| 15th February 1873 Will of Mary Leahy Widow of John McCarthy | From the Notary Records of Cyrille Tessier Record #4135 Transcribed from the Original Will at the Quebec Archives |
On this day the fifteenth of February, one thousand eight hundred and seventy three, before the undersigned Notary Public for the Province of Quebec in the Dominion of Canada, residing in the City of Quebec personally came and appeared Mary Leahy [Lahay] of the Parish of St. Catherine, widow of the late John McCarthy in his lifetime of the same place, Farmer, who being of sound and disposing mind has made as follows her last will and testament:
1st I desire that a funeral service be sung on the day of burial and an anniversary service one year after my decease.
2nd I give, devise and bequeath to my daughter Catherine McCarthy all my feather beds, quilts, covers in the house and my bed-stead and also the sum of forty dollars.
3rd I give, devise and bequeath to Denis McCarthy, my son, all the property real and personal, moveable and immoveable I may die possessed of with the only exception of the articles above given, to have and to hold the same in full & entire ownership from the day of my decease, instituting him my universal legatee at the charge of taking proper care of his brother Patrick McCarthy of keeping, feeding, or clothing him & furnishing him with all things necessary for life and treating him in every respect as a kind brother should do during his life time. He will also allow him the use of a horse or vehicle whenever he, the said Patrick McCarthy, may want it to go to mass and confession and he will further pay him two years after my death the sum of sixty dollars.
4th I further charge the said Denis McCarthy in the event of my not having done so before my death to cause to be put a tomb stone over the body of Jane McCarthy, my daughter, said tomb stone not to cost less than ten dollars.
5th My wish is that whenever the said Patrick McCarthy shall remain with his said brother Denis, he will work and make himself useful on the farm or in the house in as much as his health will allow.
This last will and testament received By Cy. Tessier, Notary, in the presence of J.B. Delage, his colleague, having been read to the Testatrix by the first named Notary in the presence of his said colleague, she declared well to understand the same and has persisted in the same as containing her last intentions.
Thus done and executed at Quebec, office of the said Cy. Tessier, on the day and year first above written under the number four thousand one hundred and thirty five.
In testimony whereof the said Notaries have signed in the presence of one another & the Testatrix who has declared not to know how to write nor sign her name in the presence of said Notaries, after the reading done according to law.
Two marginal notes are good and sixty seven words erased are null.
Mary McCarthy, her signature;
J.B. Delage, N.P., his signature,
Cy. Tessier, N.P. his signature
Transcribed by Gerry Neville – August, 2011
Notes by Patricia Balkcom: I have not found Mary’s burial record. Although only three children are mentioned in this will, Mary had 11 children, three of which died as children. Her husband, John McCarthy, died in 1860.