| 14th December 1893 Last Will of Mary Magrath (Wife of Luke Carton) | From records of Notary Paul T. Picard No. 655 Quebec Archives Online |
On this day the fourteenth of December in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ninety three (1893),
At the requisition of Mrs. Mary Magrath, of the parish of St. Gabriel of Valcartier, wife of Mr. Luke Carton alias Doyron of the said parish, farmer;
I, the undersigned Notary Public, for the Province of Quebec in the Dominion of Canada residing in the parish of St. Ambroise of La Jeune Lorette, accompanied by the witnesses hereinafter named and subscribed, personally went to the residence of the said Mary Magrath, where we found her being in weak bodily health, but of sound mind, memory & understanding as to us appeared by her manner & conversation, hath requested of us, the said Notary & witnesses to receive and reduce into writing this her Last Will and Testament which I, the said Notary, in the presence of the said witnesses, have taken down as dictated to us by the said Mary Magrath, as aforesaid, word for word and as follows, that is to say:
1º I recommend my soul to God, asking him the everlasting beatitude by the merits of Jesus Christ my Saviour.
2º I wish that after my lawful & just debts shall have been paid & satisfied, with which I hereby charge my Executor hereafter named, a sum of money to be paid to the Curé of the parish of St. Gabriel of Valcartier to be, by him, employed for the saying of ten low masses of requiem for the repose of my soul the soonest as possible my death.
3º I give and bequeath unto my husband Luke Cartin alias Doyron all and every my property moveable and immoveable, all sum and sums that I may possess of on the day & hour of my decease instituting him, my said husband, my legatee universal “en propriété” from the day of my death.
4º And for the execution of the present, my Last Will and Testament, I do here nominate and appoint my said husband in favor of whom I do in conformity to the laws & customs of this Province, disseize to the present to which alone I do adhere as containing my true intentions and Last Will.
Thus done & dictated word for word, and published and declared by the said Testatrix, Mary Magrath, aforesaid, for and as her Last Will and Testament to and in the presence of Mr. Patrick King, farmer of the parish of St. Gabriel of Valcartier and Julia Conway, his wife, of the said parish of St, Gabriel of Valcartier, witnesses expressly called for the effect of these presents, at the residence of the said Mary Magrath on the day and year first above written under the number six hundred and fifty five (655) of the original deeds of the said Notary.
In faith and testimony whereof the said witnesses have signed these presents before the Notary and the Notary before the said witnesses, the said testatrix having declared not to know how to write or sign her name when requested so to do first duly read according to law.
Marginal notes approved as good. Words erased are null.
Julia Conway, her signature
Patrick King, his signature
P. Picard, Notary, his signature
Transcribed by Gerry Neville, January 2011
Notes by Patricia Balkcom: Mary died four days later.