Ancestors

Edith Dodge

Wife of Richard Dodge, and named in the East Coker parish register on 19 April 1635 when their daughter Marie was baptised there, three years before the family crossed. She was a member of the church at Wenham with her husband before 1648, under John Fiske.

Her husband's will of November 1670 left her better provided for than most colonial widows. She had a mare, two milk cows, two ewe sheep and half the household goods absolutely; the sole use of the parlour and the chamber over it in the dwelling house, with free use of the garden, outhouses, kitchens, oven, well, cellar and yards as she had occasion; eight pounds paid the moment the will was proved and eight pounds a year for life; and forty shillings a year each from her sons Richard, Samuel and John in consideration of her thirds. The executors were to summer and winter her mare, her cows and her sheep on the farm for as long as she stayed a widow, and to keep her firewood at the door, fitted for the fire.

She lived about seven years more. Before she died she wrote out her own will, and it is unlike her husband's in one respect: almost every bequest in it is made to her children for their children. The cows and sheep to her two daughters for their children's use, her horse to her son Edward for his daughter, and everything still owed her out of her husband's estate to the rest of her sons for their children.

The court did not accept it. In February 1677/8 the magistrates ruled her intestate and granted administration to her son John and her son-in-law Zachary Herrick, and then ordered that the estate be divided "according to the mynde of the Sayd Edith Dodge declared in the above written". On 26 March 1678 seven of her children and sons-in-law signed a paper saying they had divided what their dear mother gave them, and were all well satisfied.

If Edith Dodge is in your family, start your own tree.

Cite: Heirology, "Edith Dodge (1603-1677)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/edith-dodge-1603-1677-1c31cd.