The Minor Family of Somerset

Yorkshire Diaries, Etc. Priestley family. www.calderdale.gov.uk
/wtw/results/recordfullscreen_it.jsp page 14
"Grace was the youngest child and only daughter my grandfather h
ad by his second wife. She was married to Joseph Wood, a whil
e after our Civil Wars ended. Being well-stricken in years, the
y neverhad any children, though they lived many years together
. He was a very provident man, of a quiet and peaceable temper
; would seldom or never do anythingbut by the consent of his wi
fe. He died of palsy, in a good old age. My aunt kept house, l
iving may years a widow. Her husband left her 10 l. a year, th
e Edge and cottages belonging to it, and also a good stock in mo
ney and goods. She was a woman of good understanding, and by he
r frugal way of livingdid greatly improve and increase her esta
te. Some people would accuse her ofcovetousness, but I never k
new her get anything by wrong or prejudice to anybody. She len
t a great deal of money, but I never knew she had above 12d p po
und of anybody. Her friends had kind and good entertainments a
t her housewhen they went to visit her; she would have lent mon
ey to poor people who sometimes never paid her again; served poo
r people who came to her door. I kept the account of her bonds
, writ her a catalogue when they became due; a little before he
r death she sent for me to set her accounts right, and desired m
e to cast up what her bonds would amount to; as I remember, th
e whole was about 960 l.; "What," says she, "will it not be 100
0 l.?" I am sure her cattle and household good would have mad
e it above 1000 l. All this she left to be divided betwixt Thom
as and Francis, sons of her brother Henry Priestley, besides 1
0 l. a year in land, paying out some small legacies 20 l. to me
, andas much to my brother Thomas, which was more than all th
e legacies she leftbesides; that, with accounting the land, I a
m certain they had either of themfar above 500 l., all legacie
s and bad debts deducted. Presently after this last time she s
ent for me to made up her account, she fell very ill of herlas
t sickness and died.
One passage I sHall relate. I going over to visit her, she sai
d she longed to see me before I came, bade her maid suffer nobod
y to come in till I came out; "Cousin," saith she, "I am goin
g to die, and one thing troubles me exceedingly, that I have ha
d a family so many years, andnver in that time once prayed wit
h my poor family," and she wept most bitterly, "But," says she
, "always retired to this room to private secret prayer:"tha
t she was constant in, she said, and I did know she always case
d a Chapter to be read, and a Psalm to be sung every night, bu
t no prayers, unless some of her brothers, or I, or some man cam
e whom she knew would do it, and then she would be sure to ask t
hem. "Cousin, what think you of my case and condition," said sh
e, "for I have not done my duty?" I siad, "Aunt, I hope if Go
d would spare your life, and restore you to "Health, you would d
o it:" "Yes," said she, "through God's "assistance, but," said s
he, "I must die, and ampersuaded must "not recover; good cousin
," said she, "go to prayers with me "now," which I did, accordin
g to my ability. I believe she had been reflecting seriously up
on her own heart and life, and I cannot but have charitable thou
ghts, and that she was a vessel of mercy. She did too much idol
ize her brother Henry, and because his children was of the whol
e blood, she thought they had the best right to her estate. Sh
e died the last, and lived the longest, of any of my grandfather
's children. I believe she lived to near 80 years.(Heywood s
ays she was "aged 74" "Grace Wood, of Edgend by Illingworth, bu
ried March 28, 1688. She left 900 li in Bonds, Bills etc, to Th
o and Fra.Priestley, except Lecagys. Coley Register, ed. J. H
. Turner p 68)
I sHall add one thing more concerning my aunt Grace. I kne