New Jersey Archives, First Series - two abstracts from the Calendar of Wills: Vol. XXXIV (Wills V, 1771-1780) PDF p. 200, the will of Joseph Gaston of Bernardstown, Somerset Co., dated 31 March 1777 with its inventory of 11 April 1777 (Lib. 18, p. 577); and Vol. XXXIII (Wills IV, 1761-1770) PDF p. 246, the intestate administration of Bryan Leferty of Somerset Co., granted 20 July 1769 to his widow Mary Leferty (Lib. K, p. 143).

What this document records

The joseph gaston will verbatim

"1777, March 31. Gaston, Joseph, of Bernardstown, Somerset Co.; will of. Wife, Margrete, £200, and she may live on the place until it is sold. Grandsons, William Gaston and Joseph Gaston, £40 to each, when 21. Grandchildren, children of my son, John, namely, John, Stephen, Elizabeth, Israel and Margrete, £50, which is to be paid to their mother, the widow of John, deceased, and to be paid to them when 21. Son, Robert, £130, out of which he has received £79 by payment of his bond to Mary Lefferty. Son, Joseph, £130. Grandchildren, Joseph, William and John, who are the sons of David Chambers, £10 to each, when 21. Son Robert, son Joseph, daughter Martha Patterson, daughter Margaret Kirkpatrick and daughter, Prusilla McCain, the remainder. Executors - sons Robert and Joseph and friend David Kirkpatrick. Witnesses - John Roy, Robert Helm, William Roy, Elizabeth Roy. Proved [no date]. 1777, April 11. Inventory, £292.14.3, made by John Roy and Robert Helm. Lib. 18, p. 577."

The bryan leferty administration verbatim

"1769, July 20. Leferty, Bryan, of Somerset Co. Int. Adm'x - Mary Leferty, widow of said Bryan. Fellowbondsman - John Gaston, of said place, merchant. Witnesses - William Sickels and Mary Vandeventer. Lib. K, p. 143."

This is a better candidate father for p55 than the one tested this morning

[desc] [G.726] t1 tested whether Robert Gaston Robert Gaston - husband of Rosanna (Cooper) Gaston Rosanna Cooper, Daniel Sr's daughter - is a son of Hugh Gaston Sr of Lamington, and the answer was NO: that memorial's panel names four children and Robert is not among them. Joseph Gaston of Bernardstown fits far better, on four independent points: | Robert Gaston Robert Gaston | Joseph Gaston's will, 1777 | |---|---| | born 28 Jan 1732 at BASKING RIDGE ([M.45], his SAR application) | the testator is "of Bernardstown" - Bernards Township, i.e. Basking Ridge | | died 22 Sep 1793 | names a living son Robert and makes him an executor in 1777 | | an adult of standing - Chairman of the Pequannock Committee of Safety ([I.89]) | an executor and residuary legatee | | married into a family with a LEFFERTY connection - Margaret (Lafferty) Cooper Margaret (Lafferty) Cooper is his wife's sister-in-law, wife of George Cooper George Cooper | "Son, Robert ... has received £79 by payment of his bond to Mary Lefferty" | GRADED possible, NOT ASSERTED, AND NOTHING IS LINKED. Robert Gaston is not a rare name; the abstract gives the son no age, no residence and no wife; and the will's "Proved [no date]" leaves even the testator's death year open. This is a candidate to test, not a parentage to write - and the test is the original instrument at Lib. 18, p. 577 and the Bernards/Lamington church records.

And mary lefferty is the hinge between the two abstracts

[desc] The two documents are transcribed together because one name joins them. The 1769 administration makes Mary Leferty the widow and administratrix of Bryan Leferty of Somerset Co., who died INTESTATE. Eight years later Joseph Gaston's will records that his son Robert had a bond to Mary Lefferty, £79 of which the father had paid. ⇒ the Gaston and Lefferty families of Somerset were financially entangled in exactly the generation in which Rosanna (Cooper) Gaston Rosanna Cooper married a Gaston and Margaret (Lafferty) Cooper Margaret Lafferty married a Cooper. That is a context, not a kinship, and it is recorded as one. Note also the fellowbondsman on the 1769 administration is John Gaston, merchant, of the same place - a second Gaston-Lefferty tie in the same document.

And it complicates snells 1749 date for bryan

[desc] [I.259] records Snell 1881 reading "Bryan Lefferty, Esq., 1749, sixty-four" off a stone at Lamington; [A.225] documents a Bryen Lafferty as an executor in Somerset in 1746. This administration is dated 1769 - twenty years after Snell's stone. Three readings, none yet preferred: (a) two men of the name, a Bryan who died 1749 and another who died c. 1769; (b) Snell's date misread off a worn stone; (c) the 1769 man is a son. The 1746 executor could be either. ⇒ recorded as an open conflict, and it matters because Margaret (Lafferty) Cooper Margaret was born in 1743 - a father who died in 1769 leaves her a grown woman at his death and an administration account that should name heirs, where a father who died in 1749 leaves her a child of six.

A search gap of my own worth stating

[desc] [A.225] reported that there is 'no will or administration for Bryan Lefferty in the printed abstracts' on the strength of searching Vols XXX (1730-1750) and XXXII (1751-1760). That was too narrow a search and this administration is the proof - it sits in Vol XXXIII (1761-1770), which was not searched. The claim on [A.225] is corrected there. ⇒ a negative over a printed series is only as wide as the volumes actually searched, which is the same lesson this session met with the CEMETERIES versus BURIAL-PLACES keyword.

John gaston of bedminster 1776 and his gravestone

[desc] t3's first item read, and it ties a will to a stone. Vol. XXXIV p. 200, verbatim:

"1776, Sept. 10. Gaston, John, of Bedminster Township, Somerset Co.; will of. Wife, Sarah, a bed. Eldest son, William Gaston, a horse. Son, Joseph, a horse and £10. Son, John, a colt. Real estate to be sold, and the money given to my wife and all my children that I now have; that is in 8 parts. Executors - wife, Sarah, Rev. Jeremiah Halsey and Alexander McEowen. Witnesses - Thomas Berry, George Scharnp, Samuel Whitaker. Proved Oct. 14, 1776. 1776, Oct. 22. Inventory, £2,050.4.2, made by Elias Vanderveer and Alexander Kirkpatrick. Lib. 18, p. 1."

AND [G.726]'s LAMINGTON ROSTER HOLDS HIM: John Gaston, 10 Nov 1730 - 3 Oct 1776, memorial 54623914. Will made 10 September, testator dead 3 October, will proved 14 October - the three dates nest exactly. ⇒ this testator is that memorial, which is a probate-to-gravestone match of the kind neither source could make alone. NO ROBERT IS NAMED - but only three of the children are, and the estate is divided in 8 parts, so five or more are unnamed. ⇒ this will neither supports nor excludes** a Robert among them, and it must not be read as a negative. The inventory of £2,050 makes him much the wealthiest of the Somerset Gastons met so far - Joseph of Bernardstown's was £292.

The roster and the probate series describe one community

[desc] This is the methodological point, and it bears on the burying-grounds items directly. Names cross-matching between [G.726]'s Lamington roster / Snell's transcribed inscriptions and the Somerset probate abstracts, found incidentally while reading four documents:

| name | in the probate record | on the Lamington roster or in Snell | |---|---|---| | James Andrew | witness, Macdonel will 1746 ([A.225]) | James Andrew, 1714 - 15 Sep 1755, memorial 54566267 | | Samuel Barclay | - | Samuel Barclay, unknown - Jan 1750 (54566411 window) = Snell's "Samuel Barclay, January, 1750" | | John Barkley | witness, John Craig's will 1773 | Pvt John Barkley, VETERAN, 1742 - 9 Aug 1792, memorial 52498390 | | John Gaston | testator 1776, Bedminster | John Gaston, 10 Nov 1730 - 3 Oct 1776, memorial 54623914 | | Rev. Jeremiah Halsey | executor, John Gaston's will 1776 | one of the three pastors Snell names as buried in the churchyard ([I.259]) | | Moses Craig | testator 1776 (son Robert; daughters Agnes Cox, Catherine Huff) | Snell: "Moses Craig, July 31, 1775, seventy-five" - a one-year discrepancy worth noting | | Kirkpatrick | Alexander appraises 1776; David executor 1777 | Jennet Kirkpatrick Gaston; and [G.241]'s two David Kirkpatricks of Basking Ridge |

⇒ a churchyard roster and a county probate series are two views of one community, and each supplies what the other cannot: the probate gives relationships and dates of will and proof, the roster gives dates of death and who lies where. Where a burial is unmarked - which Snell says is the common case in these townships ([I.259]) - the probate series is often the only surviving trace of the person, which is precisely the corpus the three-county item's next step calls for.

Hugh gaston sr left no probated estate in the calendars

[desc] The sharpest available test of Robert Gaston's parentage was run and came back empty. Hugh Gaston Sr died 23 December 1772 ([G.726]), squarely inside Vol. XXXIV (Wills V, 1771-1780). A father's will names his sons, so his own estate would have settled whether Robert is among them. A full-text search of that volume for Gaston returns three pages and NOT ONE of them is his estate: - p. 115 - the will of John Craig of Bernards Twp, 1773, with "Executors - John Linn and Hugh Gaston, both of Bedminster, and Samuel Linn, of Bernards". Context, not a Gaston record. - p. 200 - the wills of John Gaston of Bedminster (1776) and Joseph Gaston of Bernardstown (1777), both transcribed above. - p. 203 - a will proved 27 April 1778 witnessed by "Hugh Gaston, William Logan, Alexander Kirkpatrick", with an inventory of £248.12.0 made by John Voorhees and Hugh Gaston. This must be Hugh Gaston JR (1733-1808) - his father was six years dead. Note William Logan beside him: the Lamington roster holds Rebecca Gaston Logan, 1739-1819, Hugh Sr's daughter, so Logan is very likely her husband. ⇒ no will and no administration for Hugh Gaston Sr in the printed abstracts. The four children on his Find a Grave panel remain the only list of his issue the catalog has, and it is contributor-tier. [G.726] t1's negative therefore stands on a weaker footing than a will would have given it - which is a reason to be MORE cautious about Joseph of Bernardstown, not less, since neither candidate father has been tested against a document that enumerates sons.