Saturday, October 21, 2017

Surname Saturday ~ FORTUNE of Marblehead

FORTUNE / FORTIN

Elias Fortune, my 9th great grandfather, first  arrived in Marblehead as a fisherman for Moses Maverick, my 10th great grandfather in another lineage.    He was granted a lot of land in Marblehead, Massachusetts in 1673 [Essex Register of Deeds, book 39, leaf 22].  Not much is known about Elias, except that he built a house on his lot and lived there.  This house was gone in 1729 when his son, Samuel Fortune, sold this land to his brother-in-law. [Essex Registry of Deeds, Book 55, leaf 96].

Elias married Mary Pittman, the daughter of another Marblehead fisherman, Thomas Pittman, and they had thirteen children.  Elias Fortune’s will left his estate to his wife, and eight surviving children. (See below).   I descend from his daughter, Mary, who married Samuel Hoyle, my 8th great grandparents.

Essex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1638- 1881. Online database. American Ancestors.org.  New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014 https://www.americanancestors.org/DB515/i/13765/9780-co1/245240739   accessed October 9, 2017.   Probate no. 9780, page 4


"The Last Will and Testament of Elias Fortune
Of Marblehead in the County of Essex

I Elias Fortune being sick in body, but sound memory, and being desirous to
settle the estate lent me by God, Doe by these patents revoke all former Wills by
me made, and declare this onely to be my last Will and Testament ??? I commit my
soul into the hands of God my Creator and Redeemer, my body to the earth dec-
ently to be buried, my temporall estate I dispose of as followes, I will that all
my just Debts be firstly satisfied by my Exectutrix hereafter named, and as to the
Remainder of my estate, I will that ye who of ye same, Reall and personal with all
the profits and benefits thereof so abide and remain in the hands and possession of
my dear wife Mary for her comfortable maintenance, so long as she continues, and
remains a Widdow, and for ye educating of my children till they shall come of Age,
and furthermore I do will, that after my wife’s decease, if not remarried, what ever
of my estate, Reall or personal shall be found left, descend to and be enjoyed by my children
equally part and part alike, and hold to by them and their Heirs for ever, being named
Elias, John, Samuel, Elizabeth, Sarah, Mary, Rebecca, Anna,  Elias namely my eldest
son to have my ??? and I do also hereby give liberty to my wife Mary, in case of
her reall need, to alienate in her life time, so much as shall be judged by her friends
necessary, of any part of the Reall estate, whither of that given her by her father
or any other any other, that she may not be brought to want; for case my wife see cause to marry
again, I doe then give her Ten pound, of such of the moveables as she shall take
the estate then left, I will it be forthwith distributed equally among my children
my eldest son Elias to have the first choice, and be executor, take the inheritance
of his Uncle Thomas Pitman in the affair, desiring there may be no strife among my chil-
dren, but that all acquainted in their determination, impairing also my children
Hereby to make any ?? of any part of their lands one to another for
conveniency sake, I appoint my dear wife Mary full and solo Executrix
of this my Will and my Brother Thomas Pitman Overseer of this my will
and to see that all my children may have their just Right according to this my Will.
In witness where of I have hereunto sett my hand and seale this nineteenth
Day of January: Anno Dom: one thousand, seven hundren and four/five.

Signed, Sealed and declared                                   Elias    EL         Fortune
In the presence of:                                                       his marke
Thomas   TD Dod   son
His marke
James Hawkings
Thomas dod Junr
Samuel Cheever"



For more about Elias Fortune:

Farmers and Fishermen: Two Centuries of Work in Essex County, Massachusetts, 1630 - 1850, by Daniel Vickers, 1994, Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and the University of North Carolina Press,  see page 134.

Marblehead in the Year 1700, by Sidney Perley, see page 52 (available online at the Marblehead Museum website http://marbleheadmuseum.org/Perley%20Final-1.pdf )

My FORTUNE genealogy:

Generation 1:  Elias Fortune, born about 1640, probably in England; died November 1705 in Marblehead, Massachusetts; married about 1669 to Mary Pitman, daughter of Thomas Pitman and Joan Unknown.  She was born about 1648 in Salem, Massachusetts, and died 1734 in Marblehead.  Thirteen children.

Generation 2:  Mary Fortune, born 1680 in Salem, died October 1710 in Marblehead, married on 16 November 1699 in Marblehead to Samuel Hoyle, so of John Hoyle and Anne Knight.  He was born 15 January 1677 in Marblehead, and died October 1710 in Marblehead.

Generation 3:  Mary Hoyle m. Peter Homan
Generation 4:  William Homan m. Elizabeth Unknown
Generation 5:  Thomas Homan m. Tabitha Glover
Generation 6: Betsey Jillings Homan m. Jabez Treadwell
Generation 7: Eliza Ann Treadwell m. Abijah Hitchings
Generation 8:  Abijah Franklin Hitchings m. Hannah Eliza Lewis
Generation 9:  Arthur Treadwell Hitchings m. Florence Etta Hoogerzeil
Generation 10:  Gertrude Matilda Hitchings m. Stanley Elmer Allen (my grandparents)

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, “Surname Saturday ~  FORTUNE of Marblehead”, Nutfield Genealogy, posted October 21, 2017, (https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2017/10/surname-saturday-fortune-of-marblehead.html: accessed [access date]).

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