David Dewar

Second son and heir of George Dewar (q.v.), whom he succeeded in 1786, and father of David Albemarle Bertie Dewar (q.v.). He married his step-cousin Penelope Susannah, the daughter of General Edward Mathew, Governor of Grenada, and of Lady Jane Mathew (nee Bertie), the sister of his step-mother Lady Caroline Dewar (nee Bertie): the two sisters were the daughters of the second Duke of Ancaster. Penelope Sarah was a sister of Anne Mathew, who was the first wife of the Rev. James Austen, brother of the novelist Jane Austen.

1. Will of David Dewar of Enham proved 06/12/1794. In the will, made 26/02/1790, he confirmed the annuity of £1000 p.a. due to his wife Penelope Susannah under their marriage settlement, and specified that she should have £500 within 7 days of his death from the funds he held at Messrs Child & Co. The will is generic in terms of his children, i.e. it does not name them or confirm how many he had. He left each of his sons other than his eldest son £5000 at 21 and an annuity of £100 p.a. and to each of his daughters an annuity of £200 p.a. and £5000 at marriage, all secured on his real estate in England and St Christopher. He left his real estate, including his 'negroes', to his eldest son and then to his other sons, and then in trust for his nephew John Dewar. His leasehold estates in England, he said, were 'held under Magdalen College Oxford.' In a codicil of 17/11/1794, he left Dowles [sic] Lodge to his second son David Albermarle Bertie Dewar, and revoked his legacy of £10,000 [sic] to his daughter Jane Charlotte Dewar and replaced it with a legacy of £15,000 [he had in a note of 1792 previously added £5000 to the legacies to each of his daughters if no more than two, so that each would receive £10,000, or £7000 if 3 or £6000 if 4, and then amplified the explanation of the mechanics of this in a second note headed Laverstoke House in 1793].

Ancestry.com, David Dewar in the Burke's Family Records (Indexed) [database online]. Fully sourced genealogical account of the Austen family at http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=janeausten&id=I146 [accessed 21/11/2016].

1. PROB 11/1252/191.

We are grateful to Ronald Dunning for his assistance with compiling this entry.