Mary Mountague

Daughter of Ralph Mountague jun. (q.v.) and Rebecca James Mountague (q.v. under R. J. Mountague), and unusually made a trustee both under the will of her grandfather Ralph Mountague senior (q.v.) and (by inheritance) under the will of John Palmer (q.v.). Although her own will was proved 04/10/1833, she appears as a claimant as trustee of John Palmer for the compensation for the enslaved people on Acton estate in Trelawny Jamaica.

1. In the will of Mary Mountague spinster of Bristol proved 04/10/1833, she left £50 to her cousin James Fogo Bernard, and the rest of her estate between her sisters Eliza Mountague and Susanna James Mountague (q.v.) as tenants-in-common. If her sisters predeceased her, her property was to go to her uncle Charles Edward Bernard MD and James Fogo Bernard in trust, with 4/8ths for Charles Edward Bernard, 1/8th for James Fogo Bernard and the remaining 3/8ths in a further trust, later in the will specified to be for the benefit of her aunt Mary Rhodes Bernard, wife of Henry Jones Bernard surgeon of Wells. She said that 'whereas a considerable part of my property consists of shares and interests in and claims up estates, slaves and other property in the West Indies', and in debts and legacies chargeable upon such properties, her trustees should therefore have flexibility to 'compound' for these claims, which might be difficult to value, and she gave instructions the management of estates, including the supply of such 'Negroes, slaves, cattle and live stock' as deemed necessary.

PROB 11/1822/397.