"A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another."
The subject today is the will of Samuel Guild (1647-1731) of Dedham, Massachusetts:
The transcription of the will of Samuel Guild is:
[page 106]
In the Name of God Amen the Twenty
Second
Day of November one thousand Seven
hundred & Twenty
nine. I Samuel Guild of Dedham in the
County of Suffolk
within his Majestie's Province of the
Massachusets Bay
In New England Yeoman being weak in
Body but of
Sound & disposing Mind & memory
(Thanks be to God) do
make and ordain this my last Will &
Testament hereby
Revoking & Disannulling all other
or former Wills in any
way or manner heretofore made by Me,
Ordaining this &
only this to be my last Will &
Testament. That is to say
first & principally I Give &
Recommend my Soul into
the hands of god that gave it hoping
for Salvation
through the Merritts of Jesus Christ
and my Body to the
Earth to be decently buried at the
discretion of my
Executor. And as touching such Worldly
Estate as the
Lord hath lent me in this Life, I Give
Demise and
Dispose of in the following manner &
Form. After my
Just Debts and funeral Charges are paid
Impr^s I Give
& bequeath to my beloved Wife the
use benefit and
Improvement of my whole Estate for her
Comfortable
Subsistance during her Natural Life.
Item Having
Given to my Son Samuel Guild thirty six
pounds I
further Give and bequeath unto him &
his heirs forever
fourteen pounds to be paid ass its
after Expressed and also
all my right Title property &
Interest in a certain tract
of Land lately Granted by the Great &
General Court
to the Soldiers that were at the
Narraganset War.
Item having already given to my Son
Nathaniel Guild
fifty pounds which I Esteem his
proportion of my Estate
my Will is that he be therewith
Content. Item Having
Given to my Son John thirty nine pounds
my Will and
meaning is that he or his heirs have
paid out of my
Estate Eleven pounds more in manner as
is after Mentioned.
Item My Son Israel having already had
thirty pounds
[page 107]
I further Will and bequeath to him &
his heirs Twenty
pounds to be paid out of my Estate as
is after
provided. Item my Son Ebenezer Having
already Received
twenty four pounds I further will ^&
bequeath^ unto him
& his heirs twenty six pounds to
Compleat his part
of my Estate to be paid as is after
mentioned. Item my
Daughter Mary Fuller having Received
Eight pounds
fifteen shillings I further Will &
bequeath unto my said
Daughter or her Representatives twenty
one pounds five
Shillings to be paid out of my Estate
as is after Expressed.
Item my Daughter Deborah Fairbank
having Received
Seven pounds I Give & bequeath to
her or her Represen-
tatives twenty ^three^ pounds to be
paid out of my Estate as is
after provided. Item my Daughter
Elizabeth Stanley
having already received ten pounds I
further will & Give to
her or her Representatives twenty
pounds more to be paid
out of my Estate as is herein provided.
Item I Will and
bequeath to my Son Joseph ^Guild^ and
to his heirs forever
my houses Barn Garden Orchard ad all my
Land whatsoever
and wheresoever with all my Estate both
Real & Personal
he doing & performing as I hereby
Enjoyned. And my
further Will is that my s^d Son Joseph
out of what I have
Given him do pay and discharge all my
just Debts & mine
& my Wives funeral Charges as also
all the Several
Sums & Legacies herein ordered to
be paid out of my Estate
within three years after mine & my
Wives decease which
of them shall last happen. And I do
hereby likewise
Constitue make & ordain my s^d Son
Joseph Guild to be the
Sole Executor of this my Last Will &
Testament to whom
I also give full Power & Lawfull
Authority to Execute the
Same According to the true Intent &
meaning therein
Expressed. In Witness whereof I have
hereunto Set my
hand & Seal this day & year
above written.
Signed Sealed published & declared
Samuel Guild & a seal
by the said Samuel Guild as his last
Will & Testament
In presence of us Witnesses Josiah Fisher
Joseph Wight
Exam^d Ss John Boydell Reg^r John
Metcalf
[page 108]
Suffolk Ss By the Hon^ble Josiah
Willard Esq^r J. Pro.
The foregoing Will being presented for
Probate by the Executor
therein Named Joseph Wight and John
Metcalf & made Oath
that they saw Samuel Guild the
Subcriber to this Testament
Sign & Seal & heard him pulbish
and declare the Same to be
his last Will & Testament And that
when he do did he was of
sound disposing mind & memory
according to these Deponents
best discerning and that the together
with Josiah Fisher
now Absent by Reason of Infirmity &
old age Set to their hands
as Witnesses in the said Testators
presence.
Boston June 24^th 1731
John Boydell Reg^r J. Willard.
The source citation for this record is:
Massachusetts, Wills and Probate Records, 1635-1991, indexed database with digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com), Suffolk County, "Probate Records, Vol 29-31, 1731-1734," Volume 29, Pages 106-108 (images 62-63 of 858), Samuel Guild will, 1729.
Samuel Guild is my 8th great-grandfather, and I descend through his son Nathaniel Guild (1679-1774) by his first wife, Mary Woodcock (1653-1703).
In his will, Samuel mentions his children in this order - Samuel Guild, Nathaniel Guild, John Guild, Israel Guild, Ebenezer Guild, Mary Fuller, Deborah Fairbank, Elizabeth Stanley and Joseph Gould. He gave each of his sons 50 pounds (counting what they had already received), and his daughters 30 pounds (counting what they had already received. He gave his son Samuel the land granted by the colony for service in King Phillip's War, and gave the rest of his real estate to Joseph, who was to be the executor and pay his siblings their inheritances.
He mentions his wife in this will written in 1729, and I have no record of a second wife of Samuel Guild. Perhaps I missed something in the Dedham records. I will have to check. He gave his "beloved wife " the use, benefit and improvement of his estate during her natural life. The executor was supposed to provide the heirs their share after the wife died. There may be a death record, or a marriage record, for the second wife.
I looked for other probate records for Samuel Guild, and the probate docket book had only the will and the letter testamentary. There was no inventory or account or any other papers in the probate court record volumes listed. Land records may shed some light on subsequent events.
This document is part of the Probate Court clerk volumes, so it is a Derivative Source, but is considered authoritative. There may be additional papers in Probate File 6117, but if there were, they should be listed in the Estate Docket.
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