Susan:

You are making ex ante ASSUMPTIONS as to the age of the children as well as the length of the marriage and relationship to Cleranah ASHMORE, assumptions for which there seems to be NO VALID DATA.

We do NOT KNOW the ages of ANY of the children with certainty, EXCEPT that one son is under age 16. The Will would seem to suggest that ALL of Walter ASHMORE's daughters were still UNMARRIED. If any of these were well over the age of 16, she would probably be already married. Thus, the father's indication that each child is still named ROPER is rather strong evidence that the girls were then unmarried and this in turn would support at least a reasonably strong inference that they were also minors.

There is NO EVIDENCE that ANY of the children were borne by Cleranah ASHMORE, though the youngest probably were. You seem to base an ASSUMPTION that Cleranah ASHMORE is OLDER on the ASSUMPTION that Cleranah ASHMORE is the mother of ALL of Walter ASHMORE's children.

NONE of these are valid inferences. We begin with NO INFORMATION as to the ages of the girls (other than that they are probalby under age 21 and probably even under age 16). We begin with NO CONFIDENCE that even a single child that of Cleranah ASHMORE. We begin with NO INFORMATION as to Cleranah ASHMORE's age.

WHY do you suppose that three FINCHER's were witnesses to the second Will?