Yorkshire Almanac Mary Wandesford of York (spinster) finances with her will the foundation of a Protestant convent

4 November 1725: Mary Wandesford of York (spinster) finances with her will the foundation of a Protestant convent

Henry Edwards. 1842. A Collection of Old English Customs, and Curious Bequests and Charities. London: John Bowyer Nichols and Son. Get it:

Unedited excerpt

If an excerpt is used in the book, it will be shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

York, Masons’ Hospital. Mary Wandesford of the city of York, spinster, by will, 4 Nov. 1725, gave all her lands, &c. to the Archbishop of York and others, in trust for the use and benefit of ten poor gentlewomen, who were never married, and should be of the religion practised in the Church of England, who should retire from the noise and hurry of the world into a religious house; a protestant retirement to be provided for them where they should be obliged to continue for life; and she directed that if any person elected into that society by the trustees, (whom she constituted and appointed perpetual electors,) should withdraw herself from the house, or should marry or behave herself unsuitably to the design and rules of the foundation, the trustees should remove her, and fill her place with another gentlewoman.

And she directed her trustees to purchase a convenient habitation for the said poor gentlewomen, where they might all live together under one roof, and make a small congregation, once at least every day at prayers, such as her trustees should think proper for their ease and circumstances, and she appointed £10 per annum to be paid to a reader, who should be appointed by her trustees.

The maiden gentlewomen admitted, are appointed by the trustees on petition, stating the age, place of abode, and means of the petitioner; that she has lived in the communion of the Church of England, is of sober life and conversation, and of respectable character. Proof is required, that she is above the age of fifty years.-IV. p. 378.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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This is a Jesuit hagiography, and I don’t know to what extent the source reflects the substance of Dolben’s remarks. Wikipedia takes a more benevolent view of him:

In the aftermath of the Popish Plot, Dolben tried many of the accused, including Sir Thomas Gascoigne, 2nd Baronet and Sir Miles Stapleton; due to his impartial trait of pointing out inconsistencies in the prosecution’s evidence, both were acquitted.[4] At the trial of Mary Pressicks, who was accused of saying that “We shall never be at peace until we are all of the Roman Catholic religion”, Dolben saved her life by ruling that the words, even if she did speak them, could not amount to treason.[5] As a result of this and his opposition to Charles II’s removal of the City Corporation’s writs, he was “according to the vicious practise of the time” dismissed on 18 April 1683. Again working as a barrister, Dolben prosecuted Algernon Sidney in November 1683 before being reinstated as a Justice of the King’s Bench on 18 March 1689. Records from 29 April show him “inveighing mightily against the corruption of juries [during the Glorious Revolution]”,[1] and he continued sitting as a Justice until his death from an apoplectic fit on 25 January 1694,[6] and was buried in Temple Church.

Vulgar almanacs glory in death sentences and executions, but I suppose one (1) is called for.

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