Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Share Something You Learned From a Probate File or Will That You Wouldn't Have Otherwise Known About

 Calling All Genea-Musings Fans:

 

It's Saturday Night Again - 

Time For Some More Genealogy Fun!!

Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision. 

1)   Today's challenge is to "Share something you learned from a probate file or will that you wouldn't have otherwise known about."

2)  Tell us about your probate or will discovery on your own blog post, in a comment here, or on your Facebook page.  Be sure to leave a link to your report in a comment on this post.

 [thank you to Linda Stufflebean for suggesting this topic!] 

Here's mine:

This was a challenge because I have over 300 will and probate transcriptions on my Amanuensis Monday page.

One that comes to mind is the probate record for my 7th great-grandfather Josiah Wood (1687-1753) of Woburn, Masschusetts Bay Colony.  My summary of this record is:

In 1736, when Josiah Wood of Woburn was age 49, his wife and eldest son petitioned (image 1 above) the Middlesex County Probate Court to have Josiah Wood declared "non compos mentis," meaning not sane, or not in their right mind.  At the time, Josiah and Ruth had eight living children, all but one of them (John) were minors.  

After receiving the petition, the Judge of Probate wrote to the selectmen of the town of Woburn asking their judgement (in image 2 above), and they responded saying they agreed that Josiah Wood was incapable of caring for his family or his affairs.  The Judge then declared Josiah's wife, Ruth, and their eldest son, John Wood, to be Guardians for Josiah wood Junior (his father Josiah Wood was still alive then).  The Judge requested that the guardians prepare an inventory of the real and personal estate of Josiah Wood.  

Bonds by the guardians were recorded here.  The two bond documents are nearly identical - they are bonds that commit Ruth Wood and John Wood, as Guardians, to well and truly do their duty as guardians, and, with two friends, post bond of 1,000 pounds each.

In this post, the guardians of Josiah Wood Junior took an inventory of the estate and made a list of the debts owed by Josiah Wood in 1736.  The estate totaled over 1,430 pounds, of which five items were real estate valued at 1,250 pounds, and the personal estate was over 180 pounds.  The debts were about 220 pounds.  Rather than sell all of the personal property, the probate court suggested selling one of the real property parcels in order to pay the debts and leave the household of this relatively young family intact.

In this post, the guardians of Josiah Wood Junior wrote down their account of the estate in 741 and the court approved it.  

Then in 1743 the neighbors of the Josiah Wood family agreed that John Wood, acting as guardian of Josiah Wood, was abusing his position and petitioned to have him removed.  The heirs of Josiah Wood agreed, and John Wood was removed from his office.  

The source citation for this probate packet is:  

"Middlesex County, MA: Probate Papers, 1648-1871," digital images, American Ancestors (https://www.AmericanAncestors.org :, Packet #25,489, Josiah Wood, 1736 non compos mentis estate papers (14 sheets).

But Josiah Wood (1687-1753) was still alive when all of this occurred.  What was the disposition of his estate?  I checked the probate file on American Ancestors and the 1743 entry is the last dated paper in the file.  Ruth Walker did not have a probate file either.  Perhaps they distributed the land by deed?

==============================================

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2024/11/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-share.html

Copyright (c) 2024, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.  Please note that all Comments are moderated so they may not appear immediately.  

Subscribe to receive a free daily email from Genea-Musings using www.Blogtrottr.com.