Subject

Co-executor, with Charles Jellicoe, to Mary Gray Ratray who died in 1873. He was a solicitor who lived at 5 Royal Crescent and worked at Haberdasher's Hall.

We were shocked to read in The Law Times Volume 58 that “Included in the receipts of the {Solicitors' Benevolent Association} past half-year, is a donation of £6100 from the executors of Miss Mary Gray Ratray, of London, deceased, in respect of which the board … have admitted as an honorary life member, Mr. Edwin Bedford, solicitor, of Haberdashers' Hall, London, one of the executors acting under probate of her will.” 

Amd then we found in Fun Vol XX, 1874: “The executors of the late Miss Mary Gray Ratray have, with the approval of the Court of Chancery, forwarded £300 to the Council of the Charity Organisation Society, being part of a legacy of £23,000 left to the charities of the metropolis.  The will directed twenty-three thousand pounds to be given to charities. The Charity Organisation Society is not a Charity. It is a body of self-elected self-satisfied Pharisees who take a delight in meddling with, and intercepting Charity … To give three hundred pounds to that society is not only to deprive real charities of that amount, but to give it increased powers for mischief. “

These two events put together call into question the integrity of the two executors and we wonder if anyone demanded an inquiry at the time. See Ratray's page for more information about Bedford's work for the Ratrays.

Andrew Behan has kindly carried out some research on this man: He was born on 15 October 1826, the son of Francis Octavius Bedford and Sophia Bedford nee Curtis in Camberwell. His father was an architect and he was baptised in St Giles Church, Camberwell on 13 November 1826. In 1855 he married Caroline Donkin in Maidstone, Kent. The 1861 census shows his occupation as a solicitor and he was living with his wife, two daughters, a housemaid, a cook and a nurse at 5 Royal Crescent, Kensington. The 1871 census shows him still at the same address with his wife, four daughters, three sons, a head nurse, a housemaid, a cook, a young ladies maid and an under nurse. Electoral registers show that by 1876 he had moved to 17 Ladbroke Terrace, Bayswater and the 1881 census shows him there with his wife, three daughters, a cook, a parlour maid, a housemaid and a kitchen maid. National probate records for the 17 October 1884 show the following 'The will of Edwin Bedford late of 17 Ladbroke Terrace, Bayswater in the County of Middlesex and of 1 and 2 Bucklersbury in the City of London, solicitor, who died 30 August 1884 at 111 Westbourne Terrace in the said County was proved at the Principal Registry by Caroline Bedford of 17 Ladbroke Terrace Widow the Relict and Bryan Donkin the Younger of May's Hill, Shortlands, in the County of Kent Esquire the Executors. Personal estate £32,044-16s-8d'.