John Sargent Makes His Son Samuel a Weaver

The 1716 will of John Sargeant of Malden, Massachusetts, contains bequests for all his children, including this one to his son Samuel:

Will of John Sargeant[part], Middlesex County, Massachusetts, 
file 19883; digital image from AmericanAncestors.org, obtained 13 October 2014

John gives his son Samuel a "weavers trade with a loom to work in" and indicates that he also has provided Samuel with land by "a deed of gift under my hand."

Fortunately the deeds for Middlesex County, Massachusetts, are available online at FamilySearch. The grantee index for the 17th and early 18th century contains numerous entries for members of the Sargent family, including the apparent deed referenced in John's will. The index wasn't very difficult to navigate on FamilySearch. Later work on the family should include a look at these other documents besides the one referred to in John's will.

The deed which is underlined in the above image was easy to locate as well. There are two deed book pages on one image which is why deed page 324 is part of image 185 and not image 324. The original deed books are apparently over 500 pages each. 

John refers to his son Samuel as a weaver in this deed and clearly states their relationship as father and son in addition to listing their residences. The weaver reference is consistent with the occupation clue for Samuel given in John's will. It serves as a way of specifically identifying Samuel Sargent as the weaver who is the son of John. There may have easily been other Samuel Sargents in the area who were not weavers or sons of John.

We'll discuss the details of the deed in a future post. It always pays to use wills and probates as clues to other records. John's reference in this case was pretty blatant. Sometimes the clues are a little more subtle.