Will of Joshua Gale of Watertown, 1747



The top image shows the entire will of Joshua Gale, brother of Sarah Gale, son of John and Lydia Gale. Joshua was the oldest son of John and Lydia. He was born 17 October 1721 in Watertown, the oldest of five children. He was about thirteen or fourteen when his father died in 1734/35. About five years after his father's estate was finally settled in 1742, Joshua died, like his father, at an early age.

The second half of the will, which is enlarged, shows where he names his siblings and what he leaves to them. "I give and bequeath unto my two sisters, viz: Sarah Peirce the wife of Josiah Peirce of sd. Waltham, and to Lydia Gale, spinster to each of them sixty pounds; and I give & bequeath unto my half sister viz: Hannah Sadler the daughter of Mr. John Sadler of Upton the sum of thirty pounds...; I give and bequeath unto my two brothers viz: John Gale and Jonas Gale all the rest[?] and residue of my estate of what nature or denomination soever or wherever the same or any part therof may now or hereafter be found to them and to their assigns forever." He names Daniel Benjamin, his former guardian, as his sole executor.

This confirms that the Sarah Gale who married Josiah Peirce in Waltham, Middlesex, Massachusetts, was the brother of Joshua Gale and the daughter of John and Lydia Gale of Watertown. John Gale was the son of Abraham Gale and the grandson of Richard Gale.

Hannah Sadler was the daughter of Joshua's mother, Lydia Gale, who married John Sadler after the death of her husband John Gale. They married in Watertown 28 Apr 1736, lived in Upton, Worcester County, and Hannah was born in 1738.

Source: Will of Joshua Gale, d.1747, Probate Court Records, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Administration of Estate of Joshua Gale, #8820, 1747. FHL MF 397069.



Related Links
Sarah Gale's parentage
Guardianship of Sarah Gale, daughter of John and Lydia Gale
The Gale Family
The Peirce/Pierce Family
A Brief History of the Peirce Family, including Josiah Peirce and Sarah Gale




Anne Healy's Genealogy, Created October 2002
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25 Feb 2010 [home|gale]