The Gidley restaurant in Sydney, New South Wales

This recently came into my inbox from Giga alerts. Not sure if the ambiance of the place exactly matches my impression of all the Gidleys I have met and corresponded with over the years, so where did they get the name from, I wonder?
I'd love to hear from any Gidleys who go there, mention their surname and note the reaction. It's a bit far for me to go!

This shortened extract is taken from the Broadsheet.

A new basement bar is landing on King Street in the CBD, with a Norfolk Island-inspired look, rib eye three ways and stiff cocktails.The Gidley will be a classic American-style steakhouse that mixes New York opulence with Australian cheek. It’s the latest offering from hospitality group Liquid and Larder. Group directors Warren Burns and James Bradey were inspired by trips they’ve taken to the US over the years, but they aren’t trying to fully replicate the American experience.
“It’s about being transported somewhere else and enjoying the company. That’s what The Gidley is all about – you walk down the stairs, get lost in the corridors, sit down with a Negroni in hand and have a chat with your friends.”

The Gidley will open in the basement of 161 King Street, Sydney in mid to late November.

I wish it every success.

Three mystery apprenticeship indentures at Bovey Tracey

A view of Bovey Tracey

I can't find much, if any, further information on three Gidley girls from Bovey Tracey, Devon who were apprenticed under the Poor Law to more prosperous inhabitants. This saved the rate payers of the parish from having to support the pauper parents of those children. The children may have had otherwise to resort to begging and vagrancy. In rural areas the girls were usually apprenticed for housewifery, but it could be for husbandry. By the early 19th century apprentices had to be at least 9 years old. These indentures can all be found in the Devon Record Office in the Bovey Tracey parish records.
The first girl is Mary Gidley, described as "a poor child of Bovey Tracey", who was apprenticed to Thomas Collihall for husbandry in 1772. She is possibly descended from George Gidley and Jane How who married in Mortonhampstead in 1688. If so, she was christened in Mortonhampstead, about 7 or 8 miles from Bovey Tracey, in January 1764. Her father, John Gidley, died there in 1769. Her mother, Susanna Gidley nee Pethybridge, died in Bovey Tracey in 1774. I can't find any more about Mary.

The second in date order is Susanna Gidley, "aged 10 and upwards, a poor child of Bovey Tracey", apprenticed to William Bowden, yeoman of Bridford, till the age of 21 or married. Housewifery work. No further information found for Susanna.

The third is Honor Gidley, aged 11, apprenticed to William Palk, yeoman of Bovey Tracey, for housewifery, on July 7th, 1823. No further information found on Honor. The only entry for an Honor in the Bovey Tracey parish baptismal register for 1812 is for a Mary Ann Honour Collinder. For Devon as a whole there is a baptism of an Honor Kiddy in 1812 in Kilmington (East Devon). Kiddy is an extremely rare surname in Devon at that time, with only 2 baptisms 1754 - 1837 (the Devon Baptisms on FindMyPast) and 3 marriages (Devon Marriages on FindMyPast) over the same period. I wonder if Honor Kiddy and/or Honor Gidley should in fact really be Honor Giddy.

The 1810 settlement and bastardy examinations of Mary Gidley

Whitestone Church

9 March 1810
Touching the last legal place of settlement of Mary Gidley, single woman.
Now residing in St Thomas, now with child. Told she was born in Whitestone, her parents legally settled there, she went to St Sidwell aged 15 and agreed with the wife of John Reed at 6d a week; received meat, drink, washing and lodging. Worked there almost one year, and told "If you behave well and be a good girl, I will give you 3d a week more", so after one year she had 9d for near two years, then left and hath done no act since to gain a settlement.
The mark X of Elizabeth [sic] Gidley.

On the reverse of the document are listed the costs for, amongst others, the bastardy examination on 23 February 1810 and the removal order on 16 March 1810.

23 February 1810
Bastardy examination
William Goldsworthy of the City of Exeter [St George's Clyst is crossed out] has admitted carnal knowledge at the end of July and at sundry times since, no other person has had carnal knowledge.

16 March 1810
Removal order of Mary Gidley from St Thomas to St Sidwell as actually chargeable to that parish. Her lawful settlement is judged to be St Sidwell.

St Sidwell''s in 1829, as it was before destruction in the bombing of 1942

Mary Gidley is certainly on the Whitestone family tree, but which Mary she is is not quite clear. The baby, Lucy Gidley, was christened in St Sidwell's, Exeter, on 16 May 1810, daughter of Mary Gidley. Mary could be the daughter of John and Mary Gidley of Whitestone, christened in 1783. Mary's mother's name was also recorded as Lucy in the Whitestone parish registers, and it makes sense for Mary to have called her daughter after her mother. But Mary would be aged 27 in 1810, and the account of her working life in the settlement examination doesn't seem quite long enough.
That she is recorded as Elizabeth Gidley as the signee to the examination is probably an error. That  name seems unfeasible, as all the Elizabeths or Bettys on the Whitestone tree are the wrong age, or not born in Whitestone.
And what happened to Mary and Lucy? Of Mary I have found nothing further so far. I think Lucy Gidley may have died aged 18 in 1829. She was buried in Exeter St Thomas and was recorded as being the daughter of John and Mary Gidley, her place of residence being Exwick. The age fits exactly and I can't find other candidates with those parents' names at that time.

The 1820 Bastardy Examination of Mary Scott, single woman

A view of Murchington

7 August 1820
Concerning a female child lately born in Chagford [Devon] of Mary Scott, single woman.
Mary Scott said her child was born on 22nd June, Richard Gidley of Throwleigh being the father.
[She was awarded £1 expenses for the birth and £2 further expenses on the overseer of Chagford's oath.]

Richard Gidley hath appeared before us and judged to be the father. He is to pay the above costs, which include maintenance of the child, to the overseers of the poor of Chagford, also 2 shillings weekly during so long as the bastard child shall be chargeable to Chagford parish. Mary Scott should also pay 1 shilling weekly while the child is chargeable in case she shall not nurse and take care of the child herself.

Richard Gidley of Throwleigh is probably the son of William Gidley and Jane Harris and from the Drewsteignton branch of the Winkleigh family. Care is needed, because there is another Richard Gidley of similar age (a year older) from the same small area. That Richard is the son of Oliver Gidley and Elizabeth May, and there has been great confusion between the two on the public member trees on Ancestry. I think the more likely candidate for "Richard Gidley of Throwleigh" named by Mary Scott as the father of her child is more likely to be the first mentioned Richard. The second Richard does not seem to have had any connection with Throwleigh, as he was christened in 1794 in South Tawton and, I think, buried in 1824 in Chagford. That was, however, Mary Scott's place of residence, so he can't be ruled out.

The first Richard definitely had a connection with Throwleigh. He was christened in Drewsteignton  (more confusion) in 1795, but in 1826 he married Dinah Herbert in Throwleigh. By then Mary Scott's child would have been aged 4, so perhaps he felt able then to take on a legitimate family. In the 1841 census he was a farmer in Murchington, part of Throwleigh parish. In 1850 he was doing well enough to take on an apprentice at the farm, and in the 1851 census he was described as a farmer of 30 acres at Higher Murchington Farm. In the 1850s it all seems to have gone downhill, and Richard and his whole family had emigrated to Sylvania, Lucas county, Ohio by 1860 when he was described as a RR [railroad] hand. His will was proved in 1870 in Lucas county.
Richard and Dinah had 11 children, of whom 3 died in infancy. The remainder, with the possible exception of the oldest daughter who was married in 1849, all emigrated with their parents to Ohio, but at least three of the sons later moved on to Michigan.

And what happened to Mary Scott's and Richard Gidley's illegitimate daughter? She was christened Jane Gidley Scott in Chagford three days after her birth, on 25th June 1822. In 1841 she was probably a worsted spinner in Chagford, where she married the same year, and by 1851 she was living with her husband, Josias Endycott, in Combeinteignhead, Devon. Strangely, in 1841 in the same woolcomber's household was Ann Gidley, a fellow worsted spinner, aged 15. She was probably a second cousin of Jane Gidley Scott, but I imagine most of Chagford was inter-related at that time.

The 1814 settlement examination of Henry Gidley of Tor

Torquay in 1811

Note:- the clerk's spelling was somewhat idiosyncratic.
The settlement examination of Henry Gidley of Tor, tutching [sic] the last legal place of this settlement, taken 12 February 1814.
[He] saieth and belives [sic] he was born in the parish of Dean Prior, as he has heard his parents say, and was bound out as an apprentice with John Rodgers to learn the art of a stone mason till he attained the age of 21 years which time was lawfully served: and then hired himself as a servant with the said John Rodgers for 2 years and then married and took a dwelling house in the pparish of Staverton, the rent being 4-10-0 per year and then removed in the parish of Little Hempson and their [sic] rented a house of Mr Palk at 4-4-0 and then removed in the parish of Tor where he rented a dwelling house of Mr Nic: Mudge at 9-7-0 per year and says he has don [sic] no maner [sic] of Parish Office or any other act so as to gain a settlement by it.

Henry Gidley signed with an X.

Henry Gidley was, I think, born in Dean Prior in 1747, the 5th of 12 children of William Gidley and his wife Elinor Clark. In 1814 I imagine he might have been failing in health, and needing support from the parish, although he didn't die until 1832 in Torquay. He married firstly in 1775 in Dean Prior a second cousin, Joan Gidley. They had two daughters, Margaret and Ann. I believe Margaret is the most likely candidate for the mother of John Gidley, an illegitimate son born in 1804, who married Jane Callicott and became the ancestor of film star Pamela Gidley and actor/singer Bill Gidley. Some other of their Gidley descendants emigrated to New South Wales, Australia.
Henry's first wife Joan died in 1780 and at about this time Henry moved to Staverton and married for a second time, to Ann Preston. They had two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, and a son, William, one of whose sons, Robert, a chemist, also emigrated to Australia, to Melbourne. I have a note that William Gidley may have been involved in a Plymouth Brethren-type church, established in St Marychurch by Philip Gosse after he moved there in 1857. Its congregation was described as "simple and rustic". (Embley, P L. The origins and early development of the Plymouth Brethren.)

The village of Tor or Torre, was the oldest part of Torquay, which developed quickly after the Royal Navy anchored in the bay during the Napoleonic Wars and attracted large numbers of visitors to the area.

The 1815 settlement examination of Mary Gidley of Bovey Tracey

I have recently been going back through my old notebooks in a decluttering exercise and found a couple of transcriptions of settlement examinations I had made at the Devon Record Office over the years. Rather than bin them, I will record them here for posterity.
Please note that they are unlikely to be the full transcript, merely the items of family history interest. For the complete examination the original needs to be consulted.

Bovey Tracey 5 June 1815
Mary Gidley now residing in the parish of Bovey Tracey, single woman, touching the place of her last legal settlement, taken on oath before two Justices of the Peace.
To the best of my knowledge and belief she was born in Bovey Tracey, when about 14 or 15 she went to live with Miss Savory of Dock, Stoke Damarel, under a weekly hiring at about 18d per week and lived under that hiring 12 months, then went and lived with Mr Nicholson, linen draper of Dock at about 2s per week, and lived with him about 1 and a half years, then went and lived with David Price of Stoke Damerel , hatter, at the rate of 2s 4d per week, and lived with him under that hiring about 6 years, then moved with Mr Price and his family to London and lived with Mr Price at no. 22 Oxford Street for 3 years under the same hiring, then returned to the said Bovey Tracey where she is now residing.
To the best of her knowledge she has done no other deed whereby to gain a settlement.

A hatter at work

The examination was triggered by the fact that Mary Gidley was about to give birth (or had already just given birth) to an illegitimate child, Mary Ann Gidley, christened in Bovey Tracey just a month later, on 9th July 1815. That child would be chargeable to the parish unless Mary could be proved to be the responsibility of another parish. Who was the father of Mary's child? A clue, perhaps, many years later, in the marriage register for the probable marriage of that illegitimate child, Mary Ann Gidley, to Joshua Levens. Mary Ann names her father as John Gidley, hatter. No such person existed, as far as I can see, but her mother was of course apprenticed for several years to David Price, a hatter.
So what happened to Mary Gidley and her daughter Mary Ann? There were obviously not many opportunities in Bovey Tracey and all the children of John Gidley and Elizabeth Purday left the village - two for London, one for Dover, then on to London, and another, John Gidley born about 1796, probably to Australia with his wife Elizabeth Facey.
By 1841 Mary Gidley had returned to London, and is a female servant in Pall Mall. In 1851 there is a bit more detail - she is a housemaid in 89 Pall Mall. The head of the household in each year is Elizabeth Fenning or Fanning, an unmarried fundholder of independent means. By 1861 Mary has moved to live with her younger brother George and his family in Limehouse, in London's East End, where she died in 1875. She never married.
It looks as though her daughter Mary Ann accompanied her to London. In 1841 she could well be "Maria" Gidley, a servant in Nelson Square, Southwark, in the household of Richard Perkins, an attorney. I think she married Joshua Levens in Whitechapel in 1855.

Death certificates have revealed the identity of some mystery Gidleys

I recently took advantage of the electronic certificates supplied by the GRO before February's price rise and applied for 9 death certificates for Gidleys I couldn't identify from GRO index records. They were mainly from the earlier years of registration, although the latest I wanted was from 1883.
Of the 9 certificates I received, two were for the same person, and only five cleared up their identity. Of the others, some left tantalizing clues, whilst others continued to defy identification.
N.B. I can't be certain of the archaic medical terms used for cause of death, some of which were difficult to decipher.

Those identified:
1. Ann Gidley, died 8th November 1852, of 8 Clarence Road, Kentish Town, wife of Robert Gidley, a stamper in the Stamp Office, Somerset House. Cause of death was paralysis of the heart after one hour's illness. However, this was struck out and another death certificate was issued on 24th December 1852 on the coroner's instructions; this time death was attributed to extravasation of blood in and upon the brain, by natural causes.
Ann was aged 56, and had only been married to Robert Gidley for ten years. She was born in Potterne, Wiltshire and was buried there. She has a gravestone in the churchyard. They had no children. Robert was born in Dartington, Devon in 1802, the son of Henry Gidley and Elizabeth Diggins, of the Dean Prior branch of the Gidleys. He survived his wife for over 25 years and died in 1879. The occupation he followed is described in Wikipedia as follows:
The Stamp Office had the task of applying an impressed duty stamp to various specific items to show that the required duty had been paid. For example, up until 1855 (when the relevant duty was abolished) every newspaper produced in the country had to be brought to Somerset House to be stamped.
I imagine Robert and Ann's life must have been reasonably comfortable.

2. Sarah Gidley, died 23rd February, 1866, aged 75, of 29 Arlington Street, Islington, widow of Robert Gidley, livery stable keeper. The cause of death was effusion of serum on the brain, following information from a coroner's inquest held on 1st March 1866.
Sarah was aged 75, and her identity is clear, but her husband's less so. There are three candidates (cousins, in fact) for the Robert Gidley with a wife Sarah living on London Wall. He left a will after his death in 1830, and there are a couple of printed mentions of his livery stable at the White Horse Inn, Warrick Lane, where he was also a publican. He was also comfortably off (for those days), with shares in the Gas Company, and a life insurance policy with Hope Assurance, both of which his "dear wife" inherited. She was also the executrix of his will, so presumably a competent woman, used to financial dealings. I think she was his second wife, and they were married in 1823, only seven years before he died, aged 63 in 1830. There are three Robert Gidleys born between 1766 and 1768, all, I think, on the Dean Prior tree, and the most likely candidate looks like the Robert christened in St Martin in the Fields,Westminster, in June 1767, son of Robert Gidley and his wife Margaret.
Sarah herself survived her husband for over 35 years, living with her nephew Robert Stead in two censuses and at her death, and with her niece Elizabeth Newth and her family in another census.

3. Mary Searle Gidley, died 8th October, 1842 at 55 Harrison Street, Grays Inn Lane, St Pancras, aged 24. The cause of death was consumption.
She was the first wife of John Gidley, whose occupation - compositor - on Mary's death certificate enabled me to place her. John has been mentioned in a previous blog post, that of 19th January 2013, where I outlined the family of John Gidley, killed at New Cross in South London after being thrown from his horse. He had been drinking after collecting his naval dockyard pension. Mary Searle Gidley's husband, John the compositor, was his oldest son, born in Gibraltar in 1818. I had found two wives already for this John, but couldn't find an entry for him (and presumably his first wife Mary) on the 1841 census. Having an address on the death certificate in 1842 of 55 Harrison Street I endeavoured to trace them there in 1841 but no luck. Nor can I find a marriage for them. I imagine Mary's maiden name was Searle, as the informant for her death was a Jane Searle, a whole week after the death (rather a long time). I wondered if that was Mary's mother, and if John and Mary were living with her in 1841, but again, no luck finding them. I suppose it's possible they never officially married, hence the surname Searle being included in her death registration, which was a little unusual.
John Gidley went on to have two more wives, one daughter, and stepchildren who took the name Gidley. See the 19th January 2013 blog post.

Tentative identification:

4. Samuel Gidley, died 24th December 1840, at 66 Castle Street East, All Souls Marylebone, London, a mariner, aged 49. The cause of death was asthma. The informant was Mary Elizabeth Rowland, apparently a neighbour.
Very little to go on, as he died before even the 1841 census and was evidently not living with any family. I have tentatively identified him as the Samuel Gidley of Marldon, Devon, born on 12th December 1792 and christened in Marldon on 30 December 1792. That would make him actually 48 and not 49, but ages at death are notoriously unreliable and there has been no other trace of this Samuel Gidley. Marldon is only a few miles from Paignton and therefore close enough to the coast for Samuel to have gone to sea. His parents were John Gidley (one of the Eighteenth Century Three John Gidleys Problem, see the blog post of 9th April 2015) and Mary Gale. Samuel was the oldest child, doesn't seem to have married, and had three sisters. So this particular Gidley branch would seem to have died out in the male line. Samuel was buried in St Marylebone. The burial ground was consecrated in 1733 and between then and the early 1850s more than 110,000 burials took place. Some burials have been recorded to a depth of 14 metres. The site was cleared of headstones in the 1880s and is now Paddington Gardens.

5. Elizabeth Gidley (registered as Giddley), died 5 July 1849 at St Marylebone Workhouse, a servant, aged 55. The cause of death was ?arachnities and effusion on the brain.
The informant was a workhouse official, so Elizabeth evidently had no handy local family. The workhouse and infirmary register on Ancestry lists her occupation, status and address on admission as a single servant, of 16 North Street, Marylebone (with the bald entry of "discharge - dead").
There is an Elizabeth Gidley who fits this bill exactly. She was christened in Bovey Tracey, Devon in March 1794, so her age fits perfectly. She was the daughter of John Gidley and Elizabeth Purday, another of the  Eighteenth Century Three John Gidleys Problem (blog post of 9th April 2015). I had previously seen no further trace of this Elizabeth, but it is interesting that of her siblings, two (sister Mary and brother George) also moved to London, where they died in Poplar. Their brother John is the most likely candidate for the John who married Elizabeth Facey and emigrated to Australia.
I'm fairly happy that this is the correct Elizabeth Gidley.

The four who remain a mystery:

6. Ann Gidley. died 30 August 1850, of 12 South Street, Marylebone, aged 63, wife of William Gidley, a labourer. Cause of death was ascites. The informant was Sophia Bradshaw, of the same address.
Seems simple on the face of it, but I can't identify William and Ann with any certainty. There is a possibility that she was Ann Prosser, who married William Boyne Gidley of the Shoreditch branch of the Gidleys in 1822 in St Martin in the Fields, Westminster. If so, she was about 11 years older than her husband. A daughter, Ann Caroline Gidley, was born to this couple in 1823. She married Walter Smith in October 1850 in St Marylebone, Her father William Boyne (sometimes recorded as Bowen) Gidley manages to evade all the censuses. His final official record was his probable death in 1866 in St James' Westminster. His occupation on the 1822 marriage certificate was grocer, so had he fallen on hard times to be described as a labourer?

7. Jane Gidley, died 18 February 1838, of 5 Ogle St, Marylebone, aged 77. Cause of death was decay of nature. The informant was Jane's daughter, Ann Grimes.
Also seems straightforward, but not so. Jane died before the first census where names were recorded, but I hoped to find her daughter Ann Grimes. I had found her marriage to William Joseph Grimes in 1823 in St Anne's, Westminster, but there was no trace of Ann in 1841 or 1851. It seems that William Joseph Grimes may have died in 1832. Possibly Ann had remarried. There is a marriage reference for an Ann Grimes in September 1841 in St George's Hanover Square, London, but I couldn't trace a matching husband to search for her in later censuses, so that was a dead end. A marriage certificate for her on Ancestry with her father's name recorded would have helped to solve the mystery.
A possible candidate for Jane Gidley is Jane Matthews who married William Gidley in Marylebone in 1798. If he is the William who died in St Pancras in 1809, then she would have been 12 years older than her husband, so this is not at all certain. They had three children christened between 1799 and 1806, but none was called Ann. Possibly her christening was not recorded, or one of the daughters' names (Mary and Lucy) was mis-recorded. The small London Gidley families of the late 18th and early 19th century are all problems.
Ann Grimes cannot be the Ann Gidley christened in 1791 in St James' Piccadilly, as her parents were John Gidley and Elizabeth Davis. But one of these Ann Gidleys in Marylebone had an illegitimate son, George Gidley, in 1813. He died in 1835 and was buried in St Marylebone.

8. John Gidley, died 3 May, 1843 at the Asylum, Plympton St Mary, Devon, aged 27, a labourer. Cause of death was epilepsy. The informant was the surgeon at the asylum.
John was therefore born about 1816. However, I have been through all the John Gidleys born that year and they are all accounted for elsewhere.
If we make the year of birth slightly more flexible, there is a John Gidley christened in November 1817 in Plymouth, son of Henry Gidley, a mason of Hows Lane, and his wife Ann Symons. Nothing further was known of John. He may have been in the asylum a very long time. If this is the correct John, then his father, Henry Gidley who married Ann Symons in Plymouth in 1816, was possibly christened in 1795 in Rattery, Devon. There were three more children for Henry and Ann. The oldest, Henry Gidley, born in 1819, died in 1850 at Graig Coal Pit, Aberdare, Glamorgan, Wales. A sinker by occupation, he was accidentally killed by falling down the pit. Another brother, Edwin, christened Thomas Edwin in 1822 in Plymouth, married Sarah Colliver in 1848. They had Gidley descendants in the Plymouth area till the 20th century. The last child of Henry and Ann was a daughter, Emma Matilda Gidley who married John Phillips in 1847 in Plymouth.

9. Eliza Gidley, died 19 August 1883 in Bethnal Green Workhouse, a washer [laundress], aged 50, of 56 Old Ford Road. The cause of death was carcinoma and the informant was the Master of the Workhouse.

2021 Update: I've found her. She was born Eliza Anna Miller in Mile End, London, in 1833, and married Joseph Gidley in 1862 in Shandon, near Cork, in Ireland. In 1881 she was a widow of no occupation, living in Bethnal Green. Her husband Joseph Gidley had died in 1868. He was the son of George Gidley and his wife Jane nee Davis who married in Plymouth in 1827, but actually fit on the Chudleigh tree. Joseph served in the Royal Artillery and was obviously stationed in Ireland when he married. There was a large garrison in Cork. Joseph and Eliza had no children.

The 1825 will of Richard Gidley of Westbury-on-Trym, Gloucestershire

I recently came across an index entry for this will, which is in Bristol Archives, and applied for a copy. Nothing of Bristol Archives material has been digitised on any family history websites, as far as I know, and Bristol is not a traditional home for Gidley families at that date, so I was intrigued.
And it is interesting, as it has added to my knowledge of the Gidley family from Whitestone in Devon. I transcribe it below. I have changed only a few initial capital letters to lower case and omitted only some illegible, apparently administrative-type phrases.
This is the last will and testament of me, Richard Gidley of the parish of Westbury-on-Trym in the county of Gloucester. I give and bequeath unto [a line inserted here which is difficult to read but seems to be administrative] Miss Sarah Wigley of the parish of Clifton in the county of Gloucester, spinster, the sum of seventy pounds [another small illegible insertion] and I give and bequeath unto my father Nathaniel Gidley senior and my mother Mary Gidley both of the parish of Saint Thomas Exeter in the county of Devon the sum of fifty five pounds to be equally shared between them share and share alike. And I give and bequeath unto my brother Nathaniel Gidley junior of the said parish of Saint Thomas Exeter all my cloathes [sic]. And I give and bequeath unto my younger brother George Gidley of the said parish of Saint Thomas Exeter my watch. And I hereby nominate constitute and appoint the said Sarah Wigley of the parish of Clifton aforesaid executrix of this my will hereby revoking all former will and wills by me heretofore made and declare this [illegible] to be my last will and testament In witness whereof I have to this my last will and testament [illegible] my hand and seal this twenty ninth day of March one thousand eight hundred and twenty five.
Signed sealed published and declared by the within testatrix as and for his last will and testament in the presence of us who at his request in his presence and in the presence of each other have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses.
Henry Greenly 10 Portland Place, Clifton
James Corner No.[?4] Lower [?Berkeley] Place, Clifton

Also attached is a codicil, drawn up only a day later, on 30th March 1825, increasing Sarah Wigley's bequest to £100 "now being in the hands of Messrs. Daniel, Kiles, Harford, Reynolds, Prothero, Bright and Sanders as trustees to the Bristol Savings Bank....and that the said Sarah Wigley shall be at liberty to draw out the said sum of one hundred pounds and all interest which shall be due and owing...if it shall seem expedient to her to do so. To hold same unto the said Sarah Wigley for and during the term of her natural life to and for her own proper use and benefit."

Did Richard discover he had more money in his account than he thought?
And who was Sarah Wigley? Possibly his fiancee? He obviously had a lot of confidence in her and she was about to become a comparatively wealthy woman for those days. I can see no Sarah Wigley in the Gloucestershire Burial or Marriage Indexes between 1825 and 1841, and the only Sarah Wigley I can find in Gloucestershire in the 1841 census is the one living with William Jones and his family, a gardener, in St Catherine's Street, Gloucester. She was born about 1781 and her occupation is "private", which fits a private income. This Sarah Wigley seems to have died in 1847, and was buried on August 20th that year in St Mary de Lode, Gloucester, aged 74 (so born about 1773), of St. Catherine's. A fiancee seems unlikely when we consider Richard Gidley's age.
It is clear from the family details in the will that Richard Gidley was born in Whitestone, Devon, in 1792, the oldest child of Nathaniel Gidley (born 1764 in Cheriton Bishop, Devon) and his wife Mary Westcott. Between 1811 when their youngest child was born and 1825 when Richard's will was drawn up, they had moved to Exeter, about 4 miles east of Whitestone.
Richard's father did not live very long to enjoy his legacy, as he died only seven years later in Exeter. Richard's mother died in 1844. The older brother Nathaniel also outlived Richard for only a few years. He joined the 59th Regiment of the army and died in Bangalore in 1834, aged only 31. Were Richard's "cloathes" any use to him?
The younger brother George is a bit of a mystery. He was only 14 when Richard died and he inherited his brother's watch. In 1838 he married Mary Blackmore Bennett in Exeter and they had 2 children - Maria Patience born in 1838 and George in about 1844. There is no sign of George the elder after 1841. I can't find him in the censuses nor in the England & Wales death indexes. His wife and children were visiting or staying in other households in 1851, although Mary described herself as married. By 1861 she states she is a widow. Their daughter Maria Patience moved to London, where she married Charles Francis in 1856.
George's son George the younger, whose birth reference or christening in about 1844 I haven't found, married Jessie Chamberlain in Exeter in 1872. A coach painter, he described his father on the marriage certificate as George Gidley, deceased. They have descendants who have continued to live in Devon.
So was Sarah Wigley, who may have been about 20 years older than Richard Gidley, his nurse in his final illness? His housekeeper? And there's no clue as to what Richard did for a living. He was obviously earning a good income and had moved an unusual distance from his birthplace. One rather puzzling thing is that there is no mention of his sisters in his will. Only one, Grace Setter, was married in 1825. The others, Mary (untraceable), Elizabeth (Betty, later married James Payne), Sarah (Sally, later married William Darkes) and Maria were still unmarried. Perhaps they were intended to share their parents' £55 legacy.