Elizabeth Steer was the sister-in-law of Farnham milliner, Mary Steer, discussed in a previous post: https://lacunaeofhistory.ca/mary-steer-of-farnham-1689-to-1758/
- Born Elizabeth Underwood and baptised in Farnham Church in July 1686
- Father was bricklayer/house-builder Christopher Underwood
- Mother was Alice Trigg from Frensham (Triggs were a farming family)
- Elizabeth’s father died when she was 8 and her mother remarried; Elizabeth’s step-father was William Meers, a Farnham cordwainer (leather-goods maker)
- So Elizabeth grew up in a blended family of Underwood siblings and Meers half-siblings
- Elizabeth remained single for many years and she was 35 when she married George Hole (a widower with no children); George was licensed to supply Farnham with its wine, beer, and spirits needs. No doubt a popular man!
- Following George’s death, Elizabeth (age 57) married widower, Richard Steer (age 57) – a bricklayer/house builder of Downing Street, Farnham
- Before the couple married in 1743, a marriage settlement was signed as Elizabeth owned 2 Farnham properties which would automatically go to Richard if some legal agreement wasn’t in place. The document would have looked something like the image below:
Elizabeth Steer’s Will
Elizabeth Steer wrote her Will on 11 April 1752 and one of the witnesses was Farnham school master, Thomas Russell. She could only sign with an X but as a woman of the ‘middling sort’ she had a seal. Her Will was “two sheets of paper fixed together with red thread” (her words).
What did Elizabeth do with her estate?
| Elizabeth as a single woman and then a widow could hold property in her own right: feme sole | When Elizabeth became a married woman, her legal status was merged with that of her two husbands. This meant she could not own property in her own name: feme covert |
| Elizabeth owned two Downing Street properties, likely inherited as the widow of her first husband, George Hole, who died with no heirs. | When she married for a second time, Elizabeth signed a marriage agreement with Richard Steer that upon her death one property would go to Richard or his heirs. Clearly, she retained the right to dispose of the rest of her property as she wished – this was quite unusual. |
| One property was rented to her step-son, Richard Steer. | As stated in the marriage agreement, Elizabeth left this property to her husband, Richard Steer. |
| The other property was rented to her half-brother, Richard Meers. | Elizabeth left this property to her only sibling still alive: the occupant – her half-brother, Richard Meers. |
| Neither of Elizabeth’s properties were freehold – they were ‘copyhold’ and owned by an unknown person. | Elizabeth left money to her relatives (not Steers) – children of her sister Anne Taylor (neé Underwood) and children of half-brother Richard Meers. |
Elizabeth was buried in Farnham Church 29 June 1752 (two months after she wrote her Will:
Elizabeth’s husband, Richard Steer, lived to a ‘ripe old age’ of 85, dying in 1785 in Farnham. In his Will, he left the Downing Street property to his son John Steer (another Bricklayer/House Builder). It remained in the family until John’s death in 1798, after which the property was no longer registered to the Steer family.
Elizabeth Steer’s other Downing Street property had been left to Richard Meers who bequeathed it to his son, William Meers (a Farnham maltster) who was able to afford to buy out the copyhold lease and so owned it freehold. When William died in 1817, he had no heirs, so he appointed two Farnham friends as trustees and directed them to sell his property in Downing Street and his malting equipment at his leased premises in West Street. The proceeds were to be distributed among his nephews and nieces, none of whom lived in Farnham.
“In 1781, John Manwaring leased to William Meers, a maltster, his three-hole oast with another kiln in the yard leading from West Street into the Manwaring Tanyard”. (Source: Farnham Building and People, Temple. N)
Select Sources
- London Metropolitan Archives (Elizabeth Steer’s Will)
- Ancestry.com (subscription needed)
- Google images and definitions
- https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsandspecialcollections/ This is an excellent web site for anyone interested in old documents