The most interesting part of Edmond Greenleaf's will is that codicil:
"The following paper is also recorded in the "Probate Records," appended to the
will, as, probably, assigning the reason why the name of his second wife, who
appears to have outlived him, was not mentioned:—
"When I married my wife, I kept her grandchild, as I best remember, three years to
schooling, diet and apparel; and William Hill, her son, had a bond of six pounds a year, whereof I received no more than a barrel of pork of £3-0-0 of that £6-0-0 a year he was
to pay me, and sent to her son Ignatius Hill, to the Barbadoes, in mackerel, cider, and
bread and pease, as much as come to twenty pounds, and never received one penny of
it. His aunt gave to the three brothers £50 apiece. I know not whether they received it
or no; but I have not received any part of it.
"Witness my hand. (Signed) Edmund Greenleaf."
"Besides, when I married my wife, she brought me a silver bowl, a silver porringer,
and a silver spoon. She lent or gave them to her son, James Hill, without my consent."
So apparently Edmund felt his stepsons and step grandson were slackers who hadn't
paid the debts they owed him, and that his second wife Sara was what we would
call today an enabler. The silver set incident seems to have particularly angered
Edmund since he makes special mention of it, since it was part of the dowry she
brought him when they married. It seems rather harsh by my modern view (although
not in the same class as my other ancestor William Hedge's dismissal of his wife
Blanche in his will).
I hope the second Sarah's three sons provided for their mother afterwards.
I learned two new things about Edmund Greenleaf working on this series. The first
was that he'd had a second wife. The second thing is a result of two readers generously sharing their research with me. One person is someone who I'll call D.P. since I
don't have permission as yet to use her name here; the other is fellow New England geneablogger Sara Campbell What I learned from what they both sent me is that
Edmund's first wife Sarah was not Sarah Dole, but rather Sarah Moore.
When I first started researching my family tree everything I could find on Edmund Greenleaf said it was Sarah Dole, but most of that research was from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Research in England in the late 20th century discovered documents that showed that my ancestress was actually Sarah Moore. This proves that while the old genealogy books on Google are great sources they are not always accurate and the information in them should be confirmed.
Thanks to D.P. and Sara Campbell for the information, and I am adjusting my database
and family tree to reflect it.
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