On Wednesday, January 26, 2022 at 5:18:19 PM UTC-5, Johnny Brananas wrote:
On Wednesday, January 26, 2022 at 4:59:42 PM UTC-5, taf wrote:
On Wednesday, January 26, 2022 at 12:11:18 PM UTC-8, ravinma...@yahoo.com wrote:
Edmund, Sr., may have been living in May 1656, when the undated will of his sister-in-law Susan
Porter, "singlewoman and Spinster" of Lamberhurst, Kent, was proved, giving "unto my brother
in law Mr Edmund Hawes also a golde ring of tenn shillinge price" [PROB 11/255/518].
Non-sequitur. That he was named in the will is only an indication he was living when it was written. I have seen numerous wills naming people who predeceased the testator, and hence were no longer living when the wills were proved.
taf
True. But I did say "may have been" not "he was definitely living then."
From the latin note at end, it looks like there were a number of executors through whose hands the responsibility had already passed, so an abnormal amount of time may have elapsed between the writing and proving.
If we could find a record of the burial of Susan Porter, then I think we could say Edmund "may" have been alive shortly before that date.
This was my original statement about the will of Susan Porter in relation to the vital dates of E. Hawes:
Although not named in his son William Hawes's will of 1652, it is likely that EdmondA survived at least to the middle or late 1640s. James W. Hawes is somewhat skeptical of the claim of Robert Pemberton in _Solihull and Its Church_ that EdmondA was alive
in 1653, stating both that Pemberton “gives no authority” and “[i]t is possible the authority [for Pemberton's statement] was the will of John Porter [of Lamberhurst] and that 1653 is a misprint for 1643” (Hawes, _Edmond Hawes_, p. 42 and note ff)
.
Recently, however, I discovered that the will of EdmondA's sister-in-law, Susan Porter of Lamberhurst, Kent, “singlewoman and Spinster,” bequeaths “unto my brother in law Mr Edmund Hawes also a gold ringe of tenn shillinge price” (
Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 14 Berkeley, PROB 11/255, ultimately proved, after a number of delays and the deaths of a series of executors, on 22 May 1656). This will was apparently not checked by James W. Hawes in the process of researching
his book.
Unfortunately, Susan Porter’s will is undated, but it was probably made in the late 1640s (1645-1649 ?). Susan Porter was mentioned as living in the 1643 will of her brother John Porter, Esq., of Lamberhurst (Prerogative Court of Canterbury
Wills, 1 Rivers, PROB 11/192), as well as in the 1652 will of John’s eldest son Richard Porter (Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 110 Brent, PROB 11/227). Her own will mentions her “brother John Porter of Lamberhurst Esquire[,] late deceased,”
so it was clearly made after John's death circa 1645. She takes the slightly unusual step of setting out a “contingency” plan for the execution of her will, making her nephew John Porter Jr. (second son of John Porter of Lamberhurst) executor, but
naming his younger brother Arthur Porter as a replacement “if the said my Nephew John Porter shall refuse to take upon him the execution of this my will.” A contemporary history of the Bramstons -- the family of John Porter Jr.’s wife -- hints at
the possible reason for this, mentioning John Porter Jr.’s “weeke [weak] consumptive bodie” (Sir John Bramson, _The Autobiography of Sir John Bramston, K.B., of Skreens ..._, ed. Lord Braybrooke [Camden Society, vol. 32 (1845)], p. 25). For further
details of John Porter Jr.’s life, see Joseph Foster, ed., _Alumni Oxonienses : The Members of the University of Oxford, 1500-1714_, 4 vols. (Oxford, 1891), 3:1183, which states that John Porter Jr. died in December 1652.
Susan's secondary choice of executor, John Jr.'s brother Arthur Porter, “younger Sonne of John Porter of Lamberhurst in the County of Kent Esquire deceased[,] Now outward bound for the Island of Assada in Africa in the Shipp Lyoness,” made
his own will in February 1649 [probably 1649/50], naming his brother-in-law Thomas Springett (husband of his late sister Mary Porter) executor. Although, in the absence of a firm death date for Arthur, it is possible that Susan Porter made her will at
any time up to the death of her nephew John Porter in December 1652, I suspect she made it before Arthur left for Africa. Arthur Porter was still living outside England when he wrote to the East India Company in January 1651/2 from Surat concerning the
settlement at Assada (Alison Games, _The Web of Empire: English Cosmopolitans in An Age of Expansion, 1560-1660_ [New York, 2008], p. 350, note 150).
In any event, Susan Porter's will was proved immediately after Arthur Porter’s, in May 1656, by Herbert Springett, brother of Arthur's executor Thomas Springett (John Porter, Arthur Porter, and Thomas Springett all having died in the meantime).
It is probably sensible to assume that Susan Porter made Arthur Porter the contingent executor of her will before she knew of his plans to leave England (and it is apparent she never changed her will after learning of his intended absence in
Africa and the East Indies). I would therefore guess that her will was made between 1645 and early 1649.
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I'm uncertain about all my complex reasoning in the above. If Susan is mentioned as living in the 1652 will of her nephew John Porter, and Edmund Hawes was clearly alive in September 1653, then perhaps Susan's own will was made 1652-53. Once again,
finding a burial record for Susan could help a bit with the dates.
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