Will of Leonard Streeper, Yeoman, of Whitemarsh Township, Montgomery County, PA

He remembers his wife Margaret and his minor children by setting down a plan for their care. To his three eldest sons, (by his first wife Rebecca Greathouse) John, Peter and Dennis, he gives the sum of 5 pounds sterling and notes that they are already settled on plantations. But the lands given to Peter and Dennis are encumbered by a promise to pay the heirs of "my brother Dennis' immediately after the death of his widow, Margaret, a sum of 83 pounds, 6 shilling and 8 pence. To his 2 eldest daughters, (by his first wife): Sara Johnson and Elizabeth Thomas are paid 75 pounds, within the year after his death, as he has already given them 150 pounds. To his four youngest sons (by his wife Margaret) Jacob, Daniel, William and George all the plantation in Whitemarsh Twp. containing 100 acres more or less,and a plantation in Springfield Twp containing 62 acres, and a Messuage and Lot in Roxborough Twp containing 16 acres also 3/4 of an acre in Springfield Twp.....They are to share and equally divide when George reaches age twenty-one. The lands are subject to a payment of 20 pounds per annum, his wife Margaret (their mother). To his six younger daughters, Ann Dull, Rebecca, Deborah, Mary, Catherine and Susanna Streeper, the sum of one hundred pounds.

Submitted by Joan Higgens, Streeper/Streyper/ Streipers Wills.

Joan summarizes: "you will note that he is very careful to call one set of children "my eldest' and the other set of children "my youngest". I believe that the phrase 'my eldest' refers to the children of Rebecca Greathouse and the phrase 'my youngest' refers to the children of Margaret Righter.

For further research:

"a Messuage and Lot in Roxborough Twp containing 16 acres"

MESS'UAGE, n. In law, a dwelling house and adjoining land, appropriated to the use of the household, including the adjacent buildings.

Need to determine whom Leonard Streeper acquired mess'uage and Lot in Roxborough Twp containing 16 acres from. Search for a deed transaction which may have occured between 1762 and 1770.

Excerpt from Roach's, "Back Part of Germantown":

When William [Greathouse] married Barbara Schutz [in 1749/50], he was living in Roxborough.

By 1771, a William Greathouse was assessed for the 1772 tax list of Brothersvalley Twp, Bedford County, PA, upon 200 acres of land, with 10 acres improved, two (2) horses and three (3) cows.

Sources:

The Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries, Chicago, IL. Montomery County Chronology. Online: http://www.newberry.org/ahcbp.

Helen Stoller, Krefeld Immigrants and Their Descendants, Vol. 6, No. 1, Spring 1989. Pages 16-18: Leonard Streeper Will, #: RW 6339, Montgomery County, PA.

Noah Webster's 1828, American Dictionary of the English Language, Online Edition. Resurvey defined. View @ Webster's 1828

Hannah Benner Roach, "Back Part of Germantown: A Reconstruction", Jefferson M. Moak, Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, 2001. ISBN 188709914x, 97817887099141. Page 16: When William married Barbara Schutz, he was living in Roxborough.