The Angell's Million's

There really is a will. It was written by John Angell himself in 1774 and is somewhat difficult to read. If anyone is interested, the ref. is L PROB10/2997 1c/409. A type written extract from The Registry of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury is included at the end of this article.

The John Angell that wrote the will is the son of John and Caroline Angell and the grandson of Justinian (John) Angell and the great great grandson of William Angell from whom the will bereaves his fortune too.

The last of this line of Angells (John 1700-1784) lived at Stockwell and his grandfather Justinian (known as John) had acquired much of the land in the area through his marriage to Elizabeth Scaldwell. It seems that the forebears of Justinian Angell, were the Angells that began the migration of the family to the United States.

In this John Angell's will, he stipulated that all of his money should go to any descendant in the male line from William Angell (1560c-1629). As a result everyone with the name Angell in Britain wondered if it was them. If no one was found then the money was to go the descendants of Frances Angell (b.1666) who had married a Benedict Browne and these Brownes would have to change their name to Angell to inherit.

The Will of John Angell did stipulate that the estates should go to the male heirs, although this action was not carried out and the Browne family assumed the estates, and name, although not the arms of John Angell, but those of Frances, as they were not legally heirs to the estate.

Benedict Browne of Calne inherited a vast amount from John Angell (d.1784) of Stockwell in what was Surrey and a stipulation in the will was that he and his offspring should go by the name Angell. My searches to date have not been able to establish if the Brownes did in fact change their surname to Angell and if later male generations of the Brownes went by the name of Angell.

A large part of the the inheritance was an area of London called Angell Town, close to Brixton, one of the less salubrious parts of London - and not the place to wander from door to door collecting 200 years back rent!

As a result of this will and the inheritance involved there are now two sorts of Angells - the real ones and those who were obliged to acquire the name to get their hands on a large inheritance.

The exact amount of inheritance is not known by me. The last figure I saw on it was 64 million pounds. I do not know when this figure was calculated so it could be worth a lot more than that these days.

Although many a John Angell is in my own family line, I have gone back eight generations on my family tree and this John does not come into play. I would think I would need to go back at least two more generations to establish any link. In searching the Angell family back through those generations it becomes rather hard in as much as a lot of babies left abandoned at Churches during that time were given the surname of Angel and some were taken into the Angell families.

Addendum #1 26/09/08

John lived in Stockwell, London and was buried at Crowhurst in Surrey. He owned land and property in many counties and seems to have been somewhat of an eccentric.

If you look in the London A-Z you will find Angell Town which is in the Stockwell/Brixton area. The properties on Angell Park Gardens and Angell Road, S.W.9 had once been elegant town houses. There is also a pub called the 'Angell Arms'.

John's Will was very complicated, he had drawn it up himself and whilst his writing was quite good, there are parts of it that are hard to read or understand. The Will is dated 21.9.1774 and the original copy is held at the P.R.O - Ref: L.PROB10/2997 1C/409.

There are also a number of 'Bills of Complaint' from various Angells who thought they had a better claim to the Estate than Benedict Browne, who seems to have taken all/some of the property, and was said to be the grandson of Frances Angell and another Benedict Browne. The various 'Bills of Complaint' allege that Benedict who claimed the money was not in fact the grandson of Frances Angell and it talks of an erasure and alteration being made in the church records of St. Mary's, Calne. There is talk of a missing document. I believe this is the page from the church records which I understand was eventually removed from the register.

The Browne family changed their name to Angell and applied to the College of Heralds for permission to use the Angell coat of arms.

Beryl Angell (author) Link to Article

Addendum #2 26/09/08

I have quite a lot of information about the Angel will - including an article published about it in about 1905.

John Angel was reputed in my family to be a descendant of another John Angel who had been vintner to Charles II at Windsor Castle (gaining his fortune by giving short measures?). His ?grandson's complex will was because he wanted to leave money to the members of the family that had been split by the Civil War. Some of his fortune had come from the finances of a Justinian Angel who raised monies to build lighthouses including the Spurnhead Light off the Humber (near the present day city of Hull on the east coast of UK). He had been receiving a farthing (1/4 of an old penny)from the master of every ship that past the light - not much but there was a lot of shipping up and down the east coast at the time. However, the Humber estuary was continually silting up and the mariners no longer got any advantage from the light.

It took an act of Parliament to disenfranchise John Angel from this regular income and I believed this was the last Act of Parliament to name a specific person.

John was not exactly thrilled by this lost of income and became a very embittered old man. There is a story that he caught a small boy stealing apples from his orchard and boxed the child's ears. Two weeks later the child took ill of a fever and died. John was then hauled before the local Assizes and accused of murder. The jury found him guilty but the judge reverse the verdict. After which John disppeared and possibly moved to West Wales.

My family appeared in the village of Lawrenny (Pembrokeshire, West Wales - now Dyfed)when a William Angel suddenly appeared there in 1824 living at Rose Cottage.

One executor of John Angel Will was the bishop of St Davids (very close to Lawrenny),and the hope was that my family could prove a connection, but too much cheating had gone on altering the parish records. Someone was researching the will 20 years ago and reckoned that several murders had taken place removing other claimants.

The Balfour Brownes only got some of the money and the rest remained in chancery, no doubt it helped to clear a fragment of the British National Debt! According to my Grandmother, the will was one of the examples used by Charles Dickens as a basis for Bleak House (well it makes a good story!).

Martin Angel (author) Link to Article

The Will - Page 1

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Crowhusrt Church

There is in the floor of the chancel a slab to John Angell, who died in 1670. In a Latin inscription he is stated to have been 'Provisor Publicus (quod vulgo Caterer audit) et itidem Windsorii Castri supremus Janitor.'

In the floor of the south aisle is a brass inscribed in black letters to Anne wife of John Gainsford of Crowhurst and daughter of Thomas Fiennes. On the north wall of the chancel is an elaborate black and white marble tablet with a Latin inscription to Thomasin wife of Richard Marryott of the parish of St. Clement Danes; she was daughter of John Angell and died 1675; also to her daughter Elizabeth, who died aged twelve in the same year.

On the south wall of the chancel is a mural tablet to Justinian Angell, fifth son of John Angell. He married Elizabeth eldest daughter of John Scaldwell of Brixton Causeway, and died in 1680. Above the inscription are the arms of Angell, Or a fesse indented of three points azure with a bend gules over all impaling Scaldwell, Argent powdered with stars azure a cross formy fitchy azure.

There are three bells: the treble and second have no maker's mark or inscription. The tenor is by Thomas Mears, 1795.

The plate consists of a small silver chalice of 1638, inscribed on the foot 'Crowhurst Church in Surrey Anô 1638,' and having a cover paten of the same date, a large paten of 1722, a silver flagon of 1736 inscribed 'The gift of William Angell of the Middle Temple London and of Barfield Place in the County of Berks: Esqr, one of the Verderers of the Forest of Windsor, eldest Son of Johne Angell of Stockwell in the County of Surrey Esqr. Ano Dom: 1736,' and having a quartered shield (1) Angell, (2) A bend engrailed between six roses, (3) Ermine a bend with three roses thereon, (4) Scaldwell; and a pyx of 1903.

From: 'Parishes: Crowhurst', A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 4 (1912), pp. 274-281. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=43064 Date accessed: 20 February 2010.

Created on 09/10/2008 12:20 AM by Rod
Updated on 21/02/2010 12:27 AM by Rod