wishes: but he remembered the solemn promise he had made to his
mother, as he parted from her for ever, and received his sister from
her hands, and every sentiment of honor, and of filial and fraternal
love, restrained him; and his mind settled into a conviction that it
was his duty to allow his sister the benefit of the final inheritance
of his property. As the particular persons to whom his wife wished him
to make bequests were her relatives, and the law would give her an
ample allowance in the use, for life, of his large landed property,
she would be able to provide for them after his death, as he had been
in the habit of doing.

The General Court took a just view of the case, and decided that she
should have the whole movable estate for her own "use and dispose,"
and the "use and benefit" for life of the houses and lands, "making no
strip nor waste;" after her death, the same to go to Ellen, the wife
of Ezekiel Cheever. The widow was to pay all debts due from the
estate, and also twenty pounds to the children of her brother, Joshua
Rea. The Court seemed to think, that, if any expectations had been
excited in that quarter, she was fully as responsible for it as her
late husband; and, as the Cheevers were to get nothing, while she
lived, out of the estate, the Court required her to pay the sum just
named to her nephews and nieces. They ordered Ezekiel Cheever to pay
five pounds as costs for their hearing the case, which he did on the
spot.

It may be mentioned, by the way, that the widow of Captain Lothrop was
married again within eight months of his death; but that was quite
usual in those days. She and her new husband concluded that it would
be troublesome to take care of Captain Lothrop's several farms. They
preferred to live in the town. She was probably over sixty years of