| 17th August 1898 Last Will of Maria Brady Widow of Robert Hill | From records of Notary Philippe Huot No. 9803 Quebec Archives Microfilm #4M01-5213 |
On this day the seventeenth of August one thousand eight hundred and ninety eight, before the undersigned Notary Public for the Province of Quebec residing & practising in the City of Quebec, personally came and appeared Maria Brady of the Parish of St. Gabriel of Valcartier, widow of the late Robert Hill in this life of Australia, a miner, who being in good bodily health and perfectly sound of mind, memory & understanding requested us the said Notaries to receive & write down her last will & testament which she instantly made as follows:
I will and direct that my debts be paid by my Executor hereinafter named.
I give and bequeath unto my son Michael Hill one half of all property real & personal, moveable & immoveable which I may die possessed of at the time of my death provided & under condition that he will remain with me & work my farm at Valcartier as long as I live but should he at any time before my death give up working my said land and go away and leave me, then & in that case the present legacy in his favor shall be null, void & of no effect whatever and in the case of my said son Michael give up working my said land & leaving me, I give and bequeath the said half of all my property moveable & immoveable unto my other son William Hill on condition that he will cause the said land to be worked properly and that he will support & take care of me as long as I live.
I give and bequeath one fourth of all my said property, moveable & immoveable unto my daughter Annie being with me at present, and the other fourth of my said property unto my other daughter Eliza Hill, now living at St. Hyacinthe, but should the said Eliza Hill, my daughter, become a nun, I wish and direct that her said fourth in my said property revert & belong to her sister the said Annie Hill who shall then have the one just half of all my said property.
And for the execution of my present last will & testament I appoint my son William Hill, now of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who will have the right to act as such beyond the year and a day fixed by law.
It was thus made and dictated by the said Maria Brady, widow of Robert Hill, Testatrix, unto us the said Notaries, and the present testament having been read over in full to the said Testatrix by Mtre. Philippe Huot, one of the said Notaries, in the presence of Mtre. Felix A. LaRue, the other Notary who was present during the execution hereof, she the said Testatrix declared that she well understood the same and persisted therein as containing her last will and intentions.
Done and passed at the said City of Quebec, on the day and year first above written in the office of the said Philippe Huot under the number nine thousand eight hundred and three in testimony whereof the said Testatrix hath signed with and in the presence of the said Notaries who have also both signed in the presence of the said Testatrix and in the presence of each other, after the reading hereof according to the law and the observance of all the formalities required for the validity of wills.
One marginal note approved good.
Maria Brady, her signature;
F.A. LaRue, N.P., his signature;
P. Huot, N.P., his signature
Transcribed by Gerald Neville, 2011
Note by Patricia Balkcom: Four of Maria’s children are not mentioned in the will – Alice (wife of Joseph Hicks), Peter, Robert and Mary. I have not found death records for Maria or her husband, Robert Hill. It’s interesting that Maria is listed as living in Michigan, in the marriage record of her son, Robert, in 1893, yet the will was written in Valcartier in 1898. It is possible that her husband died in Michigan and she returned to Valcartier, although I have not found her listed in the burial records there.