"Trusting and stedfastlie beleiving to be saved by the death and precious bloudshedding of our lord and saviour Jesus Christ". To my eldest son William Fiske my tenement called Hoves in the parish of St. James according to the custom of the manor, he paying to my daughter Elizabeth, now the wife of Robert Barnard, or to the said Robert, in the dwelling house of my said tenement called Hoves, £18 (in instalments). To my son Eliezar and to Elizabeth, his wife, all my freehold lands in St. James, Elmham, [they] paying yearly to my son William 2½d., for their lives, and paying to my son Thomas Fiske, at the dwelling house of the said tenement called Hoves, £8, as follows. £4 within one month of my decease and £4 at the end of a year following that payment. The free lands are to pass to my son Thomas, if Eliezar and Elizabeth fail to be bound for the above payment. On the death of Eliezar and Elizabeth (and of Thomas, if tenant of the free lands) the free lands are to pass to my son William, he paying to my son Thomas £3, in consideration thereof, one month after my decease. To the poor of St. James 10s., out of my moveables, after my decease, and 10s. more to such other godly poor people as shall be thought most needful and charitable by my executors, at such times as to them shall seem most convenient. To my "bedchildren" [belchildren, or godchildren] 40s., to be equally divided among them and paid into the hands of their parents. To Nicholas Barbor of Chepenell Greene 30s., for him to divide equally among his children. My executors are to have those houses, parcel of the said tenement, which are now in my own hands and occupying, for one month after my decease. To my executors 6s. 8d. each. The residue of my estate is to be equally divided among my children then living, by agreement, or by the appointment of John Laurance the Elder, gent., and he is to have 6s. 8d. Executors: my sons Jefferie Fiske and Eliezar Fiske. Witnesses: Robert Lawter, Thomas Starke.
Proved at Metfield [Suffolk], 28 July
1602 by the executors.
(Archdeaconry
of Suffolk [Ipswich Probate Registry], book for 1602-1603, fo.
144)
Published in the October 1932 issue of the Journal of the New England Historical Genealogical Society.