Ancestral Lines of Chester Everts Howell - (PDF ... - Adkinshorton.net

(both in Orange County), George of Hector, N. Y. and Jemima who marrieda Howell and raised a large family in Riverhead" . Comparison of the namesin the will with those mentioned in the letters show the same family is beingdescribed in both.The original will document was found about 1910 by Mrs. Jesse Holbertof Lake, Orange Co. N. Y. two miles south of Sugar Loaf where David Howellbought land in 1774. Mrs. Holbert's copy was seen in 1939 by the compilerat Monroe, N. Y. where it is now (in 1959) in the possession of Mrs. RoySteele. The data from this will with additions by Mrs. Holbert (not all correct)was printed on sheets prepared for a Howell genealogy by Charles E. Stickney,author of the "History of the Minisink". This genealogy of the Howell familywas printed but not bound before Mr. Stickney died. The compiler has anunbound file of the sheets.Besides the copy of this will in Mrs. Holbert's notebook is also the copyof a deed for a small tract of land "near Snake Creek" (this is in the vicinityof Sugar Loaf) "one and one quarter acres with boundary beginning at CaptainHorton's bog meadow Lot" Sugar Loaf is in the town of Chester, OrangeCounty about six miles northeast of Warwick on a back road.No probate of this will has been found; also no registration of the deed.However as time passes, belief that the documents found by Mrs. Holbertwere genuine, becomes acceptable since records supporting connections betweenseveral of the children named in the will have been found to exist.The purchase of the land in Orange County 2 March 1774 and the makingof a will 16 June 1775 by David Howell "of Goshen Precinct" indicate thatbecause of War conditions on Long Island there was a necessity to providefor any future needs of his wife, named as Mary, and his younger children(the son Noble was but 6 years old in 1775). David left his property to Nobleafter his wife's death, and to the other children 5 shillings each.Whether David Howell returned to Long Island before he died is a disputedpoint. Tradition in Orange County near Sugar Loaf says he died there.However he had a son David Jr. And the David Howell said to be alive in1804 in that vicinity is more likely to have been David Jr. than his father.No gravestones have been found for either. Also it must be taken into considerationthat if David Sr. remained in Orange County until his death thathis son Ezra, who lived not too many miles away, should have known of thedeath and would have handed down this knowledge to his sons. Instead, Ezra'ssons wrote letters after Ezra's death in 1851 that he had told them theirgrandfather died in Mattituck on Long Island.The account on the next page of the children whose names are given inDavid Howell's will is a collection of records from court, census, familybible and various printed and manuscript sources. As for David Howell'swives, the tradition in Orange County is that he had three, all named Mary(as is the name of his wife in his will). Tne letters from his grandsons statehe had had four wives but none are named.