Person:Zebediah Wheeler (1)

Probate

FHL film 0432078, file 24382, Zebediah Wheeler (1730)

In the Name of God Amen this Nineteenth Day of November Ano Domini one Thousand Seven Hundred and twenty Nine I Zabediah Wheler of Stow In ye County of Midd'l In ye Province of the Massachusetts Bay In New England Husbandman being Aged and stricken [in?] years and att this time Very Ill and Expecting my Desolution within a Little time being De[si]rous to Set my House In order before I Dye Do Constitute and ordain this to be my Last Will & Testament That is to Say Principally & first of all I Give & Recommend my Soul to God that Gave it and Body to the Earth to be buried in Decent Christian Burial at the Discretion of my Executors out of my personal Estate Hoping to Have a Glorious Resurrection And as Touching the Worldly Estate wherewith it hath pleased God to Bless me I Give and Dispose as followeth -

Imprimis I Give to my only Son Zebediah Wheler the one Halfe of the Farm or Living where I now Live that is to say the westwardly part and one Halfe of all other my Land in Stow and my will is that the s'd son shall have one Halfe of my s'd Lands considdered as to Quantity and Quality together with Buildings and appurtenences of s'd Westwardly Halfe of my s'd Living.

Item. I Give to my Daughter Sarah Wallace fifty Pounds beside what I have heretofore given her In full of her portion to be paid to her out of personal estate within ye space of a year after my Decease.

Item. I have allready given my Daughter Mary Bush Sixty pounds ate Marriage.

Item. I Give & Bequeath to my Da[u]ghter Parthians Wheler Sixty pounds to be paid her out of my Personal Estate to be paid her within a year after my Decease.

Item. I Give to my Daughter Ruth Wheler Sixty Pounds to be paid her out of my Personal Estate within a year after my Decease.

Item I give to my daughter Rachel Wheler Sixty pounds to be paid to her allso out of my Personal Estate within a year after my Decease.

And my Will is that after my Just Debts are paid and my Funeral Charges Defrayed and the Land above Given to my said only Son is Set off to him and ye Legacies above Described are paid that ye Remaining part of my Estate both Personal & Real be Divided In Equal Proportions amongs five of my Children viz my only son Zebediah Wheler & my four younger Daughters that is to Say Mary Bush Parthians Wheler Ruth Wheler and Rachel Wheler and it is my Desire that if any part of my Real Estate should be sold y't my s'd only son should have ye return of it.

And I Do hereby Constitute my s'd only Son my Sole Executor of this my Last Will and Testament And Revoking all other wills by me at any time I constitute and appoint this and no other to be my Last Will and Testament In Witness whereof whereof [sic] I have here unto set my Hand & Seal ye Day & year above written.

Z[e]bediah [his mark] Wheler

Signed Sealed Published Pronounced & Delivered by ye s'd Zebediah Wheler as his Last Will and Testament In presence of us ye Subscribers John Gardner John Taylor John Prescot

The Will by word of mouth which Mr Zebeidah Wheeler late of Stow in the County of Middlesex Deceased made and Declared before us the subscribers in the time of his last sickness in his own dwelling house whereunto he bid us the subscribers bear witness that such was his will or words to that effect - namely -

That he desired that Patty and Rachel (meaning Parthians and Rachel two of his Daughters) should have four or five pounds apeece, to which Mr Gardner one of said subscribers replied you must say a certain Sum, and then said Wheeler said found pounds apeece beside what was given them in his will on Consideration of their dwelling with him since the death of their mother and tending of their mother and him and others in the family in the time of their sickness and their particular serviceableness in so doing.

John Gardner Zebediah Wheeler Cambridge March 27 1730

[The will was challenged by daughter Sarah and her husband John Wallis, alleging Zebediah was not of a sound and disposing mind due to extremity of pain, but the will was approved.]

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Wheeler, Albert Gallatin. The Genealogical and Encyclopedic History of the Wheeler family in America. (American College of Genealogy , 1914)
   Pg. 498: 8209.

   Children of Richard Wheeler and 2nd wife Sarah Prescott: 4) Zebediah, b. 2 Jan 1664-5.

2. ↑ Nourse, Henry Stedman. Birth, Marriage, and Death Register, Church Records and Epitaphs of Lancaster, Massachusetts, 1643-1850. (Clinton, Massachusetts: W.J. Coulter, 1890)
   11.

   Zebediah sonne of Richard Wheeler, & Sarah his wife was borne 2 . 11 . 1664.

3. ↑ Stow, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States. Vital Records of Stow, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850. (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society at the charge of the Eddy Town Record Fund, 1911)
   264.

   Wheeler, Zebadiah, [died] Dec. 16, 1729. [a. abt. 66, G.R.1]
   [Birth calculates to about 1663.]