Will of Robert Young, Sr.
Will Book __, Page 506
Proven: August, 1804
I, Robert Young, Senr. of Hawkins County, and state of Tennessee, do constitute and ordain this my last Will & Testament, wrote with my own hand.
First. Committing my body to the earth and my life to God who gave it, &c.
It is my will that all my just debts be first paid and then my worldly Estate to be divided thusly. I will & devise to my oldest son John Young my survey of land less or more lying, joining his place he lives on, on the upper end of John Thompson‘s place on the lower end in Carter’s valley, known by the name of the Big Spring Place.
I will & devise unto my two sons, Robert and William Young the plantation I now live on lying on the north bank of Holston River joining Henry Price on the upper end and [illegible] Carter on the lower end, to be equally divided in quantity between them, by a line drawn from the middle of the line on the river crossing the middle of the land to the side line. The lower end to belong to Robert and the upper end….to William.
I likewise will and devise unto my said two sons Robert and William my negro man named Wilson at my Wife’s decease. They are to have and equal right to him and then they are to have my farming tools, my carpenter tools and my smith tools equally between them.
I will and devise unto my son-in-law Henry Larkins the place he lives on containing 200 acres of land more or less, lying between John Young‘s land and Joe Armstrong‘s land in Carter’s Valley.
I will and bequeath unto my wife Jenny Young my house and furniture, the household furniture she is to have that part at her own disposal. She is to have what is called Old Meadow corn field, the brier field and the field by the barn, and my two negroes Wilson and Hannah as long as she lives.
William Young is to have the big fields on the river, the meadow excepted.
She is to have all my stock as long as she lives, but if she thinks there is too much stock for her to support
she is to put a part into the Executors’ hands which they are to make sale of for the purpose of raising $120.00 which my Executors is to divide as follows: Twenty dollars to be paid to each of Nathaniel Henderson’s four children when they are come to the years of maturity: Sally, Jenny, John and Nath. And my Executors is to put $40.00 into John Cooper‘s hands to assist in raising his son Young Cooper.
If there is any more money raised out of my stock than will pay this $120.00, the overplush is to be equally divided between my two daughters, Ann Larkins and Mary Cooper.
I will and devise unto my said two daughters, Ann Larkins and Mary Cooper my negro woman Hannah, and they are to have an equal right to her and her offspring.
And whereas I have a bond of Stokley Donaldson for a Preemption of 640 acres of land in Cumberland, and I have a Patent for 100 acres of land lying on the mouth of Buffalo Creek, Grainger County, and a Military Warrant of 640 acres of land in Cumberland which I lett Burnet Susong have who lives in Cumberland, and I have got no account of it wherefore I give my two sons Robert and William full power and authority to sue at law or any other method they think best and they are to hold whatever they get, only if that preemption from Stokley Donaldson be all obtained, they are to make my brother William Young a right to 200 acres of it.
I do constitute and appoint my two sons Robert Young and William Young to be my Executors of this my last Will and Testament to which I sett my hand and seal. This [illegible] in the year of our Lord, One Thousand eight hundred and four.
Robert Young (seal)
Sealed and acknowledged in presence of:
Thoman Armstrong (Jurat)
William Maxwell
_______ [illegible]
This Hawkins County Will was transcribed by one of the following volunteers: Audrae Mathis; Gary Fletcher; Betty Mize; Diana Arney; Karen Negron, Kathey Welder.