Hannah West

Letters Testamentary on the will of MATHEW WEST, Erie Co. Surrogate's Court, Vol 0002-0003 (1832-1856), image 430 of 622. Read ON THE IMAGE at magnification by Claude, 3 Aug 2026 (Ancestry coll. 8800, image 005115675_00430, record 2229777). Verbatim: "...at the city of Buffalo in the county of Erie, on the 30th day of October ... one thousand eight hundred and fifty two ... the last Will and Testament of Mathew West late of the said county, deceased, was proved and is now approved and allowed of by us ... the administration of all and singular the goods, chattels and credits of the said deceased, and any way concerning his will, is granted unto Hannah West, Executrix in the said will named," she having taken the oath, with a true and perfect inventory required within three months. PROVES: Mathew West died TESTATE and was dead by 30 Oct 1852 — it BOUNDS the death, it does NOT date it. The instrument calls Hannah only "Executrix in the said will named"; that she was his WIDOW is stated separately in the creditor petition in the Erie probate file. VARIANCE RECORDED, NOT SMOOTHED: the surrogate's middle initial reads differently across three readings of this one image — "Charles A. Norton" (26 Jul), "Charles H. Norton" in the body and a signature reading "Ch. D. Norton" (3 Aug). Unresolved. The record-page OCR for this image is unusable (it renders as French noise); the image is not.

Creditor's petition of Jonathan Hunt of Eden, Erie Co. Surrogate's Court, image 1555; demand on a promissory note, sworn May 1854. Read on the image 27 Jul 2026. Recites that "Hannah West of the said town of Brant, WIDOW of said deceased, is the executrix of the last will and testament of said Mathew West deceased; that said will was admitted to probate on the 30th day of October 1852." THIS IS THE RECORD THAT MAKES HANNAH A WIFE RATHER THAN AN INFERENCE. The 1850 census records no relationships, and the Letters Testamentary call her only "Executrix in the said will named"; this petition states "widow" in the record itself. ALSO, from the proof of will 30 Oct 1852 (image 1560): the attesting witnesses were Horace Goodrich and STEPHEN WEST — the man living in George West's 1850 household. Under NY law a witness cannot be a beneficiary, which is consistent with Stephen being the testator's BROTHER rather than his son, and is the first documented interaction between Matthew's affairs and George West's household.

1850 U.S. Federal Census, Brant, Erie Co., New York; NARA M432 roll 499, page 333a, dwelling 771, family 809, line 16; enumerated 21 Aug 1850. Household as enumerated: Matthew West 57, farmer, agriculture, real estate $2,000, b. New York; Hannah West 49, b. Vermont; Phebe J. West 29, b. New York; George Fenton 11. NOTE: the 1850 census records NO relationship column — relationship to head of household first appears in 1880. Ancestry's 'Inferred Spouse' label is an ALGORITHM, not the schedule. That Hannah was Matthew's WIFE rests on the Erie Co. probate file, not on this record.