Westminster Chest 1764 will

[Turtle Dove]

I am hoping to decipher a word in this text from a 1720's will. I have attached some of the original text and the words I can read are these:

First of all I give and commend my soul into the hands of God that gave it and for my body I commend it to the earth to be buried in a Christian like and decent manner and when it shall please God to call me to himself I desire to have six men belonging to the Westminster Chest? to support the pall? I am to be buried from each of them to have a cloke? hatband? and gloves at the charge of my executrix nothing doubting but at the general ? I shall receive the same again by the Almighty power of God and as touching such worldly estate wherewith it hath pleased God to bless me in this life...

I wonder if the men were to come from something called the Westminster Chest? Perhaps possibly Choir? I would be grateful if anyone can shed some light on this. I wonder if it was an organisation of some sort which could could be a clue to help me track down an ancestor.
Many thanks for any insights.

[Wayne N]

I desire to have six men belonging to the Westminster Churc(h) to support the paul(bearers)...

Referring to mourning clothes in the next line (cloak, hatband, gloves)

I think after the word after general is Re(s)urrection

[horselydown86]

It does say Westminster Chest, as far as I can see.

Then:

...to support the Paul were I

am to be buried from each of them to have a Cloke hatband and Gloves

at the charge of my Executrix nothing doubting but at the

general Resurrection I shall receive...


were presumably means where

Paul is probably pall but appears to mean the casket rather than the cloth draped over the casket.

from each of them instead of for each of them suggests that the writer of the original wasn't as skilled as they could have been.

[goldie61]

I'd agree it definitely says 'Westminster Chest', and not 'Church'.

The letters 'C-h-e-s-t' are easily seen.

[Bookbox]

The Westminster Chest was a charity fund set up in the 18th century to compensate the Thames Watermen who lost business when Westminster Bridge was built and people/goods no longer needed to cross the Thames by boat. Was the testator perhaps connected to the Company of Watermen and Lightermen?

[Turtle Dove]

These replies are all very interesting and helpful - thank you. It's good to hear that the Chest was a fund, although I haven't come across any watermen in this branch of the family. The deceased's husband was a joiner and her first husband had been a draper. I'd started to wonder if they had a family pall and chest!