Maine Wills

 From York County Probate Records, Volume Seven (1721-49)

   In the Name of God Amen. I Humphrey Dearing of Arundel in the County of York in His Maj^ts Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England Worsted Comber, being in good Health and of a Sound Mind & Memory, Thanks be given to God therefor; and calling to mind the Mortality of my Body remembring that it is appointed for all Men once to die, & not knowing, as it is a time of War, and an exposed Town in Which I dwell, and as I am now far advanced in Years but I may die quickly & Suddenly, and that I may not when Death comes have my Mind incumbered about Setling my Worldly Affairs, I do now make & ordain this present Will to be my last Will & Testament, wherein principally & first of all, I commend my Soul into the Hands of God that gave it, hoping thrô the Merits Death & Sufferings of our Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ to obtain pardoning Mercy, and a glorious Resurrection to eternal Life; and my Body I commit to the Earth to be decently buried at the Discretion of my Executor hereafter named; And as to the Estate & worldly things which I must be gone from, and which God hath been pleased to endow me with, I giue dispose of & Settle the Same in the following Manner & Form.

   Imp^r : I will that my funeral Charges & all my just Debts Shall be paid & discharged by Humphrey Dearing my dutiful and well beloved Son, whom I now constitute & appoint my Sole and only Executor.

   Item. I give and bequeath to Sarah Dearing, my now beloved Wife during the time of her Widowhood one Room in my dwelling House, and all the household Stuff, and my Will is that Humphry my Son yearly & every year, winter a good Cow for her Use which I allow her out of my Stock, that against every Winter he provide for his Mother, three Bushels of Meal, and two Thousand of Boards, and find her with Wood at the Door of her House, Sufficient & Suitable for her own Fire : but on her Marriage all this is to cease, and be relinquished by her.

   Item. I give & bequeath to the Said Humphry Dearing my Son my dwelling House in arundel with all my Right Title and interest to the one half part of the Priviledge of the Stream in Said Town called Barrets River with one half of a Saw, and a fourth part of the Saw Mill Standing on the lower Falls behind my House, with one half part of the Priviledge of building a Mill or Mills hereafter, with all my Priviledge of laying Logs & Lumber on the Southern Side of S^d Mills, and as I am a Proprietor the Priviledge of Cutting Timber on the Town Commons, This my Propriety with the other Priviledges afores^d I give to him the Said Humphry Dearing his Heirs and Assigns forever.

   Item. I give to the Said Humphry my Son a certain Tract of Land in Said Town which I bought of Thomas Wheelwright in the Year 1743. containing about twenty Acres, butted as the Deed declares, and also my Oxen, and with them all the Wood & Iron Work Chains Yoke &c. for fixing out a Team to Said Humphry & heirs & Assigns forever.

   Item A Tract of Land of an Hundred Acres that was given me by the Town on March 29, 1725. and laid out in a Square the 16. of Decem^r following, by Tho^s Huff Lot layer, which begins at a Maple Stump, at the Corner of Deacⁿ Robinson's Land near a Brook that runs into Batson's River, & runs West & by North 80 Rods to 3 Birches marked on 4 Sides H. D., from whence it runs North by East, being bounded all along by the Land of Said Robinson till the Hundred Acres be compleated all which I give to Said Humphry & his Heirs and Assigns forever.

   Item, Six Acres of Marsh which on the 13^th of June 1721. I bought of Ebenezer Barton, bounded on the South East Corner by a Stake & heap of Stones, then runs Northwestwardly to another Stake & Heap of Stones by a Ditch, then Northeasterly by Said Ditch to a Small Creek running into the Main Creek, thence running Easterly as the Creek runs to a Stake in Ionathan Stones Line; this Plot of Marsh I do now give and bequeath to Humphry Dearing my Son to him & his Heirs and Assigns forever.

   Item. To my five Daughters Dorothy Adams, Mary Thomas, Abigail Hutchins Iudith Lasell & Elizabeth Emmons for whom at times I have been doing all my Days, to them I give an Equal Share & Proportion in all the remaining part of my Estate, The Household Furniture after their Mother hath done with it, and also an equal Share or part in whatever Creatures or Lands Shall be found to be to me belonging I give & dispose of it all among them and their Heirs & Assigns forever.

   And I do hereby utterly disallow revoke & disannul, all & every other former Testament, Will Legacy Bequest & Executor by me in any Manner heretofore named, ratifying & confirming this and no other to be my last Will and Testament. In Witness whereof I have hereunto Set my Hand & Seal the thirteenth Day of April in the Year of Christ our Lord God everlasting, One Thousand Seven Hundred & forty seven, and in the twentieth year of the Reign of our Gracious Sovereign Lord George the Second by the Grace of God King of England Scotland France & Ireland Defender of the Faith &c.

Signed Sealed & Delivered    in presence of us three    Iohn Hovey    Samll Robinson    Susanna Hovey		Humphry Dearing (Loc. Sig:) N : B : In as much as no Intail is    design'd by this Will, and yet    as ye Word Assigns is all along    left out, which makes it look    as if it was intail'd, the Reader    is desired to take Notice, That    ye Word (Assigns) which is    interlin'd in line 27. in line 30.    in L. 35. in L. 4. & in L. 45,     and also ye Words (my Pro-    priety) in Line 27. were in-    terlined before Signing.
Probated 20 Oct. 1747. Inventory returned 20 Oct. 1747, at £186: 3: 3, by Samuel Robinson, James Sampson and Samuel Williams, appraisers. Source: Maine Wills, 1640-1760 (Portland, Me., 1887), p. 559, citing Probate Office, 7, 122.