The will of Susanna Greene

Reference: R2/72/262, on microfilm, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds).

Back to the pages on Francis Greene, Lambert Greene, Thomas Fraser, The Greenes, or The Greenes-Fraser chain.

 

‘In the name of God Amen The ninth day of May in the yeare of our Lord one thousand six hundred & ninety three… Susanna Green of Newmarkett in the County of Cambridge widd being sick of body but of sound memory praised be God did verbally declare pronounce and utter in the presence of the witnesses here underwritten this to be her last will & Testament in manner and forme following ffirst having given her soul into the hands of Almighty God her maker and her body to the earth to be decently buried disposed of her worldly estate as herein after expressed Item she gave to Mary Ong of Newmarkett aforesaid in the County of Suff widow all her wearing Apparell both linnen and woolen and also twenty shillings in money beside other twenty shillings which was given to the said Mary Ong by the last will and Testament of Lambert Greene her son Item all the estate… and personall ready goods Plate Household stuffe and whatsoever also unbequeathed she gave and bequeathed to Elizabeth ffrazer and Susanna ffraser daughters of Thomas ffraser of Newmarket aforesaid Chirurgeon and her Grandchildren equally to be divided share and share alike and desired spoke to and made the said Thomas ffraser their ffather to be her executor of her said last will and Testament and to see what she had done might be performed & witness our hands this fifteenth day of May Anno Diu 1693 spoken pronounced and declared by the said Susan Green to be her last will and Testament in the presence of Joyce Rowe the marke of Mary Durrant Jane Hunt Those names written as witnesses… wrote in the presence of us Henry Theobald Wm Edgely Edward Bailey’

Probate 1693.

 

The key points of interest in this will are:-

1. The fact that this will was dictated on 9th May, Susan(na) Greene was buried on 12th May and the will written down on 15th May.

2. The variation in name spelling within a single document.

3. The mention of Lambert Greene’s will, with which there are lots of cross linkages.

4. The useful confirmation that Lambert Greene’s mother was Thomas Fraser’s mother in law and therefore that the Susan Greene who married Francis Greene in 1651 was the widow of Lambert Greene senior (Lambert junior’s father mentioned in his will).

5. Note, Mary Ong (presumably Lambert’s Aunt Onge, so Susan’s sister or sister in law) was in fact given ten shillings in his will, not 20 shillings, but this will is 15 years later and presumably written from the memory of a dying woman who dictated her will to friends.