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Wednesday, March 11, 2015

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2015 WEEK 10: DEACON AMOS UPTON PT2

John Adams Vinton has an abstract of Deacon Amos Upton's will and the estate
inventory on pp65-66 of The Upton Memorial. I'll go into the inventory in the next
post.:   

His will is dated May 24, 1780; proved Oct. 3, 1781; recorded Midd. Prob. 61 : 254—256. He calls himself Amos Upton of Reading, yeoman. He says: "I give to my wife Sarah the improvement of all my real estate that I have in Reading. To my son John Upton, all my real estate that I have in Reading * and all my live stock and husbandry utensils after my wife's decease, he paying the following legacies, viz:


To my son Amos Upton, thirty pounds lawful money, at six shillings and eightpence an ounce, or any other lawful money to the value thereof, to be paid in one year after my wife's decease.


To my son Benjamin Upton, the same.

To my son Nathaniel Upton, £16.13.4 lawful money, &c, besides what he hath already had.

To my daughter Eunice,t  five shillings besides what she already had.

To my daughter Sarah, twenty pounds. &c, (as in the case of Amos, repeating the same words).

To my daughter Rebecca, twenty pounds. &c, (as in the preceding case).

To my daughters Sarah and Rebecca,my in-door movables, after my wife's decease.

His wife Sarah was named executrix. The witnesses to the will were Joseph, Ebenezer and Elizabeth Upton.

* None of this property came into the possession of John Upton. He died several years before his mother. The other legacies, of course, were not paid.

t Eunice was already married, and had received her portion. Sarah and Rebecca were then unmarried.



I found Amos Upton's probate file in the Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871
at the AmericanAncestors.org website: 




 Source: Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives.)


There is a phrase in Amos' will "or any lawful money to the value thereof". I'll discuss
the significance of that in the next post, which will also discuss the inventory estate. 

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