Widow's War

Excerpt from Thomas Clarke's Last Will and Testament

Transcription: In the name of God amen. This fifteenth day of April in the 28th year of his majesty's reign Anno qui Domini 1755. I Thomas Clarke of Harwich in the County of Barnstable Esqr. being advanced in years but in health of body & of sound mind & memory calling to remembrance my mortality & being desirous to settle my affairs fore I go hence & be here no more 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 my body I recommend to the Earth to be buried in a christian manner at the discretion of my Executor expecting to receive the same again at the Resurection by the mighty power of God and as touching such worldly Estate as it hath pleased God to bless me withal in this life I give & dispose of the same in the following way & manner & form - Imprimio my will is that all my just debts & funeral charges shall be paid of my moveable Estate by my Executor - Item I give and bequeath unto my loving wife Patience Clarke in lieu of her dower and power of thirds all the moveable Estate she brot with her as also twenty acres of land to her and her heirs & assigns forever situated in Harwich aforesaid adjoining to Chatham road that leads from the herring river to Chatham on the South & by Gray's land on the East from sd. road northerly till it comes to Kenelm Winslows land then West by said Winslows land to Wings line so called thence South by sd. line to the first mentioned bound, she always always allowing a a convenient open cartway across said twenty acres forever from sd. Winslow's land to said road -- I also give unto my sd. wife my little slave Molly and to have one horse pastured by my son Thomas Clarke where he pastureth his own cows yearly as also to have two cows pastured by my son Seth Clarke yearly where he pastureth his own cows as also to live with my daughter Hannah Lincoln in the South End of my dwelling house with liberty to bake in my Oven in the other End of my now dwelling house also liberty to sit in my pew, also the improvement of one half of my yard where my Shop standeth with liberty to cut wood on my land to burn in my house & a convenient place to lay it near the house lot not to have any creature kept or any benefit of the house yard any longer than she lives in said house . . .