Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VIII GOVERNOR BELLING HAM'S WILL' THE Winnisimmet farms formed that part of Governor Bellingham's estate which, in 1072, he devised to trustees for the pious uses of the people there. But his will was contested; and the strife, beginning in the Colony in 1672, was renewed under the Province, and only settled under the State in 1787, -- a period of one hundred fifteen years. It divided the clergy, was a factor in local polities, and influenced parties during the Revolutionary War. Nor was the contest confined to this side of the Atlantic; for at one stage the will received the construction of William Cowper, afterwards Lord Chancellor of England, and at another the decision of Sir Nathan Wright, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal.1 This case, unique in its duration and fidl of local affairs, presents, as none oiher docs, an almost unbroken line of judicial proceedings in Massachusetts for more than a century; but I have been seriously embarrassed in determining the best way of telling its story. After several unsatisfactory attempts to set forth the substance of the various documents comprised in it (in which process it is impossible to retain many facts incidentally given but of great value), I have finally concluded to give these documents in full and allow them to tell their own story.2 THE WILL Among many other vndeserved favors of God towards me, this is none the least, That for so long a tyme I hauc lived vnder the '[The legal opinion of William Cowper, and the decision of Sir Nathan Wright, though they affected the estates of Governor llcllingham, were upon the will of Mrs. Elizabeth Bcllingham, wife of Samuel Bellingham, son and heir of Governor Bellingham. Infra, pp. 513-521.) 'The original will, though known to Samuel Sewall, ..
