The Minor Family of Somerset

The Priestely family page 23
"Thomas was the next son of my father; he was very painful and i
ndustrious; bent his mind much to trade; bough cloth; travelle
d to London with 8 or 9 horses all the time of the Civil Wars; s
ometimes he and others that was with him hired convoys, and some
times went without, andwere never taken, he or his horses or go
od, all that dangerous time."
Afterthe war he married Mary, daughter of Michael Whiteley, tha
t he had by Sybilthat was afterwards married to my uncle Franci
s. Joseph Whitely her brother,a lieutenant in the Parliament a
rmy, died of his wounds at Selby. He was brother to Mary, wif
e to my brother Thomas. Her portion was as good as 610 l.,an
d my uncle Francis told me, a little before his death, that he b
eing related to my brother Thomas on both sides, they thought al
l was their's "Cousin," said he, "I have been as "good to your b
rother and his children as 400 l.,and when I am "dead all wil
l be worth nothing:" so that I can demonstrate byhis wife, he
r mother, and my uncle Francis, he had far above 1000 l. He ha
d seven sons, viz., Joseph, Benjamin, Jeremiah, Ely, Jonathon, J
ohn and Thomas; would think a very promising offspring.
I went to visit him in his sickness; the last time I went to se
e him, a little before his death, there was nobody in the room b
ut he and I; he called me unto him and took fast hold of myhand
, "Brother," says he,"If there be any difference betwixt you an
d me, let us now forgive one another," which, God knows, I was f
ull willing to do, and did accordingly declare myself to him, h
e seemed much affected with what Ispoke to him, and held my han
d fast in his a considerable time. He and hiswife had sued ou
t a fine of the land in Holdworth to give it to his younger son
, because he had left his eldest that which was equivalent at We
stercroft, and yet makes his Will and leaves it all to Thomas an
d his heirs for ever,though his son Thomas was not then married
; never makes mention at all, for want of heirs of Thomas, to Jo
hn and his heirs, who was his best child and haddivers children
; and now the estate goes from his only son now living (as Ihav
e hinted before) to two daughters of his eldest son, which son h
ad in his lifetime been the ruin of the whole family, in a manne
r, by his extravagantproceedings. My brother projected all th
e ways he could to keep his land inHoldworth from his eldest so
n or his posterity, yet see how the providence of God overrule
s the purposes and contrivances of men.
After Thomas, myfather had a daughter that was either still-bor
n or died in a short time after she came into the world.