Richard Watts - The Will

The Will

Watts' instructions for his funeral take up the first quarter of his will. The next part of the will leaves money and income to his wife and details what should happen if she remarried, which she in due course did. A few other family bequests follow, then the main charitable section starts. The old almshouse beside the market cross was to be extended and refurbished with provision for casual travellers. There was provision for raw materials to be given to the poor to enable them to earn a living. Later the Mayor, principal citizens and commonalty of Rochester are enjoined to "preserve and maintain the stocke" so that the "yearely gaine and proffitts thereof riseing shall imploy to the uses and purposes aforesaid ... principally to the reliefe and comfort of the said poore Travellers". He laid upon his heirs the duty to supervise the Mayor and appointed the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Rochester as having the final say in any disposals.

The will was proved on 25 September 1579 "in common form" and before witnesses on 25 November the following year. City accounts for 1579 show that this was not without cost: a gallon of wine to the Bishop's chancellor for the proving (2s), a trip to London (13s 4d), a copy of the will (5s) and others "aboute the probate" (20s 10d). £2-1-2 was a fair sum in those days.

The will was not without its problems. Some of the properties disposed of were jointly owned with his wife, who therefore became the sole owner on his death. Some of the lands he had bequeathed had reverted (either on death or previously) to former owners, including a set of tenements which the Bishop took back. Marian did remarry and according to the will should have lost the house. However she and her new husband, a lawyer named Thomas Pagitt, wished to keep the house.

In 1593 a document was drawn up between the four parties interested in the will: Thomas & Marian, Mayor & citizens, Dean & Chapter, and the Bridge Wardens. The document was called the "Indenture Quadripartite". In brief (the indenture is over 14 pages long when set in modern print) Marian was allowed to keep the house in return for giving up all other claims and returning the 100 marks left to her in the original will. The bulk of the document establishes the form and government of the charity which now bears Richard Watts' name.