| Description | If this volume is the 'Register of Benefactors' which the Management Committee intended to start in 1721 (Court minutes, H/A/1/1 of 5 July 1721), there must have been some delay in doing so. The contents are, in the main, brief extracts for the wills of benefactors to the French Hospital, citing the clauses relating to the benefactions and giving the date of probate. In the case of important legacies (e.g. Moise Pujolas, Mariette Dufour, the Duchesse de la Force, and Esther Coqueau) there may be a copy of the whole will, together with copies of other documents; and the will of Etienne Ronjat (in Switzerland), with the legal complications which ensued, occupy 18 pages.
At the beginning there is an unpaginated list of testators (in the same order as the extracts) up to p. 126 only. The testamentary extracts occupy pp. 1-181, and there are a few more blank pages numbered 183-184 and 185-187, between the Bond's Court records.
At the end of the book, reversed, are notes and accounts of Pierre Cabibel as Treasurer for the Hospital's property in Bond's Court, Walbrook, acquired in 1726 (see H/E/8). These consist of:
i) description of the situation of each house, with name of original tenant and particulars of lease. Notes in various hands rhave been added up to 1760 (the property was sold in 1763), recording changes of tenancy and alterations to the houses and rentals, with a little personal information on the tenants, many of whom have French names (ff. 1-25).
ii) accounts for the property (receipts and expenditure), 1727-1739 (ff. 28-42). |