EDMUND NEEDHAM

"Estate of Edmund Needham of Lynn.

The will and Last Testament of Edmund Needham of Lin in Nu England being Blesed be God in his perfect knowledge memory and understanding tho other wies ill in Body made & writen by min on hand & acording to min on mind to my Children and Grandchildren as follows: first I humbly desire my only True God maker ||& creator|| of ||exodus. 20.11. Psalms 95: 3.4.5. and. 146. 5.6. Jonah 1.9.||heauen & earth the sea & all that is there in and me his most por & unworthy creature amungst ye Rest. &. to reseue my poor and on worthy soull of his meek pur & only free Grace and Loue for ye sake of his only & well beloued ||son|| Jesus Christs sake alone excluding ||all|| things of min ||carnall or|| corrupte natur in or of myself in any mater or means in hol or in parte to my Justification by to Jesus Christ alon my only &38; alon mediator aduocat & intersesor at Ye thron of Grace & alon propisiation for all my sinnes. 1st John. 2. 2. next I desiar & impower my sun Ezediell Needham my tru & Lawfull executor to this my Last will & Testament to se my body desently & Christianly Buried as neer my old wif being his on mother as may be Next I giue to my sun daniell Needham be sids all the housing dwelling house he now dwells in Barn & all ye out housing all ye Land that was laid out to him planting land upland & sallt marsh medo condisionally as is in a deed ||to him|| expresed towards my maintenance while I liue in this world: & also ye bedsted yt stands in my last built mu room wth ye bed I leue him & to blandets & the curtains & valence belonging to it and to his fiue Chilldren fiue yu sheep yr is to say John Needham on & Ezediell Needham on & judah Needham on and Mary Needham on and Elizabeth Needham on Next I giue to my sun Ezediell Needham all the upland & ye fresh & salt medo on both sides ye riuar and all the rest of my mouables on the conditions mensioned in a deed to me yt he should prouide for me & my wife when then she was lioing & all things nesesary conuenient that we stood in need of for our comfortabell liuelyhood in heallth & sicknes whill we liued her in this world euery way sutabell to our old age & seuerall condisions & all my mouables I giue to him besides where as he my sun Ezekiell Needham my Lawfull Executor hath discharded ye to doctars & all other if any du debtes or demands what so euer yt any can justly demand of me: allso my Chilldrens & gran chilldrens legasies in this my will expresed & them to his to Children to yo sheepe all ye rest to my as hir on proper goods; that is to say my sun Ezekiell Needhams on propers goods as proper to him as euer they were proper to me: Next I giue to my dafter Hanah diuen & hur to Chilldren Twenty fiue pounds to be paied them halfe in Catell & ye rest in good & honest suficient pay that is to say fifteen pounds to hur selfe present if liuing or ellse to hur husband if he be liuing after hur & fiue pounds to her dafter Hanah Armitag & fiue pounds to hur last burn son John diuen when they shall come to age but if any on of them shall dy before they com to age the longest liuer of them to haue ye holl ten pounds but if they both dy then ther mother to haue ye h oll ten pounds at ye time yt if they had liued should haue com to age but if ye mother & hur sun & dafter should all three dy then my sun Ezekiell Need. to haue ye holl ten pounds only giuing ye on hafe of it that is to say fiue pounds of it to hur ||brother|| my sun daniell Needham.

Next I giue unto my sun in Laws ||Samuell Harts|| Chilldren first to his dafter in Law born of hur first husband Elizabeth How but now by mariag Elizabeth Chadwell on yo sheepe, next to his elldest sun Samuell Hart on Cow & on yo sheepe ye sheep not exeding four yers old next to Joseph Hart on yo sheepe next to abigall Hart on yo sheep & thirty shillings mor in good & lawfull pay for her great Car of me in my sicknes be sides the wages yt I shall giue hur for ye time she staies wth me & to hir dafter Tebeck Hart on yo sheep all the sheep not exseding four yers old. next I giue to my sun in Law Joseph Mansfield chilldren first his son Joseph Mansfielld on yo sheep & to his next sun John mansfield who I haue brot up euer since his Childe hood till how he is about fiften yers old to him this John mansfielld I giue on Cow & on yo sheep not exdedingfour yeres old & to his dafter Elozabeth wheat on yo sheepe & to deborah mansfild on yo sheep. and further this I ad as a Codasell or breefe inuentory to this my last will and Testament that my sun Ezekiell Needham my Lawfull Executor shall not be put to any oath or oaths at any Court or any man ___n what soeuer then her I haue set according to min one valuation of my holl estate & if this will not saue him from any oath abou __ it he shall safly swer that || yt is || all my holl estate I hauing firmly giuen him as his on proper o__ as if it had neuer ben min so son as euer ye breat is out of my body & I quite dead and I rest I well knowning yt he canot giue any iust oath wth out wronging his Consienc as I only best know how my estate lies & this min on valuation or inuentory followes

first all my housing barn & out housing and al my Lands wth all the chargs of ston wall fensing &c 400li., to holl peses of baies on red & ye other of ye collar of a Chestnut on or to & forty yards a pece at ye lest 12 li., one holl peese of red peniston on or to & forte yards long at ye lest, 6li., 3 parselles of Canuis ner about on hundred yards & other parsells of linen cloth & Calico, 10li., my silluer wach & siluer box & other silluar cupes & spoones & other plate 15li., my Clock yt strikes & another watch & larum that does not strike, 5 li., sum puter sum old & sum new, 2li., sum parselles of Carsies & sum parselles of serges & my wering Clothes, 26 li., sum potes & ketelles & trunkes & Chestes & bedsteed, 7li., beds & beding, 7li., debts in old England in suffisient Bonds & most in abell mens hands as the company of ye marchant aduentorers & a nother loked at as a great rich Citizen fit for an alldar of London thos they do what they can to deseue us yt is to say my brothers & sisters to whom they o us abou three thousand pounds, 600li., total, 1,090li., & on horse yt was forgot, 3 li., & 4 coues & to young buloks forgot allso, 17li., allso 20 sheepe forgot. 7li., total 1,117li.

But for this debt in old England yt is sumthing unsartain what my to aturnies in England being my to Brothers may get for me & them sellues wth sumthing more yt may be coming both to them sellues & me I desier to leue it to my Chilldren in ye best order as I can amungst them Thus first I institute my sun Ezekiell Needham my Lawfull executor & lawfull turny in this in this business as in min on steed & in min on nam as in mine on person to look ye best after it as posibell he can & what euer shall com ouer of it wth ye charges about it discharged them foreuer twenti pounds yt shall cum thus sage in to his hands he shall pay vnto his Brother Daniell Needham if he be liuing six pounds & to his sister Hanah diuen four pounds if liuing or ells ye fours pounds to hur to Chilldren Hanad armitage & John diuen if they bew liuing & ther mother dead or ellse to to ether on of them if on should be liuing & ye other dead.

and further if this will not satisfi any Court or Courts man or men what so euer wth out my sun Ezekiell Needham my Law full executornies oath to my wholl estate then my will is that my sun Ezekiell Needham my Lawful Executor shall safly mak oath yt this my holl estate I hauing fully & wholy desposed of all ye rest in my life as if had neuer ben min for other wise I can not se how he shound make oath wth out ronging his Conscience my estat lying as it dus weh is only best known to myselfe.

Edmund Needham. (SEAL)

Witness: Rich. Walker, Ralph King
Proved in Salem court 29:4:1677 by the witnesses.

[Essex County Quarterly Court Files, vol. 26, leaf 118.]"^[9]

2. Waters, Henry T., Genealogical Gleanings in England, (Baltimore, 1969), [GenGlean], I:543.

3. Ibid. II:1239.

4. [Essex Gen], 25.

5. The American Genealogist, Bate, Kerry William, "Additions to the Needham Pedigree and The Needham Pedigree: Addenda", [TAG-Bate], 47[1971]:146-148; 49[1973]:170-171.

6. Lynn, Essex co., MA Vital Records, [LynnVR].

7. [Essex Gen], 26.

8. Essex Quarterly Court Files, [EQCF], 26:118.

9. The Probate Records of Essex County, [Essex Prob], 3:151-154.

10. Torrey, Charles, New England Marriages Prior to 1700., (Boston: New England Historic and Genealogical Society). [Torrey].

11. New England Historic and Genealogical Register. Vols. 1+, (Boston: New England Historic and Genealogical Register, 1845+), [NEHGR or Reg.], 5:339, 50:532.

12. Backus, Mary Elizabeth (Neilson), The New England Ancestry of Dana Converse Backus, ([Salem, Mass.: privately printed, 1949]), [Backus Anc.], 116.

13. Lewis, Alonzo, & James Newhall, History of Lynn, Essex County, Mass., including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant, 16219-[1893], (Lynn: George C. Herbert, [1890]), [Lynn Hist.], 188.

14. Hart, James M. Genealogical History of Samuel Hartt from London, England, to Lynn, Mass., 1640 and Descendants, to 1903, Nicholas Hart, from London to Taunton, Mass., 1642, at Boston, Mass., 1643, and Warwick, R.I., 1648, and Descendants, Isaac Hart from Scratby, England, to Watertown, Mass., 1636, Later of Reading, Mass., and Several Short Lines and Their Descendants up to 1903 (Pasadena, Calif.:[Rumford Printing Co., 1903]) [Hart (1903)] 2-3.

15. Linzee, John William, The History of Peter Parker & Sarah Ruggles of Roxbury, Mass., (Boston, Mass.: [S. Usher], 1913), [Parker (#9), Parker-Ruggles], 284.

16. DeForest, Louis Effingham, Our Colonial and Continental Ancestors: The Ancestry of Mr. and Mrs. Louis William Dommerich, (New York, N.Y.: The DeForest Publ. Co., 1930), [Dommerich Chart], 44.

17. Howell, George Rogers, The Early History of Southampton, L.I., New York, 2nd ed., (Albany, N.Y.: Weed, Parsons Co., 1887), [Southampton], 434.

18. Sanborn, V.C., Four Boston Families, Holbrook, Yendell, Vail & Whitman, (n.p., 1904), [Vail etc.], 1.

19. Wheat, Silas, Wheat Genealogy: A History Of The Wheat Family in America, with a Brief Account of the Name and Family in England and Normandy, (Brooklyn, N.Y.: S.C. Wheat, 1903), [Wheat], 57.

20. Boyd's Marriage Index, (London, 1626-1650), [Boyd], Grooms, vol. 41.

21. [TAG-Bate], 47[1971]:146-148; 49[1973]:170.

22. [GenGlean], II:1239-1240.

23. Hart Historical Notes [Newsletter], (Lincoln, MA: Hart Communications), [Hart Notes].

24. [Hart (1903)] 2-3.

25. [Lynn Hist.], 189,277.

26. [Hart (1903)] 1.

27. [Parker (#9), Parker-Ruggles], 284-285.

28. Treat, John Harvey, The Treat Family: a Genealogy of Trott, Tratt, and Treat for Fifteen Generations, and Four Hundred and Fifty Years in England and America, Containing More than Fifteen Hundred Families in America, (Salem, Mass.: The Salem Press, 1893), [Treat], 229.

29. The Essex Antiquarian, (13 vols.)(n.p., 1897-1909), [EssexAnt], 4:32.

30. [Essex Prob], 2:234.

31. Ibid. 2:234-235.

32. [Essex Gen-Lindberg], 29.