Historical information

Tait collection: item 48 of 62
This is a document giving details of the Will and Probate of William James Osborne, a Tallangatta farmer who died in 1896 at the age of 59. His death place is given as Tower Hill. A William Osborne is listed as a Wangoom farmer in 1856, a farmer at ‘Thompson’s Old Farm’ in Allansford in 1866 and a farmer at Winton Farm on the Allansford Road near Shipley in 1869 but these references may be to William Osborne’s father as there is mention of a William Osborne, Junior at that time. William James Osborne left real estate to the value of £560 and personal estate to the value of £81 to his wife, Hannah. The lawyer who drew up this document was Ernest Chambers who had legal offices in Warrnambool, Koroit and Port Fairy at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. He was in possession of this document and it has passed down to successive lawyers occupying the legal premises in Kepler Street where it was located in 2014 (former premises of the law firm of Mackay Taylor).

Significance

This document is of interest as it gives details of the Will and Probate of William James Osborne, a farmer in the Allansford area in the 19th century.

Physical description

This is a cream-coloured piece of parchment paper folded in two to make four pages. Three of the pages have handwritten material in brown ink and the pages are not ruled. A seal of the Supreme Court of Victoria is attached with a green ribbon and there is one red stamp of the Master in Equity of the Supreme Court. The document is somewhat stained but legible. The document gives details of the Will and Probate of William Osborne of Tallangatta in the County of Heytesbury. He died in 1896.

Inscriptions & markings

In the Supreme Court of the Colony of Victoria in the Probate Jurisdiction in the Will of William James Osborne late of Tallangatta in the County of Heytesbury in the Colony of Victoria Farmer deceased.