[WILL OF THOMAS KING, SR.]
[1: 120] On 30 June, 1691, "Thomas King Senr" .... of Scituate" made his will. Bequests were as follows:
To "wife Anne King the East End of my dwelling house Called the Parlour to dwell in and the Chamber over it with a liberty to make Some use of the Cellers and and leantoos .... during her life time Alsoe two Cowes One Bed and Bedding thereto belonging One Trunk and one Box and the one third of all my moveable Goods which are in the house or household Stuff in Such of Sd Goods as may be most Sutable for her use And Said two Cows and Said Goods sloe is to have them for her own to dispose of as she pleases And .... my said wife Shall have five pounds by the year paid to her the one half of it in money the other half of it in Come and other Provision also wood provided for her fire and winter meat and Sumer meat for two Cows by my Executor .... during the life of my said Wife"
To "my Daughter Sarah Besbey the use and Improvement of three acres of my marsh land up the River in Marshfield next to the Gravelly Beach there and So by the upland side during her naturall life and the life of her husband" also £30 "fifteen pounds of said thirty to be paid to her Out of my moveable Estate within one month after this my Will is Proved .... And the other fifteen pounds .... within two years after my decease the one half of it in money the other half of it in Good Currant merchantable Countrey pay"
To "my Grandson John Rogers" No, "five pounds of 5d Sum to be paid .... out of my moveable Estate within one month after this my Will is Proved the other five pounds to be paid the one half in money the other half in Good merchantable Countrey pay within two years after my decease
To "my Grandson Thomas Rogers" No, with the same provisions as governed the bequest to the grandson John Rogers.
"Robben my Negro Servant [p. 121] Shall be set free .... and I do Give unto said Roben ye Negro the Bed whereon he Comonly useth to lodge in with the Beding thereunto belonging and also .... five pounds .... in Good Currant pay .... fifty shillings of it within one year after my decease & fifty shillings of it within two years after my decease"
"all the Rest of my Estate .... both in New England and in old England I do Give .... unto my Son Thomas King whome I do hereby Constitute .... the sole Executor"
The witnesses were John Cushing, John Cushing, Jr., and Joshua Cushing. "John Cushing Esq" and John Cushing, Jr., made oath to the will of "mr Thomas King", at Plymouth, 16 March 1691/2.
"The County Court .... do hereby Impower John Cushing Esqr Assistant to give ye other witness ~ Joshua Cushing his oath to ye within written will And to Give ye within named Executor his oath to yC Inventory of ye Estate of ye within said Mr Thomas King deceased"
Joshua Cushing, the third witness, made oath to the will on 26 March, 1692.
[p. 122] An inventory was taken, 3 November, Nor, by William Holbrooke (signed by mark) and John Cushing, Sr. No real estate was mentioned. Thomas King, Jr., the executor, made oath to it 26 March, 1692.
Printed from Mayflower Descendant Legacy CDROM, Search & Research Pub. Co.
A Controversy Over the Mode of Baptism:
("Scituate and Barnstable Church Records," Register, 10 [1856]: 42). Thomas King, William Vassall, and Gilbert and William Brooks were also Blessing passengers who settled in Scituate.
John Stockbridge probably did not come to New England for religious freedom, but more likely for better economic conditions. There is no indication of his membership in the church, only the name of his wife Ann appearing in the records. "Goodwife Stockbridge" joined the church in Scituate on 16 July 1637 (ibid., 9 [1855]: 280), and soon was active in the controversy which split the church a few years later. The first minister, the Reverend John Lothrop, had a congregation unsettled over the mode of baptism, and in 1639 he and about half of the members left for Barnstable. Ann Stockbridge was among those who remained, under the leadership of Timothy Hatherly. The following year Charles Chauncey of Plymouth was called as the new pastor. Ann, with William Vassall and his daughter Judith, Elder King and his wife Sarah, Thomas Lapham, and John Twisden refused to join the call for Mr. Chauncey, as outlined in their "Renewal of Covenant by the Church of Christ in Scituate, distinct from that of which Mr Chauncy is Pastor," dated 2 February 1642/3 (Deane, Hist. of Scituate, 59-61).
Further evidence of the baptism controversy in the Scituate church is found in the Stockbridge family, for although their daughter Hannah was baptized by Mr. Lothrop in 1637, daughter Elizabeth was taken to Boston for baptism in 1642, "to avoid her being immersed, as Mr. Chauncey insisted must be done" (Charles Henry Pope, The Pioneers of Massachusetts [Boston, 1900], 435). Four years later, when the first child of John Stockbridge by his second wife was baptized, it was done by the Reverend William Witherell, who had been ordained as minister of the second church at Scituate on 2 September 1645 (Deane, Hist. of Scituate, 191; Pope, Pioneers of Mass., 435). Evidently, then, John Stockbridge, although apparently not a member of this church, accepted their doctrines, as did his second wife.
Printed from NEHG Register, Volume 133, April 1979, New England Historic Genealogical Society & Brederbund Software, Inc., Banner Blue Division, February 22, 2001
Mentioned in his father's will
