Last Will and Testament of Joseph Whipple

In the Name of God, Amen.

I, Joseph Whipple of Portsmouth in the County of Rockingham and State of Hew Hampshire, being of sound disposing mind and memory, Do make and devise this my last Will & Testament and declare the same in manner and following to wit -

Imprimis my Will and Testament is that all my just debts and funeral charges be fully paid and satisfied out of my estate.

Items - I give devise and bequeath to my beloved wife Hannah Whipple my mansion House situate on the Northerly side of Broadstreet in Portsmouth with all the land thereto appertaining, being two lots in the Glebe so called with the out houses and buildings thereon for and during her life, and I empower her to devise the same by will or deed to my niece Mary Spence, wife of Mr Keith Spence to be possessed by her in case of the decease of her husband or to such one of her children as she shall see fit to bequeath the same.

I give also to my wife all my furniture and other effects and those belonging to me in my house or that shall be there or in my out houses at the time of my decease not otherwise appropriated.

I give and bequeath also to my said wife in addition to the above, out of my personal estate or to be raised out of my real estate by sale thereof, the sum of one thousand dollars per year to be raise by the Collection of my personal estate or income thereof, viz from debts due to me from dividends of Banks, Turnpikes, bridges, aqueducts and other incorporated institutions that may arise to me at the time of my decease, whether now established or that may be hereafter acquired by me (excepting what may arise from Jefferson Turnpike in the County of Grafton) or from the sale of such stock - or from the sale of some part of my real estate, so as to make the sum of one thousand per year as above to be raise and paid in quarter yearly, such parts of my real estate so to be sold to be such as shall be the least injurious to my estate as it respects the increasing value thereof. - I give also to my wife during her life my farm at Kittery and on her decease I give the same to Green Heath Spence, son of Mr. Keith Spence, but if he should not survive my wife then I hereby authorize her to give the same to such other of the Children of my niece Mary Spence as she my said wife may select.

Item - I give Green H. Spence above named my right and interest in the lot of land on Spring Hill so called in Portsmouth purchased of Mr. C________ and others, being the same lot on which my store stood and was consumed by fire in Decemter 1802 - which interest in said lot (being a joint purchase by my brother William Whipple, deceased and myself) is on half in my share on the original purchase and two thirds of my brother's half as heir thereto of one third of my brother's half and as residuary legatee to my sister Bracket of one other third of my brother's half - the other third falling to the heirs of my sister Mary Trail, deceased, excepting the dower of my brother's widow to his half of said lot.

Item - I give and bequeath to Miss Elizabeth Billings, my wife's sister, the use (occupancy if she chooses it) and rent of the buildings and land opposite to my mansion house on broad street and on the southerly side thereof which I purchased of S_____ of Goodwin during her life. - I also give to her during her life the sum of two hundred dollars per year to be paid to her by my executor in quarter yearly payments and to be raise out of the produce or income of my personal estate or sale of my real estate in manner above directed - she relinquishing any demand on my estate.

Item - I give and bequeath such sum for the use and support of my Aunt Elizabeth Lowell if any addition be necessary to what my sister Bracket has given her, as her support in the most comfortable manner may require.

Item - I give to Doctor Aaron Hill of Cambridge, in consideration of my esteem for him and the trouble I expect to give him in his assistance in the execution of this Will, one thousand acres of land in the County of Grafton, viz two lots of one hundred acres each in each of the Towns of Bethlehem, Bretton Woods, Jefferson, Cockburn and Colebrook to be drawn for out of all the lots in said Towns respectively owned by me and not otherwise appropriated before my decease.

Item - I give to Miss Martha Hartshorn of Concord in the State of Massachusetts one hundred dollars per year during her life to be paid to her quarter yearly to be raised out of my personal Estate or real estate as above directed.

Item - I give and bequeath the use, cultivation and occupancy of my farm in Jefferson that is two hundred acres of that farm called Mount Pliny, to James Hight of said Jefferson to his wife during their lives, he having been a faithful Steward in my service.

Item - Having thus provided for such connexions and friends whose ages or infirmities will not authorize an expectation that they can acquire due support for themselves and some others whom my inclination has pointed out as persons who claim the notice - and being of opinion founded on long and daily observation that property placed in the hands of young persons operate as a check to their industry and application to useful employment - and rather invite dissipation and idleness - I do therefor give, bequeath and devise the residue of my Estate not before given or devised in the following manner as contained in this and the succeeding.

Items - I give to my Executor (hereafter named) in trust but to be disposed of for the use intended, ten thousand acres of land in the Townships of Colebrook, Cockburn, Jefferson, Bretton Woods and Bethlehem, two thousand acres in each Township, to be the lots drawn from all the lots owned by me in said Towns respectively and not otherwise disposed of by me, the time and manner for selling the same to be such as appears the most likely to obtain the best prices therefor, the Sales whereof to be applied to the making of the road called the "Jefferson Turnpike Incorporation" or so much thereof as the ten thousand acres of land shall raise to be applied to or invested in the shares or interest in the said Incorporation.

Item - I give bequeath and devise to my said Executors in trust five thousand acres of land in the Township of Jefferson and five thousand acres of land in the Township of Bretton Woods to be disposed of by them at such time and in such manner as shall by them be judged the most likely to be the most productive and the proceeds thereof to apply towards the establishment of an Academy in the Township of Jefferson - and I authorize and require my Executors to appoint four trustees to carry into effect this and the preceding item, and if my executors should omit making such appointments then I invest that Authority in the President and Trustees of Dartmouth College to make and appoint such suitable persons therefor as they shall judge proper; the directing authority however to continue in the said President and Trustees of said College until the establishment, progression and maturity of such Academy may render it proper to erect and maintain a separate and particular Incorporation of the same which the said President and Trustees are respectfully entreated to interest themselves in, and at a suitable time endeavor to effect - and in the meantime that they will form such regulations as shall lend to advance the seminary to such degree of improvement as its accumulating funds with the accession of further funds by donations from those disposed to promote the institution shall admit, requesting and enjoining that the greatest attention and stress be pointed to those studies that tend to improvements in agriculture and natural history, those subjects by encouragements and premiums, honorary or pecuniary, as future funds may admit.

[Joseph Whipple]

and as it respects political subjects that such studies as tend to a love of Peace and an aversion to War - and the encouragement and continuance of a Republican form of Government as established by the Constitution of the United States - wishing the experiment may be fairly tryed for one century by the termination of which the practicability shall no doubt be admitted, provided the arts of Peace are cherished and war discouraged and shunned, and I further give and bequeath to the said Academy all profits and dividends accruing to my shares and interest that I have or may have in the aforementioned Jefferson Turnpike Incorporation.

Item - It having been the will of my sister Hannah Brackett to give and to bequeath to me in trust certain shares in the New Hampshire Bank and in the New Hampshire Union Bank, being two shares in the first mentioned bank and five shares in the latter, the interest or dividends arising from the interest thereof to certain legatees to the two sisters of her late husband and the reversion or principal of said shares together with the reversion of seven shares or principal of said shares together with the reversion of seven acres of land bought of Barfell, thirteen acres bought of Manson and a lot in Broadstreet bought of Wm Rogers to be applied as a fund toward the establishment of an asylum for the support and early education of children of both sexes as was particularly pointed out and described in the Last Will and Testament of my said sister, and having been empowered by her said Will to appoint four trustees to take charge of the said legacy and to carry into effect the design of the Institution by her contemplated, I do hereby appoint for that purpose The Rev Timothy Alden, Henry S Langdon, Esq and Doctor Joshua Brackett of Portsmouth and Aaron Hill, Esq. Of Cambridge to succeed in said Trust hereby giving them full power to execute the same in the manner pointed out in the Will of my said Sister and I hereby authorize them as a majority of them to appoint others to their trust should it be inconvenient to either of them to undertake or continue the same.

Item - I give, bequeath and devise five hundred acres of land in the Township of Colebrook estimated at the value of two thousand dollars as an addition to the proposed Institution referred to in the preceding article or item, to be disposed of and applied by the said trustees in the manner most consonant with the object contemplated by the original founder of the Institution, the said land now being divided into lots of one hundred acres to be drawn by lot out of the whole number of lots and shall be owned by me at the time of my decease and not otherwise appropriated by me.

Item - Concurring that great benefit to our country would accrue from the gradual establishment of such manufactures as are immediately and essentially necessary to the support and comfort of man and considering the immense and increasing population of these states whereby the consumption of foreign manufacturers are greatly increasing and the peaceful and uninterrupted state of our commerce at present with the productiveness of our agriculture and the profits arising on the exportation of products thereof and raw materials used in foreign manufactures existing an indifference to manufactures in our own country thereby keeping off those attempts to manufacturing that would be good policy to introduce so that in the vent of an interruption in our commercial intercourse with other nations we should become suddenly destitute of a supply of such manufactures and the knowledge of their fabrication and concerning that among the manufacturers combining eligibility of introducing and multiplying in their use none can be preferred to woolen cloth and window glass, therefore to the encouragement and establishment of these, I assign residue of my estate not herein before given and bequeathed, hoping that in such of the United States similar establishments may be made and improved upon as an entering wedge to an entire independence as well commercial as political on other nations, this item to be managed in the following manner to wit. Let such resident be converted into money or stock yielding the interest payable annually or at shorter periods or if money to be used in such stock. From the interest arising thereon shall be given as a bounty or bounties - one half to the person who shall establish in this state the largest and most extensive manufacture of woolen clothes on a regular plan employing the greatest number of workmen and performing the neatest kind of woolen manufacture such as our sheep's wool assorted into different qualities is suitable for, not restraining the use of foreign wool if the system shall be improved thereby -

The other half of the produce of interest so rising to be given as a bounty or bounties to the person or persons who shall establish in the state the first and most extensive manufactures of window glass, the said bounties to be paid annually to such persons who support a claim thereto according to the true intent of this bequest, which is to introduce those manufactures - and to excite an emulation in the proprietors of such manufactures thereby promoting an extension of them as events and circumstances may render advisory, the following is recommended - that the application of said bounties shall be immediately after the establishment and produce of the fund herein assigned - and the establishment of the manufactures here in proposed to be encouraged - that the application and payment of such bounty shall be to the first of such manufacturers respectively as shall be considered a regular establishment employing in the glass manufacture not less than ------- hands, and in the woolen manufacture not less than ------- hands including those employed in carding, spinning, weaving and dressing the same and employing therein the most approved machinery - that such bounty shall be paid and continued to each manufacturer of woolen and glass for the term of three years, at the end of which period, if the said manufactury shall continue to be the most perfect, extensive in the quality manufactured and employing the greatest number of hands, the said bounty or premium shall be continued to the same manufactury (respectively) for another three years -- but if at the end of such term of three years, other manufacturers on the same branch (respectively shall be established exceeding in the quality of workmanship, extent and number of workmen necessarily employed -- the bounty shall accrue and be payable to the one which shall be the preferable one for the perfection in manufacture, extent and number of workmen necessarily employed to be continued for the term of three years and so at the end of every term of three years that manufactory of woolen clothes or window glass as shall (respectively) be considered the most perfect in the quality of the manufacture and most extensive in the quantity manufactured shall be entitled to the bounty, --- and I do hereby request and authorize the Government of the State of New Hampshire and the Council thereof for the time being to appoint four trustees to carry into effect this bequest and to remove the same and to appoint others as they shall see fit, and the said Trustees so to be appointed are authorized to vary the proportion of the said bounties by adding to the one and diminishing the other (at the end of every term of three years) as they shall find by experience, or judge beneficial to the design of this bequest.

Lastly I nominate, ordain and appoint my said wife Hannah, and Doctor Aaron Hill of Cambridge to be the Executors of this my last Will and Testament, hereby revoking all Wills and Testaments by me heretofore made, ratifying and confirming this, and this only to be my Last Will and Testament.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this fifteenth day of August Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and five.

JOSEPH WHIPPLE

Signed, Sealed, published and declared by the said Joseph Whipple the Testator as and for his Last Will and Testament in our presence and hearing and we at his request subscribe the same as witnesses in his presence and that of each other, he having also signed the sheet preceding this.

Thomas Chadbourne
James Hill
Samuel Fernald

I, Joseph Whipple of Portsmouth in the County of Rockingham and the State of New Hampshire, do this eleventh day of July 1807 make and publish this codicil to my last Will and Testament ...

Whereas since the making of my Will on the 15^th day of August 1805, several deeds have passed between me and Governor John Langdon situate in Portsmouth in which deeds we have made divisions of said lands and by which I have purchased a part of said Governor John Langdon's half after the division thereof, and whereas I have incurred some debts by purchase of said part payable at a future period, It is therefore my Will and desire that so much of my lands purchased of Woodbury Langdon and divided between me and Governor John Langdon or that has otherwise become mine by purchase of Governor John Langdon, be appropriated and sold for the discharge of such debts as are above refered to or for the discharge of any debts due from me at the time of my demise or for the payment of pecuniary legacies or annuities given by my Will to be sold in house ots in such manner and at such time as may be most likely to obtain the greatest price at the discretion of my Executors, not contravening the direction for discharging any debts or making payment of any legacy otherwise provided for in my said Will, but as shall appear most for the general interests of the appropriations of my Estate.

It is my desire that this my present Codicil be amended and made a part of my Last Will and Testament to all intents and purposes.

JOSEPH WHIPPLE

Signed, Sealed, published and declared by the above named Joseph Whipple as a codicil to be annexed to his last Will and Testament in the presence of ---

Thomas Chadbourne
James Hill
Samuel Fernald

I, Joseph Whipple of Portsmouth, signer of the foregoing do make this additional codicil to my last Will and Testament, the 31^st day of December 1807 and which is to be considered as a part of my said Will.

Whereas I have since executing the foregoing Codicil vis on the 23rd day of December instant purchased of Robert Harris a certain parcel of land situate in Portsmouth containing something more than eight acres and which was owned by Woodbury Langdon, Esq., It is my will and direction that the said land (which is intended to be divided into house lots) be sold and the proceeds thereof be applied toward the discharge of my debt or debts that may be owning by me at the time of my decease not otherwise in my Will provided for, and that the residue if any be considered as a part of the residue of my Estate and applied according to the directions of my Will bearing date of the fifteenth day of August 1805 and to which this is intended to be annexed, and my further Will is that in case of any real estate being purchased by me hereafter, the same shall be applied to the same purposes as is expressed in this additional codicil and I hereby authorize my executors to perform and carry in effect the directions and provisions contained in this additional codicil to my Will in as full form and manner as if the same were contained in the body of my Will and executed this day.

In witness whereof I hereunto set my hand and Seal.

JOSEPH WHIPPLE

Signed, Sealed, published and declared by the above named Joseph Whipple as an additional codicil to his last Will and Testament.

Thomas Chadbourne
James Hill
Samuel Fernald

This may Certify that we the subscribers are well acquainted with the handwriting of Joseph Whipple Esq. Deceased and having examined the hand writing to his Will and codicils are fully satisfied that the name of Joseph Whipple there signed was wrote by Joseph Whipple.
As we are well acquainted with the hand writing of Thomas Chadbourne, of James Hill deceased Subscribing witnesses to the Will and Codicils of Joseph Whipple Esq. And having examined their signitures to said Will and Codicils are fully satisfied that the names of Thos Chadbourne and James Hill were wrote by them as subscribing witnesses to said Will and Codicils.

Geo. Wentworth
John B Hill

Rockingham ss: Marth 14 1816

There personally appeared George Wentworth and John B Hill and made solemn oath to the truth of the above instrument by them subscribed before me.

Daniel Gookin, Judge of Probate & Justice of Peace & Quorum