Editing Peter Scheemakers (section)

===Later years===
Peter Scheemakers retired in 1771, aged 80, his wife Barbara having died in 1768,<ref>Westminster Archives, ''St Martin in the Fields Burials'', 7 March 1768 : "Barbara Scheemaker".</ref> and returned to live with his siblings Elisabeth and Francis in their native town of Antwerp.  He died there in September 1781 and was buried in the same church in which he had been baptised over 90 years earlier.<ref name="ox" /><ref>Rijksarchief in België, Parochieregisters, Provincie Antwerpen, BE-A0511, Sint-Jacobus, Overlijdensakten 1779–1796, 12 Sept 1781: ''Petrus Gaspar Scheemaeckers viduus Barbara La Fosse aeta 90 anni et 8 mensium [sic] iima vespi: et ista sepultus in Ecclesia nostra''.</ref>

Peter Scheemakers "native of Antwerp but now of Vine Street in the parish of St James Westminster, Statuary" had signed his Will in London on 19 June 1771, witnessed by William Lister and Sarah Whip.<ref>Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, The National Archives, PROB 11 Piece 1082, the Will of Peter Sheemakers, dated 19 June 1771, probate granted 24 Sep 1781.</ref> Probate was granted on 24 September 1781.  His bequests were 10 guineas to Peter's mason Christopher Finny; the same to Mr Vandermeulen, Statuary; and the same again to Mr Dennis Byrne. 20 guineas to his servant. £50 to his niece Anna-Maria Vandiepenbeeck; the same to Mr James Bucher [sic], haberdasher of Pall Mall, who was also appointed sole executor.  All the rest of Peter's effects in England were to be divided equally into four parts and distributed between his 4 siblings or if deceased, their descendants: ¼ to sister Elisabeth Scheemaekers, ¼ to brother Frans (Jan-Frans) Scheemaekers, ¼ to niece Anna-Maria Vandiepenbeeck as sole child of deceased sister Catharina, ¼ to be shared equally between the surviving children of deceased brother Henry viz. nephew Thomas Scheemakers and Thomas's two sisters Marie-Louise and Genevieve-Catherine.  These provisions confirm that Peter was childless and that [[Thomas Scheemakers]], the London sculptor hitherto assumed to be his son and sole heir, was Peter's nephew and received just 1/12th of Peter's estate.