Person:Thomas Hardy (1)

Will

In his will, dated 4 March 1671/2 and proved 26 March 1678, "Thomas Hardee, Senior, living at Merrimack town, near Haverhill," being in "bodily health," bequeathed to "my eldest son" 200 acres of land; to "my sons John Hardee, to Joseph Hardee, & to Jacob Hardee" each 100 acres; to "my son-in-law William Hutchins" one hundred acres; to "my daughter Mary & to her children" £10 paid out of the land of "my son William Hardee"; to "my son Joseph Hardee sixty acres if he pays £40 of my debts"; residue of lands to "my son William Hardee"; to my sons John, Joseph and Jacob each ten acres of plowland; to "my beloved wife" sole use of dwelling house etc. and portions of land during her life; William Hardy to enjoy one-quarter part of the orchard during his mother's life; household goods to be equally divided among children after wife's death; "my son Joseph Hardee" and "friend & neighbor" David Hazeltine executors. In a lengthy codicil dated 12 December 1677 "Thomas Hardee Senior aged about seventy two" "yet alive & though weak in body" reshuffled lands among William Hutchins and sons Joseph and Jacob; to "my grandchildren" 20s. each; to "my beloved wife" two acres by the river on the east end of the house for her own dispose at her death; forty acres for wife's security; £20 to be divided equally among surviving grandchildren, those born into the families of "Thomas & John Hardee, & my two daughters, Mary and Sary"; to "my son" John Hardy ten acres; "my son Thomas's" land entailed; to "my son" Jacob two acres of meadow; William Hardy sole executor; "loving and respected friends" Rev. Mr. Zachary Simes, Mr. Shubael Walker, and Jonathan Danforth, Sr. of Billerica, overseers; "& further I do exhort all my children, to live in the fear of god, & in the exercise of love & charity each to other, relieving each other's necessity according to their ability as the case may require" [ EPR Case #12405].

"An inventory of the estate of Thomas Hardee Senr. who deceased January 4th 1677" was taken 7 March 1677/8 by Jonathan Danforth, Sr., Shubael Walker, and Samuel Worcester. It totalled £848 10s. 9d., of which £800 was real estate: "house & barns, orchard, fences & 800 acres land more or less joining to the house" [EPR 3:217].

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10} Thomas Hardy, in Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995)
   2:858-61.

   ORIGIN: Unknown.
   OCCUPATION: Ferry operator at Bradford [Bradford TR 1:4].

2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Hardy, in Smith, Dean Crawford; Melinde Lutz Sanborn; and Massachusetts) New England Historic Genealogical Society (Boston. The ancestry of Samuel Blanchard Ordway, 1844-1916: with lines from: Annis, Chase & Ordway of Newbury, MA; Bennett & Crowell of Manchester, MA; Challis of Salisbury, MA; Corlis, George & Heath of Haverhill, MA; Cross of Ipswich, MA; Forrest of Canterbury, NH; Hardy of Bradford, MA; Hill of Beverly, MA; Holmes of Marshfield ... (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, c1990)
   281-88.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3} 76. Thomas¹ Hardy, in Jewett, Amos Everett, [Editor], and George Brainard [Compiler] Blodgette. Early Settlers of Rowley, Massachusetts: A Genealogical Record of the Families who Settled in Rowley before 1700 with Several Generations of their Descendants. (Rowley, Mass.: Amos Everett Jewett (Newcomb & Gauss Co., Printers, Salem, Mass.), 1933)
   131-32.

   76. Thomas¹ Hardy settled very early in that part of Rowley afterward called Merrimack Village and later Bradford, where he acquired much land. The name of his wife is not recorded. He died in Bradford, 4 Jan., 1677-8. His will, dated 4 Mar., 1671-2, when was called of "Merrimack near Haverhill," with a "Postscript" dated 12 Dec., 1677, proved 26 Mar., 1678, mentions himself as aged about 72 years, in 1677; eldest son, Thomas, sons John, Joseph, Jacob and William; son-in-law William Hutchins; daughter Mary and her children unnamed; daughter Sarah (Essex Probate).