Dame Elizabeth Smyth (née Woolnough)

Heiress of her mother Rebecca Woolnough (q.v.), and shown as owner of the Spring estate - which she herself had inherited - after the death of her husband Sir John Hugh Smyth 2nd bart. (q.v.).

1. 'April [1825] At Redclift [sic] house, aged 87 [Death of] Elizabeth, widow of Sir John Hugh Smyth 2nd bart. and sole daughter and heiress of Henry Woolnough of Pucklechurch, Gloucs.' [The entry reports her fortune as £40,000 on marriage in 1757 and notes the title of Sir John Hugh Smyth descend to two nephews].

2. Will of Dame Elizabeth Smyth widow of [Clift house] Bedminster Somerset proved 08/04/1825. In the will she left an unusually high annuity of £200 p.a. to her housekeeper Sarah Plumley; she also left annuities of £150 p.a to her butler Thomas Plumley and £80 p.a. to her coachman James Harris. She left £2000 to the Bristol Infirmary, and after monetary legacies to friends and servants of some £3000 she left her Jamaica estates and enslaved people to the Rev. Israel Lewis Vicar of Long Ashton as trustee, executor and apparently heir, but subject to the terms of the trusts on which she held the property.

3. The will of Dame Elizabeth Smyth widow of Bath proved 22/03/1841 refers to the will of the widow of Sir Hugh Smyth 3rd bart, a nephew and heir of the 2nd bart. and of Dame Elizabeth Smyth nee Woolnough, and left everything to her son John Hugh Smyth Piggott. The latter was the owner and modifier of Grove Park, Weston-super-Mare, where he collected voraciously including busts from Horace Walpole's Strawberry Villa.

1. Gentleman's Magazine Vol. 137 (Jan-June 1825) p. 651.

2. PROB 11/1698/39.

3. PROB 11/1943/222; http://www.parksandgardens.org/places-and-people/site/1551/history [accessed 30/11/2016].