Note 832 — Chapter XIV · OPTIONAL CIVIL OR ECCLESIASTICAL MARRIAGE IN THE MIDDLE COLONIES

Stiles, History of Brooklyn, I, 233, 234.

The author adds: "So also in the will of John Burrows, of Newton, July 7, 1678, he devises to his son John his then dwelling-house, farm, orchard, out-houses, and lands, etc. 'But not to dispossess my beloved wife during the time of her widowhood. But if she marry, then her husband must provide for her as I have done.' So also the will of Thomas Skillman, of Newton, in 1739."—Ibid., 233, 234.

"Often joint-wills were made by husband and wife, each with equal rights, if survivor. This was peculiarly a Dutch fashion. In Fordham, in 1670 and 1673, Claude de Maistre and his wife Hester du Bois, Pierre Cresson and his wife Rachel Cloos, Gabriel Carboosie and Brieta Walferts, all made joint-wills. The last-named husband in his half of the will enjoined loss of property if Brieta married again. Perhaps he thought there had been enough marrying and giving in marriage already in that family, for Brieta had had three husbands,—a Dane, a Frieslander, and a German,—and his first wife had had four, and he—well, several I guess; and there were a number of children; and you couldn't expect any poor Dutchman to find it easy to make a will in all that confusion. In Albany may be found several joint-wills, among them two dated 1663 and 1676; others in the Schuyler family."—Earle, Colonial Days in Old New York, 54, 55.