Robert Stubbs Will
Will Book A, 17 June 1815,
page 262, Produced in Court December 1817
Recorded 1 January 1818
"June the seventeenth 1815. I design this as my last Will & Testament Viz I leave & bequeath to my son Richmond Robert Stubbs & my daughter Elizabeth Stubbs who are in Bengall at Fort Williams near the mouth of the Ganges, each only one dollar as they have already been well provided for & to my sons John Grant Stubbs, James Robert Stubbs & my daughter Harriet Stubbs equally, my personal estate & my land in Boone County, & also my land in Mercer County to be divided among (them); but my land in Campbell County, as followeth Viz as soon as it will command fifty dollars per acre or upwards is to be sold & the money arising there from to be devided in the following manner videlicet To John Grant Stubbs thirty four hundred dollars, to James Robert Stubbs twenty nine hundred dollars & to my daughter Harriet Stubbs twenty nine hundred dollars & to my wife Sarah Stubbs two hundred dollars per annum during her natural life to be paid to her quarterly fifty dollars in advance in lieu of her thirds which payment must be well secured to her previous to the sale of this land.
In order to prevent any misunderstanding of this my last Will and Testament I further observe from the natural fertility of the soil, the manifold salubrious & perennial springs of fresh water & also of salt water on or in this land the great & public road extending thro' this land its proximity to two great and navigable rivers the Licking and Ohio and all so its proximity to three important towns namely Newport Covington and Cincinnati, the time is not far distant when this farm will command one hundred dollars per acre & upwards & in this case, should my land be sold the aforementioned ratio is to be strickly adheard to, in the division among my aforesaid children.
Now to the most important point of all points I give to you my children this valedictory advice that you study & endeavour to practice the precepts laid down in Gods Holy Word, the Scriptures; because in them you All find temporal & eternal felicity, that felicity, which this word neither can give, nor take away. A firm belief in them will be your greatest consolation, at home & abroad, by night & by day in sickness & in health, in prosperity & advercity. Keep up a free communion with your father & your God, & then you will associate with the highest, the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings the only ruler of Princes, the being of all beings shun all skeptical profane, deistical & atheistical company, read the most precious books study the scriptures by night & by day, investigate them for the more they are impartially investigated the more their truth will appear, this know by full experience, I have read weighed & experienced all the most weighty arguments on every side of the question; I know they are no idle tales, would to God I had always known this & then I would have shuned many rocks shoals & quicksands in my voyage & journey here below.
I wish to bequeath my curioces(?) walking stick, Hercules to my old worthy & well tried friend Major John S. Gano were it a ceptre bespangled with diamonds, his hand is worthy to wear it, for he is a man of honor.
Like the Mariners tempest lost on the tempestious ocean of life for sixty two years, I joy that I am approaching the haven of rest, where I shall bid a final adiu to an illusive & delusive world on which ocean I would not wish to reembark, unless I could be assured of uninterrupted felicity & ever prosperous gales but these alone can be found in a future & a better world, in the fruition (?) of my God by the all attoneing merit of the divine attribute of mercy & of love manifested unto me in the personage of Jesus Christ the anchor of my soul on whose bosom I recline my weary & acking head & I shall enjoy joys unspeakable & full of glory thro' the endless ages of eternity. Amen.
A few words more & I shall be done endeavour to preserve inviolate our constitution or most excellent form of government impress it on the tender minds of your offspring & tell them also to impress it on the minds of their offspring, & so on forever, if all parents would do so our present mode of government will stand as long the world will endure.
Witnesses:
William Bunnel
Israel White
Andrew Lewis
Robert Stubbs (Seal)
PS I desire my worthy friends John McClean, Esqr. Major General John S. Gano, Mr. Daniel Mayo, Major Joseph Kennedy or any two of them, to take upon them the kind & friendly office of execution to this my last Will & Testament.
Robert Stubbs
I desire that this Will and Testament may be published in the news paper. Robert Stubbs"