Our thanks goes to Glenys Bolland for locating and transcribing this interesting document. It is a court case from 1816 involving Mary Hobkirk, the widow and her son Samuel Hobkirk as two of the defendants to a complaint filed by her two sons William & Adam Hobkirk, along with John Vale and Henry Lees.  To view a copy of the original document, go here.
The transcription is as follows:

[ex National Archives, UK.  A2A.  Document Reference(s): C 13/2496  ]

Without oath, by order dated 20th January, 1816.

The joint and several answer of Mary Hobkirk, widow and Samuel Hobkirk, two of the defendants to the bill of Complaint of William Hobkirk, John Vale, Henry Lees and Adam Hobkirk, complainants.

These defendants, saving and reserving to themselves now and at all times hereafter all benefit and advantage of exception that can or may be had, or taken to the said complainants said Bill of Complaint for answer thereto, or unto so much thereof as they are advised is in any wise material or necessary for them to make answer unto jointly and severally answer and say they admit it to be true that Adam Hobkirk, deceased, in the complainants Bill of Complaint for answer thereto or unto so much thereof as they are advised is in any wise material or necessary for them to make answer and say they admit it to be true that Adam Hobkirk, deceased, in the complainants Bill named, was at the time of making his Will in the said Bill mentioned and of his death, possessed of, or well entitled to such Bank Annuities as are mentioned in the said Bill and that the same were at the time of his death, standing in his name in the books of the Governor and company of the Bank of England and that he was also possessed of or entitled to some other personal estate consisting of Divers particulars and these defendants further admit it to be true that the said Adam Hobkirk departed this life at or about the time mentioned in the said complainants Bill in that behalf and that he before his death, duly made and published his last Will and Testament in writing of such date and to such purport and effect as in that behalf mentioned and set forth in the said complainants Bill so far as the same is therein set forth and that he did thereby appoint this defendant, Mary Hobkirk, and John West and Aneas Barclay in the said Bill respectively named in that behalf Executrix and Executors of his said Will and this defendant Mary Hobkirk admits and this other defendant believes it to be true that she, this defendant, on or about the 16th day of September, one thousand eight hundred and nine, alone duly proved the said testators said Will in the prerogative Court of the Archbishop of Canterbury and took upon herself the burthen (sic) of the execution thereof, power being reserved to the said John West and Aneas Barclay to go in and prove the same when they should be minded and desirous of so doing, but these defendants believe they have not yet done so and that they have no intention of so doing and this defendant, Mary Hobkirk, admits and this other defendant believes it to be true that she, this defendant, Mary Hobkirk, did under and by virtue of the said Will or the probate thereof possess herself of all the personal estate and effects of the said testator and that she hath there out paid and satisfied all the funeral and testamentary expenses of the said testator and all his debts which have come to her knowledge and also all the specific and pecuniary legacies given and bequeathed by his said Will; and that she, this defendant, hath divided the residue thereof save as in the said Bill in that behalf stated between the complainants William Hobkirk and Adam Hobkirk and this defendant Samuel Hobkirk in equal shares and proportions pursuant to the directions contained in the said Will in that behalf and that this defendant, Mary Hobkirk, hath reserved the sum of twenty-two thousand pounds, Bank three percentum consolidated annuities belonging to the said testator and which formed part and is the only remaining part of the residue of his personal estate and effects for the purposes in that behalf mentioned in the said Bill; and that the said sum of twenty-two thousand pounds Bank three percentum annuities hath ever since the death of the said testator, been, and now is, standing in the name of the said testator in the books of the Governor and company of the Bank of England; and these defendants further say it may be true for anything they know to the contrary; that the said complainant, William Hobkirk, may under the circumstances mentioned in the said Bill in that behalf have executed such bond or obligation to John … Wheatstone, named in the said Bill in that behalf of such date and to such purport or effect as is in that behalf mentioned and set forth in the said Bill, such indenture may have been made and executed of such date between such parties and to such purport and effect as in that behalf is mentioned and set forth in the said Bill so far as the same is therein set forth and that the said John … Wheatstone may under the circumstances in that behalf mentioned in the said Bill have caused the said Bond or obligation to be put up to sale and that the said complainant, John Vale, may have been thereupon declared the purchaser of the same and may have paid to the said complainant, William Hobkirk, the sum of three hundred and ninety-five pounds for such bond and that on the occasion mentioned in the said Bill such indenture as is mentioned in the said Bill to bear date the 30th day of June, one thousand, eight hundred and fifteen, may have been made and executed by and between such parties and to such purport and effect as is mentioned and set forth in that behalf in the said complainants bill, so far as the same is therein set forth, but these defendants say they are strangers to, and utterly ignorant of all the several last mentioned matters and things except by the statements contained in the said Bill in regard thereto and they therefore crave leave to refer to such proof thereof as the said complainants may make and these defendants say they have not any interest in such matters and they submit the same to the judgment of this Honourable court and these defendants say they claim no other interest in the said sum of twenty-two thousand pounds three percentum consolidated Bank annuities than that this defendant Mary Hobkirk claims to be entitled to an annuity of two hundred pounds arising there out for her life and this defendant Samuel Hobkirk claims to be entitled to one third part of the said twenty-two thousand pounds three percentum consolidated bank annuities on her death and in the mean time, subject to the said annuity and also subject to the payment of the said two other annuities of ten pounds and ten pounds bequeathed by the said testator’s Will, to his sister and brother, Margaret Hobkirk and Walter Hobkirk in the said complainants Bill named who are as these defendants believe both of them living, and now residing in North Britain, out of the jurisdiction of this honourable court and these defendants say they are strangers to all other the matters and things mentioned in the said complainants Bill and they deny all and all manner of unlawful combination and confederacy where with they are charged without that that there there is any other matter or thing in the said complainant’s said Bill contained material or effectual in the law whatsoever for them these defendants to make answer unto and not herein and hereby well and sufficiently answered unto confessed or avoided traversed or denied is true to the knowledge and belief of them these defendants all which matters and things these defendants are ready and willing to aver, maintain and prove as this Honourable Court shall direct and humbly pray to be hence dismissed with their reasonable costs and charges in this behalf most wrongfully sustained. 

Signed by the said Mary Hobkirk in the presence
     of Theodore ?Grimmett of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire,
      Solicitor
Signed by the said Samuel Hobkirk in the presence
     of Smith … of ?Plymouth ?Devonshire, solicitor


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This page was last updated 28 May 2012