Early Benedict Family Wills - I
  Benedict Topics 17a
Early Benedict Family Wills - I

  
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Fortunately, a number of wills of early members of the Benedict Family have been preserved for posterity.
I shall include here images of parts of several particular wills with part or all of their transcription. Seeing the actual wills themselves provides an interesting exercise in comparing the evolution of handwriting from Elizabethan England to colonial America.


1. Thomas Benedict's Will (1689)


Here, I show first the last will and testament of our immigrant ancestor, Thomas Benedict. This will is written in black ink on a piece of parchment, 7-3/4 x 12-1/4 inches (19.5 cm x 32.5 cm), that was folded twice horizontally to form four equal panels when opened. The handwriting is that of Rev. Thomas Hanford, minister of the early church at Norwalk, Connecticut, who was a witness to Thomas's will. Hanford was also Thomas Benedict's neighbor for about 45 years on the adjoining home lot. The will is stored in the document vault of the Connecticut State Library, Hartford, Connecticut.

The first image is of the top-most panel. Note Hanford's phonetic spelling "Bennidick" of Thomas's name. Farther into the will, he switches, more or less consistently, to the spelling "Benedick" (except for the awkward spelling "Benededick," at the fold, for son "Daniell.")



The next image is of the bottom-most panel that shows the signature of Thomas Benedict, presumably on his death-bed, plus the signatures of the witnesses, Thomas Hanford and John Platt, senior. At the lower left is the memorandum by Thomas Hanford that, at line twenty at Thomas Benedict's direction, he had "bloted out" Elizabeth and replaced her "in the marjint" with Mary. The dark mark at the right is where the wax seal was placed.



The last image from this will is an enlargement of Thomas Benedict's signature. After a long life in which he signed many letters and documents, this is perhaps his last signature, dated 28 February 1689/90. He died shortly thereafter. Note that Thomas spelled his name (here) as "Bennydict, senior."



For comparison, here is Thomas's signature, from a deed made about 1664 in Jamaica, Long Island, New York.




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Copyright © 2004-2007 R.A. Benedict (unless otherwise credited)
This Update: May 2005