Lawrence Buckminster Makes His Will Before Setting Sail to England
Lawrence Buckminster: 1619-1645 (Maternal 8th Great-Granduncle)
Sometimes I run across records or documents that make me
laugh, and other times I find something that breaks my heart a little. Lawrence
Buckminster’s probate record was unique—I had both reactions. Lawrence was
barely twenty-five when he made the decision to take to the sea aboard a ship
bound for England. As most sailors did in those days, knowing the hazards that ships
and sailors faced, he made his will before he left. Sadly, he never returned to
Massachusetts, and the will he dictated—filled with humor and pathos—is all
that survives of his life.
Lawrence Buckminster was the eldest son of my
ninth-great-grandfather, Thomas Buckminster and Thomas’ first wife, Margaret
Cossen. Lawrence was born in Sempringham, Lincolnshire, England in September of
1619. He was baptized on September 12, 1619. Lawrence’s mother died in 1629,
and his father took Lawrence and his three siblings to colonial America around
1630. Lawrence would have been about eleven years old.
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| Sempringham church where Lawrence was baptized. |
Lawrence’s father remarried, and by Lawrence’s twenty-first
birthday, he had eight younger siblings.
Lawrence apparently wrote his will in September 1645, and it
was probated in May of 1646. This implies he died in late 1645 or early 1646.
None of the details about his cause or place of death was recorded. His body
does not seem to have been returned to his family, so he may have been buried
at sea.
The remarkable part of Lawrence’s story is his delightfully detailed
will. It begins in a rather unusual fashion, which I read as rather wry in tone.
Lawrence wrote (or dictated) as follows:
“Seene that I am now bound for the sea & so for
England, them smole (small) things that I have heare live & thos desposed
of, if Capt. Smith doe not recover my wages againe, then thus I have ordered it
if God take me away by death or any turne of God’s providence that I am never
like to enjoy it againe…”
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| Copy of Lawrence Buckmaster/Buckminster's will from Massachusetts Probate Records |
This opening is amazingly chatty and really shows
personality. I can almost hear a cocky young man describing his possessions as
“them small things that I have here”. And then there’s the puzzling line about
his ship’s captain, which seems to have a bit of a mocking note: “if Capt.
Smith doe not recover my wages againe”. What can we gather from this line?
First, Lawrence had sailed with Capt. Smith before, and apparently there was
some dispute about Lawrence’s wages. I am surmising that the meaning of the word
“recover” in this context is more akin to “revoke” or “confiscate.” It sounds
as if Lawrence does not trust his captain to convey any wages earned before his
death to his heirs.
Next follows a very detailed accounting and distribution of
Lawrence’s possessions. First, he leaves “the piece of land bought of &
payd excepted of the said Thomas Spaule” to his sister Elizabeth Buckminster
[which he dictates as “Buckmaster”, an alternate spelling during that era]. I
am a bit unclear about Thomas Spaule’s [alternate spelling Spowell] connection
to the land—had Lawrence bought it from Thomas? It appears that Lawrence’s
sister Elizabeth was his favorite of all his siblings, as she received the most
valuable inheritance.
Lawrence then begins an itemized distribution of what he
described as “smale things in my chest”:
“first a greate coate I freely give to Thomas Spaule
& the six shillings due to me from Thomas Wellens with it, My black hatt I
do bestow it upon Abigail Sherman, the suite of apparel to my brother Zachary
Buckmaster & a shirt and band or two for my ffather, there wilbe left a
paire of stockings the best to be given to Matthew Coy, the worser paire or two
paire & the chest in which these lye in unto the said Thomas Spaule…”
This section of the will indicates how important and how
limited clothing was during that era. Even “worser” stockings were important
enough to list in a will. My ancestor Zachary Buckminster received an entire
suit of clothing, which would have been a valuable possession. Their father
Thomas was to receive a shirt and “band”.
But non-family members also received bequests. Someone named
Matthew Cay or Coy was to inherit Lawrence’s best pair of stockings, and an
unrelated young woman, Abigail Sherman, was to inherit his black hat. Was
Abigail a sweetheart of Lawrence’s? Or was she an extended relative? Why was
she to receive the hat? After all, what was a woman to do with a man’s hat? It
seems rather bold to include an unrelated woman in a man’s will in the
mid-seventeenth century.
The next passage in the will is very confusing. It reads
that Thomas Spaule was to take “a smale caske of Mackrells that Thomas is to
send to sea for me for to let them go to sea for his daughter Mary till they
come to some thing or nothing, but if that I live to come againe, or desire an
account of them by sending to you an account to be given to me.”
After a little research, I discovered that mackerels were
salted and packed in casks to be used as food on ships or to be sold abroad. I
think what Lawrence was proposing was that a cask of mackerel that Lawrence had
intended to export be instead exported by Thomas Spaule on behalf of Spaule’s
daughter Mary. In other words, any proceeds of the sale of the cask would go to
Mary, unless Lawrence survived his voyage and returned to claim the proceeds or
sent for an accounting from England. I did a bit of research on Thomas Spaule’s
family, and it appears that Mary was just a baby when the will was written. I
wonder if she ever received the proceeds of that cask of salted fish.
The will is signed as follows: “Lawrence Buckmaster in the
presence of Thomas Spaule”, with a man named Robert Portons signing as the
writer of the document, dated September 27, 1645. It is likely that Lawrence needed
assistance to write the document and dictated it to Mr. Portons; like many men
of the era, he was probably barely literate.
Thomas Spaule must have been Lawrence’s best friend, as so
much of the will and the means of distributing the possessions was entrusted to
Thomas. Perhaps this explains the chatty nature of the will—the two friends were
sitting in a room discussing everything as the will was written.
Lawrence makes some last-minute amendments, perhaps in
response to Thomas’ questions or comments. He writes:
“But the land she is not to make it away nor part fro,
but she is not to have it, nor have nothing to doe with it till the yeare of our
Lord 1649 & that Mayday, but if she sell it then let Thomas Spaule have the
refusing of it, if she let it, then he to hyer it afore another if he please
& if I dye at sea then to demand upon inquiry you may true wages for the
time & to give my ffather it.
I wonder why Elizabeth was required to wait until May Day
1649 to gain full control over her inheritance? She was born in 1628, so
perhaps that date was selected to ensure that she had reached her majority, the
age of twenty-one. Also, once again, Lawrence’s friend Thomas received preferential
treatment. While Elizabeth was to inherit the land Lawrence owned, she could
not sell or rent it out without offering Thomas Spaule the right of first refusal.
It is interesting that seven years after this will was
written, a man named William Spowell married Elizabeth Buckminster. I believe
William Spowell must have been related to Thomas Spaule/Spowell—perhaps his
brother. The two families must have lived near one another and were friendly. I
wonder if Elizabeth held onto the land after inheriting it, or did she sell it or
lease it to Thomas Spaule? I will have to keep researching to see if there are
any land transfer records.
While Lawrence Buckminster may have approached the making of
his will with a bit of irreverence, it is also obvious that it was a serious
undertaking. He was well aware of the possible consequences of his decision to
go to sea. While he left no descendants and few records of his existence, this
will provides a window into his short life and the difficult lives of early colonial
settlers.
Sources:
Suffolk County (Massachusetts) Probate Records, 1636-1899;
Author: Massachusetts. Probate Court (Suffolk County) https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/9069/records/367187?tid=46986934&pid=322685714523&ssrc=pt
Photo Wikimedia Commons.
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