Family:Francis Strother and Susanna Dabney (1)

Will: Francis Strother, St.Marks Parish, Culpeper Co, VA (1751)

IN YE NAME OF GOD AMEN, I Francis Strother of St. Marks Parish in ye County of Culpepper, being of sound & perfect sence & memory, thanks to allmighty God for the same, do make and ordain this my last will & testament in manner and form followig, that is to say: first I recommend my soul to allmighty God hoping to receive pardon and remission of all my sins through ye merits of my saviour Jesus Christ and my body to ye earth to be inter'd in christinn burial at the discretion of my Executors herein after named & for what worldly goods God in his mercy hath been pleased to bestow upon me, I give & bequeath ye same as followeth, that is to say: :Imprimis: It is my will that all my just debts and funerall expences be first satisfied & paid.

Item: I appoint, constitute & impower my beloved wife Susanna Strothers to execute a deed or deeds to convey the fee simple estate of a certain tract or parcell of land being part of the land whereon I now I now (repeated) live & bounded according to a survey therof made by Mr. John Lewis. I also desire my son John Strother to joyn in the said deed of conveyance part of the said land being by me purchased of him & not yet conveyed to me to John Minor, his heirs and assigns.

I also authorize & inmpower my said wife to execute a deed or deeds to convey ye fee simple estate of a certain tract of land adjoyning to the aforesaid land for which I have not as yet got the deed from ye Lord Fairfaxe's office to the said John Minor, his heirs or assigns.

Item: I give unto my son George Strother & to his heirs or assigns forever one survey of land lying at the Little Pass Mountain.

Item: I give unto my son Francis Strother & to his heirs or assigns forever one survey of land at the Bluttend of the Piggnut Ridge.

Item: I lend unto my wife the land whereon I now live being what is left out of the tract I have impowered her to convey to John Minor which she is to have ye sole use of during her life.

Item: I give unto my son Robert Strother the tract of land whereon I now live being what is left out of ye survey made for John Minor only my wife is to have ye use of it during her life to him his heirs or assigns forever.

Item: I lend unto my wife my negros and pea?cratt? estate during her widowhood but if she marrys then it is my will that it shall be equally divided between her four eight children, vizt: Anthony, George, Francis, Robert, Mary, Bahethland, Elizabeth & Susanna & if my wife die, then my said estate to be divided between my said eight children & in case any of my children should die without lawfull issue or before they come to age that their part of my estate whether real or personall shall be equally divided among my aforsaid children.

Item: It is my will that my sons Anthony & George shall be at liberty for themselves at my death & if my wife marries that my sons Francis & Robert shall be of age at sixteen years years (repeated) old.

Item: I appoint & constitute my wife Executrix of this my Last Will & Testament.

And lastly, I do hereby revoke and make void all former other Will or Wills & do declare this to be my Last Will & Testament.

IN WITNESS whereof I have hereunto set my hand & seal this 17th day of Aprill 1751.

(Signed) Francis Strother (L.S.)

Memorandm interlined before signed on ye other side in the nineteenth line from the top to John Minor his heires or assigns also in ye sixteenth line (live) & in the 44th line (my issue).

Signed, sealed, published & declared in presence of:

?? Lewis

? Strother

Thomas Baker

At a Court held for the County of Culpeper

Thursday, the 16th day of April 1752

This Last Will and Testament of Francis Strother, dec'd, was proved by the oaths of John Strother & Thomas Baker, witnesses thereto and ordered to be recorded, the said John Strother heir at law of the Testator declaring he had no objection thereto, whereupon Susanna Strother, the Executrix, in the said Will named sworn to the said Will and on her prayer, Certificate is granted her for obtaining a Probat thereof in due form, she giving security according to law.

Teste:

Roger Dixon, Cl.Cur.

Exam'd (examined)

[Source: Library of Virginia, Will Book A, 1749-1770, Culpeper Co, VA, Reel 31, pages 57-60]

Note: Spelling errors were not corrected. Paragraphing and some punctuation were added by transcriber for ease in reading. There are no paragraphs in the original. Viz & vizt are abbreviations for videlicet which means "that is to say, namely".

The above will was transcribed by Von Mings Stachon <vonstac@comcast.net> and found at http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/culpeper/wills/strother-frncs.txt Permission to copy onto WeRelate site was given by Von Mings Stachon to Janie Jackson Kimble 15 June 2009.

Comments

Both earlier posters have said that Francis and Susannah had a daughter Elizabeth but they have differing birth dates so the two Elizabeths have not been merged. Perhaps the birth dates are incorrect or perhaps the first died young and the name was reused. Until further research is forthcoming, both daughters have been left in the record.

Note (Update) - The younger Elizabeth Strother, b. 1744 was actually the grand-daughter of Francis and Susannah Strother, who was clearly identified in the will of her father, John Strother. (will is listed on his page identifying "Elizabeth Browning"). Problem solved. :)