Dorchester

Will of Tobie SANDFORD MA BMed, Physician of Dorchester

[Spelling variations: Tobiah, Tobias, Toby, Sanford, Samforde]

Dated 19 May 1621 (Proved 1st Nov 1623)

©Transcribed by Michael Russell OPC for Dorchester (last updated August 2015)
from original Will May 2014 PROB 11/142

In the name of God Amen: the xixth (19th) daie of Maye in the yere of or Lorde Christ : 1621: I Toby SANDFORD of the towne or Borough of Dorchester in the Countye of Dorset Gent however weakened by age and infirmities ordinarily attending the same, yet sounde in mynde and of perfecte remembrance (the Lord have the praise) for discharge of dewtie (duty) in my selfe and to others whome yt (it) concerne doe make this my laste willand testament in manner following:-

Ffirst: my soule I commend and yeilde into the hands of God my faithfull creator redeemer and Savior;

    And: I bequeath my bodye to the earth for decente buriall.

Next I give and bequeath to my sonne John SANDFORD that bill of debte of tenn pounds due to me from my Cozen Dennis WOODWARD as thereupon appeareth.

Item: whereas there remayneth in my handes the sume of threescoore and tenn pounds (£70) given by my nowe wife & mee to Henry SMITH her sonne to be received by him at his full age of one and twentie years for the securing to him at that tyme I give to my well beloved friende Mr John WHITE Minister of the Gospell of Christ in Dorchester aforesaide all my goods chattles leases and debts due to me from any person or persons to bee by him the saide Mr John WHITE required levied and received employed to and for the uses hereafter following and none otherwise requesting earnestlie that by my said friende suche order maie bee taken as out of my whole estate the saide Henry SMITH maie receive full satisfaction of that full and whole sime of threescore and tenn pounds aforesaide at the tyme appointed aforesaide.

    And: if it shall please God to take out of this world the above named Henrye SMITH before hee shall accomplish his full age of one and twentie yeres aforesaide them I appointe and my will is that ffortie pounds of the saide threescore and tenn pounds shall be given and paid to my above mentioned wellbeloved nowe wife Ffrances SANDFORD to her owne proper use
    And: thirteen pounds five shillings eight pence of the thirtie pounds remayning of the saide threescore and tenn pounds I give to my sonne John SANDFORD above named;
    And: the remaynder vitz five pounds thirteen shillings and four pence of it I give and bequeath to my daughter Anne SANDFORD;
    And: the rest thereof to witt lix (£10) I give & bequeath to my daughter Esther SANDFORD.
    And: if it shall please God to take hence the said Henrie SMYTHE and my saide wellbeloved wife before the saide Henrie shall have accomplished his full age of one and twentie yeres aforesaid, Then of that threescore and tenn pounds I give and bequeath to my son John SANDFORD aforesaide thirty pounds;
    And: to my daughter Anne aforesaide thirteen pounds five shilling and eight pence
    And: to my daughter Esther abovesiade Six and twentie pounds thirteen shillings and four pence.

The saide severall summs to bee paid to them and to everyone of them soe soone as conveiniently the money maye bee levied and gotten up or made by the sale of my plate and other chattles of myne.

Moreover whereas I have from the Deane & Chapter of the Cathedral Church of the Holie indivisable Trinitie in Glout??? & a graunte (grant) by Lease under Chapter Seale of certen (certain) tenements there of which Lease there remayne yet thirtie yeres more or less unexpired and have by writinge sealed and delivered bearinge date the vth (5th) of September in the year of our Lord Christ 1620 out of the saide tenements assured to my well beloved wife aforesaide an Annuitie or yerely pension or portion of five pounds of lawfull english money for thirty years from the daie of the date of the said writing then next following yf shee shall soe longe live nowe yf (if) God shall call her hence before the expiration or determination of the saide thirtie yeres then i appointe and I will my saide originall Lease which I have from the Deane and Chapter aforesaide shall be solde and the money to bee made thereof shall bee thus ymployed.

    The moitye or one halfe thereof I give and bequeath to my sonne John SANDFORD aforesaide
    And: One third part of the other moitie I give to my daughter Anne SANDFORD
    And: the other two third parts remayninge I give and bequeath to my daughter Ester SANDFORD aforesaide;
My debts discharged whatsoever goodes I shall have remayninge my will is shall be devided into two equall partes of which the one parte I give and bequeath to my beloved wife Ffrances aforesaide And the other parte I give to my three children John; Anne and Ester aforesaide to bee equally divided amonge them

And I make executor of this my last will and Testament my well beloved Richard BURYE of Dorchester aforesaide Grocer

And Overseers of the same I request to be and ordaine my deare friends Mr William WHITEWAY the elder of Dorchester aforesaide Marchant And Robert BUSHROD of the same Burrough of Dorchester Habberdasher

In Witness: whereof I have written and signed this my present Testament with myne owne hande and sealed yt with my seale the daie and yere first above written

 

Toby SANDFORD

Acknowledged by the siade Tobye SANDFORD to bee his will in the presence of John WHITE Will. Derbie

PROBATE: [Approximate transcription from Latin]

This written testament was proved at London before the venerable William Bride doctor at Law Prerogative Court of Canterbury on the 1st day of November in the year 1633 Administration was granted to Richard BURY Executor

Genealogical Notes:-

(1). Tobias SANFORD (c1550-1623) went to college at Oxford his university record simply stating that he was awarded his B.A degree there on 12th April 1570 and his M.A. degree on 19th June 1574; He was incorporated into Cambridge in 1578 and awarded a Bachelor of Medicine degree and licenced to practice medicine on 14th January 1600/1.

(2). Tobie Sandford's death is recorded on page 53 of William Whiteway's diary where it states "the 21st of this month (August 1623) about noon died Mr Tobiah Sanford Physician of this town, and was buried the next day, a man of very excellent skill in the English and latine tongues". He would in all probability have been buried at St Peters Church in Dorchester where the parish registers prior to 1653 have not survived.

(3). Frances Sandford's first marriage was to Henry Smith a Clerk who is described as being deceased on the Freemen Apprenticeship records of Dorchester when his son Henry Smith junior was apprenticed to John Coke a Dorchester merchant for 9 years on 30th Nov 1620. Freeman rules required that the boy must be over 10 years and under 18 years of age, and that his apprenticeship must last until he was at least 21. I am not sure these rules were always strictly applied but it gives a general indication of the age at which apprenticeships were arranged for sons of the more wealthy. Tobie Sandford was a well respected local physician and it would have been natural for him to look to settle his stepson into a respectable trade. If we take the rules literally Henry would have been between the ages of 10 and 18 and therefore born between 1602 and 1610. The Mary and John Society give his age as 20 when they emigrated which would make him born circa 1603 but give no source information for this belief. Clearly he was under the age of 21 when Tobie wrote his will on 19th May 1621.

(4). After his death his widow Frances Sandford and her son Henry Smith emigrated to New England probably on John White's ship the the 'Mary & John' which sailed on 20th March 1630. This is mentioned in William Whiteway's diary on page 110 :- " Year 1630 April: The beginning of this month, many of this town went to plant in New England and among the rest, Mrs Sandford." Henry Smith's name is the 112th entry on John White's list of the members of the Dorchester Company and Rose Troup White's biographer states " Probably went to Dorchester Massachusetts in the 'Mary and John' though not mentioned on the list. His mother who married Dr Tobiah Sandford is said by Whiteway to have gone in April 1630. She married as her third husband William Pyncheon and this son, Henry Smith, migrated to Springfield with them".

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