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ChaPter nine Endings, 1745–1758 John left behind a detailed will, which he had drawn up in 1741. Since it was customary for a couple to discuss the terms that would be established for a wife’s maintenance in the event her husband predeceased her, it is likely that Mehetabel and John did as well. John’s will contained provisions that were similar to most other men’s wills of the time: he reserved for Mehetabel the traditional dower right, or a third of his personal property, as well as use of a third of his real estate during her lifetime. he also specified that Mehetabel should be given forty pounds annually for her maintenance. John expected that his sons John and Joseph, whom he had named as co-executors of the estate, would oversee their mother’s care; among other duties, they were to maintain the two cows left for Mehetabel’s use and provide her with “ten Cord of wood pr annum Cut fit for the fire.”1 Like other widows with grown children, Mehetabel was assigned just a portion of the family home to reside in. John specified that she was to have “one half of my now dwelling house in new London and Celler under the Same,” along “with her necessary Use of the Well and the one half of my Gardens all at her election”—John’s use of the pronoun “my” reflecting the legal realities of the time. John left the other half of the house to his and Mehetabel’s nineteen-year-old grandson Thomas, son of their late son of the same name, to be claimed when he reached the age of twenty-one. Thomas also inherited the land to the south of the home on which stood the barn and “other buildings,” including the blacksmith’s shop that had belonged to his father, as well as John Coit’s wharf. The land to the north of the home, which included an orchard and rope house, went to Mehetabel and John’s 175 Chapter Nine 176 son Joseph along with an extra fifty pounds “in Consideration of and in full satisfaction for the Great help and assistance” he had given his father “since he arrived to the age of twenty one Years.” John junior received several acres that had belonged to John Coit’s parents, while Martha and Lize were each given half of John Coit’s land in the common field. (it is notable that John’s bequests to Martha and Lize were in land, rather than the conventional personal property.) Since John had owned twenty-seven acres in the “Comon pasture” and fifty acres of additional “Comon rights,” it is not clear how much land Martha and Lize ended up with, but it would have been equal in value to one-sixth of the estate. Thomas and Joseph were also given a sixth of the estate; John junior received two-sixths, the traditional double portion for the eldest son. (John Coit did not make a provision in his will for Lize’s brother Samuel, because a clause in Samuel’s father’s will requested that anything John had intended to give to his daughter elizabeth, had she lived, go to Lize, Samuel senior “haveing made other Provision in his Sd Will for his Sd Son.”) according to his will, John had already made significant gifts to his children over the years: advancing approximately 400 pounds to John junior, 256 pounds to Martha, 125 pounds to Joseph, 112 pounds to elizabeth, and 103 pounds to Thomas. The total distributed, almost 1,000 pounds, was a considerable sum by the standards of the time, particularly since the total value of most Connecticut estates throughout the colonial period was less than 500 pounds. The probate inventory taken shortly following John’s death clearly substantiates that he and Mehetabel were people of means. in addition to approximately 135 acres of land valued at 3,005 pounds, the inventory lists more than 400 pounds’ worth of silver; bonds and notes; 145 sheep (which produced income through their lease to other farmers), six cows, four horses, and seven pigs; elaborate bedding; fine linens; assorted furniture; and highquality dishware. John Coit’s entire estate was valued at more than 5,700 pounds, which would have placed him in the highest economic bracket in new London.2 The probate inventory was taken by five appraisers who included John and Mehetabel’s nephew daniel Coit, who was also the...

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