| 23rd November 1875 Will of Bridget Bannon Widow of Peter Brady | From records of Notary James Walsh, No. 7448 Quebec Archives Microfilm 4M01-5105 |
On this day the twenty third of November in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy five, before us the undersigned Notaries Public for the Province of Quebec, residing in the City of Quebec, in the said Province, in the Dominion of Canada, personally came and appeared Bridget Bannon, at present in the City of Quebec, widow of the late Peter Brady, in his life time of Valcartier, Farmer, who being in good health and of sound and perfect mind, memory, and understanding requested us the said Notaries to receive and write down her last will and testament which she instantly made, published, dictated and named word for word unto us the said Notaries in manner and form following, that is to say:
I recommend my soul to Almighty God hoping for free pardon of all my sins.
I wish to be buried in the Common Catholic Cemetery of the Parish of St. Gabriel of Valcartier as near as possible to my late husband and my late son Patrick Brady.
And as to all my property real & personal, moveable & immoveable, which I may die possessed of, I give and bequeath the same without any exception nor reserve whatsoever unto my daughter, Maria Brady, wife of Robert Hill of Quebec, Baker, to be by her possessed & enjoyed in full & absolute property without the authority of her husband expressly ordering that all the said property, real & personal, monies & other effects & things to her hereby by me given shall not fall into the community of property between her & her said husband, but on the contrary shall be considered as propre to her and I further expressly order that nothing thereof shall never be seized by any of her creditors present or future.
I do hereby make this bequest unto my said daughter under and subject by her to use & employ twenty dollars every year in having masses said for the repose of my soul.
Lastly, I do hereby nominate and appoint my said daughter, Maria Brady, Executrix of this my present last will and testament into whose hands I dispossess myself of all my property moveable & immoveable, hereby revoking and making null & void all other wills & codicils at any time heretofore by me made, declaring the present to be my only true last will and testament.
It was thus made, dictated and named word for word by the said Bridget Bannon unto us the said Notaries on the day & year first above written and the present last will and testament having been read in full over and over again, lu et relu, to the said Bridget Bannon, Testatrix, by Mtre. Philippe Huot, one of the said Notaries, in the presence of Edward George Cannon, the other Notary, witnessed and were present during the whole time of the execution hereof, she the said Bridget Bannon, Testatrix, declared that she had perfectly heard and understood the same and found it to contain her last will and intentions and therefore persisted therein.
Thus done and executed at Quebec aforesaid on the day & year first above written in the office of Philippe Huot, one of the said Notaries, under the number seven thousand four hundred & forty eight, Bridget Bannon, widow of Peter Brady, Testatrix, having declared not to know how to write nor sign her name when requested so to do, after due reading of these presents as aforesaid, the said Notaries having signed these presents in the presence of the said Testatrix in the presence of each other in faith and testimony of the premises.
Three words erased are null.
E.G. Cannon, N.P., his signature;
P. Huot, N.P., his signature
Transcribed by Gerry Neville – January, 2013
Notes by Patricia Balkcom: Bridget died a little more than two years later on January 6, 1878 at the reported age of 82 years. She had two other children, Elizabeth and Margaret, who were not mentioned in the will. Her son, Patrick, had died at the age of 15 years, and her husband had died in 1863.