Jane Guy

Nich[olas] Guy of Upton Grey husb[andman] & Jane Tainter of New Alresford wid[ow], at U[pton] G[rey], 30 Oct. [1629]. [1]

notes

The resolution is to be found in a careful reading of Jane Guy's will. After the usual religious preamble, she bequeaths to "my sonne Joseph Tainter," then to "my daughter Mary the wife of Henry Curtise," and then to "my sonne-in-law Henry Curtise" (*Middlesex Co. PR Case #9996). This precise language indicates that Joseph Tainter was Jane's biological son, by a Tainter husband prior to her marriage to Nicholas Guy, and that Mary, wife of Henry Curtis, was Jane's daughter. For this to be correct we must assume that Jane's age was seriously understated on the passenger list, and perhaps Joseph's was slightly overstated.

From other statements in Jane Guy's will, and from a deed which she made just two months earlier, we learn that all was not harmonious in the Guy-Tainter-Curtis family. On 20 June 1666 Jane Guy, widow of Nicholas Guy, grants to her grandson Ephraim Curtis "that farme land which was formerly granted in Watertown bounds (unto my late husband Nicholas Guy)" (Middlesex Co. LR 4:240). In her will she gives the rest of her real estate to Joseph Tainter, partly in consideration of "a debt he challengeth of me and pretendeth that I owe him." If this settlement was not acceptable to Joseph, then he was to receive no land, but to get forty pounds instead from her executor.

Between 1666 and 1690 this arrangement was somehow overturned, for in the latter year we find Joseph Tainter in possession of the land bequeathed to him by his mother, and also the farm which was supposed to go to Ephraim Curtis. (The indexes to Middlesex deeds, Middlesex court records, Suffolk Court Files, and Massachusetts Archives reveal nothing further on this land dispute). Thus, the two farms which Joseph Tainter passed on to his son Simon had originally been granted to his step-father, Nicholas Guy, and to his father-in-law, Simon Eire. In each case Joseph's title seems a bit dubious. [2]

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