West in New England: Stow Nathaniel

Showing posts with label Stow Nathaniel. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

THE "HOT MESS" PROBATE FILE OF NATHANIEL STOW JR PT4

Having put the images of Nathaniel Stow Jr.'s probate file in chronological order, it was now time to see what I could make out of all of them. In this post I'll look at images 4,5,6,7 and 2. The first three show the estate inventory.

Nathaniel died on 12Nov 1724 and an inventory of his estate was completed by 4Dec. This included real estate consisting of 15 pieces of land with a total value of 801 pounds and ten shillings.

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.)Case21772 p.4

His livestock included six oxen, one yearling steer, six cows, four heifers, four calves, seventeen sheep, six wine, and two old horses.

Most interesting to me among Nathaniel's personal possessions were one sword, one musket, one carbine, a pistol, a pair of holsters, and a halberd. That would seem to be evidence that Nathaniel had served with the town militia.

The total value of Nathaniel Stow Jr's estates was 1,333 pounds and one pence.

Image 2 is the Letter of Administration which was issued by Francis Foxcroft Wright. My 6x great grandfather was appointed administrator. It's from this document I learned Thomas was a housewright.

Finally, image 7 looks like the back of one of the inventory pages, but unfortunately, I can't decipher most of the writing. I've encountered this judge's handwriting before and it's frustrating at times trying to read it.

Next post we'll look at four images from February 1725.

To be continued.

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

THE "HOT MESS" PROBATE FILE OF NATHANIEL STOW JR PT3

The judge had questioned three other sons of Nathaniel Stow Jr about whether or not their
late father had intended for their brother Samuel to receive a share of his estate. All three
brothers said that was not the case, and cited conversations with Nathaniel as proof. Now it
was time for the judge to question Samuel.

He was asked three questions, as shown by the bottom part of image 35.

The handwriting is rather ornate, so some words are hard to decipher:

Questions to Saml-
Whether Father said any thing abt {?} in Consideration of Learning?------answeres------Denyd.

Ditto----- whether he ever rec'd any money of Father. Answer-Yes. -- did you ever give a Rec. in
Consideration of Learning ----denyd--answer-denyd.

Ditto--did you ever give a Rec. of an {?}-- ans: refused.

Well, this didn't look good for Samuel. Given that Harvard University was the only place at that time in colonial Massachusetts he was probably a student there and would need to somehow pay
to finish his education. But his brothers had testified that there was no further money coming to
him from the estate and when questioned himself his answers weren't cooperative.

The other side of the paper is in image 36 and it's another messy collection of writing at different
angles and parts of the page. Among some figuring of the money value of the estate is this line:

"Samuel's 35 L allowed by the judge"

So Samuel did receive some money from the estate. What he did with it I do not know.

I next turned back to the other pages in the file.

To be continued.

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

THE "HOT MESS" PROBATE FILE OF NATHANIEL STOW JR PT2

Continuing my slow crawl through my ancestor Nathaniel Stow's probate file.

As I said, there were 38 images in the file, which I then went through to see if they
were dated so they could be put in chronological order. These are the dates I found:
1-N/A
2-15Dec 1724
3-7Feb 1725
4-4th Dec 1724
5-4th Dec 1724
6-4th Dec 1724
7-15th Dec 1724
8- 7Feb 1725
9-7Feb 1725
10-7Feb 1725
11-9Apr 1726
12-18Apr 1726
13-18Apr 1726
14-6Jun 1726
15--6Jun 1726
16--6Jun 1726
17--6Jun 1726
18- No date
19-6Jun 1726
20-6Jun 1726
21-7Jun 1726
22-10Jun 1726
23-10Jun 1726
24-4Jul 1726
25-4Jul 1726
26-11Jul & 19Jul 1726
27-11Jul 1726
28-11Jul, 2Aug, & 5Sep 1726
29-5Sep 1726
30-5Sep 1726
31-5Sep 1726
32-2Jul 1726
33=30Mar 1726
34-27Oct 1726
35-No date
36-No date
37-13Dec 1726
38-No date

Luckily it didn't require too much moving around of pages to come to a chronological order:
1-N/A
4-4th Dec 1724
5-4th Dec 1724
6-4th Dec 1724
2-15Dec 1724
7-15th Dec 1724
3-7Feb 1725
8- 7Feb 1725
9-7Feb 1725
10-7Feb 1725
33-30Mar 1726
11-9Apr 1726
12-18Apr 1726
13-18Apr 1726
14-6Jun 1726
15--6Jun 1726
16--6Jun 1726
17--6Jun 1726
18- No date
19-6Jun 1726
20-6Jun 1726
21-7Jun 1726
22-10Jun 1726
23-10Jun 1726
24-4Jul 1726
25-4Jul 1726
26-11Jul & 19Jul 1726
27-11Jul 1726
28-11Jul, 2Aug, & 5Sep 1726
29-5Sep 1726
30-5Sep 1726
31-5Sep 1726
32-2Jul 1726
34-27Oct 1726
35-No date
36-No date
37-13Dec 1726
38-No date

Notice the three with no dates. Two are something I hadn't seen before. They seem to be actual
notes taken while the judge interviewed various heirs, and were taken "on the fly", so they are
messy and difficult to read:

Image 35 says there had been some appeal against the original settlement that all parties had dropped.
Now they were questioned about what they might know about Nathaniel's intention for the further
schooling of his son Samuel, and whether any knew if Samuel had received any money from his father
before Nathaniel's death.

-Son Joseph said the other children were concerned that Samuel would try to claim a share of the
estate, to which (he said)his father replied he had left something behind "that would remove all their
doubts" and prevent Samuel from making a claim.

-Son Nathaniel testified that he heard his father tell Samuel "he must never expect any Land".

-Son Thomas said he'd heard his father tell Samuel "he had received his full portion and not to expect any more Estate."

-Son Benjamin told of a conversation with his father a year before his death about the division of his estate "asked him if he had given any acquittance----- answered in ye affirmative and intended to give him twenty pounds..."

Hmm. So there had been a dispute between Samuel Stow and his four older brothers over whether
he had received any money already prior to Nathaniel Stow's death and if so, what form that
inheritance should take. His brothers said he had nothing more coming to him.

I'll discuss Samuel, his answers to these statements, and a little background I've found on him.

To be continued.

Monday, March 07, 2016

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2016 WEEK 9: NATHANIEL STOW SR. OF CONCORD, MA.

Continuing on with my Stow ancestors:

Again, I've found very little online about Nathaniel Stow Sr. Most of what I do know
comes from page 563 of The Great Migration:

8x great grandfather Nathaniel Stow was baptized at Biddenden, Kent, England on 7
Oct 1621, came to Roxbury with his parents in 1634 and then to Concord around 1648.
He married a woman whose first name was Elizabeth but whose last name is unkown sometime before their first child was born at Concord Ma.in 1657. By 1662 he was a widower at which time he married the widow Martha (Metcalfe) Bignall, the daughter of Michael and Sara Metcalf of Dedham, Ma.

I've found the birth dates of some of Nathaniel's children on the Early Vital Records of Massachusetts from 1600 to 1850 website, all at Concord, Ma:

A son and a daughter from his first marriage with Elizabeth-
John, b. 29Jun 1657
Thankfull, 4Jan 1659

And three sons from his second marriage with Martha Stowe-
Nathaniel, b.18Sept 1663
Samewell, b. 22Apr 1666
Ebenezer, b. 18Sept 1668

Nathaniel died in Concord on 30May 1684 and left a will, but again I've been frustrated
because even though I've found the probate file on AmericanAncestors.org it's essentially
empty:

Add cMiddlesex 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.) Case 21771p2

I searched the Middlesex County, Ma. land records over on FamilySearch thinking that might be what the mysterious note in the probate file referred to, but that was fruitless as well.

I'm descended from Nathaniel Stow Jr, who'll be my next subject in the Challenge.