Monday, October 26, 2015

Amanuensis Monday - Post #291: 1766 Letter of Administration for Henry Pickel (172901765) Estate of Readingtown, N.J.

Genea-blogger John Newmark (who writes the excellent  TransylvanianDutch blog) started a Monday blog theme years ago called "Amanuensis Monday."  John offers this definition for "amanuensis:" 

"A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another."

The subject today is the 1766 Bond and Letter of Administration for the Intestate estate of Henry Pickel (1729-1876) of Readington, Hunterdon County, New Jersey:


The transcription of this document is (with handwritten portions in italics):

Know all Men by these Presents,
That We Baltheser Pickel John Melich &
Philip Wise of Readingtown Hunterdon
County & Philip Wise of Roxbury Morris
County
are held and firmly bound unto His Excellency William
Franklin Esqr. Gov'r of New Jersey
in the Sum of Twelve hundred
Pounds, Proclamation Money, to be paid to the said Govr
his Successors or Assigns : To which Payment well and
truly to be made, We bind us, our Heirs, Executors and Administrators,
jointly and severally, firmly, by these Presents. Sealed with our Seals, and
dated the nineteenth Day of April Anno Domini
One Thousand Seven Hundred and sixty six 1766.

The Condition of the above Obligation
is such, That if the above-bounden Baltheser Pickel & John
Melich Administ rators
of all and singular the Goods, Chattels and Credits of Henry
Pickel late of Readingtown in Hunterdon County,
deceased, do make, or cause to be made, a true and perfect inven-
tory of all and singular the Goods, Chattels and Credits of the said Deceased, which
have or shall come to the Hands, Possession or Knowledge of the said Baltheser
Pickel & John Cline or into the Hands of any other Person or Persons
for their Use, and the same so made, exhibit, or cause to be exhibited into the
Registry of the Prerogative Court, in the Secretary's Office at Burlington
on or before the nineteenth Day of October next ensuing; and the same Goods,
Chattels and Credits of the said Deceased, at the Time of his Death, or which at any
Time after, shall come to the Hands or Possession of the said Baltheser Pickel
& John Cline or unto the Hands or Possession of any other
Person or Persons, for their Use, do well and truly administer according to Law; and
further do make or cause to be made, a just and true Account of their Administration,
on or before the nineteenth Day of April now next ensuing
the Date hereof; and all the Rest and Residue of the said Goods, Chattels and Credits,
which shall be found remaining upon the Account of the said Adminsitrat the
same being first examined and allowed of, by the Judge for the Time being, of the said
Prerogative Court, shall deliver and pay unto such Person or Persons respectively, as
the said Judge for the Time being, of the said court, by his Decree or Sentence, pur-
suant to the true Intent and Meaning of an Act of Parliament, made in the 22d and
23d Years of the Reign of King Charles II, intitled, An Act for settling Intestates'
Estates, shall limit and appoint. And if it shall hereafter appear, that any last Will
and Testament was made by the said Deceased, and the Executor or Executors therein
named, do exhibit the same into the said Prerogative Court, making Request to have
it allowed and approved accordingly: If the said Baltheser Pickel & John
Cline being thereunto required, do render and deliver up the said Letters
of Administration, Approbation of such Testament being first had and made in the
said court; then the above Obligation is void, or else it shall stand in fill Force
and Virtue.
                                                                  Baltes Pickel
                                                                  John Melich
                                                                 ?????? ?????
Sealed and Delivered in
the Presence of
???? Smith

The source citation for this document was difficult to craft, since I did not record everything I should have when the record was available on Ancestry.com and before it was removed.  The entry in the New Jersey, Abstract of Wills, 1671-1817 (also on Ancestry.com), has this entry:


From the abstract, I can craft a source citation for the record I found on Ancestry.com that is no longer available due to licensing issues:

New Jersey Surrogate's Court, Hunterdon County, Wills, Liber 13, page 207 (image 490), Henry Pickel Letter of Adminstration, 1766; in "New Jersey, Wills and Probate Records, 1656-1999," digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 7 September 2015, images no longer available); citing original data from New Jersey County, District and Probate Courts.

From the Calendar of Wills book, it is evident that an inventory of Henry Pickel's estate was taken on 21 December 1765 by Waland Van De Vander and Samuel Wyckof, which was valued at £ 663.3.3.  That paper was not in the Ancestry collection to my knowledge.  If it was, I didn't get it.  

I believe that the Baltheser Pickel who is one of the administrators of this estate is the brother of Henry Pickel is one Balthasar Pickel (1720-1786).  They were sons of Johann Balthasar Pickel (1687-1765) and Anna Gertrud Reiterin (1684-1761).  John Melich may be Balthasar Pickel's (1720-1786) daughter Anna's father-in-law, since Anna Pickel (1749-1823) married Christian Melick (1744-1788).  
Unfortunately, the four children of Henry Pickel are not named in this document.  I am descended from Elizabeth Pickel (1764-1849) who married Jacob Sovereign (1759-1845) in 1781 in New Jersey, and migrated to Ontario Canada after the Revolutionary War.


Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver

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