What Did She Do?

Every now and then something in the records piques our interest without giving us any more information. That's the case with my maternal four-times great-grandfather Jesse Sill's will made on the 16th of July, 1857, a couple of months before his death.

Jesse's will made it clear that he is in my direct line as he names his grandsons Abner* and Jesse S. Webb and bequeaths $300 to each of them (originally it was $350 but as you can see below that's been crossed out).

["Pennsylvania, Probate Records, 1683-1994," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1961-28783-25273-3?cc=1999196&wc=9PMJ-MNG:268499101,281994701 : accessed 11 January 2015), Allegheny > Wills 1855-1860 vol 8 no 79-vol 9 no 304 > image 1574 of 3099; county courthouses, Pennsylvania.]

At the top of the next page Jesse leaves "the sum of fifty dollars only" to his grand daughter Elizabeth Jane Webb, "in consideration of certain liabilities of hers assumed by me." Elizabeth Jane was about 18 at the time the will was drawn and I'd love to know just what "liabilities" her grandfather had taken care of for her.

["Pennsylvania, Probate Records, 1683-1994," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1961-28783-25273-3?cc=1999196&wc=9PMJ-MNG:268499101,281994701 : accessed 11 January 2015), Allegheny > Wills 1855-1860 vol 8 no 79-vol 9 no 304 > image 1575 of 3099; county courthouses, Pennsylvania.]

(I've included the next bequest of Jesse's which is $700 to his daughter Ann Atwater "provided she is returned to soundness of mind; but if she shall remain in her present state of insanity, then I will and direct that the said sum of seven hundred dollars be given to my three grand daughters, Martha, Adalade Ann, and Irene Atwater in the following proportions to Martha three hundred dollars; and to Adelade Ann and Irene, each, two hundred dollars.")

After her grandfather's death, we find 21-year old Elizabeth Ann in the 1860 U.S. Census living in the household of her aunt Ann Atwater. (Note that everyone except Elizabeth Ann owns property.)

[Ancestry.com. 1860 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: 1860 U.S. census, population schedule. NARA microfilm publication M653, 1,438 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records]

And that's the last we know of my great great grand-aunt Elizabeth Ann Webb. Did she get married? Did she die young? We'll probably never know.

But I'd like to know why her grandfather had to pay $250 on her behalf.

*Abner is in my great great grandfather.
**Ann's husband Asaph Atwater died the year before; perhaps his wife was suffering from what we could call clinical depression.

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