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The abovesaid Esstate was apprized ye 224 & 25th day of february 1726: or:7 by vs

THOMAS STEERE,

SAMUEL ALDRICH,
JOSEPH SMITH.

Att a Town Councill held att Providence this 6th day of March anno Dom. 172, the above Jnventoryes was by the said Councill accepted approved and allowed

Attest

Recorded p' mee

RICHARD WATERMAN, Clerke. RICHARD WATERMAN, Clerk.

The following paper relates to the estate of Mrs. Esther Steere, its division and expenses of administration.

At a Town Council held in Smithfield in the County of Providence &c by adjournment the fifth day of March A. D. 1749-50 being the first monday of said month, Hosea Steere, administrator of the personal estate of his mother Esther Steere Deceas' presented before this Council the following accounts and Receipts

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Legacie out of his father's estate

paid to John Aldrich & Thomas Steere Guardians to Wickendton Steere a

out of his mother's Estate

00 07 00
00 06 90

5 00 00

00 15 00

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2 08 00

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222 00 03

222 00 03

72 15 00 222 00 03

The sd administrators produced Receipts before this Council for the Legaicies paid out of his mother's Estate: The above accounts of Debts paid with Receipts and without was Exhibited before this Council which being perused and Considered voted that ye above accompts be & they are accepted Lawful accompts & ordered to be Recorded.

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And accordingly Recorded. Test

THOS. SAYLES, Con' Cler.
THOS SAYLES, Council Cler.

PLACE.
3.

SARAH STEERE, daughter of John Steere, Sen. (1), was one of the elder children. She married, December 24, 1685, Elder Peter Place, son of Enoch and Sarah Place. Peter Place, in early life, was probably apprenticed to Thomas Harris. His name appears on the Providence records, March 13, 168, when he sent in a request to the Town Council " to be accommodated with a little piece of ground of forty feet square above high water mark by the water side against and within ye compass of ye Breadths of my master Tho: Harris & Abraham Man their home lott with ye priviledge to build a wharf also, I having their consents thereunto. The wh1 [also] being by the town [granted] mee may oblidge yo1 petitioner Peter Place. The consent of Thomas Harris & Abraham Man were given & the petition was granted by the town Council." September 1, 1687, he was taxed two shillings.

Some time after his marriage Peter Place located in that part of Glocester now called Smithfield, near his father-in-law, John Steere, who, on May 28, 1695, deeded six and a half acres to Peter and Sarah Place, for love, etc. His residence was in the district called Wyunkeake, as appears from a deed executed July 11, 1701, by Joseph Tabor, formerly of Providence, but then of Tiverton, who sold to him, for £5 10s., twenty acres, the western boundary of which bordered upon "the land of Peter Place at a place called Wayanqueque where he now dwelleth." They located afterwards in the neighborhood of Harmony. He was ordained about 1700 as an elder of the Six - Principle Baptist Church, and officiated in Smithfield and Glocester, where he was associated more or less with Elder Jonathan Sprague.† June 16, 1713, he was taxed 16s. 6d.

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John Steere, Jr., Mr. Place's brother-in-law, on the 5th March, 172, sold him ten acres "to lay out on the east side of the Seven Mile Line, and to be laid out on the original right of William Wiggenden and in the forty acre division." ‡

Elder Place married, second, Mary Bowditch, widow. He was enumerated among the members of the old First Baptist Church in 1732, in an agreement signed by twenty-four who objected to a "larger communion" with those outside the denomination. He died July 6, 1735. He made his will August 27, 1733, and codicil August 19, 1734, which were proved in 1735. His son-in-law, Thomas Shippey of Smithfield, was appointed executor. To his grandson Peter, son of Joseph, he gave twenty-nine acres, and other land to his son Joseph. The homestead was to be sold and the proceeds divided equally among Knight's History of the Six-Principle Baptists, p. 267.

*Prov. Records (Old Book), p. 343.

† Prov. Records, vol. 5, p. 157.

the children, excepting that his son Nathan, having had part of his portion, was to have half as much as the others. The same division was made of the movable estate. The codicil mentions that he had lately married, and to his wife Mary he gives all the estate she brought and the best room for life while she remained his widow, and support from the executor. The inventory amounted to £847 19s. 9d. personal property, his "books and hour glass" indicating his ministerial profession, and his cooper's tools showing what his trade The nice sum of £650 in bonds is recorded, which in itself was quite a handsome property at that period. His real estate was valued at £500. Mrs. Mary Place died in Smithfield May 25, 1745, having made her will May

was.

25, 1740.

Children:

I. SARAH, b. November 12, 1686; m., September 27, 1711, Thomas Shippey of Smithfield. II. NATHAN, b. November 4, 1688.

III. JOSEPH, b. May 18, 1691; m. Triphenia

Amity, Philip, and Mary.

IV. HANNAH, b. August 6, 1693.

V. AMINETTA, b. September 16, 1695.

Children: Peter (an elder), Shadrach,

VI. DINAH, b. February 10, 1697; m., May 18, 1725, John Place.

VII. RUTH, b. October 7, 1700.

VIII. PENELOPE, b. June 29, 1706.

THORNTON.

4.

DINAH STEERE, daughter of John Steere, Sen. (1), was married to John Thornton, son of John and Sarah Thornton, of the number of the early settlers of Providence.* John Thornton gave an acquittance, October 28, 1684, to Nathaniel Mowry. September 1, 1687, he was taxed 2s. 1d. His will was made December 29, 1715, and he died January 9, 1716. On the 13th of January, 1716, his will was proved. His sons John and Josiah were made executors, and empowered to sell his lands and tenements in Providence and bring it all to movable estate, and after the payment of debts and a legacy of £40 to Josiah, the remainder was to be equally divided amongst all his children, sons and daughters-in-law. His inventory, £37 25., enumerates cattle and working tools, showing him to have been a farmer. His wife evidently died before he did.

John Thornton was first of Newport, where he was a member of the First Baptist Church. About 1679 he removed to Providence, and afterward kept up an active correspondence with Rev. Samuel

Hubbard. Some of his letters have been published. He was a warm friend of Roger Williams. He died after 1692.

Children:

I. JOHN, b. about 1695; m., June 7, 1716, Abigail Clemence, dau. of Richard and Sarah (Smith) Clemence, b. December 4, 1695. Children: Richard, Solomon, Dinah, John, and Daniel.

II. JOSIAH, m., May 18, 1721, Mercy Waterman, b. May 11, 1702.

III. DINAH, M., November 14, 1715, Richard Arnold (2d wife).

IV. STEPHEN, m., March 31, 1723, Deliverance Sheldon, dau. of John Sheldon.

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VIII. EBENEZER, m., June 13, 17—, Ruth Smith, dau. of Thomas and Phebe (Arnold) Smith.

5.

HON. THOMAS STEERE, son of John, Sen. (1), was probably the second son, but the date of his birth has not been ascertained. November 7, 1696, his father deeded to him forty acres. "For and in consideration of the fatherly love & natural affection which I have and bear unto my well beloved son Thomas Steere of Providence," is the phraseology of this old deed.* Probably the son had arrived at his majority a few years before and was about to be married. May 6, 1701, he was made a freeman of the colony, by the General Assembly. His first wife was Mary Arnold, daughter of Richard and Mary (Angell) Arnold. He married, second, Mehitable, widow of Samuel Plummer, but had no children by this marriage. She brought to her husband £71 8s. She died January 28, 174, having made her will January 4, 1737, her residence being then in Glocester. She left her property to her children by her former marriage.

December 10, 1702, Mr. Steere bought of Richard Arnold, Sen., for £8, thirty acres of land lying six miles northwest from the salt water harbor, within the township of Providence, and bordering upon the Wanasquatucket River. His brother, John Steere, Jr., in 1710 deeded to him, for £2, ten acres “lying near Winnekheague and a branch of Wonasquatucket River and the highway leading to Capt. Arnold's Mills." He received another deed from his father, "for a valuable sum of money," March 13, 17, conveying "one full right in the thatch beds in Providence aforesaid in Hawking's Cove, and is upon my own original right." His brothers-in-law, Richard, John, and Thomas Arnold, on

* In this grant was included half a share of commonage, which was formerly Henry Redwicks', and which John Steere, Sen., bought of Pardon Tillinghast.

† Capt. Richard Arnold was son of Thomas Arnold of Watertown, who married Phebe Parkhurst (2d wife), and grandson of Thomas Arnold of Chesel

bourne, England. He married, 1st, Mary Angell, daughter of Thomas and Alice Angell, having children, Mary, Richard, Thomas, and John. He died April 22, 1710, leaving a widow, Sarah, and devising one half of his mills at Nissatasket to his son-in-law, Thomas Steere.

Recorded in Smithfield as late as 1752.

2

the 26th of March, 1712, "for a valuable sum," deeded to him one half of a tract of land in Providence, lying on both sides of the Wanasquatucket River, at or near the corn-mill and saw-mill which formerly belonged to their father, Richard Arnold. Thus Thomas Steere came into the full possession of these two mills, one half the ownership of which had been previously bequeathed by his father-in-law in 1710. In 1718 he bought of his father, for £3 10s., a parcel of land in Dexter's Lane, Providence.* In 172 Thomas Olney (then senior) conveyed to Thomas Steere, for £16 5s., the right to land to be taken up on the east side of the Seven Mile Line, in and upon the forty acre division which was the original right of the former. Thomas Steere, April 2, 1722, purchased from his father, for £15 10s., thirty-one acres of land bounded on the by line near John Hawking's dwelling-house, and otherwise bounded as by deed recorded in Smithfield in 1752. The deed is witnessed by John Steere, Jr., and Joseph Mowry. He bought of his brother William, June 29, 1723, for 12, a tract of land lying "about a mile northwest from Chagomist Pond, Joyning to the Land of Thomas Steere." April 21, 1726, he bought of Roger Williams (son of Daniel), thirty acres of land not then laid out, on the east side of the Seven Mile Line, upon the right of Daniel Williams, “25 of the said 30 on the 2d forty-acre division," and four acres on the Cedar Swamp right.§ In this year, also, he acquired certain land of William Coman, as appears by an agreement of his son Richard Steere in 1752. He also purchased forty acres of William Gully in 1723 for £21.||

June 16, 1713, he was taxed twelve shillings. In 1715 Mr. Steere was deputy, or representative, in the General Assembly. He was a member of the first council held to represent the new town of Smithfield, March 17, 1731. He was also councilman in 1734, the year before he died.

August 22, 1735, Thomas Steere made his will, and departed this life August 27th, the same year. As this was the first will executed by any of the family, a full copy, with the Inventory, is given below.

Thomas Steere

15

Children:

I. PHEBE, b. about 1698 (probably), m. Daniel Mathewson, son of James and Elizabeth
(Clemence) Mathewson, b. October 6, 1700.
He m.,

2d, Amy ———, who survived him.

He d. December 16, 1751. Phebe and Daniel had a daughter Phebe.

* Dexter's Lane was the beginning of the road

to Rehoboth. It was afterwards Olney's Lane and

is now Olney Street. Dorr's Providence, p. 50. † Prov. Records, Deeds, vol. 5, p. 135.

Recorded Glocester, April 20, 1746.

§ Smithfield Records, vol. 1, p. 396.

|| Prov. Records, Deeds, vol. 6, p. 393, and vol. 7, p. 113.

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