married in 1653. The Governor's will was made in 1659. It had then
become quite probable that John might not have issue. The will gives
him and his heirs, but not his assigns, the Bishop farm. In the event
of his death without issue, his widow would have her dower and legal
life right in it, but the final heir would be Zerubabel. In 1662, the
Governor, who had, some years before, removed to Boston, where he
resided the remainder of his life, executed a deed, giving to his son
John, "his heirs and assigns," a full and permanent title to the
Bishop farm. This was a variation of the plan for the disposition of
his estate as shown in his will. He probably designed to make a new
will, securing to his natural heirs, so far as his other landed
property was concerned, what he had thus permitted to pass away from
them in the Bishop farm; that is, the full and immediate possession
by the survivor, if either of the sons died without issue. It was a
favorite idea, almost a sacred principle, in those days, to have lands
go in the natural descent. The sentiment is quite apparent in the
tenor of the Governor's will. When he deprived, by his deed to John in
1662, Zerubabel's family of the right to the final possession of the
Bishop farm, it can hardly be doubted that he relied upon the
provisions of his will to secure to them the immediate, complete
possession of all his other lands, without the incumbrance of any
claim of dower or otherwise of John's widow. But the pressure of
public duties prevented his duly executing his will, and putting it
into a new shape, in conformity with the circumstances of the case.
The troubles that followed teach the necessity of the utmost caution
and carefulness in that most difficult and most irremediable of all
business transactions,--the attempt to continue the control of
property, after death, by written instruments.

John Endicott, Jr., died in February, 1668, without issue; leaving his