My now Wife - Pre-1858 Wills, what does this mean?

[karen58]

Hello to all

I find understanding why our ancestors did things a certain way just as interesting as finding the ancestor. 

When I first saw phrase 'my now wife' in a Pre-1858 will, I assumed that the testator was making provisions for his current wife, specifying the women he was married to at the time he wrote his will just in case she died before him and he remarried.

Now I'm not so sure what 'now wife' means.

I have a couple of early 1700's wills where it is obvious that the testator was dying. It just wasn't likely that there was time for him to remarry if his current wife died before him. But he still referred to his wife as his 'now wife'.

I also have seen this in a couple of wills were the testator was in his 80's. Well, if they were optimistic about finding love in old age, good on them.

I thought it was just a standard phrase used in estate planning, but its in just a many as it isn't.

Similarly, I have a will where the testator refers to his wife as the mother of his 2 children. He certainly did not have a second wife who he didn't have children with. Or a concubine.

So why all of the designations that seems unnecessary.

Could these be some sort of legal precautions for resolving legal issues or just what they called their wives?

Cheers Karen



 

[Spelk]

From memory I have come across this expression in cases where the man had been married before and if he just said "my wife" it would not be clear which wife he was talking about.
I do not think it had any bearing on a possible future wife. The rules might have changed but these days if a man gets married then any Will made prior to that marriage is null and void.

[Andrew Tarr]

A late friend of ours had a wife, an ex-wife and a late wife.  I don't recall him mentioning a 'now' wife.  Your record doesn't say 'new wife', does it ?

[Milliepede]

To me it would indicate she had been mentioned by him before when she wasn’t his wife and now she was his wife so my now wife

[LizzieL]

I have come across the phrase "my now wife" on a couple of occasions. In each case the testator hads been married previously and had named children from both marriages in his will. It may be a legal way of making clear that any bequest or property will go to his current (second) wife and preventing any relatives of the deceased wife having any claim.

A late friend of ours had a wife, an ex-wife and a late wife.  I don't recall him mentioning a 'now' wife.  Your record doesn't say 'new wife', does it ?

If your friend had lived a couple of centuries ago, he may have used the phrase

[teragram31510]

<<....I have come across this expression in cases where the man had been married before and if he just said "my wife" it would not be clear which wife he was talking about. ...>>

Yes, I have seen this expression in a will of 1794 (I think it was) and I agree with Spelk - the testator had been married before, had children, then wife died. So he remarried, and this is his "now wife". Nothing to do with any future wife, or the dead one, just the current one !

[karen58]

Hello teragram, LizzieL, Milliepede & Andrew Tarr

Thank you. If now wife means that the testator had been married before, then I have to think about how I add the children to my tree. Some could be from the first wife and some could be from the second.

Its very difficult as there are Saddleworth parish records and there are few records from the 16 and 17 hundreds and I have no baptism records for the children. Even though the testators name their sons-in-law I could only 3 or 4 marriage registers for the daughters.

Andrew, I am fairly certain that the testator is saying 'my now wife' I've put some snippets up for you to see. What do you think?

Thank you again for you help
Cheers Karen

[horselydown86]

The snippets all say:  my now wife

Spelk, Lizzie and teragram are all correct regarding the interpretation.

[karen58]

Thanks horselydown86

Could 'my now wife' be a phrase more commonly used in the 16 hundreds and early 17 hundreds but became obsolete for some reason by the later part of the 17 hundreds?

I've been looking at wills from the mid 1700's to the early 1800's and they either say my wife, loving wife or beloved wife even though they have had more than 2 wives.