This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Roper, Edwards, Crittenden, Hubbard, Terrell Classification: Will Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/kgDBAEB/813 Message Board Post: Will of Thomas ROPER (Dated 15 Nov 1766, Proved 03 May 1769) Roper Thos his Will In the name of God amen. November the 15th 1766, I Thomas ROPER, Planter of Charles City County being of perfect mind and memory thanks be to God for the same and knowing that it is appointed for all men Once to die do make and Ordain this my last will and Testament. First I give & recommend my soul unto the hands of Almighty God that gave it and my body I commend it to the earth to be buried in a Christian like manner at the discretion of my Executor and for my Worldly estate I give and dispose of the same in the following Manner and form. Imprimis I leave in possession of Susanah my wife all my estate for and during her Natural life or Widow hood and my will is that if she should Marry again thin my Estate to be Equally divided that is to say the one half to Susanah My Wife and the other half to be Equally Divided between my loving brother Joseph ROPER & my loving cousin Jame EDWARDS and in Case she never Marry after her decease all to be Equally Divided between Joseph ROPER & Jane EDWARDS. I make and Appoint Susannah my wife my Executrix and Joseph ROPER and Wm. EDWARDS my Executors of this my last will & Testament. My desire is that my Estate be not appraised. I do hereby Utterly revoke and disannul all and every other former will and bequeath whatsoever Confirming this and no other to be my last will and Testament and minding to the meaning of the same I hereunto Sett hand and seal the day and date first above written. Signed sealed and Published by Thomas ROPER as his last will & Testament in the Sight of John CRITTENDEN Wm. CRITTENDEN Shadrach ROPER Thomas ROPER <seal> At a Court held for Charles City County the 3d day of May 1769 The aforewritten Last will and Testament of Thomas ROPER decd was presented in Court by Jos. ROPER and Wm. EDWARDS two of the Executors therein named sworn to by the said Executors and being proved by the Oaths of John CRITTENDEN, Wm. CRITTENDEN and Shadrach ROPER all the witnesses thereto and Ordered to be Recorded Certificate is Granted the sayd Exes for obtaining a probate thereupon due form they having Made Oath and entered into bond with Security According to Law. Liberty is reserved the Executrix to Join in the probate when she thinks fit no Appraisement by the said Will. Test. Lyddall BACON DCCC * Will and deed book for 1766-1774: pp. 128, 129., Charles City County Records, Microfilm Reel No. 1, Virginia State Library. * * * This Will, long appearing in abstracted form within “Charles City County, Virginia Records 1737-1774 with Several 17th Century Fragments” by Benjamin B. Weisiger III, and therefrom referenced at the ROPER Family History wes site of Dr. L. David ROPER at http://www.roperld.com/rva17.htm is a fascinating read in its entirety. Though the abstract is quite faithful to the disposition of the property and the identities of those involved, the original adds a richness to our understanding of Thomas ROPER. NOTE 1: I believe that this Will implicitly indicates that this Thomas ROPER has no living children. It seems inconceivable that he would have omitted mention of children or made a disposition of such a large portion of his estate to a cousin had he had any living children. It is less clear whether this Thomas ROPER is older or younger. I am most inclined to believe that this Thomas ROPER was a younger man whose marriage had produced no children of his own. He mentions no grandchildren nor any nieces and nephews. This is possibly consistent with his siblings being of an age that none of them yet had their own children or, at least, that their children were all still minors. If Thomas had been an older man, it seems more likely that he would have felt an obligation to remember more members of an extended family. Perhaps Thomas had married a somewhat older woman and this explains the lack of children in his household. But this is mere speculation. My perception that ! Thomas ROPER was a younger married man is based upon the overall feeling of the Will. NOTE 2: Another clue to Thomas ROPER’s age and identity is the identification of his brother Joseph ROPER and the appearance of Shadrach ROPER as a witness thereunto. It seems to me to be unusual that Shadrach would be omitted as a beneficiary if Shadrach were another brother, particularly where cousin Jane EDWARDS IS named as a beneficiary and William EDWARDS is named as an Executor. I am most inclined to interpret this as an indication that Shadrach ROPER is an OLDER member of the family, possibly the father, an uncle or another cousin. Shadrach ROPER’s Will, dated 17 Sep 1784 and Proved 16 Dec 1784, names sons William, Jesse, Samuel and daughter Mary (see my Post “Will of Shadrach ROPER (d aft 17 Sep 1784 - Powhatan, VA)” [5 Mar 2006 2:12 AM GMT] at http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=message&r=rw&p=surnames.roper&m=808 ). Since Shadrach does NOT seem to have a son named Joseph ROPER, I am disinclined to believe that Shadrach! ROPER is Thomas ROPER’s FATHER. NOTE 3: From 1782 through 1787, a Samuel ROPER appears within the Personal Property Tax records for Charles City County. This Samuel ROPER seems to own one slave – Moses – in 1782 and is shown to own Moses and Lucy in 1784. In 1787, he seems to own at least four unnamed slaves. Samuel ROPER is shown to one 102 acres of land from 1782 through 1786. In 1786, Samuel ROPER seems to have sold his land to William TERRELL and George HUBBARD. There is no extant deed from this transaction, but the conveyance is reflected in the change in ownership noted in the Charles City County Land Tax records. Though we lack a meaningful property description, such a description MIGHT be found in a subsequent extant deed by William TERRELL and George HUBBARD. This bears investigation. It probably bears mention that George HUBBARD is expressly identified as a neighbor of David ROPER in his Will dated 15 Mar 1808. The parcel bequeathed by David ROPER to his son George ROPER! is described as: “bounded as follows N__t beginningat the head of Col. Bradleys Mill pond, thence up the broad run to the branch leading to the issuing spring. Hence along William Hewlets line to George Hubbard, thence to crews line, thence to fill Bates's line,then to Col. John Bradley's line, thence down the said line to the Mill pond; thence alongthe pond to the place began at.”. I mention the subsequent appearance of a Samuel ROPER within Charles City County, as the express provisions of Thomas ROPER’s Will presents us with an expectation that upon Susannah ROPER’s death or marriage a portion of Thomas ROPER’s property is to devolve upon Jane EDWARDS and Joseph ROPER. One would therefore EXPECT a reappearance of either Joseph ROPER, himself, or one of his sons within Charles City County sometime after 1769. Shadrach ROPER is known to have had a son named Samuel. And Susannah ROPER’s 16 Aug 1790 Will in Powhatan e! xpressly mentions her brother Samuel, as well as a Samuel ROPER, Jr. Samuel ROPER, of Charles City County, bears further scrutiny! NOTE 4: We implicitly know that Joseph ROPER, William EDWARDS, and Susannah ROPER were all still living at the date this will was proved on 03 May 1769. NOTE 5: The Will expressly mentions that Thomas ROPER does NOT desire an appraisement of the estate and this is also expressly acknowledged within the probate information when the Will was proved on 03 May 1769. However, an inventory WAS conducted anyway on 08 May 1769, which Inventory was recorded on 07 Jun 1769. I will Post that inventory another time. It seems likely that Joseph ROPER and William EDWARDS reconsidered the advisability of an inventory when faced with the problem that property would ultimately need to be divided. NOTE 6: It is also interesting to note that though this Will was dated 15 Nov 1766, it was not proved until 03 May 1769. Of course, it may very well be that the Will was NOT written in contemplation of imminent death and Thomas ROPER may have died much closer to the date of probate. It is also possible that Thomas ROPER died shortly after the making of the Will and that the filing of the Will for probate might have been precipitated by Susannah ROPER’s subsequent remarriage. In such an instance, it can be readily seen that Joseph ROPER and William EDWARDS may have felt compelled to protect their interests by presenting the Will for probate, which could also explain the inventory that shortly followed. If Susannah ROPER had neither died nor remarried, one might imagine that the urgency of the inventory might be somewhat less. NOTE 7: This Will reads almost identically in form to ROPER Wills in England during the previous one hundred and fifty years. Thomas ROPER seems to have signed the Will himself and is shown to have affixed his SEAL. This Thomas ROPER appears likely to be well educated, though we cannot discount the possibility that the Will was professionally prepared. Those reading subsequent Wills of ROPERs living at the frontier in Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama will note the rather substantial difference in language and tone.