Person:John Balch (7)

In his will, dated 15 May 1648 and probated 28 June 1648, John Balch of Salem bequeathed to wife Annis for life twenty acres of land with a newly-built room, part of the barn, and one-fourth of his household goods; to oldest son Benjamin Balch one-half of farm, one-fourth of household goods, and some cattle; to second son John Balch one-fourth of farm, one-fourth of household goods and some cattle; to youngest son Freeborn Balch one-fourth of farm, one-fourth of household goods and some cattle; son Benjamin and wife Annis to be executors, and friends John Porter and William Woodbury to be overseers; witnesses Peter Palfrey, Nicholas Patch and Jeffrey Massey. The inventory was taken by John Porter, Peter Palfrey, Nicholas Patch and Jeffrey Massey, and totalled £220 13s. 4d., of which £72 was real estate: dwelling house and barn, £16; and one farm of meadow and upland containing 210 acres, £56 [ EPR 1:96-97; EQC 1:143-45; photograph in Balch Gen between pp. 4 & 5]. 

Various sources give one or another parish in Somersetshire as the place of origin of John Balch, but these are unsupported by evidence and are little more than guesses.^S1

1. ↑ John Balch, in Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995).