Person:Smallhope Bigge (1)

The Will of Smallhope Bigge of Cranbrook, Kent

"Smalehope Bigg, of Cranbrooke iu the County of Kent, clothier, 3 May, 1638, proved 3 October, 1638, by John Bigg. Brother John Bigg, of Maidstone, to be executor. To the poor of Cranbrooke ten pounds. To my Aunt Mary Bridger of West Peckham and her two sons, Robert and Thomas Betts; to my kinswomen, the wife of William Hunt of Brenchley, Anne Bottinge of Brenchley, widow, and the wife of John Saxby of Leeds; to Judith, wife of Thomas Tadnall, late of Dover; to Godfrey Martin of Old Romney and his sisters; to the children of Robert Pell of New Romney, jurat, deceased.

To my kinsfolk Thomas Bate, of Lydd, James Bate, Clement Bate, the wife of William Batchelor, John Compton, Edward White and Martha his wife, all which are now resident in New England, twenty shillings each, I give ten pounds to be distributed to them or to others in New England by my mother and my brother John Stow. To Peter Master of Cranbrook who married my sister. To my mother Rachell Bigg one hundred pounds. Lands &c. at Rye in County Sussex to my wife Ellin. To my sisters Patience Foster and Elizabeth Stow in New England. To Hopestill Foster, son of my sister three hundred pounds. To Thomas and John Stow, sons of my sister Stow two hundred pounds each. To Elizabeth Stow and the other three children (under age) of my said sister Stow. Lands in Horsmonden to my brother John Bigg. Lands at Wittersham, Lidd and Cranbrook to Samuel Bigg, my brother's son, at the age of twenty-three years. My friends John Nowell of Rye, gentleman, James Holden and Thomas Bigg the elder, of Cranbrook, clothiers, to be overseers. To my cousin Hunt's children and John Saxbey's children; to the two sons of my Aunt Betts; to my cousin Bottenn's children ; to my cousin Pell's children, viz., Joan Pell, Elizabeth Pell, Richard Pell and Thomas Baytope's wife.

After a hearing of the case between John Bigg, brother and executor of the one part, and Hellen alias Ellen Bigg (the relict), Patience Bigg alias Foster, wife of Richard Foster, and Elizabeth Bigg alias Stow, wife of Richard (sic) Stow, testator's sisters, of the other part, sentence was pronounced to confirm the will 4 April, 1639 (the widow having previously died, as shown by date of probate of her own will …).

Consistory Court, Canterbury, Vol. 51, Leaf 115."

"Smallhope Bigg, in his will, mentions sisters Patience Foster and Elizabeth Stow. They were the wives of Hopestill Foster of Dorchester (see Dorchester Antiq. Society's Hist. Dorch., p. 118) and John Stow of Roxbury (see the Apostle Eliot's Ch. Records. Register, xxxv. 244). Of the kinsmen whom he names, Edward White, Dorchester, Mass, had married in 1616, at St. Dunstans Church, Cranbrook, Kent, Martha King, according to a pamphlet printed in 1663, entitled, In Memoriam Lieut. W. Greenough White; John Compton was probably the person of the name who settled at Roxbury (Reg. xxxv. 244), and William Batchelor may have been the Charlestown settler who had wives Jane and Rachel (Wyman's Charlestown, i. 42). Clement Bate settled at Hingham (Barry's Hanover, p. 245) and James Bate at Dorchester (Hist. Dorch. p. 106). For the parentage of the latter, see Register, xxxi. 142."^[2]

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4} 2 John Bigge, in Threlfall, John B. Fifty Great Migration Colonists to New England & their Origins. (Madison, Wisconsin: J.B. Threlfall, 1990)
   41-42.

   "Smallhope (Bigge), bapt. (Cranbrook) 29 Aug. 1585; … In a deposition of 1611, he stated that he was a clothier, had lived in Cranbrook all his life, was age 26 9PRC 39/31, f. 71); he was buried 6 Sept. 1638, …

2. ↑ Waters, Henry Fitz-Gilbert, A.M.. Genealogical Gleanings in England. (Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1901)
   1:23, 21.