Mary (Leader) de Berry (1795 - 1860)

Born 30 Oct 1795 in Putney, London, England

Ancestors

Died 27 Nov 1860 at age 65 in Putney, London, England

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Biography

Mary Leader married, firstly, Captain Edward Lowther Crofton of the Royal Navy. The Will of Edward Lowther Crofton was proved in September 1821.^[1]

Mary Leader married secondly, Captain Woodley Losack of the Royal Navy. Woodley Losack died on the 30th of May 1838. ^[2]

At some point she became Mary, Countess Arnoldo de Berry.

She died on the 27th of November 1860. The Will of Mary, Countess Arnoldo de Berry, was proved on 21st September 1865 and the main beneficiaries named were the son, Ferdinand Temple Palmer Losack, and also the artist Attilio Baccani.^[3]

Family and Education

b. 8 Nov. 1767,1 o.s. of William Leader, coachmaker to the prince of Wales,2 of 37 Liquor Pond Street, St. Andrew’s, Holborn and 32 Bedford Row, Mdx. and w. Mary.3 (His sis. Mary Rose m. John Maberly*.) educ. Eton 1779-81. m. 1 Mar. 1792, Mary née Bond (d. 7 May 1838, aged 72),4 2s. (1 d.v.p.) 4da. suc. fa. 1798. d. 13 Jan. 1828.

Leader, whose elder son William was killed, at the age of 24, in a carriage accident in Oxford, 28 Feb. 1826, made a will on 2 Aug. of that year. He left his wife £1,000 and an annuity of £1,500. He had secured to his four daughters £10,000 each by their marriage settlements, and he now bequeathed an additional sum of £10,000 each to three of them, having provided the other with the same amount by bond. Various other legacies to relatives and his executors amounted to some £14,500. He left the residue of his personalty and all his real estate to his surviving son John, who was to receive £1,000 a year until he attained his majority.7 In September 1827 Leader fell ill with ‘a liver complaint’ and decided to make a fresh disposition of his property. He replaced John Maberly as an executor with his son William Leader Maberly*; added some new legacies and amended some existing ones; increased his son’s allowance to £1,500 a year, and made new provisions for the disposal of the residue in the event of his son’s death during his nonage. He planned to pay all his daughters’ legacies by bond and to invest on their behalf a sum of £30,000 due to him from Atlee. He approved the final draft of the new will early in January 1828, but wished to delay its execution until his solicitor returned to London. Yet the clerk, perceiving Leader’s worsening state, thought it prudent to have the instruments engrossed. On 11 Jan. Leader became ‘alarmingly ill’. He rallied the following day, but on 13 Jan. 1828, when he was ‘evidently sinking’, was advised by his doctor to complete his worldly business:

^[4]

Sources

1. ↑ Will of Edward Lowther Crofton, Captain in His Majesty's Royal Navy PROB 11/1647/413 National Archives at Kew
2. ↑ Will of Woodley Losack, Captain in the Royal Navy of Nice , Switzerland PROB 11/1911/39 National Archives at Kew
3. ↑ "England and Wales, National Index of Wills and Administrations, 1858-1957", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPJ9-L5R3 : Wed Dec 13 20:09:57 UTC 2023), Entry for Mary Arnoldo de Berry and Attilio Baccani, 21 Sep 1865.
4. ↑ https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/leader-william-1767-1828#footnoteref1_qex1g4z