The English ancestry of Reinold and Matthew Marvin of Hartford, Ct ...

80 The English Ancestry of
This Will has an autograph signature ; much to my disap-
pointment an application for permission to trace it for re-
production here was refused, under the rules of Somerset
House. Of the witnesses, William Vaughan was then the
Parish Priest of St. Michael's ; Robert Blosse has the name
of one of the sons of Sissely (24), but that Robert could
hardly been of age when this Will was executed. Thomas
Churchman received a legacy of the same amount from
Robert (8), and his wife was remembered by Isabell, Robert's
widow, but there is nothing to show any relationship be-
tween the families. Whether the John Johnsonne mentioned
by Reinold bore any relation to the Katherine named by
Robert, or whether Alice Beteryche was the mother or a
sister of the Matthew and John named in Robert's Will, we
can only conjecture ; but the recurrence in the three Wills
of so many names of persons more or less closely connected
seems worthy of notice in passing, and taken with the
other facts which have been cited, shows that there is reason-
able ground for the belief that Reinold was the nephew of
Robert (8).
As the legacies to the Howes are so much larger than the
others and are apparently given to a father and his sons,
they attract our notice ; but nothing has been found to in-
dicate any relationship, or to suggest a reason for the gift.
The " Bridge," for the repair of which legacies were often
left in the Wills herein cited, is shown on the map. In
Morant's time this was a long structure of timber "in the
great road to Harwich, and was kept up at the charge of