12 S. III. MARCH 31, 19170 NOTES AND QUERIES.
251
A RIMING WILL.
(12 S. iii. 185.)
I OBSEBVE with some astonishment, no to say amusement, that MB. GBUNDY NEWMAN appears to invite the readers o
- N. & Q.' to regard the production printec
at the above reference as genuinely the las will and testament of Sir Willoughby Dixie Bart., as executed at Bosworth Park on June 1, 1815, and proved in Doctors Commons on Aug. 17 of that year. With out mincing matters, I may at once avow that this is pure unadulterated fiction from beginning to end.
To begin with, the first baronet of Bos worth Park, who was generally known as Sir Willoughby Dixie, died in 1827. He happened to be my maternal grandfather and it is from him that I inherit my Christian name. He was the 7th baronet. He was succeeded by his son Willoughby Wol- stan, who, however, like his distinguished ancestor who was Lord Mayor of London in 1585, was always known as Sir Wolstan Dixie.
The Willoughby Dixie to whom this riming will has been attributed is beyond all doubt the son, by his second marriage, of Sir Wolstan Dixie, the 4th baronet, who died in 1766 according to Burke's ' Peerage,' but in 1767 according to the inscription on his tomb in Market Bosworth CXiurch. This Willoughby Dixie did have a sister named Eleanor, who married George Pochin, Esq., of Bourn Abbey, Leicestershire ; and another sister named Rosamond, who mar- ried Clement Kynriersley, Esq., of Loxlev, in Staffordshire. Furthermore he had as shown in his genuine will two servants named Drakeley, some of whose descendants are, I believe, still residing in Market Bosworth, or certainly were when I was last there. This Willoughby Dixie is thus clearly earmarked as the supposed poetical testator. But he never succeeded to the baronetcy because he died at the age of 60 on Oct. 5, 1802, four years prior to the death of his elder half-brother Sir Wolstan, the 5th baronet, who succeeded his father. Finally, Willoughby died unmarried, if we may credit the inscription on his tomb in Bosworth Church written by his sister "sister Eleanor of Bourn," whom he left his sole executrix the only accurate state-
ment in the riming will. So much therefore
' Mary Ann. who was my wife,
The joy and comfort of my life.
Willoughby Dixie having departed this life, as above stated, in 1802, the absurdity of his having executed a will at Bosworth Park on June 1, 1815, is proved to demon- stration.
As a matter of fact he did execute a will in 1801, a year before he died, which was duly proved in what was styled at that time the Prerogative Court of Canterbury in April, 1803. It was quite a prosaic document, as will be seen by the following copy :
This is the last will and testament of me Willoughby Dixie of Bosworth Park in the County of Leicester esquire I give and devise my Manor or Lordship of Normanton Catton in the County of Derby and all my Messuages Cottages Cleves Lands tenements and other Heriditaments whatever in Normanton and Catton aforesaid and elsewhere in the County of Derby with their right Members and appur- tenances and also my advowson and right of patronage and presentation of in and to the vicarage and Parish Church of Saint Peter in the town of Derby unto Thomas Pares the younger of Leicester Gentleman and his heirs to the several uses hereinafter thereof limitted (sic) and declared that is to say to the use of my sister Eleanor Frances the Widow of the late Colonel George Pochin and her assigns for and during the term of her natural life without impeachment of or for any manner of waste land from and immediately after her decease to the use of all and every the son and sons of my cousin the Revd. Thomas Wright Rector of Market Bosworth in the County of Leicester that shall be living at the decease of my said sister to be equally divided amongst them if more than one share and share alike to take as tenants in com- mon and not as joint tenants and of the several and respective heirs of the bodies of all and every such son and sons lawfully issuing and in case one or more of such sons shall happen to die without issue of his or their body or bodies ihen as to the share of him or them so dying the use of the survivors or other of them share and share alike to take as tenants in common and not as joint tenants and of the several and respective heirs of their bodies law- iilly issuing and in case all such sons but one shall happen to die without issue or if there shall >e but one such son that shall survive my said lister then to the use of such surviving or only on and the heirs of his body lawfully issuing tnd for default of such issue as also in the case )f no son of my said cousin surviving my said ister to the use of my said cousin Thomas Wright lis heirs and assigns for ever I give and bequeath my nine thousand pounds Capital in the Stock >f the Bank of England with all dividends tiiat hall be due and unreceived thereon at the time my death unto my faithful servant John )rakeley for his own use I give and bequeath he sum of nine hundred pounds allowed to me ome years past as an increased dividend on uch stock and still remaining in the Bank of
