Was the value of the estate not stated on the document signed by Joseph Blacow and Catherine on 1st Sept.? All those I have from that era, all from Lancashire, had the words " not exceeding " followed by an amount rounded-up. It was written at the foot of the document.
Why the odd amount of £201 I wonder. It reads as if Cath. and John were to have the money between them. "Sum" not sums; "legacy" not legacies. If he'd intended to give them a sum each it would have been worded differently. Unless he wrote the will himself, without legal advice, so thought he knew what he was doing.
2nd witness to the will was probably Corlis ( Corlas, Corles/s). Plenty of them around. Joseph Blackoe witnessed marriage of Sarah Corles, 1768. Marriage was by licence, so possibly more Catholics? Other witness was John Smith, who may have been a relative of my 6xGGM. My Smith married twice; you think you're at a brick wall? John Corles of Snapewood married 1721.
Catherine Kilshaw of Prescot is probably a red herring. The Kilshaw /Culshaw surname will be common there.
Wills of my yeoman R.C. ancestors haven't been as enlightening as I'd hoped either. One John appointed another John as his executor. 50 years later 2 of their descendants married each other. John left a small bequest to daughter of a Richard. She may have been his niece, but will doesn't say. She was married to a man with an alias. That man's father/ grandfather/uncle may have been married to a relative of his wife's father. In a later generation, sister of another Richard may have married his wife's brother, John, all with same surname.
Another thought. Were Catholics allowed to be executors by 1776 or had they been flouting the law for decades? Wills of both my 18thC Johns were enrolled in George the Third Court Rolls as Catholic wills even though the death of one happened in 1790, after the 2nd Catholic Relief Act.
