Liber 20, pp. 43-44
In the Name of God Amen the 20th Day of March in the Year of our Lord 1729 I John Higgins of Talbot County in the Province of Maryland Planter being sick & weak in body but of Perfect Mind & Memory Thanks be given to God therefore calling to Mind the Mortality of my Body & knowing that it is appointed for all Men once to die I do make & ordain this my last Will & Testament that is to say principally and first of all I give & recommend my Soul into the Hands of God that gave it and for my Body I recommend it to [the]:Earth to be buried in a decent manner at the Discretion of my Exec. nothing doubting but at the general Resurrection I shall receive the same again by the Mighty Power of God, And in Touching such worldly Estates as it hath pleased God to bless me with in this Life I give devise and dispose of the same in the following Manner & Form ~
Imprimis I give & bequeath unto Will: Higgins Son to my former Wife Mary One heifer and her Calfe of a red couler called Buck. Item I will that my son John Higgins be & remain with my Friend Benjamin Bullock untill he arrive at the age of Twenty one years and I likewise constitute, make & ordain my friend Benjamin Bullock aforesd my only & Sole Exec: of this my last Will & Testament. And I do hereby utterly disallow revoke & disannull all & every other former Wills or Testaments by me in any way before this Time named or made Ratifying & confirming this & no other to be my last Will & Testament In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my Hand & Seale the Day & Year above written
Signed Sealed pronounced and John Higgins (Seal)
Declared in presence of ~
his
Daniel Boyer Wm X Kerry Stephen Stichbury
mark
On the back of the aforegoing Will was this Written:
Talbot: June 24th 1730 Then came Daniel Boyer Wm Kerry and Stephen Stichbury three of the Subscribing Witnesses to the aforegoing Will & made oath on the Holy Evangells of Almighty God that they saw the Testator John Higgins Sign & Seale & heard him publish & declare the same as his last Will & Testament and that at the Time of his so doing he was to the best of their Knowledge & Apprehension of sound and disposing Mind & memory & that they the aforesd Daniel Boyer William Kerry and Stephen Stichbury as witnesses Subscribed the said Will in the presence of the sd Testator
Sworn to Before we
Th Bozman L...e[?][i] Tal Coty