Jefferson County AlArchives Wills.....Griffiths, Thomas July 9, 1901 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/alfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: L. Hanke lhbham@yahoo.com October 8, 2009, 10:51 am Source: Jefferson County Loose Records - Bessemer Records Written: July 9, 1901 I, THOMAS GRIFFITHS, born in the Parish St. Dec(?)ans W. Somerset Shire England, and known both in England and the United States of America as Professor THOMAS S. GRIFFITHS, now a resident of the City of Birmingham, in said county and state, hereby make declare and publish this my last will and testament. 1st. I direct that my just debts be paid by my executors hereinafter named, as soon after my death as may by them be found convenient. 2nd. I will and bequeath the whole of my real estate, situated in the counties of Blount and Jefferson in the State of Alabama to be equally divided among my seven children viz: MRS. ANNIE JONES, MRS. FLORENCE LYONS, ALICE GRIFFITHS, MRS. LILLIAN CRANE, THOMAS HENRY GRIFFITHS, ALFRED AUSTIN GRIFFITHS and EARNEST W. GRIFFITHS. 3rd. I will and bequeath to my beloved wife SARAH ANN GRIFFITHS during her natural life all interest that may arise or may be earned by all the notes, mortgages, British Consols and choses in action that I may own at the time of my death, and I hereby direct my executors hereinafter named, that as soon as my notes, mortgages, British Consols or any choses in action shall be matured and paid them to reinvest the same in good mortgage bonds or loans upon mortgages, and pay the interest arising from all of such loans to my said wife as soon as paid to my executors. And I further direct my said executors to keep all the principal arising out of the collections of said note, mortgages, British Consols and choses in action invested in the manner as aforesaid until the death of my said wife, paying her the interest arising there from as soon as collected. After the death of my said wife it is my will that all money, notes, mortgages, British Consols and choses in action belonging to my estate shall be divided by my executors in the following manner: First, My said executors shall pay to my daughter MRS. ANNIE JONES the sum of Twelve hundred dollars. After the sum of Twelve hundred dollars shall have been paid as directed, the remainder of my personal property of whatever character or kind shall be divided among my six other children viz; FLORENCE LYONS, ALICE GRIFFITHS, LILLIAN CRANE, THOMAS HENRY GRIFFITHS, ALFRED AUSTIN GRIFFITHS, and EARNEST W. GRIFFITHS, equally. 4th. I hereby nominate and appoint A. A. GRIFFITHS, H. LYONS, H. CRANE, as executors of this my last will and testament, and request that they shall not be required to give bond for the faithful carrying out of this my last will and testament. It is my will that a majority of them shall have power to act in all matters arising under my will and in the event of the death of any of them the survivors are empowered to carry out the provisions of this my will. In testimony whereof, I hereunto set my hand and seal this the 9th day of July, 1901. Thomas S. Griffiths Signed and published by the said Thomas Griffiths in our presence; and we in his presence and in the presence of each other have hereunto subscribed our names as witness, on the day of the date of said will. Ivey F. Lewis Frank Deedmeyer (Then in Thomas Griffiths handwriting, the following) Codical [sic] made this 27th day April 1906. and witnessed that the division of the within Estate shall be equaly [sic] divided among my children each share and share alike this my wish and desire. Signed. Thomas S. Griffiths (Also handwritten) State of Alabama Jefferson County I, W. E. Sorsby a Notary Public in and for said State and County hereby certify that Thomas S. Griffiths whose name is signed to the foregoing instrument and who is know to me, acknowledged before me on this day that being informed of the contents of the said instrument he executed the same voluntarily on the day the same bears date. Given under my hand and seal, this 27th day of April 1906. W. E. Sorsby, Notary Public. Additional Comments: The Parish in which Mr. Griffiths was born is written over, making it hard to decipher. It looks like the typist originally had St. Decenna. Corrected, it looks like Dec?mans. There is nothing that looks like an 'L' which possibly could have been St. Declans, and a cursory search of Somersetshire turns up nothing similar. This Will was found in the process of cleaning and indexing loose records for Bessemer Alabama. I am not related to any of the parties. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/jefferson/wills/griffith315gwl.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/ File size: 5.1 Kb