Person:John Fuller (9)

Will of John Fuller

as deciphered by Don Fuller and E. Frederick Fuller:

I John Fuller of Newtown in the County of Middlesex in his Majesties Province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New England being week in body, but in sound and disposing memory, Praise be given to God for the same to make this my last will and testament in manor & form following, that is to say first, and principally I resign my soul into the merciful hand of Almighty God my creator asuredly hoping through the merits of my Blessed savior, to obtain pardon & remission of all of my sins and my body I commit to the earth whence it was taken to be Decently buried by the discretion of my executor and herin after named and as for the wordly goods and estate the Lord hath lent me I dispose thereof as follows.

E Impl. I give and bequeth to my loving and dear wife Elizabeth a comfortable maintenance of my movable estate and if that shall not be enough then to have the liberty of any of my other estate, any thing hereafter to the contrary not withstanding and a living in my now dwelling house and all this during her natural life, to be allowed her by my executors herein after named, out of my estate.

2 secondly I give and bequeth to my son John Fuller the housing and lands he now enjoys lying along the south side Charles River, adding thereto as much out of the farm I now live on as shall make the same two hundred acres as I have butted and bounded the said addition to him and his heirs executor and administrator forever.

3 thirdly I give and bequeth to my son Jonathan Fuller the housing and land he now enjoys adding thereto out of the farmland I now live on as much as makes up the aforesaid land one hundred and fifty acres as I have bounded the same to him and his heirs executor and administrator forever.

4 fourthly I give and bequeth to my son Joseph Fuller the lands he now enjoys and also a piece of [moads]:wland over the brook at the [uperend] of the great meadow, adjoining unto the land of Tm Parks to make him equal with the rest of my sons to him and his heirs forever.

5 fifthly I give and bequeth to my son Joshua Fuller the housing and lands he now liveth on to him and his heirs forever.

6 I give and bequeth to my son Jeremiah Fuller the land I formerly gave him whereon he now liveth, adding thereto out of the farm abovesaid as much as Maketh up what he already enjoyeth, one hundred and fifty acres as the [farm] is now butted and bounded to him and his heirs forever and it further my will that if any of my above named sons by a Joint consentagree to the altering of the bounds of the lands above given and bounded to them,nary thing contrary notwithstanding, and also it is my will that my above sons shall each and every one of them have equal liberty to Dig and Cart of clay from the clay-pits in the above farm.

7 seventhly to all that I have formerly given unto my daughter Elizabeth Hide Deceased, I give and bequeth unto her children tho which I have had the Care of bringing up and maintaining what they have already had and to my grandson, alias grandchild Jonathan Hide, the youngest son of my above said daughter, ten pounds in or or as money to be paid to him by my son Joseph Fuller, whom Jo Hide shall be twenty one years of age, and my son Joseph to pay the same forth right and interest I have in the Maly House he vnow occupieth, and further it is my will that if the abovesaid Malt house shall by Casualty be burnt or any ways destroyed by accidental cause, the abovesaid legacy of 10 pounds to be paid by my five sons above named, and if (so) Jonathan Hide do not live to the age abovesaid, then my will is that the abovesaide ten pounds shall be equally divided between my three grandchildren viz Mary Brown & Elizabeth Hide (see paragraph below, this is Bethia), and Hannah Hide.

8 eighthly I give and bequeth to my daughter Bethiah Bond twenty pounds in addition to what she hath already received of me towards her portion, to be paid her by my son Joseph Fuller, as followeth fewer pounds per year, until the whole sum be paid in consideration whereof I give to my son Joseph Fuller the land I purchased of Jeremiah Moss, be the same more or less.

9 ninethly I give and bequeth to my five sons abovesaid house barns out-houses orchard and land conveying two hundred and fifty acres be the same more or less to them and their heirs forever, to be equally divided betwen them at my death. Provided my five sons abovesaid do comfortably and honorably maintain my abovesaid wife in sickness and health during her natural life, and further my will is that my abovesaid sons shall not alinate the above given and granted unto any stranger until first the next Relation of the above said Fullers have the offer of it, and all the rest and residue of my estates goods and cattle, not herin before bequethed after my debts and funeral expenses discharged, I do give and bequeth unto my very dutiful sons, John Fuller, Jonathan Fuller, Joseph Fuller, Joshua Fuller & Jeremiah Fuller, who I do make sole executor of this my last will and testament all other wills by me. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this thirteenth day of January one thousand six hundred ninety five (six) and the seventh year of his Majesties Reign.

Signed, Sealed and Published in the presence of witness, Isaac Williams John Ward Munings Sawin

The mark of John "Fuller"

Thou Munnings Sawin and Issac Williams and also all ye Executors in said will with Jno, Joseph, Joshua and Jeremiah Fuller did testify that the named Elizabeth in ye testament of ye 7th paragraph was caused by a moot mistake of said Sawin ye writer of said will and ought to have been written Bethiah Hide as appears by ye copy taken from ye deceased mouth by wich he wrote such will. Attest: Samuel Phipps Registrar Charleston, Feb 28th, 1697/98 by ye Hon. James Russell, Esq., Capt. Issac Williams, John Ward, Munnings Sawin the witness subscribed, personally appearing made oath & they were personally and saw ye subscriber, John Fuller, deceased sign and seal and heard him publish and declare the above written to be his last will and testament and wich he so did he was of a disposing mind-

Jeremiah (Coream) J.A. Russell Seal Placed Samuel Phipps Registrar

1.   Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England: Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May, 1692, on the Basis of Farmer's Register. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1860-1862)
   2:216.

   JOHN, Cambridge, in that part now Newton, may seem the youth wh. came with John Winthrop, jr. in his sec. voyage in the Abigail 1635, call. 15 yrs. Old, but that Jackson, wh. perhaps quotes the gr.st. says he d. 7 Feb. 1699, in 87th yr. and he was freem. 1690, tho. his first four s. were together made freem. ten yrs. earlier. His wid. Elizabeth d. 13 Apr. 1700. He had John,b. 1645; Elizabeth Jonathan, 1648; Joseph, 10 Feb. 1652; Joshua, 2 Apr. 1654; Jeremiah, 4 Feb. 1658; of wh. two were in Capt. Beers' comp. in Philip's war 1675, and still, after his d. serving in Apr. 1676; (and JOHN, wh. is call. of Dedham, and prob not one of these, was a corporal of Moseley's comp. and wound. in the gr. Narraganset fight, 19 Dec. 1675); Bethia, 23 Nov. 1661; and Isaac, 2 Feb. 1665, wh. d. 5 Oct. 1691. All the other five s. liv. from 74 to 98 yrs. Bethia m. 27 Feb. 1685, Nathaniel Bond; and Elizabeth m 1663, Job Hyde, and d. 28 Nov. 1685. Hon. Abraham, a descend. in 4th generat. b. 23 Mar. 1720, was rep. for N. 20 yrs. begin. 1764; and parts of the ancestr. est. are now enjoy. by the seventh and eighth degr.