Person:Nathaniel Merrill (3)

NATHANIEL MERRILL MASSACHUSETTS (c1601-1654/55) Nathaniel MERRILL - bap. May 4, 1601, Wherstead, Suffolk, England; d. Mar. 16, 1654/5, Newbury, Essex Co., MA. Son of Nathaniel MERRELL and Mary BLACKSOLL. A principal source of information about the MERRILL family in England and America is A MERRILL MEMORIAL, by Samuel Merrill (1917-1928 Cambridge, MA).

Nathaniel has been said to have arrived at Ipswich, MA about 1633 and remained there with brother John a year or more before moving to Newbury, MA. However, no evidence of any kind has been seen that placed Nathaniel in MA prior to the birth of his son Daniel at Newbury in 1642. A MERRILL MEMORIAL states that there is no evidence that Nathaniel arrived in MA in 1633 and only conjectures that he was a proprietor at Newbury, MA in 1638. It is probable that Nathaniel did not arrive in America until between 1639 and 1641 and settled at Newbury, MA, joining his brother John, who had lived there for some time.

WILL OF NATHANIEL MERRILL Witnes by these psents that I Nathaniell Merrill of Newbury in the Countie of Essex being ficke of body but through gods mercy of perfect memory do here make my last will and testament, I first bequeath my soule into the hands of my blessed Redeemer with an assured hope of a joyfull resurection, and my body when it shall please the lord to take me out of this fraile life to bee buryed in the burying place of Newbury, and for my worldly goods I give and dispose of as followeth Impr I give and bequeath unto Susanna my wife five akers of plowable land lying next my Brother John land and halfe the marsh dureing her naturall life and a cow and three beifers and all my household goods, And out of this estat so given to my wife I give and bequeath unto my daughter Susanna five pounds when she shal be at the age of twenty yeares then I give and bequeath unto my son Nathaniell (whom I appoint as my true and lawfull heire) all my land and freehold after my wives decease, and all the working tooles & Implements of husbandry and all the cattell and stocke besids And out of this stocke I appoint that my son Nathaniell shall pay theise legacyes as followeth, that is I give unto my son John when be shalbee of the age of two and twenty yeers the summe of five pounds, And also I give and bequeath unto my son Abraham at the age of two and twenty yeare five pounds, And I give and bequeath unto my sonne Daniell also at the age of one and twenty years five pound and I give and bequeath to my son Abell five pounds also at the age of one and twenty years, And I appoint my son Nathaniell to be my sole executor and all my debts & funerall rites being discharged I appoint him to have all the rest of my goods & chattels undisposed and I desire my brother John merill and Anthony Somerby to be the ouerseers of this my last will & testament. In witnesse wherof I bave set my hand. march the eight in the yeare one thousand six hundred fifty foure

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Merrill, Samuel. A Merrill Memorial: An Account of the Descendants of Nathaniel Merrill, an Early Settler of Newbury, Massachusetts. (Cambridge, Massachusetts: S. Merrill, 1928)
   69, 1928.

   The will and inventory of Nathaniel Merrill are preserved in the Essex County Court Papers, vol. III, leaf 10, in the office of the Clerk of Courts at Salem. Both papers are in the handwriting of Anthony Somerby. The will was executed 8 March, 1654/5, Nathaniel Merrill died 16 March, 1654/5; the will was proved 27 March, 1655.

2.   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)
   3:199.

   NATHANIEL, Newbury, br. of the first John, m. Susanna Jordan, had Nathaniel, b. 1638; John, bef. ment. wh. was prob. oldest; Abraham; Susanna; Daniel, Aug. 1642; Abel, 20 Feb. 1644; and d. 16 Mar. 1655. His will of 8 Mar. pro. 27 of same, ment. w. and the six ch. all under 21 yrs. made Nathaniel excor. with overseers. NATHANIEL, Newbury, s. of the preced. m. 15 Oct. 1661, Joanna Kenney, had John, b. 16 Feb. 1663; Nathaniel, 8 Feb. 1665; Peter, Aug. 1667, Hannah, 12 July 1672; and Mary, 18 Sept. 1675; and he d. 1 Jan. 1683. Seven of this name had, in 1834, been gr. at Harv. and twenty at the other N. E. coll.

3. ↑ ^3.0 3.1 Merrill Line, in Holman, Mary Lovering. Ancestry of Charles Stinson Pillsbury and John Sargent Pillsbury. (Concord, New Hampshire: Privately Printed at The Rumford Press, 1938)
   2:1037.

   NATHANIEL MERRILL..baptised in Wherstead, Suffolk, England, 4 May 1601, died in Newbury, Mass, 16. Mar 1654-55.