Hannah Mayor

I have to correct a note on the website of http://www.fredmayor.com/. Their inbox is full, so the only other way is to post the note on my blog. Fred Mayor was married to Hannah who was a daughter of my great great grandfather, Charles Hoyland, a brush manufacturer in Sheffield.

The website notes that after Hannah married Fred her father was so furious, that he "cut her off without a penny". This is not entirely true. In the final Codicil to the will of Charles Hoyland, he states "With reference to the share which I have given by my said will to my daughter Hannah Hoyland I hereby direct that the same shall not be paid to her direct but that the same shall be invested by my trustees and the annual income arising from such investment shall be paid to my said daughter Hannah who is now the wife of Fred Mayor for and during her natural life into her own hands and free from anticipation and after her death such share shall be equally divided amongst the children of my said daughter etc etc".

So Fred could not get his hands on Hannah's inheritance, but she did benefit from the will herself. Fred died in 1916 but Hannah survived for another 30 years. Fed Mayor's website continues to explain that she continued to rent the big house in Earls Court Square "despite shortage of funds and much hardship". But she still had the income from the Hoyland estate and her son and daughter had private educations. Some hardship.