A further will to add more Strange information

 

Gravestones of John and Mary Strange

at Yelvertoft Independent Chapel

When looking through the documents I'd already gathered for the Strange family, I came across another will, that of John Strange, Mary Strange's brother. His will, like Mary's was also proven in 1842 so it looks like they died within months of each other. I thought that spinsters left the most detailed wills but his was a gold mine of information. He named many relatives also giving addresses and other telling details. There was also a tally of the number of children of his sister, Elizabeth Norton, and brother, Thomas Strange, grocer of Kettering. This information will help when adding descendants to my family tree.

There was also something in John's will that I hadn't come across before. In it he left money for the maintenance and support of William Strange the son of John's nephew, Thomas Strange, as he judged that William would never be able to support himself because of his affliction. It makes me wonder what ailed William and what happened to him if he survived his parents.

In the document, John Strange also included the various places he had lived. At the time it was written, he lived in Yelvertoft. He had, when he was married, lived in Chatham, Kent and left instructions that his body was to be buried with his wife in Chatham. I'm not sure if that final instruction was carried out as his gravestone sits against the garden wall of Yelvertoft Independent Chapel.