About the Book
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1851. Excerpt: ... THE CLAVELL WILL CASE. The Rev. John Clavell, rector of Church Knowle, Dorsetshire, and a magistrate for that county, whose supposed will formed the subject of this remarkable case, was the representative of the ancient and eminent family of Clavell, of Smedmore, in the Isle of Purbeck, which had resided and held possessions in the co. of Dorset almost from the Conquest. A short account of the Clavell pedigree, as it stood at the time of this will affair, will make the following trial more easily understood. Edward Clavell, Esq., of Smedmore, who died in 1738, left by his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of George Damer, Esq., four sons, the last of them George Clavell, who all died without issue, and a daughter, Margaret, married to William Richards, Esq., of Warmwell, in the co. of Dorset, who had issue three sons--William Richards Clavell, who married Sophia, only daughter of Richard Bingham, Esq., of Melcombe Bingham, in the co. of Dorset--John, and Edward, and two daughters, the younger, Sophia (called Mrs. Richards in the trial), and the elder, Margaretta Elizabetha, married to Edmund Morton Pleydell, Esq., of Whatcombe, also in Dorsetshire. On the death of the last of their uncles, George Clavell, Esq., of Smedmore, without issue, the two elder sons of Mr. and Mrs. Richards--William and John--successively succeeded to the estate of Smedmore, and assumed the surname of Clavell. The younger of these was the Rev. John Clavell of this trial, who died at Smedmore, unmarried, on the 14th June, 1833. The Colonel Mansel, who appears also in the course of the investigation, was John Mansel, C.B., a colonel in the army, the third son of Sir William Mansel, Bart., of Iscoed, in the co. of Carmarthen, and the husband of Louisa, sixth daughter of the above-ment...
