JONATHAN JOHNSON'S WILL PT2

My 10x great grandfather Jonathan Johnson was married to Mary Newton
so when I went looking for a transcription of his will I found it in a Newton
family genealogy on Googlebooks. One of the things I've noticed in the images
of wills I've found is that some are very organized with each bequest listed
seperately; others have "run-on paragraphs".  Jonathan's will is one of the
latter type.

After reading this, I'm left wondering why Jonathan makes a point of"wiling"
my 9x great grandfather William Johnson to take "good care of his sun Thomas
whil he lives..". Was Thomas an invalid or sickly? I need to see what I can find
out about that.

From Pages 29-30 of Newton Genealogy, Genealogical, Biographical, Historical: 
Being a Record of the Descendants of Richard Newton of Sudbury and Marlborough, Massachusetts 1638, with Genealogies of Families Descended from the Immigrants, 
Rev. Roger Newton of Milford, Connecticut, Thomas Newton of Fairfield, Connecticut, Matthew Newton of Stonington, Connecticut, Newtons of Virginia, Newtons Near Boston (Google eBook) Compiled by Ermina Newton Leonard, (pub. by Bernard
Ammidown Leonard, De Pere Wisconsin 1915)


In the name of God Amen the eighteenth of March 1711 I Jonathan Johnson of Marlburough in the County of Middlesex in new england yeoman being aged and somewhat infirm in body but sound and perfect and memory thanks be to god for it and calling to mind the mortality of my body and knowing that it is anointed for al men once to dye do make and ordain this my last will & testiment that is principly and first of all I give and Recommend my soul into the hands of god that gave it mee hoping throug the death and merits of Jesus christ to obtain pardon of all my sins and to inherit eternal life and my body I commit to the earth to be decently buried at the discrestion of my executrix & executor Herafter named nothing doubting but at the jenarall resurection I shall rescive the same again by the mighty power of god and as toucing my outward estate where with god hath pleased god to bless mee with in this life I give demis and dispos of as followeth. Item that all my debts be truly paid by my executrix a executor In conveniant time after my death. Item I doe give and bequeth to mary my beloved wife all the lot or Lands I now dweel on both fenced and unfenced with -all the priveleges thereof to Hur withall the building theron and all my cattle hors and swin and all my mouvable goods of all sorts and all the mony I have in hand or in bonds in whos hands so ever it is and all my lands within the cow common excpt about seven and twenty Acres that I have in a deed give to my sun William near Stony brook to settle his sun wllliam on. all which I give to hur for Hur comfortable subsistence during Hur Widdohood: with free leave for acts of charyty and if all the above said will not suffise I further give Hur leave with the advice and consent of the minnister and decon to sell of the outland for Hur comfort and if she should marry then the above said estate to be restored to my sun william and he if she should be in want to tak a filial care of Hur: and as for my sun Jonathan Johnson I gave him good part of his porshon before be dyed and the remainder of what I did intend for him of his whole porshon I haue given to his wife in a bond: and in Land and meadow which I haue sinc his decece have given to Hur and bis children: but still my fatherly love is so to his children that in this my Last will that I do give to each of them, that is to say Timothy Jonathan Jotham and Joseph six shiling apec to be by my Executer given to them that is to say to Timothy Johnson his six shilings won year after my decease and Jonathan three yers after end to Jotham and Joseph when they shall be above won and twenty years old and as for his Daughters Sarah Martha Mary and Hanna I give to each of them five shilings apiece to be paid when they are of the age of eighteen yers old apeece by my executer. and as for my Daughter Mary Mathes though shee be dead yet I do remember Hur and I have given to Hur in hur lifetim part of hur porshon in a deed of gift in land and medow to Hur and Hur children and now I have completed what I intended for their porshon in a deed of lands to Hur chilldren: Item I give to my grandaughter Hanna that now lives with mee twenty pound ten wherof shee shall have betwen this and hur mariag and the other ten pound within three years after my decece. Itim I give to Hulda Whitny six pound if she live with my wlf whil shee is eighteen years olid: to be paid to her within won year after: Itim I give to my sun in law Joh mathes my coopring tools to be delivered to him within three month after my deceac. Item I give to my sun William all my Lands without the cow common to him and his Hairs executers and asign for ever wiling him to take good care of his sun Thomas whil he lives and that he may be comfortably provided for. when he is dead all the rest of my Lands and and estate whatsoever that is not menshoned and disposed of before after my wives decece I give to my sun William Johnson to him and his hairs Executers and asigns forever

Also I do order, will constitute and ordain and make my beloved wif and my sun William Johnson Executrix and Executers to this my last wil and testiment;

Further I Give unto my Grandson Joseph Jonson (He being the youngest son to my Late son Jonathan Jonson Deceased) my Cedar Lott Lying and being near Chaucy Meadows: Further I make my well beloved son William Johnson overseer Trustee and Keeper of a Deed of Gift of Lands made unto my Grandchildren to John Daniell and Liddia Mathews and Ruth Matheus which sd Deed is to be by him my sd son Kept untill such time as they my sd Grandchildren Pay unto me or my Heirs or Exec the sum of Ten Pounds to witt that John Mathews afforesd Pay four pounds Daniell Liddia and Ruth Mathews pay each and every of them Respectively the full and Compleat sum of Forty shillings a Peace; at yc payment of all and every of the sums afforesd, my will is that sd Deed shall be Delivered to them; the Lawful! Interest of ye sd ten pound being by each person above named to be paid together with the Principal! according to each persons proportion therein In wfttness whereof I have Hereunto affixed my Hand and seal this eighteenth Day of march in the eleventh year of the Reign of our Soverain Lady Anne over England &c Queen year 1712

Declared signed and sealed
In presence of us wittnesses
Peter Rice
James Taylor
Benjamin Rice

Jonathan Johnson

[Reverse Side]

Midsex Camb 13"1 May 1712 This Will was this day Exhibited by the Widow & Son Execut". herein named for probate & y« three witnesses were psent and made Oath that they see the testator Jonathan Johnson Signe & Seal & heard him declare this Will to be his last will & Testatm— & that at same time he was of sound memory to the best of their understanding And the same is proved & allowed. And ye Administation thereof is Comitted to Mary Johnson & William Johnson ye Widow & Son of ye Testat & Execufr in sd Will named as aforesd well and Faithfully to Execute the Same according to the true Intent & Meaning thereof & bond is taken for ye paymnt of the Debts & Legacys In Testimonie hereof I have hereunto set my hand & the Seal of the Office Dated as Above sd £100 Bond

JONATHAN JOHNSON'S WILL PT1

Before moving on to another ancestor, I thought I'd discuss Jonathan Johnson's
will. I found it at the NEHGS  AmericanAncestors.org website. It consists of
five images in the Middlesex County, Massachusetts Probate Records, 1648-1871 file:

Image 1

Image 2:The front page of Jonathan Johnson's Will

Image 3 The back page of the Will

Image 4

Image 5

A few things about these images. One, the writing fades in and out, sometimes
on the same page. When I tried to sharpen the images what looks like a
large watermark became visible on several pages.  I could probably do a
transcription myself but that will take time. But luckily I found one already
online on Googlebooks, and I'll share that in the next post.


Citation Information:
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.)

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS#32:JONATHAN JOHNSON

Fellow geneablogger Amy Johnson Crow of No Story Too Small has issued the
52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge. Basically, we have to post something every
week on a different ancestor, whether a story, picture, or research problem. For
this prompt I've tried to concentrate on ancestors I haven't researched as much
as I have others in my family tree. I started exploringe my Johnson line, but the
have fallen behind the last few weeks. So this week I'll try to make up lost time.
This post is on my 10x great grandfather Jonathan Johnson.

My source once again is the article William Johnson and His Descendants by G.W.
Johnson. It's from the The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume
33 published in January 1879, pp134-136:

Jonathan3 Johnson, third son and fifth child of William Johnson of Charlestown, was baptized there August 14, 1641, and doubtless was born a few days before. By occupation he was a farmer, schoolmaster and  ironsmith. He probably learned his trade of his uncle, Lieut. John, of Haverhill. Before his marriage he went to reside in Marlboro', first settled iu 1654, in the southerly part of the town which in 1727 fell into Southboro'. On settling therein, he received from the town "a house lott," 30 acres "on a hill south side of the meeting-house." half of which he sold May 25, 1663, but bought it back Feb. 15, 1678—9. Besides educating him and giving him a trade, his father made him a legatee in his will. He received, about 1687, as his share of his father's and mother's estate, twenty pounds in about "an acre and a half of land in ye East ffield," which in 1707 he sold for thirty pounds to his nephew, Capt. Eleazer Johnson, of Charlestown, son of his brother Isaac, who witnessed the deed. I find of record seven conveyances of real estate to and from him.

In his twenty-third year he married, Oct. 14, 1663, Mary Newton, his sole wife, by whom he had three children. Jonathan acquired a competence, was well educated, wrote a fine hand, was selectman, and for several years in the latter part of his life he taught the town school. He wrote his will March 18, 1711-12, and died on the 21st of the following month, aged about 71 years. His wife died Dec. 28, 1728, in her 85th year.

In his life time Jonathan gave his children and grandchildren portions of his property, and disposed of the rest by his will, of which he makes his wife and only surviving child. William, executors, and the latter residuary legatee. No inventory was returned, and there is no schedule of his personal property, nor of his real except what is mentioned in his will. Therein he says: "I recomend my soul to the hands of God that gave it me, hoping, through the Death and merits of Jesus Christ, to obtain pardon of all my sins and to inherit Eternal Life, and my Body I cornit to the Earth * * * nothing doubting but at the Generall Redirection I shall receive the same againe by the mighty power of God." He gives his homestead and all his personal property to his wife *• for her comfortable subsistence during her widowhood with free leave of acts of charity," and if more is needed he gives her leave. "with the advice and consent of the Minister and Deacon, to sell of the out land for her comfort; and if she should marry," then what he has given to her is to go to his son William, who "if she should be in want to take a flilial care of her." He says he had given Jonathan while alive and his wife since his death, his portion; "but still," he says, " my ffatherly love is so to his children,"' &c, whom he names and to whom he gives small sums. To Mary's husband he gives his "Coopering Tools" (it seems he had more than one trade), and to Joseph, Jonathan's youngest son, a lot of land. "As for my daughter Mary Mathes," he says, "though she be dead yet I remember her "; he says he had completed her portion by a deed of land to her children. To his granddaughter Hannah, who was living with him, he gives twenty pounds, and to Hulda Whitney six pounds if she remain with his wife till eighteen years old. He "wills" William to take good care of his, William's, son Thomas while he lives, and appoints him trustee of a deed to Mary's children.

He then lists the children of Jonathan Johnson:
i. Mary b. Sept. 9, 1664; m. 1686, John Matthews, M.D. She d. June 22, 1710, aged 46 years, leaving issue.

ii. William, b. Dec. 15, 1665 ; m. first, about 1688, Hannah Larkin, who d. Dec. 18, 1696; he m. second, Hannah Rider. He d. June 5, 1754, in his 89th year, leaving issue by both wives.

iii. Jonathan, b. Jan. 2, 1667-8; m. 1689, Mary Kerley. She d. 1741, aged 75 years. He was slain by the Indians, Oct. 12, 1708, in his 41st year, leaving issue.

I'm descended from William Johnson and Hannah Larkin.

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS#31:WILLIAM JOHNSON OF CHARLESTOWN, MA. PT2

Continuing G.W.Johnson's article from the The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume 33, January 1879 on our mutual ancestor William Johnson, in which more of his florid prose is displayd. This first  part has his fanciful description of the physical appearance of William Johnson's six sons, based on the appearance of their descendants some two centuries later.(one of whom was himself):

William had but one wife, whose first name was Elizabeth, though a recent genealogist generously but erroneously gives him another. I have not Elizabeth's maiden name,
nor her birth-date, nor the date of their marriage, which must have taken place before
they left England. By this sole wife William had six sons—John. Joseph, Jonathan,
Nathaniel, Zachariah and Isaac; and two daughters—Ruhamah and Elizabeth ; all of whom, except the oldest, were born in Charlestown. The daughters resided there and married young and well—Ruhamah, John Knight, Jr., and Elizabeth (" bro. Johnson's daughter," as the record designates her), Edward Wier or Weare, and both left issue. 
In his six sons the colony had, in emergencies, six soldiers to defend it against the 
savage foe, by whose hands John, in his old age, his last wife and a granddaughter-in-law, and a son of Joseph, fell. They were all thrifty and well-to-do, all except Isaac church members, all married, all left issue, most of them numerous issue, and all except Nathaniel executed wills, which are of record. On a careful examination of the unsparing church and court records down to the fourth generation of their descendants, the writer found not therein a blot on the good name of the race. (p83)

....These six sons were large-limbed, tall and muscular, but not corpulent, if their size 
may be inferred from that of most of their descendants. William lived to see all his eight children well married and settled, and to be the grandfather of over forty grandchildren, and a great-grandfather. His sons and daughters, before and after his death, had in all sixty-four children; "a certaine sign," to use the words of an early writer, "of the Lord's intent to people this vaste wildernesse." (p84)


In this section, I had to delete a sentence at the end of the paragraph about the fate of
the missing gravestones that was anti-Semitic in nature:

His wife survived him nearly seven years, and died Oct. 6, 1684. She married again if
she was the "Elizabeth Johnson, widow," who, Oct. 24, 1679, married Thomas Carter,
of which there is some doubt, as our Elizabeth in subsequent conveyances, and in the settlement of William's estate, signs her name Elizabeth Johnson. William and his wife
must have been buried in the old Charlestown cemetery; but in 1862, after diligent
search, their gravestones could not be found. Doubtless they were near his son Isaac's,
which remain. (p84)

He then gives a list of the children of William Johnson:
Children of William and Elizabeth Johnson:
2. i. John, b. 1633.
3. ii. Ruhamah, bapt. Feb. 21. 1634-5.
4. iii. Joseph, bapt. Feb. 12, 1636-7.
5. iv. Elizabeth, bapt. March 17, 1639-40.
6. v. Jonathan, bapt. Aug. 14, 1641.
7. vi. Nathaniel, b. about 1643.
8. vii. Zachariah, b. about 1646.
9. viii. Isaac, b. 1649.(p85)


I'm descended from Jonathan Johnson who married Mary Newton at Marlboro, Ma. on
14Oct 1663.

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS#31:WILLIAM JOHNSON OF CHARLESTOWN, MA. PT1

Fellow geneablogger Amy Johnson Crow of No Story Too Small has issued the
52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge. Basically, we have to post something every
week on a different ancestor, whether a story, picture, or research problem. For
this prompt I've tried to concentrate on ancestors I haven't researched as much
as I have others in my family tree. I thought I'd explore my Johnson line, starting
with William Johnson, my 11x great grandfather and one of my immigrant ancestors
who came to Charlestown, Ma.

I found a great article on Google books written by G.W.Johnson. It's from the The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume 33 published in January 1879 and
is one of those old style genealogies, where, for example, the physical appearance of
the Johnson men is judged to have been similar to those descendants living two centuries
later: 

WILLIAM JOHNSON, one of the early settlers of Charlestown, Mass., was born in England a little after 1600, was made freeman of Massachusetts Colony, March 4, 1634-5, and the year before became an inhabitant of Charlestown, and continued such over forty-two years, till his death, Dec. 9, 1677, at the age of over 70 years. Charlestown began to be settled in 1628, was laid out as a town in 1629, and, Salem excepted, is the oldest town in the colony, older than even Boston. I have not William's birth date; nor do I know in what part of England he was born; nor what relationship, if any, he bore to contemporary Johnson stocks in the colony
p81.

The author then speculates on which other colonists named Johnson might have been
related to William before getting back to him:

William was a Puritan of good parts and education, and brought with him from England a wife and child and means. He with his wife Elizabeth joined the Charlestown church, Feb. 13, 1634-5, of which they continued members in good standing till their death, over half a century. They probably belonged to a Puritan church in England. In order to be made a freeman of the colony, which entitled him to vote and hold office, it was required that the settler be a member of a congregational church, and be correct in doctrine and conduct. Feb. 10 of the same year he signed, with others, "An order made by the inhabitants of Charlestown at a full meeting for the government of the Town," which order the writer saw among the records of Charlestown many years ago. In his signature thereto we have his autograph. It is one of the fairest, and that of a practical penman. "The inhabitants of this town," says Mr. Frothingham in his History of Charlestown, "for a few years transacted all their local business in town meeting. * * * But their local government was not yet to their minds: 'by reason of many men meeting, things were not so easily brought unto joynt issue.' * * * The original proceeding on board the May Flower was imitated, providing for the government of the town by Selectmen. * * * No town has a more perfect history of its local government than is here presented." Within the first four years of his residence, William was assessed for ten separate parcels of land, which he cultivated. By profession he was a farmer, or, as he sometimes calls himself in conveyances, a "planter." This was his leading business, and it is by his leading or principal business a man is to be designated. His secondary employment was brick-making; and if he was called brick-maker in the record of his death, it was to distinguish him from William, son of Capt. Edward Johnson, who was also a farmer. From the start almost he appears to have been a well-to-do, thriving farmer. There were no large estates in the infant town, nor indeed in the colony. In 1658, twenty-four years after he became a resident, a division of town land was made among the two hundred and three heads of families and others of the township, in proportion to the possessions each one then had; and from this division it appears that after having considerably reduced his estate by portioning his children, over two-thirds of the townsmen stood below him in point of property, including Capt Edward Johnson; and many of the other third possessed but little more. His house-lot, on which there was a garden, fronted one hundred feet on "Greate" (Main) street, near the present Square, and was about one hundred and twenty feet deep. On this lot stood the house in which all his eight children, save the eldest, were born, and in which he died, and also stood two barns and two brick-making mills.

William discharged several of the town offices, but no colonial office except that of juror. In his time, office, except the highest, was regarded as a burden. Ill paid, it was not seldom imposed, subjecting him who refused it to a fine. At one time he was one of the five overseers " of ye houses and fields of ye towne," and at another one of the twelve special selectmen, comprising some of the principal settlers, his name standing third in the list, "to settle the rates of all workmen, labourers and servants' wages and for cart and boat hire," no one then being allowed to charge for his labor, &c, a higher sum than that prescribed by law. The judicial records show that William, with another man, was a witness to prove that a neighbor had Quaker books in his house; if a willing one, as probably he was, his sin was that of the entire community and the age in which he lived. pp82-83

WILLIAM JOHNSON AND HIS DESCENDANTS. By G. W. Jouxson, of Royalton, N. Y.  The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume 33 , Jan 1879 Boston,Ma.