Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/247

 <?Bnginnl Bocumrnis. i;x.TKAt'TS FUOAI TllK FEKMOR ACCOUNTS, a.d. 1580. COMMUNICATED BV EVELYN PHILJT Sll I III.ICY, KStJ. Tin; following extracts relate to the exccutor.slii]) accounts, on the ileath of Thomas Fernior, of Somerton, in the county of Oxford, who died August 8, 1580. He was a younger brother of Sir John Fennor, ancestor of the Earls of Pomfret, and progenitor of a family long seated at Somerton, and afterwards at Tusuiore, in the same county, extinct, 1 believe, on the death of William Fennor, of Tusmore, in 1828. In the " Gentleman's Magazine," 1827, (vol. xcvii., part 1, p. 113,) will be found an account of Somerton, and of this family ; and also in " Baker's Northamptonshire," under Croughton (vol. i., page 599), is a ]icdigree of the Fermors of Tusmore. Thomas Fcrmor, by his will, dated June 15, 1580, appointed George Shirley, Esq.", afterwards Sir George Shirley, of Staunton Ilarold, Baronet, whom he calls "his loving kinsman and friend," ' his ])rincipul executor ; and among many other particular directions enjoined as follows : — " I will that my executors shall, as soon as conveniently may be after my death, provide at my charge six fair large paper books, in every of which shall be written by Francis Capp, now my apprentice, if he be living, and at convenient leasure, and in his ab-sence by Richard Jackson, my apprentice, and if they both die or be absent, by some person hired yearly for 20s. at my charges, the true copy of this ray last will and testament, and a true and perfect rentall of all my lands, tenements, and heredita- ments, and of all my leases ; and also a true and perfect inventory of all such jewels, plate, money, bedding, napery, brass, pewter, utensils of house, horses, beasts, sheep, and other goods, lands, cattels, wdiatsoever 1 shall have at the time of my death, and also all my debts due to me, or by me : and in every of the said six books, my executors shall yearly cause to be written particularly the sole contents and effect of their audit, and that is, how much nu)ney they do receive, of whom, and for what cause, and what they did disburse, to whom, and for what cause ; of the which six books my will is, that every of my five executors shall have one in his own custody, and that the sixth shall remain in my house at Somerton, in the custody of the forenamed James Smith, to the use of my heir, by the which ho knowing what I leave, and what is spent, he may call for that remaineth. " And I will that every of my executors shall, at the end of the same audit, set his name yearly to the foot of their account in every of the six books, and I bequeath to every of my executors coming to the said audit, serving and taking the same account, and setting his hand to every of the six books, five pounds yearly, of lawful English money, over and above the charge to be bestowed in or at the said audit, [which] with all things thereto incident, my will is, shall be defrayed at my only costs ; and I will that if any executor shall not come to the said audit, or do not hear or take the account, and set his hand to every of the said six books, that then, that year wherein he fails, he shall have just nothing." ' He was his great nephew.