Lives in Cricket No 7 - Richard Daft

Chapter Two Advancement in Life The sons of John Daft may not even have heard of Thomas Wood, and the circumstances in which he came to their attention were sensational. In 1854, he was in his sixty-eighth year. At the end of November, while in Glasgow on business, he was taken ill. He must have had a premonition of disaster and, anxious to put his affairs in order, called for a lawyer. He was fortunate enough to find a good one in William Steele. He and his clerk, John Girvan, hastened to Wood’s lodging, where they found that their client was a very sick man indeed. The circumstances were complex. Wood was, it appeared, extremely rich; he was far from his Huddersfield home, and he had no direct dependants, his nearest and dearest consisting of a large number of nieces and nephews who were the offspring of his two brothers and his sister. When he came to the children of his sister Sarah, he was stretched to find a means of identifying them. He did not know how many children she had, but nephew William would because they all lived in Nottingham. Thomas’ wish was that his nieces and nephews, who numbered eleven in all, should share equally in his fortune. To begin with, they would share only the income: the estate should be accumulated for the next generation. At last, after hours of concentrated work, they finished the will and Steele read the contents to his client who scratched a feeble signature. Later that day, Thomas died. When the executors obtained Probate of the will, the value of his estate came to £24,000, or in present day values £1,786,560. In terms just of income at, say, five per cent, each might receive an annual income of around £8,000 on equivalent figures today. For Richard, aged just 19, everything was changed. He was in a position to make changes in his lifestyle: he soon opted for the life of a country gentleman. * * * * * 13