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Monday, May 16, 2016

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2016 WEEK 15: JOHN WETHERBEE OF MARLBOROUGH AND STOW , MA. PT3

My 7x great grandfather John Wetherbee/Witherby had made out his will in October 1707 but didn't die immediately afterwards. However, he did add a codicil two years later in 1709. The main matter that was chaged was the disposition of the land he'd bought fro the widow Ruth Wheeler. Whereas that property had originally been willed to his sons Jonathan and Ephraim, in the codicil Ephraim is instead given a different piece of property that had been purchased from a J.R. Holm sometime after the original will had been written. Both the will and codicil were filed at Middlesex County Court in Cambridge, Ma. on 2April 1711, so John Wetherbee may have died in March of that same year.

Here's an abstraction of the codicil. Again, some of it was difficult to decipher:

This may signify to whom it may concern That whereas I ye within mentioned Jno Witherby in
within mentioned will did order that my sons Jonathan & Ephraim should have all ye upland
& two thirds of ye meadow belonging to ye lands I bought of Ruth Wheeler together wth part of ye
meadow belonging to my home lott as wthin. I do alter my sd will in manner following.
In pri. I do appoint & order tht my wife wthin mentioned & my son David shall have ye wholl of
my house lott in manner as they were to have all ye upland by part of ye meadow, now they
to have all ye meadow belonging and shall not have any of ye meadow that I bought of
sd Ruth Wheeler. And to my son Jonathan I give all whole lands both upland
& meadow tht I bought of sd Ruth Wheeler, and to pay ten pounds to his sister Anne my
at full age or sooner if she shall happen to marry, as is mentioned in his deed of it
pr wifes bearing even date wth these presents the wch ten pounds shall be in part of the fifteen
pounds ye sd Anne was to have been payd for by my Executor as wthin. and I do further will
& bequeath unto my youngest son (viz) Ephraim the whole of the land & accomadations
that I bought ye last year of J.R. Holm, wthin sd town of Stowe bound and he to have no fur
ther in ye land yt I bought of sd Ruth Wheeler or my home lott or meadows belonging
only my sd wife & David my son shall have ye use of ye lands I have given unto Ephraim
my sd son until he shall attain ye age of twenty on years, and further if my personall
estate afer my sd wife had her third shall ammount to more than to pay my sd daugh
ters their legacyes, then ye over plus to be equally divided amongst my children after my
sd wife her decease, all to be done & performed according to ye directions above written not
wthstanding what is contained wthin this my sd will. In witness whereof I do affix my hand
and seal this forth day of April Anno Domini seventeen hundred and nine.
signed sealed published
and declared
in the presence of us

Thomas Baroman
Thomas Browne Senr
Elizabeth Browne her mark

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