Maine Wills

 From York County Probate Records, Volume Three (1709-28)

   In the Name of God Amen The Sixth day of Iune in the Year of our Lord one Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighteen I Peter Staple of Kittery in the County of Yorke in the Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New-England Yeoman being aged and weak in Body but of perfect mind and Memory thanks be given unto God Therefore Calling unto mind the Mortality of my Body do make and ordain this my last Will and Testament that is to Say Principally and first of all I give & Recommend my Soul into the hands of god that gave it. And for my Body I commend it to the Earth to be Buried in a Christian like and Decent manner at the discretion of my Executors hereafter named, And as Touching Such worldly Estate wherewith it hath Pleased God to bless me in this life I give devise and dispose of the Same in the following manner and form.

   Imp^r I give and bequeath to Elizabeth my dearly beloved wife her dwelling in and Improvement of my dwelling house during her Natural life and also all my household Stuff and other my moveable goods together with the one Third part of the Produce or Income of that my farm and Stock of Cattle which I have heretofore given and alienated to my Son Peter Staple for her Comfortable Support during her Natural life and if the abovesaid Income Shall not be Sufficient to maintain her She hath by these Presents Liberty to dispose of and Sell So much of my household goods or other moveables as Shall be Sufficient to Support her and what Household Goods & other Moveables Effects Shall remain at her Decease not disposed of by her for the aforesaid use I give the Same to my two Sons Iohn & Iames Staples to be Equally Divided betwene them or those that Shall legally represent them.

   Item I do by these presents Confirm unto my Sons Peter Staple Iohn Staple & Iames Staple their Heirs and Assignes forever the Lands which I have heretofore given them I do also give unto my Said Sons either Eighteen pounds in money or Six [n]eat cattle between three and four years of age to be equally divided between them or those that Shall Lawfully represent them upon Condition of their defraying my funeral Charges and Obliging of themselves decently to bury my abovesaid wife Elizabeth their Mother after her decease. The abovesaid money or Cattle to be paid by my Said Son Peter to my other Sons Iohn and Iames Staples their proportion.

   Item I do hereby Constitute make & ordain my three well beloved Sons Peter Iohn & Iames Staples my Executors of this my Last Will and Testament And I do hereby utterly disallow revoke & dissanul all and Every other former Testaments Wills and Executors by me in any ways before named And Willed Ratifying and Confirming this and no other to be my last Will and Testament In witness whereof I have hereunto Set my hand & Seal the day and Year above written

Signed Sealed Published    Pronounced & Declared by    the Said Peter Staple as    his last Will and Testament    In the Presents of us    the Subscribers.    Iohn Newmarch    Pavl Wentworth    Nicolas Weeks		Peter P Staple (Seal)       his mark
Probated 7 April 1719. Inventory returned, 3 April 1719, at £18: 16: 6, by John Dennit, and Joshua Remick, appraisers. Source: Maine Wills, 1640-1760 (Portland, Me., 1887), p. 215, citing Probate Office, 3, 14.