Does anyone have the probate records for Edward Adams?

Question

Apparently Edward Adams left a will, dated 19 May 1715. Based on my random findings using web searches, he noted that his wife was provided for before their marriage (this would be his wife Abigail), and his sons Jonathan and John were formerly supplied by him, son Edward with moveables and money, and directed that his property be divided in nine equal parts, and then goes on to name enough children to identify him as Ensign Edward Adams, son of Henry Adams & Edith Squire. This will and any other probate records for him might supply additional information (hopefully identifying Abigail). Does anyone happen to have that probate file, or does it need to go on my to-do list? The only citation I have for this is  (Medfield records XIX 225). His will was written 19 May 1715; and probated 3 December 1716. I don't have easy access to these records.             -- Just found an additional reference to his probate records:  Suffolk Co. Probate, #3797, (n.s.) 19:225-26 (FHL #594180).  And then a reference to him and his will (where it implies Abigail is not mentioned by name) in The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Volumes 11-12: (sorry, this is a long messy link)  http://books.google.com/books?id=05gyAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA11&lpg=RA1-PA11&dq=Medfield+records+XIX+225&source=bl&ots=1aZZK-fHP5&sig=yTIJcnrAgpMZB2Dk5k6X9Sx_Rm4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=NnkEUuCCLJG6yAHXo4GYBA&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Medfield%20records%20XIX%20225&f=false    And further digging, brings up a possible third wife, Sarah Taylor, who would have been the wife named in the will, if that's the case, as Abigail predeceased Edward.

Comments

I added another footnote to Abigail's profile for "Crafts Family." You can read it or download it at archive.org. The author of that genealogy concludes Edward is the son of Henry of Braintree, and provides a little more information regarding Edward's will. That reference also concludes that Edward had a third wife (Sarah Taylor) - but that's a whole 'nother discussion!

I suspect that "Crafts Family" is the source that Torrey used for his marriage citation. I'm still looking at Torrey's references, but that may be as good as it gets,

Bobbie. Other genealogists have used far less information for a marriage. If it were me, I would add the marriage, citing the references and, perhaps, call it "highly probable."

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Thanks very much, Bruce.

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No problem. I see that Abby now has her third husband, and Edward his second wife. Looks like you're good to go.

Answer 1

I see you also do not have the parentage of Lydia, wife of Edward Adams. I'm looking right now at:

Clifford L. Stott, "The English Origins of James Penniman of Mass.," The American Genealogist, 71 (1996): pp 12-18.

On page 16 is the last will and testament of Lidia Wight (citing Suffolk Co. Probates, old ser. 12:46 (FHL film #584,130)), "former wife of James Penniman" in which she mentions "my daughter Lydia Addams." She was Lydia Eliot before she married Penniman. (Note that one of the dupes of Edward Addams wife is named "Lydia Eliot Penniman." That's not correct. Lydia Elliot was the MOTHER of Lydia Penniman who married Edward Adams.)  

Lydia Penniman was baptized (not born) in Boston 22 12m (Feb) 1634/5 (citing Boston 1st Church records, 1:279); d Medfield, Mass., 3 March 1675/6 (citing Medfield Vital Records, p 190). She m. ca. 1652, Edward Adams of Medfield, son of Henry and Edith (Squire) Adams. [no citation for this information about Edward]

 

Comments

(moved)

Here's another source for Edward's wife:

Benjamin Parker Richardson, Jr., "Some Adams Questions," in The American Genealogist, 53 (1977):37.

"Who was Lydia, first wife of Edward2 Adams (Henry1) of Medfield, Massachusetts?"

I won't quote it verbatim, but it describes that no marriage record has been found; that Savage didn't give her a surname, that History of the Town of Medfield is the source for the "Lydia [Rockwood possibly]"; that Abner Morse, Register [no vol#] p 104 and Andrew N. Adams, Genealogy and History of Henry Adams... (1898), and more name her Lydia Rockwood, dau. Richard and Agnes (Bicknel) Rockwood; and then that J. Gardener Bartlett in Henry Adams (1927) and Rev. George W. Penniman's Penniman Genealogy 1946, both say she was Lydia Penniman, dau of James. This article also references the will I mentioned earlier, but points out that the first name of the husband of Lydia Adams, daughter of James and Lydia Penniman, is not named in the mother's will. This article also points out that the inventory of the mother's estate was taken by a Joseph Adams who Savage says married Abigail Baxter.  The article goes on to describe the extensive search and of which types of records none of which revealed the answer directly. This section of the article concluded that her maiden name and origins remains (in 1977 when the article was published) unknown. I.e., no direct evidence that she was a Penniman or a Rockwood.

 

Answer 2

In:

Wm Addams Reitwiesner, "A Hitherto Unnoted Descendant of Henry Adams of Braintree," in The American Genealogist, 53 (1977):18:

"II. EDWARD ADAMS [youngest son of Henry and Edith (Squire) Adams], baptized at Kingweston, Somersetshire, England, 19 April 1629, died at Medfield, Mass., 12 Nov. 1716; married, first, about 1652, LYDIA PENNIMAN, baptized at Boston, Mass., 22 Feb. 1634/5, died Medfield 3 March 1675/6, daughter of James and Lydia (Eliot) Penniman. He married, second, at Dedham, Mass., 7 Dec. 1678, Mrs. Abigail (Craft) (Ruggles) Day, born in Roxbury, Mass., 28 March 1634, died at Medfield, 19 Jan. 1706/7, daughter of Griffin and Alice (----) Craft, and widow of, successively, John Ruggles (d. by 1659) and Ralph Day (d. 1677). Edward Adams married, third, in Medfield, Mass., 6 Jan 1709/10, Sarah Taylor. [Sources: Enid Eleanor Adams, Ancestors and Descendants of Jeremiah Adams 1794-1883 (Victor, Idaho,1 1974); also Andrew N. Adams, A Genealogical History of Henry Adams of Braintree, Mass., and his Descendants (Rutland, Vt. 1898), pp. 503 f., with additions from the printed VR of Medfield and Medway.]"

Answer 3

I could not find probate for him in the NEHGS Register. I did find the following reference on an online family tree:

His will of 19 May 1715, pro. 3 Dec. 1716, in our reg. XIX. 225, taking notice that his w. was provid. for bef. their m. and that his s. Jonathan, and John were, formerly, supplied by him with lds. and Edward with movab. and money, directs now, that his prop. be div. in nine equal parts, whereof the childr. of his s. Eliashib dec. to have two, James, and Henry, ea. two, and his d3. Lydia Daniel, Sarah Turner, and Mehitable Faxon, ea. one.

 

I don't know what "in our reg. XIX.225" means. I checked the NEHGS Register volume 19, page 225, but it's not there. 

I'll keep looking.

 

Comments

Based on what I found online, I think that refers to: "Medfield records XIX 225", perhaps something in the Medfield Town Records, perhaps a sort of prenuptial agreement for the third wife? Or a property agreement of some sort?

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Slightly more info about his will found in 

William Francis Crafts, The Crafts Family: A Genealogical and Biographical History, Gazette Printing Company, 1893, p 35:

"The will of 'Edward Adams, husbandman,' was made 19 May, 1715. It begins, "Being antient in years and under many infirmities of body, but of perfect mind and memory,' and continues 'my present wife being proided for before marriage by agreement.' On this account he left her no part of his property, but devised it unto his sons Jonathan, John, and Edward Adams, the children of his son Eliashib Adams deceased, his sons James and Henry Adams, and his daughters Lydia Daniel, Sarah Turner, and Mehitable Haven. His will was proved 3 Dec. 1716. Inventory taken 16 oct., 1716, amounted to L250 16d 6d."

Unfortunately, as is the case with most published genealogies from the late 1800s, the author included no source citations, so we don't know where this will actually IS.

The above quotation also does not name "my present wife".

 

Answer 4

The link to Google Books you linked to above says this about the probate of Edward Adams:

"He died at Medfield, November 12, 1716, and left a will dated May 19, 1715, proved December 3, 1715, recorded in Probate Records of Suffolk County, Mass., in Vol. XIX, p. 225. 

So THAT is where the will is. Let me see if can go find it.

Comments

Which is what I put in my original question.  " Suffolk Co. Probate, #3797, (n.s.) 19:225-26 (FHL #594180)."  I'm sorry if you spent much time searching for that information, Jillaine.