| Description | Proved 4 February 1745-6. Animated throughout by very strong feeling against his eldest son and heir William. Gives him a moiety of his books, but adds that he [William] has no semblance of right or claim to them; declares that if his second and favourite son Lewis will alien or convey certain interests bequeathed to him [Lewis] to the person entitled to the inheritance [i.e. William], Lewis the elder adjudges such alienation to be null and void; enjoins W. to observe punctiliously all the terms of this will and especially to pay to Lewis what is due to him as executor under a bond signed by W. on 8 November 1738, and to put no obstacles in the way of Lewis receiving certain sums under the mortgage deeds of 1739 (see DIN/214 - DIN/216), sums that are once more recited in this will; a few lines from the end W. is put down coldly as obstinate. It is no wonder, therefore, that three strong, substantial men were named as overseers of the will to guard the interests of young Lewis: Owen Meyrick of Bodorgan, William Lewis of Llysdulas, and William Prichard of Caernarvon.
A small bequest to the poor of Llanfihangel-yn-Nhowyn, and £10 to his cousin Margaret Hughes "daughter of my great aunt Ann Price, deceased," a person otherwise unknown to the pedigree makers. L.H. avers that the original will was written by his own hand, but it is an awful jumble of repetition and disconnected bursts of prejudice. One very curious aspect of the document is that none of the younger children are mentioned except Lewis - there were eight children altogether, as far as is known, alive in 1742 (Pedigree, 71). According to the same Pedigrees William Hughes died in 1754 (alive on 6 May in that year according to document DIN/220), but there is no information about Lewis. |