Wills can provide fascinating details of what daily life was like at that time. In Joseph Donaldson’s 1872 will, he made sure to provide for his widow, directing his son thus:
2nd I give devise and bequeath unto my second son James George Donaldson all and singular that piece or parcel of land and premises being comprised of the Fourth lot in the fifth concession of the township of South Monaghan aforesaid Charging and requiring him to pay the following: To his Mother during her natural life or as she remains my Widow yearly and every year to pay unto her the sum of Fifty dollars of good and lawfule money of Canada together with the following produce, viz: Twelve pounds of tea, Fifty pounds of Sugar, Five hundred pounds of good flower, Ten bushels potatoes, Thirty pounds Beef or Mutton, One Barrel pork, Twelve pounds of Carded Wool and milch and butter sufficient for her own use allso all fire wood she shall need.
I also desire that my wife possess during her natural life the east half of the house I now live in together with all furniture thereon and her bed, bedding, Bureau & looking glass and the east half of the garden. I allso desire and require my son James George to provide my wife with a conveyance at all times that she shall desire the same to and from church and at least four times each year to and from Port Hope or Peterborough…
2nd I give devise and bequeath unto my second son James George Donaldson all and singular that piece or parcel of land and premises being comprised of the Fourth lot in the fifth concession of the township of South Monaghan aforesaid Charging and requiring him to pay the following: To his Mother during her natural life or as she remains my Widow yearly and every year to pay unto her the sum of Fifty dollars of good and lawfule money of Canada together with the following produce, viz: Twelve pounds of tea, Fifty pounds of Sugar, Five hundred pounds of good flower, Ten bushels potatoes, Thirty pounds Beef or Mutton, One Barrel pork, Twelve pounds of Carded Wool and milch and butter sufficient for her own use allso all fire wood she shall need.
I also desire that my wife possess during her natural life the east half of the house I now live in together with all furniture thereon and her bed, bedding, Bureau & looking glass and the east half of the garden. I allso desire and require my son James George to provide my wife with a conveyance at all times that she shall desire the same to and from church and at least four times each year to and from Port Hope or Peterborough…
Joseph Donaldson, Last Will and Testament, United Counties of Northumberland and Durham Surrogate Court Records, Microfilm no. GS 1, Reel 1106, File no. 1272, Archives of Ontario, Toronto.
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