Amanuensis Monday -- 1719 Will of Daniel Bacon (1643-1720) of Salem, Massachusetts

This week's document for transcription is the 1719 Will of Daniel Bacon (1643-1720) of Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts, which is in Estate File 1207 in the Essex County Probate Court records. 

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The transcription of this will is:

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In the name of God amen I Daniel bacon of Salem

in the County of Essex in New England Shipwright being

in good healh of body and of perfect mind and memory

through Gods mercy doe make this my last will and

testament in manner and form following that is to say

Imps  and principally I Commend my soul into the hands of all

mighty God hoping through the merits Death and passion

of my Saviour Jesus Crist to have full and free pardon

of all my sins and to inherit Everlasting Life

and my body I Commit to the Earth to be decently buried

at the discreton of my Executor hereafter named.

and as to my Estate in this world which God hath Given

me I Dispose of as followeth.

Item my will is that all my Just Debts which I owe together

with my funerall Charges and Sicknes be duly and

truly Satisfied & paid.

Item I doe give to my Dear & Loving wife Susana my whole

Estate both Reall & personall during her life time to

be for her support in her weak & Low Condition so

much as she shall have occasion for her com-

fortable subsistance.

Item  I doe give unto my son Daniell a fifth part of what shall be

left after my wifes deceas.

Item I doe give unto my Daughr Susana a fifth part of what

is left after my wifes deceas.

Item I doe give unto my Daughr mary a fifth part of what

is left after my wifes deceas.

Item I doe give unto give unto my son mihill a fifth

part of what is left after my wifs deceas.

Item I doe give unto the Children of my son John deced

one fifth part of what shall be left after my

my wifes deceas.

Lastly I doe make Susana my beloved wife Sole Executrix of this

my Last will & testament and I doe herby give my wife

power to call in all my debts that are owing unto me anywise

She advising in all difficulties with my overseers of this

my Last will and testament and I desire my Son

Daniell & William Suscomb

to be overseers of this my last will & testament to assist

my said Executrix in what she have occasion of hel?? in within ?

to y'e above.  I have hirunto set my hand & Seall this twenty ^first^ day of

Aug'st one thousand seven hundred & Ninteen.

Ebene Lambert                                                     Daniel Bacon Sener {seal}

John Devotion

The source citation for this probate case file is:

Essex County, Massachusetts, Probate case files, Volume: Middlesex 0001-1999, Estate File #1207 (7 images), Daniel Bacon estate, 1720; "Essex County (Massachusetts) Probate File Papers, 1638-1881," digital images, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014, American Ancestors  (https://www.americanancestors.org: accessed 31 January 2021); Digitized mages provided by FamilySearch.org from original records at Probate Registry, Cambridge, Mass. 

Daniel Bacon (1643-1720)  married Susanna Spencer (1643-1724) in 1664 in Salem, and they had six children:

*  Daniel Bacon (1665-1748), married 1688 Sarah Lambert (1660-1721).

*  Alice Bacon (1689-1689)

*  Susanna Bacon (1670-1724), married about 1700 Benjamin Boyce (1677-1767).

*  Mary Bacon (1673-????), married 1689 William Candidge (1666-????).

*  Michael Bacon (1676-????) married Margaret Shattuck (1674-????).

*  Lydia Bacon (1678-1681).

*  John Bacon (1680-1716), married 1701 Hannah King (1682-????).

There is no known death date for Daniel Bacon.  The probate packet contains a short proof statement dated 30 June 1720.  There is a one page inventory taken on 29 September 1722, which totals £129 5s (of which £100 is for the house, land and common right land).  The last paper in the estate file is a petition that asks the court to accept the will, even though the will lacked a third witness, on 1 July 1720 and is signed by the children of Daniel Bacon late of Salem - Daniel Bacon, Benjamin Boyce, Susanna Boyce, and Mihill Bacon.  There are no estate papers that provide a distribution or an account of this estate.  

Susanna (Spencer) Boyce died on 12 October 1724 in Salem.  There is no estate file for Susanna (Spencer) Boyce in the Essex County Probate records.  Since the house and land was a significant part of the inventory, the widow Susanna may have sold the land to one of the children, or to another party, and divided the proceeds to close out the estate without filing a distribution or an account.

Daniel and Susanna (Spencer) Bacon are my 8th great-grandparents, through their daughter Susanna Bacon (1679-1724) who married Benjamin Boyce (1677-1767) in about 1700. 

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NOTE: 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."

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