrs G W Yolland. The list is undated, but refers to documents in 1849 and 1867.
It reads as follows:
Mr and Mrs G W Yolland - Settlement
Documents handed over by Messrs Whidbourne and Tozer on completion.
1849 June 30th Promisory note of this date for £400 of which £100 paid off, signed by Mr Thomas Symons one of the trustees in favour of Miss M A Symons
Handed to Mr Edward Sawdye the other trustee
1867 March 27th Indenture of settlement of this date
March 22nd Receipt of this date for £300 by Messrs Watts Whidbourne and Moir of the Ashburton Bank
April 6th Certificate of transfer of this date of four shares in the Mill Bay Soap ..?.. Co and four old certificates of proprietorship
March 22nd Certificate of value of Metropolitan Bank and Mill Bay shares
April 9th Certificate of proprietorship of this date of eight shares in the Metropolitan Bank Limited
Handed to Mr Thomas Symons
Left: 'In the matter of the Companies' Acts 1862 and 1867 and in the matter of the West of England and South Wales District Bank'. A receipt dated 9 April 1880, certifying that Mr George Wills Yolland had paid £20 into the Bank of England, 'to be placed to the credit of the Official Liquidators' "Second Call Account".
In the 19th century shareholders often had some liability should the company that they were investing in fail.
Men, Women, and Money: Perspectives on Gender, Wealth, and Investment 1850-1930 , David R Green, Alastair Owens, Josephine Maltby and Janette Rutterfold, Oxford Scholarship Online, 2011, chapter 9
Creditors of the West of England and South Wales District Bank had had to file any claims to the Official Liquidators by 15 March 1879
London Gazette Issue 24686, 28 February 1879 p1803
Two months before the West of England and South Wales District Bank had sought to wind up Thomas W Booker and Company Ltd., as they were unsecured creditors of £20,000 upwards. Failures of companies such as Thomas W Booker must surely have contributed to the demise of the bank itself.
London Gazette Issue 24665, 3 January 1879 p9
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Below left: An executors' oath made at the district registry at Exeter.
It reads: In the goods of Mary Ann Yolland deceased
We Richard Harris Symons of Brixham in the couonty of Devon gentleman nephew of the deceased and Henry Mallaby Firth of Ashburton in the county of Devon gentleman make oath that we believe the paper writings hereto annexed and marked by us to contain the true and original last Will and Testament with two codicils of Mary Ann Yolland late of Ashburton in the county of Devon widow deceased; and that we are the executors therein named, and that we will well and faithfully administer the personal estate of the said deceased, by paying her just debts, and the legacies contained in her said Will and codicils so far as the same shall thereto extend and the law bind us; and that we will exhibit a true and perfect inventory of the said personal Estate, and render a just and true account thereof whenever required by law so to do; that the deceased died at Ashburton on the ninth day of February 1888, and that she had at the time of her death a fixed place of abode at Ashburton within the district of the county of Devon, and that the whole of the personal Estate of the said deceased amounts in value to the sum of one thousand eight hundred nad thirty eight pounds fifteen shillings and eight pence and no more, to the best of our knowledge, information and belief.
Sworn by the said Richard Harris Symons and Henry Mallaby Firth at Ashburton in the co_____
in the _________
on the __________day of 188_, before me
On page 3 of the account there is a note: When the residuary account has been passed separate legacy receipts shall be prepared and signed by the sixteen residuary legatees who will pay their respective duties according to their degrees of relationship to deceased.
Since rendering this account a sale of some Mill Bay shares has been effected at Public Auction in Plymouth and realized £18 (?) ...?.. The net residue must be revised (?) £8
Above: Signatures of the executors Richard Harris Symons and Henry Mallaby Firth
Left: A receipted bill from J W Mann, Marble mason and Coal Merchant of East Street, Ashburton. Dated February 1888, it is addressed to the executors of the late Mrs Yolland, and is for 'Removing headstone and curb, also cleaning and refinishing (?) the same with additional inscription'. The cost was 16s 6d.
The receipt states that James Yolland, Mary Yolland and Frances Yolland all received 'one sixteenth part of supplemental net residue'.
They are all stated to be 'Strangers in blood', ie not blood relatives.
Textbook on Legal Language and Legal Writing, Prof Dr K L Bhatia, Universal Law Publishing Co., 2010, p334