William Jermy was born in 1713 to John Jermy of Bayfield and his second wife Mary Starkey. He was admitted at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in 1731 and matriculated in the same year. He was admitted at the Inner Temple on 24 Nov 1735, and was High Sheriff of Norfolk between 1747 - 1748. He married firstly the Honourable Elizabeth Richardson on 23 Aug 1735 at St Mary in the Marsh, Norwich. She was the sister and heiress of Baron Cramond in Scotland, and brought significant property and wealth with her, to augment William's own not inconsiderable wealth. The marriage was childless and ended in legal separation four years later. Elizabeth Jermy died on 1 Aug 1751.
William married secondly Frances Preston on 7 Oct 1751 at Beeston St Lawrence, Norfolk. She was the sister of lawyer Isaac Preston. William died three months after this marriage on 21 Jan 1752 at Craven Buildings, Craven Street, London, and was subsequently buried in St Michael, Aylsham. The male line of that branch of the Jermy family became extinct with his death. According to the obituary in the Gentleman's Magazine, he was possessed of £1 000 per annum and £10 000 in money.
His poorly worded will, dated 12 December 1751, left his Norfolk estate to his wife for life then to Jacob Preston her nephew, then to his male heir, failing which to Thomas Preston, London merchant, her brother, then to his male heir, and in default of which to such male person of the name Jermy as shall be the nearest related to me in blood. There is some speculation that William's will was forged by Isaac Preston, the brother of his second wife Francis. The wording of William's will and the later will of Isaac Preston are remarkably similar. There is also the strange occurrence of a codicil to Williams will dated before the "final" will presented for probate.
Frances died in 1791, and since Jacob had died without issue in 1787 and Thomas similarly in 1773, the estate passed contrary to the terms of the will - to Isaac Preston, half-brother of Jacob. Isaac who was Recorder of King's Lynn, Norfolk, died unmarried in 1796 and the estate then went to his younger brother, the Rev. George Preston, rector of Beeston St Lawrence, Norfolk, ancient seat of the Prestons. The Rev. George died in 1837 and his son Isaac Preston, Recorder of Norwich, inherited, taking the precaution - unlike his uncle Isaac and his father to comply with the terms of William's will by assuming the surname and arms of Jermy.
However, the frustrating of the terms of the will in 1791 by Isaac was not without legal justification, for his father Isaac Preston snr. of Beeston, elder brother of Frances and trustee of the estate, with remarkable lawyer's foresight had sought out the two most likely claimants to the estate (both named in William's will) and bought them off 37 years earlier - in 1754, two years after William's death. Isaac sen. had first signed a bargain and sale with Francis Jermy of North Walsham, 22 an elderly lawyer, making over his claim for a mere £20. But the most likely heir was another Norfolk man, John Jermy of Yarmouth, an illiterate labourer, descendant of the Gunton line. It was he whom Isaac Preston next sought. Armed with Francis Jermy's signed deed, he concluded a similar bargain and sale with John Jermy for the same paltry consideration of £20 - probably much less than a hundredth of the value of the Jermy estate, but a princely sum to a labourer.
This palpable fraud was undetected until it was too late, in terms of the Statute of Limitations, to do anything about it.
These actions by the Prestons were to lead, almost a century later, to the double murder at Stanfield Hall, and protracted legal wrangling.
See also the new pages about the poetry of William Jermy of Bayfield, and the Jermy Roller Pedigree that belonged to him.
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