Some Oliver wills from 1861-1941 index

jane · Senior Member

Some Oliver wills from 1861-1941 index

Shane Bywaters · Guru

Hi Jane,

I'm definitely out here, and reading all that you're posting.

Thanks for that additional info on will's. I see, so you'll really never what you'll get until you've got it, though as you say those calendar entries themselves are interesting snippets.

I notice one in there for Francis and Minnie who we've been talking about re: Richard Barratt/Canada etc

Minnie Oliver of Stonesfield, wife of Francis William Oliver, builder’s foreman, d. 5 Feb 1926 at the Radcliffe Infirmary, administration same year to the said Francis William Oliver (effects £515-17s.-6d.).

On the topic of wills also, someone who has been researching the Olivers for quite a while but who isn't active with this site has passed me some interesting information on a potential 1691 Oliver will, now that goes back to Long Compton times.

I need to find sometime to travel across the boundary into Worcester to check that one out, could be interesting, or a 'I leave everything to my wife' one

Thanks again for that extra info, invaluable as always.
Shane

PS: Hope yourChristmas break is all ok and enjoyable!

jane · Senior Member

Hi Shane

Glad to see someone else is out there: I seem to have been just talking to myself for the last few days!

There isn't a standard format at all for wills, so you never know what you're going to get. Sometimes they can be very disappointing, just saying "I leave everything to my wife, who I nominate as sole executrix', but at the other extreme you can get pages and pages, listing many different relatives and who is to get what. They can be helpful in locating names of children, grandchildren and more distant relations, and in discovering where people have gone (for example my great-great-grandfather's will refers to one of his sons being in Rangoon).

Wills can give you some idea of what property people owned. There is no need for things to be itemised: it is quite common to find a few legacies of money and then all the rest ('the residue') to the wife, or eldest son, or whoever. However, sometimes people do mention individual possessions of particular financial or sentimental importance. Another one of my relatives intriguingly left to his son "my green wooden box and all its contents". I never did find out what was in the box!

You'll see that some of the entries in my original list are not grants of probate but what are called letters of administration ('admons' for short). When someone died without leaving a will, an 'admon' may have been issued to empower a relative to deal with the estate. Usually these are much less informative than wills. Occasionally you find terms such as 'administration (with will annexed)': there's one for E.A. Oliver in the list. This may indicate that there was some glitch with the will, for example it wasn't properly witnessed.

In summary, sometimes you get good value for your £5 and other times you don't. Sometimes just the entries in the Calendar (i.e. the abstracts like the ones in my list) give useful snippets for free: I had seen from sales particulars at the museum that a Mrs L. Oliver had put Webbs Farm, Finstock, up for sale in the 1930s, and now it looks like she was probably Lizzie Oliver.

Oh, I should also say that the National Probate Calendar entries that aren't on Ancestry (i.e. the ones from 1858 to 1860, and from 1942 onwards) are still available the old-fashioned way, i.e. on microfilm at Oxfordshire Studies and in book form at First Avenue House in London.

Hope this helps!

Jane

Shane Bywaters · Guru

Hi Jane,

So sorry to have been offline for a while, I have been reading all of the updates on the message board, just no time to contribute recently!

Wonderful information below, thanks for sharing, though I see its another area of Ancestry that my lowly 'Essentials' subscription will not allow me to access ;-(

I've a bit of an ignorant question actually, I've never seen a will document from this period at all - I'm just wondering what information you can expect to find on the National Probate Calendar 1861 to 1941 will documents? - I'm guessing there was probably some sort of outline template/structure, like the BMD certificates from 1837 perhaps? - would you know, have you ever purchased one?

Thanks,
Shane

jane · Senior Member

Our present probate system was set up in 1858 and until recently the indexes were not widely available. However, now quite a sizeable chunk of the "National Probate Calendar" is online via Ancestry, covering 1861 to 1941. The wills themselves aren’t online, unfortunately. You can obtain copies by post from the York District Probate Registry, which deals with postal applications for the whole country, or in person at First Avenue House in London. In either case they cost £5 each.

Here are the entries for Olivers who died in Oxfordshire, in chronological order of grant of probate or administration. The ones in bold are ones that are from the Stonesfield/Finstock area:

Ann Oliver of Great Rollright, widow, d.24 Sept 1876, probate granted same year to Jesse Rose of Haddenham, Bucks, builder, sole executor (effects under £200).

John Oliver of Finstock, yeoman, d.10 Aug 1878, probate granted same year to John Hopcraft of Finstock, tailor, one of the executors (personal estate under £100)

Ann Oliver of 58 Juxon Street, Oxford, spinster, d.18 May 1893, probate same year to Maria Oliver, spinster (effects £979-1s.-7d.)

Sarah Oliver of Thame, wife of John Oliver, d.16 May 1893, probate same year to Richard Allen and Reuben Allen, labourers (effects £48-11s.-3d.)

John Oliver of Thame, d.28 Aug 1898, probate same year to Thomas Oliver and Felix White, labourers (effects £265-6s.-1d.)

John Frank Oliver of 25 Albert St, Jericho, Oxford, printer, d.30 Nov 1897 at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, administration granted 7 January 1898 to Laura Annie Oliver, widow (effects £122-14s.-9d.)

Charles Oliver of Finstock, yeoman, d.7 Oct 1906, probate granted same year to Charlotte Matilda Oliver, widow, and Francis Charles Oliver, yeoman (effects £372-9s.)

Hannah Oliver, of Stonesfield, wife of Albert Oliver, retired stonemason, d.13 April 1913, probate granted to the said Albert Oliver the same year (effects £96-1s.-5d.)

Maria Oliver of 58 Juxon St, Oxford, spinster, d.30 Jan. 1914, probate granted same year to Thomas Wellington Hodges, assistant education secretary, and William Humphreys, retired schoolmaster (effects £1265-5s.)

Albert Oliver of Stonesfield, d.17 April 1917, probate granted same year to Thomas Hanwell Oliver, bricklayer (effects £231-13s-6d.)

John Oliver of 35 Abbey Rd, Oxford, retired printer, d.2 Jan 1919, probate same year to Henry Frank Galpin, solicitor (effects £199-13s.-9d.)

Ernest Albert Oliver of Long Handborough, d.9 Nov 1923, administration (with will) granted 27 May 1924 to Maria Emma Oliver, widow (effects £107).

Thomas Oliver of Chinnor Road, Thame, d. 1 Jan. 1924, administration granted same year to Caroline Oliver, widow (effects £485-11s.-4d.)

Cecil Pugh Oliver of Raymead, Harpsden, d. 2 Feb 1925 at the Brewery, Henley-on-Thames, probate same year to Ann Elizabeth Oliver, widow, and Cecil Thomas George Oliver, electrician.

William Albert Oliver of Chiselhampton, d.29 March 1925 at the Radcliffe Infirmary, administration same year to Annie Oliver, widow (effects £151-6s-9d.)

Minnie Oliver of Stonesfield, wife of Francis William Oliver, builder’s foreman, d. 5 Feb 1926 at the Radcliffe Infirmary, administration same year to the said Francis William Oliver (effects £515-17s.-6d.).

Caroline Oliver of Rose Cottage, Chinnor Rd, Thame, widow, d.26 Jan. 1929, probate same year to Arthur George Oliver, dairyman, and Walter Harwood, engineer (effects £688-16s.-10d.)

Thomas Hanwell Oliver, of Spring Villa, Stonesfield, d.23 Nov 1932, probate 27 Feb 1933 to Maud Mary Oliver, widow (effects £484).

Edwin Oliver of 10 Upper High St, Thame, d.13 March 1934, probate same year to Francis Gale Fleet, fruiterer, and Percy Oliver, plumber (effects £183-9s.-10d.).

Francis Charles Oliver of Webbs Farm, Finstock, d.7 Sept 1935 at the Radcliffe Infirmary, administration granted same year to Lizzie Oliver, widow (effects £418).

I am sure there will be other Olivers with Oxfordshire connections who left wills but died outside of the county, and of course there will be women who have married and are so listed under other surnames.