Category Archives: Mayflower

Boone, Hill, Mayflower

Mayflower Connection – Will of William Boone, Burtts Corner, N.B., Canada 1829

Leave a comment

More and more data is being digitally posted online for New Brunswick, Canada. While digging around looking for Loyalist Parker documents, I was tempted by a BSO – FamilySearch digitized land deeds for the Province of New Brunswick, Canada.

Down a new rabbit hole I went and came up with a terrific new find. Filed in the land deeds (17:275-277) of Charlotte County, New Brunswick is the 1829 will of William Boone of Burtts Corner.

William Boone’s wife was Ruth Hill, my ancestress who provided me with my first (and only known, for the moment) Mayflower line through George Soule.

If you also descend from him through the Hill line, here is a transcription of William Boone’s will. (Note: Find A Grave has an image of the gravestone he shares with wife, Ruth. Just search his name in Canada with a death date of 1829 and it will come up.)

William Boone’s 1820 Will
17:275-277

 \The last Will and Testament
of William Boone (No. 4171
By the Honorable William Black Esquire
President, and Commander in Cheif (sic) of the Province of
New Brunswick, &c &c &c.
To all to whom all these presents
shall come, or may concern, Greetings:
——————————- Know Ye that At Frede
ricton in York County on the Eighth day of June in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty nine
before George Frederick Street Esquire being thereunto delegated and appointed, the last Will and Testament of William Boone deceased (a Copy whereof is hereunto annexed) was proved and is now approved and allowed of by me; the said Deceased having while he lived and at the time of his death Goods Chattels and Credits within this Province by means whereof the proving of the said Will and the granting of administration of all and singular the said goods Chattels and Credits, and also the auditing allowing and finally
discharging of the account thereof unto me only doth belong: and the Administration

of all and singular the Goods, Chattels and Credits of the said Deceased and anyway concerning his said Will is granted unto Henry Boone and George Boone Executors in the said Will named, having been already duly sworn well and faithfully to administer the same and to make and exhibit a true and perfect Inventory of all and singular the said Goods Chattels and  Credits and also to render a just and true account thereof when the events lawfully required, ___In Testimony whereof I have caused the Prerogative Seal of the said Province to be hereunto affixed the ninth day of June in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty nine, and in the Tenth year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Fourth by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, &c.      Geo Fredk Street
Registered the Eleventh day                                        Surrogate Yk CT
of June, One thousand and Eight hundred and twenty nine.
Wm F. Odell Regr

In the name of God Amen, I William Boone of the Parish of Douglas, in the County of York and Province of New Brunswick Yeoman, being in perfect health of body, and of perfect mind and memory, thanks be given unto God: Calling unto mind the mortality of my body, and knowing that it is appointed for all men once to die, do make and ordain this my last will and testament; that is to say principally, and first of all I give and recommend my Soul into the hands of Almighty God that gave it, and my body I recommend to the earth to be buried in a decent christian burial at the  discretion of my executors, nothing doubting but at the general resurrection I shall receive the same again by the mighty power of God. and as touching such worldly Estate wherewith it has pleased God to bless me in
this life, I demise and dispose of the same in the following manner and form
First, I give and bequeath to Ruth my dearly beloved wife Fifteen pounds of this Currency a year yearly and every year during her life in lieu of her thirsts, I give her also a bed and bedding and furniture, and half a dozen of Silver Tea Spoons at her disposal, ___ also a small room in my house and to be found with fire wood cut suitable length for the fire place Winter and Summer:
Likewise I give to my well beloved Son Henry Boone whom I likewise constitute make and ordain one of the executors of this my last Will and Testament all and singular a Lot of land which I bought of Jacob Knai not to come westward farther than to forks Hill with an addition of four rods wide on the North side:

Likewise I give to my well beloved Son George Boone whom I ___
constitute make and ordain the other executor of this my last Will and Testament the homestead of this my farm; likewise all my land on the new gore(?) with a road through Henry Boones land one rod and half wide from the centre of said Road on each side beginning at the big interval; Likewise I give and bequeath to my well beloved Samuel Boone the sum of Five shillings, Likewise I give to my well beloved son William Boone the sum of Five Shillings, I give to my well beloved sum (sic) James J. Boone the sum of Five shillings, Likewise I give to my well beloved Daughter Mary Jones the sum of Three pounds Likewise I give to my well beloved Daughter Lucy Estey the sum of three pounds Likewise I give to Elizabeth Laurence my well beloved Daughter the sum of three pounds, Likewise I give to my well beloved Daughter Ann Haines the sum of three pounds, Likewise I give to my well beloved Daughter Hannah Coggeshall
the sum of three pounds: It is further to be understood that all my Household goods & (????) which I have not given to Ruth my well beloved wife, I give and bequeath to my beloved Son George Boone by each and every one of those my children freely to be possessed and enjoyed; and I do hereby utterly disallow revoke and disannul all and every other former testament, Wills Legacies and bequeaths and executors by me in any will before named willed and bequeathed ratifying and confirming this and no other to be my last will and testament; In Witness where I have hereunto set my hand and seal this twenty second day of April in the year of our Lord on thousand Eight hundred and twenty six.

Signed, Sealed , published, pronounced and declared by the said
William Boone as his last Will and Testament; in his presence and in the presence of each other have hereunto subscribed our names

William Boone {Seal}

Joshua Stone -} Signed
Samuel Boone }
Thomas White }

New Brunswick} Registered this Thirty first day of August. One
York County }       thousand eight hundred and twenty nine.

Fones, George Soule, Hill, Mayflower

My First Mayflower Link – Maybe – and – It Only Took 36 Years!

8 Comments

You never know. You just never know what you are going to find in the family tree.

My Rhode Island lines have been a bit of a challenge because some of the colonial records are rather sparse and my families mostly either moved to Canada in the 1760s when they were convinced to move north for better land opportunities or else they left in 1783 because they were Loyalists.

One of my ancestors, Ruth Hill, married William Boone and removed to Burtt’s Corner, New Brunswick, Canada on the Loyalist ships. I have been delving into Ruth’s ancestry, but, until now, haven’t gotten much beyond her parents because of conflicting information.

Ebenezer Hill of Prudence Island married Mary Fones  of North Kingstown on 1 January 1729/30 at North Kingstown, RI.

Even though I attended the University of Rhode Island for my undergraduate degree, I have to admit that I don’t remember ever hearing of Prudence Island, but here it is:

PrudenceIslandMapCrop
Prudence Island to North Kingstown, RI
Bing Maps

Ebenezer Hill was a mariner who had achieved the status of captain by the time he died in St. Eustatius in the Caribbean on 31 October 1753.

David W. Dumas published an article in The American Genealogist (57:45-49) titled “New Englanders in St. Eustatius” with a description and short family history of each person buried in the churchyard there. Ebenezer Hill is one of those treated in the article. Mr. Dumas also mentioned that Captain Hill’s probate is to be found in St. Eustatius.

SintEustatiusCrop
Sint Eustatius
Bing Maps

By the time Ebenezer died, he and Mary were the parents of eight children, although oddly I mostly found others’ family trees with only six (son Jonathan and daughter Mary being among the missing).

Children:

  1. Jonathan, born 30 October ____, North Kingstown, RI
  2. Joseph, born 10 April 1734, Providence, RI
  3. Samuel, born 11 April 1739, Providence, RI
  4. Mary, born 5 August 1741, Providence, RI; said to have married Walter Rhodes
  5. Ruth, born 25 February 1744, Providence, RI; married William Boone, 21 May 1761
  6. Rebecca, born 14 July 1747, Providence, RI
  7. Martha, born 13 December 1749, Providence, RI
  8. Ebenezer, born 19 July 1752, Providence, RI

Normally, I would look at the time gaps and wonder if Mary had lost several children. She might have, but with Ebenezer’s life as a mariner, it is also very possible that he was away for long stretches of time. These births were recorded in the Rhode Island vital records compiled by James Arnold.

Additionally, Providence records show that coffin expenses were recorded on 25 April 1754 for the 27 February 1754 burial of “ye widdo” Hill. She was buried in the North Burial Ground in Providence. Find A Grave shows no photo of the gravestone, but says she died on 27 April 1754, aged 42 years, 5 mos., spouse of Capt. Ebenezer Hill. Therefore, she survived her husband by only four months.

Ebenezer Hill’s ancestry is a separate project, but when I saw the surname “Fones,” I figured with it being somewhat rare (I had never seen that surname in New England records) that someone must have put together a family history at some time.

Surprisingly, the family hasn’t been particularly easy to piece together, but thanks to another article in The American Genealogist (59:182) by Robert S. Wakefield, F.A.S.G., which takes a further look at Mary Fones Hill, wife of Captain Ebenezer, I think I have my first Mayflower descent!

The crucial piece of evidence is found in the will of Samuel Fones, son of Jeremiah and Martha Fones. His will was sworn on 19 November 1739 and in it he names his siblings, including Mary Hill of Providence. Martha’s mother was Susannah Soule and her grandfather was Mayflower Compact signer George Soule!

It turns out that this line has been recognized by the Mayflower Society, too. After 36 years of researching and coming to the conclusion that, although I have many colonial ancestors here well before 1640, I was convinced that I just didn’t have a Mayflower line. The bigger surprise is that my tie isn’t through a Massachusetts family, but through a Rhode Island Loyalist!

My newly discovered line:

George Soule = Mary Bucket/Becket
Francis West = Susannah Soule
Jeremiah Fones = Martha West
Ebenezer Hill = Mary Fones
William Boone = Ruth Hill
Richard Jones = Mary Boone
Peter Crouse = Rebecca Jones
William Coleman = Sarah Moriah Crouse
Hartwell Thomas Coleman = Anna Elisabeth Jensen
Vernon Tarbox Adams = Hazel Ethel Coleman
George Michael Sabo = Doris Priscilla Adams
Me – Linda Anne Sabo

The neatest part of this is that it is through my grandmother’s line. It took just as long to discover her likely ancestor Joseph Coleman who married Eunice Coffin in Nantucket as it did to find that she has a Mayflower descent. She would have loved to have known all this.

Now, if you read the title carefully, there is a MAYBE in it. Why? There are a couple of troubling pieces of data that I’ve found, in spite of the fact that the Mayflower Society has accepted this lineage.

Tomorrow’s post will take a look at the clues.