I've recently been looking at the wills section of this website and was fascinated to read that my great great grandfather, George Godwin Bowdler (1850-1921), was a beneficiary of the will of William Crawshay - the mine-owner, who died in 1910. GGB was a gamekeeper on the Crawshay estate, and the will says that the relationship was "servant".

I imagine that the bequest was just a small token, but if anyone on here has details of the will then I'd love to hear from you. Please don't go to any trouble - this is simply about filling in some of the 'colour' of my ancestors' lives.

Janey

Ancestry: Probate

CRAWSHAY William of Hyde near Newnham, Gloucestershire, ironmaster J.P.
died 11 July 1910, Probate Gloucester 29 August to Henry William BRUTON estate agent and Arthur John MORGAN contractor

Effects: £72,561 2s 4d. Resworn: £74,048 6s 7d.

The Will of William Crawshay is 10 pages long and the beneficiaries are numerous as you would expect from a man who left over £74,000

George is mentioned on page 3 and it says,

I give to each of my servants George Bowdler and Joseph Newman who shall be in my service at my death the sum of fifty pounds.

The Will was written in Nov 1904 and has 4 codicils, the last of which was added in Feb 1909

Wow - thanks so much! I realise that William Crawshay was a man of considerable wealth, given his business interests in mines in the Forest. However, £50 for a servant back in 1910 must have been a significant sum.

It's interesting to note that in the 1911 Census GGB was the landlord of the New Zealand Inn at Newnham - I wonder if this move from gamekeeper to innkeeper was the result of his inheritance? His time at the New Zealand Inn was shortlived, however, as the Gloucester Journal reported on 14 September 1912 that a hearing at Littledean Petty Sessions had granted that the licence should be transferred from GGB to a Terwyn Mitchell.

Later on, looking at the marriage register entries on this site for some of GGB's younger children (1916-1918), he is back to being a gamekeeper, and also a wheelwright and carpenter.

According to this site £50 in 1910 was equivalent to about £5,130 nowadays. http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-1633409/Historic-inflation-calculator-...

So as you say a sizable sum but perhaps not life-changing ?. I cannot give a direct link, but a potted history of the New Zealand Inn may be found on Geoff Sandles' great site, just search for "Zealand". The site shows that at about the same time as George Bowdler was landlord the pub's annual rates bill would have been maybe £25.
http://www.gloucestershirepubs.co.uk/AllGlosPubsDatabase/AllGlosPubs_view.php

There's very little information available about this pub, including in a couple of books I have or the usual websites. This, plus it's somewhat remote location midway twixt Newnham and Littledean, suggests it was probably a fairly quiet and unpretentious beerhouse run as a secondary-earner serving just a few locals, perhaps seeming an ideal "retirement" home for George now aged sixty ?.