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City of Warwick, Rhode Island
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The master index of the RI Historical Cemeteries Transcription Project Database can be searched by name or by cemetery number. To find all the listings for cemetery WK001, for example, put that code into the search box. Click images below to enlarge.

WK047 CHRISTOPHER GREENE LOT TWIN OAKS DR ->15 ft. of tele. pole # 11

WK048 CAPT JOSEPH SPENCER LOT POTOWOMUT ROAD ->10 ft. W of tele. pole # 2

WK049 MILLERD-WESTCOTT LOT SHENANDOAH RD ->100 ft. of tele. pole # 4

WK050 WILLIAM DAVIS COLE LOT AMBASSADOR AVE ->40 ft. NE of tele. pole # 1

WK051 SARA TEFFT LOT COLE FARM RD ->75 ft. NE of tele. pole # 37.5
	Left: Sara Tefft

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Things To Do

3/15/98
Researcher rewrites history behind 'oldest' gravestone
Craig Anthony discovers, among other things, that Sara Tefft died 30 years later than originally believed.
By ELLEN LIBERMAN
Journal Staff Writer

      WARWICK -- For more than a century, Sara Tefft's sole distinction was to be buried under the oldest marked gravestone in New England. As befits such an artifact, the 250-pound fieldstone was pried from her burial plot off Occupessatuxet Cove and stored with other things of rare vintage in what was once a wine cellar under the John Brown House in Providence.
       As far as historians were concerned, Sara Tefft was no more than that - a rough chunk of stone, crudely inscribed:
HERE LIETH
THE BoDYE of SARA
TEfft IN thE MARCH 16
1642
       She was cast as a spinster, childless. Her presence in Warwick seven months before the first settlers purchased land there was a mystery.
       But Craig Anthony, an 11th-generation Rhode Islander with a fierce pride in his state's heritage, thought Sara Tefft's life was worth examining. After six years of trawling a sluggish sea of Colonial-era documents, Anthony has had the rare privilege of rewriting history.
       Sara Tefft actually died in 1672, and Rhode Island can no longer claim the oldest marked gravestone, Anthony has discovered. Far from being a barren, single woman, Tefft bore two children and was twice married to murderers who were executed for their crimes, Anthony maintains.
       "This is like detective work," said Anthony. "And it's a great story. It has everything in it: sex, murder, war and racial conflict."
       His conclusions have persuaded the steward of Sara Tefft's memorial, the Rhode Island Historical Society, to amend its documentation surrounding the stone, which is occasionally displayed, said Linda Eppich, head curator.
       More importantly, said Anthony, the fate of Sara and second husband Joshua's only son, Peter, is also the key to rethinking history's take on Joshua Tefft, one of the most notorious colonists of his time and the only Rhode Islander to be drawn and quartered for treason.
       "The recorded histories done by (the Puritan chroniclers) exhibited immense bias," Anthony said. "I wanted to write history from the point of view of a Rhode Islander and stir debate."

       SHE WAS BORN Sara Greene, most likely an illegitimate daughter of John Greene Jr., a Warwick man who was eventually elected deputy governor of the colony in 1690. Anthony first found a reference to her in court records -- she was called to answer for the crime of fornication. Sara Greene avoided four sessions before the Colonial magistrates; her father eventually paid the 40-shilling fine.
       Greene next appeared as the wife of Thomas Flounders, Anthony's research shows. In 1670, two years after they were wed, Flounders had a land dispute with a man named Walter House. One day they came to blows over it in Flounders's Narragansett shop. Flounders beat House to death and fled.
       Rhode Island and Connecticut, which had been squabbling for decades over the boundary between their infant colonies, fought for jurisdiction over the case. But the Rhode Island constables found Flounders first. The court convicted him of felonious manslaughter and he was executed that November.
       Young widow Sara Flounders next married Joshua Tefft, who eventually became a prominent villain in the Puritan accounts of Colonial Rhode Island. But she did not live to see this ignominy. Sara died March 16, 1672, two days after giving birth to a son, Peter. There is no record of how old she was.

       IN 1675, WAR broke out between the English of Plymouth Colony and the Wampanoag Indian nation of Southeastern Massachusetts. The United Colonies of New England, a confederation formed by the Plymouth, Connecticut and Massachusetts Bay Colonies, decided to make a preemptive strike against the Narragansetts, to prevent them from joining forces with the Wampanoags.
       Rhode Island sought to join the United Colonies, but was denied because of its policy of religious liberty. Most of the colony's inhabitants retreated to Aquidneck Island for safety.
       Joshua Tefft remained to defend his South Kingstown farm, where he was dragooned into the United Colonies troops. He escaped and went back to his home -- only to be captured by the Narragansetts who enslaved him.
       Anthony maintains that Tefft was forced to fight alongside the tribe during the Great Swamp Fight of December 1675, when several hundred Narragansetts -- mostly women and children -- were slaughtered at their winter refuge inside the West Kingston swamp. Tefft wounded Capt. Nathaniel Seeley, of Connecticut, who later died.
       Tefft was wounded while raiding the outlying farms around Providence and was captured by English troops. In January 1676, Tefft was taken to Richard Smith's garrison (now called Smith's Castle in North Kingstown). Various Colonial accounts laid out Tefft's crimes -- scalping a miller, firing at Colonial soldiers and wounding Seeley.
       The United Colonies tried him for high treason. The 1647 law dictated that the condemned person would be drawn and quartered and forfeit all of his land and possessions. The penalty stuffed as many bodily humiliations into one execution as possible. The traitor was hanged, then cut down while still alive. His or her private parts and entrails were cut from the body and burned in the traitor's sight. Finally, the convicted was decapitated and cut into quarters.
       Nonetheless, the Rhode Island government, in its guardianship order, saw to it that Joshua's son, Peter, inherited his father's land -- in defiance of the legal penalty.
       As Anthony sees it, Peter's inheritance and a handful of legal maneuvers to protect Tefft land proves that Rhode Island did not regard Tefft as the traitor that the United Colonies did. In his tidy Wakefield apartment, Anthony turns to a decaying set of history books atop his refrigerator. He plucks a volume from an 1864 edition of The Rhode Island Colonial Records, inherited from his great-grandfather, state Sen. Henry Clay Anthony, of Portsmouth.
       "Joshua Tefft's not in there," he said as he ruffled the pages. "There weren't that many people in Colonial Rhode Island and if things went wrong, it wouldn't have gone unrecognized. The more I became convinced he was unjustly executed, the more I wanted to exonerate him."

       THE MISINTERPRETATION of Sara Tefft's stone began in one cemetery and ended in another.
       Her bones lie in a grave on the Greene family homestead in Warwick, once a Colonial outpost. In the mid-1800s, Dr. Usher Parsons, a physician and an amateur historian, read the downward slant of the seven's top line as a four. In 1868, the historical society removed the stone for safekeeping. A descendant put up a slate copy that repeated Parson's transcription and tacked on the phrase "in the 67th year of her age."
       Three-and-a-half centuries transformed the 17th-century wilderness to the crowded bayside suburb of Conimicut. The "new" stone toppled from its foundation and lies in fragments in an overgrown tangle off Cole Farm Road. But subsequent scholars never changed the way they read that inscription.
       Craig Anthony began his journey to a new perspective on Sara Tefft -- and her place in Colonial Rhode Island history - at the Tefft family plot in South Kingstown.
       Anthony was exploring an abandoned rail bed that slices through the backwoods of South Kingstown when he stumbled on a field of stones, breaking the earth at regular intervals like teeth.
       Anthony, who had been working on a project to record all of the state's historic cemeteries, recognized it as a graveyard hosting people too insignificant to rate carved stones or settlers who predated such civilized pretensions.
       He reported this find to John Sterling, an authority on historical cemeteries and the head of the state transcription project. Sterling turned over everything he had on the cemetery plot, including an unpublished 1880 manuscript.

       ONE SENTENCE in the manuscript caught Anthony's eye: "It was in this sequestered place that the celebrated Joshua Tefft was captured and afterwards taken to Wickford where he was drawn and quartered, the only execution of the kind in Rhode Island so far as we know."
       Driven to know more about Joshua Tefft, Anthony, with some assistance from Sterling, relentlessly mined archives from Hartford to Portsmouth. One afternoon, Anthony became so engrossed in his research he was briefly locked in the Warwick City Hall vault when he failed to leave his work after the clerk turned off the upstairs lights.
       Hidden in court documents, marriage records, birth and death registers, wills and deeds were splinters of the plot Anthony has written. Yet, slivers are not enough to build a platform of historical truth.
       Sterling maintains that Anthony's contention that Joshua Tefft was a patriot is a series of "speculations" and "leaps."
       "You could interpret it that way, I wouldn't. When you add up all the facts, it's hard to see him as a poor victim."
       As for Sara Tefft, one of the unluckiest brides of the New World, Sterling said, "it's a terrific story and I'd like it to be true."
       There's no doubt that Anthony has shattered the myths surrounding Sara Tefft's stone, Sterling said. He has included this historical correction in his 1997 book on Warwick's historic cemeteries. The oldest gravestone record will go out of state -- most likely to one in either Dorchester, Mass., or Connecticut, both dated 1644, he said.
       It doesn't seem like a record worth fighting over. But Robert P. Emlen, the Brown University curator who has written about the Tefft stone and teaches a course on gravestone studies, said that every monument is another piece of a faded mosaic that informs the present.
       "They are carved in a certain way and use language that is useful to us," Emlen said. "Gravestones provide a window into a historical past. They are the material evidence of lots of people for whom no other written record exists."

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Descendants of John Tefft

Second Generation

2. Mary Tefft ⁴ (John¹) was born about 1640 in Portsmouth, Rhode Island ^⁴ and died about 1674 in Kingstown, Rhode Island ^⁴ about age 34.

Mary married Samuel Wilson ⁴ about 1657 in Probably Portsmouth, Rhode Island.⁴ Samuel was born about 1622 in probably England ^⁴ and died on August 28, 1683 in Kingstown, Rhode Island ^⁴ about age 61.

Children from this marriage were:

6 M i. Samuel Wilson ¹⁰ was born about 1658 ^¹⁰ and died after September 4, 1690 at Sea.^¹⁰

+ 7 F ii. Mary Wilson ¹¹ was born about 1663 in Kingstown, Rhode Island ^¹¹ and died in 1737 in South Kingstown, Rhode Island ^¹¹ about age 74.

+ 8 F iii. Sarah Wilson ¹² was born in 1666 ^¹² and died after March 1739.^¹²

9 M iv. James Wilson ¹⁴ was born in 1673 ^¹⁴ and died in 1706 ^¹⁴ at age 33.

+ 10 M v. Jeremiah Wilson ¹⁵ was born about 1674 in Kingstown, Rhode Island ^¹⁵ and died on June 2, 1740 in South Kingstown, Rhode Island ^¹⁵ about age 66.

3. Joshua Tefft ⁶ (John¹) was born about 1641 in Portsmouth, Rhode Island and died on January 18, 1676 in Plantation Of Wickford, Rhode Island about age 35.

During King Philip's War Joshua had been with the Indians in the winter of 1675 and had been caught up in the conflict between them and the United Colonies. It was said that he had actually fired upon the British 20 times while with the Narragansetts. On January 14, 1676 he was brought in captive to Providence. In a letter of that date written by Roger Williams to Governor Leverett of Massachusetts the tale unfolds:
"This night I was requested by Capt. Fenner and other officers of our town to take the examination and confession of an Englishman who hath been with the Indians before and since the fight. His name is Joshua Tift and he was taken by Capt. Fenner this day at an Indian house half a mile from where Capt. Fenner's house (now burned) did stand. He was asked how long he had been with the Narragansetts and answered 27 days more or less. In answer to the question how he came among them, he said he was at his farm a mile and a half from Pettaquamscutt where he hired an Indian to keep his cattle, himself proposing to go to Rhode Island but the day he prepared to go a party of Indians came and told him he must die. He begged for his life and promised he would be servant to the Sachem for life, and his life was given him as such slave. He was carried to the Fort where were 800 fighting men. His 8 cattle were killed. He said he was in the fort and waited on his master the Sachem, till he was wounded, of which wound the Sachem died 9 days afterward."
Unfortunately for Joshua his story was not to be believed and on January 18, 1676 he was executed as a traitor. The penalty was severe. The 1647 Rhode Island statute read: "For High Treason (if a man) he being accused by two lawfull witnesses or accusers, shall be drawn upon a Hurdell unto the place of Execution, and there shall be hanged by the neck, cutt down alive, his entrails and privie members cutt from him and burned in his view; then shall his head be cutt off and his body quartered; his lands and goods all forfeited." (contributed by A. Craig Anthony)
The following passage, excerpted from "Biographies and Legends of the New England Indians" by Leo Bonfanti, provides another view.
"Teft had an unusual background. Although his parents were conscientious church members, he had drifted away from the church. He had married a Wampanoag girl in 1662, had gone to live near her people, and had not attended church services of any kind since his marriage. When his father, John, came to try to convince him to return home, some Indians attacked and killed him, cut off his head, and left his body above ground to be eaten by scavengers.
Teft was tried by an army court. At his trial, his apostasy was introduced as evidence against him, and he was found guilty of treason, and shot. (The compiler believes the tale is confused here. Sources claim he was wounded in the knee during capture, not after his conviction of the charges levied against him.) Because of his background and crime of high treason, his body was quartered, and left unburied. It is quite possible that Teft's sympathies leaned towards Philip, but it is also possible that he tried to remain neutral until he was captured by the Narragansetts and forced to help them build the fortress as he claimed, for if he had volunteered his services, the fortifications would have been completed, and the English would have been unable to enter the village even with a much larger army."
It had been thought for many years that the gravestone of Sara Tefft, that bore a death date of March 16, 1642, was the oldest marked stone in New England. Because of this early date, it was theorized that this Sara might have been a sister of John and William Tefft. Recent research, conducted by historian A. Craig Anthony of Kingston, Rhode Island, with the assistance of John E. Sterling, has resulted in the need to rethink this theory. They determined that the date inscribed was actually March 16, 1672. This leads to the conclusion that this was more likely the final resting place of Joshua's wife Sara. Therefore, two days after the birth of their only child, Peter, Sara Tefft passed away, very likely due to complications from childbirth.
Tradition has it that Sara was of the Wampanoag tribe. Historian Anthony, in his manuscript "The Tefft Family & The Narragansett Controversy…", makes a strong case that Sara was an illegitimate daughter of John Greene of Warwick.

Joshua married Sarah.¹⁷ Sarah died on March 16, 1672 at Or Near Warwick, Rhode Island..^¹⁸

The child from this marriage was:

+ 11 M i. Peter Tefft ¹⁷ was born on March 14, 1672 in Warwick, Rhode Island and died between January and November 1719 in Stonington, Connecticut.

4. Samuel Tefft ⁷ (John¹) was born about 1644 in Portsmouth, Rhode Island and died in 1725 in South Kingstown, Rhode Island about age 81.

Samuel Tefft was likely born in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Samuel, in a 1704 deposition recorded in South Kingstown LE 2:61-62 gives his age as 60 years old. Then, a number of years later, there were two court cases in Newport that again allude to the year of his birth. In a deposition before William Spencer, Justice, 20 March 1720/1, concerning the location of the ancient Pequot path that ran through Kingstown, "Samuel Tifft of Kingstown aged 77 years or thereabouts", described his recollection of where the path lay. These depositions place his birth in the year 1644. This is the year most widely associated with that event. Then, two years later, 17 March 1722/3, Samuel Tifft gave another deposition before the Newport court. This time he is described as "aged about 76 years". This would place his birth in 1646-1647. I will continue to use the year 1644, though the third deposition does cast a shadow of doubt. [Jane Fletcher Fiske, ©1998, "Gleanings from Newport Court Files 1659-1783", pgs. 105, 185, Boxford, Mass.]
From various records it is known Samuel lived in Providence for a time. His family was probably sheltered on one of the islands during King Philip's War, and it is likely his first four children were born in the vicinity of Providence or Newport. There is a record of the baptism of daughter Sarah in 1679 at the First Sabbatarian Church in Newport. Samuel was first taxed in Kingstown in 1687, so it is possible Susannah, born circa 1686 was the first of his children born on the mainland.
On April 28, 1679 Samuel was chosen to serve on the Grand Jury at the General Court of Tryalls in Newport. Samuel did not show up for service and was fined 20 shillings by the court. He appealed this and the outcome was recorded in the "Proceedings of the General Assembly at Newport, March 16, 1680".
"Voted, Upon the information of Mr. John Whipple and Mr. Joseph Jenks, that Samuel Tieft, though chosen a jury-man by the towne of Providence, to attend the jury at the Generall Court of Tryalls, held in May last, yett had noe warninge by the said Court of Tryalls, fined twenty shillings, this Assembly doe see cause to remitt the said Tiefts fine."
On June 2, 1679 Samuel was chosen as a constable for the town of Providence. On August 20, 1680 he was again chosen for the Grand Jury. His name appears on a list of "Grand Jurrymen Engaged" at the General "Court of Tryalls held in his Majestys Name at Newport the 7th of September 1680". [Fiske, p. 96] At the General Quarter Sessions and Inferior Court of Common pleas held at Rochester 14 September 1687 there was "an action of Defamation Damage ten pound Sterling commenced by Rouse Helmes Plaintiff against Samuel Tift Defendant bearing the Date the 29th of August 1687. The Case Called and noe appearance." Again in 1688 Samuel was a juryman at the General Quarter sessions in Newport, and at the General Court of Trials in 1703.
Samuel Tefft demonstrated his knowledge of the native Algonquin language by acting as an interpreter at a hearing in April of 1682 on the following matter.
"Richard Arnold agreed about forty yeares testifieth and saith I being one the third of April go e ing from my home porposeing to goe to Seaconk met my Jndian man called Sam who came then from my seller att the new feelds I asked him whether the canow ware there that I might goe over the river he told me it was by the seller when he came away; but when I came to the seller, there was three squaws and thay told me an Jndian had caried the canow over the river and was gone: but the squaw called marget sams sister told me there was a bark canow that I might goe over in: I went out and out and saw it and came in to the seller againe and told her I never went in such a canow and I did not like it: thinking I must goe up to the falls to goe over: but she told me that two men came over in that canow last night: and presently went out of the seller; and I went out quikly after her and saw her puting the canow into the water, and I saw it leaked and said if shee went in that over the river shee had best take a dish to throw out the water if much came in: but shee toke none: but put ofe the barke canow speeking to the other two squaws I understod not: and went to goe over the river: and I saw when shee was aboue halfe way over the river the canow swome deep and shee paddeled toward the other side but before she came neere the shore shee left the canow and went to swiming: and then I hallowed thinking possible there might be some body one the other side might help her with the other canow: but nobody came: and I kept hallowing till shee sunk under the water and rose no more that I saw
two Jndian squaws did on the fourth of April 1682 declare unto the Jury Samuel Tift being thaire interpreter, that the day before: Richard Arnold came to goe over the river: but the squaw called marget told him there was a bark canow hee might goe in: but hee seemed not to like it: and marget being in the seller apounding corne in a mortar suddenly rose up and went out one her owene acord and went to the water side to the canow and got into it to goe over the river, and thay asked whether shee thought shee cold goe well in it shee said shee wold try and if it did not doe well shee wold come back againe soe shee went and when she was aboue hafe way over hir canow seemed to fail and she left it and went to swiming but co u ld not get to shore but sunk in the river/

(Verso)
April the fourth 1682 Sam Jndian declared that the day before he and his brother hereing that his sister marget was drowned in the river, by the new feelds he and his brother tom went in the After none to see if thay co u ld find her and take her up and thay loocking diligently att low water found her about sun sett in the Channel and thay toke her up and brought her to shore and shee was dead." (Providence Town Papers, Vol. 1, 1639-April 1682, p. 364)

The early Teffts cared for their fellow man as witnessed by John's care of "ould mott" and his watching of William Baker during his time of sickness in Portsmouth. John Tefft, Samuel's son, would also serve as overseer of the poor in South Kingstown. Samuel took in an unfortunate woman and child, but Providence would have no part of it, as recorded at the Town Council of July 12, 1683.
"Whereas there is a woman Come into our towne haveing brought a young child with her, haveing made her abode with Samuell Tift, But no bond being given to secure the Towne from what charge may Ensue; The Councill doe therefore order that ye said woman shall remoove herself & her child out of ye jurisdiction of this towne by ye 10th day of Agust next Ensueing, otherwise ye Councill will be Constrained to prossecute ye law for theire remoovals; And Yt notice be given for Yt purpose
A Coppye whereof is as followeth
Whereas you Mary Bellowes haue for some time made residence in our towne bringing a child with you, & haveing put in no bond for ye townes securitye, These are therefore to informe you, that ye Councill have ordered Yt you shall, & also your child depart out of ye jurisdiction of our towne by ye 10th of Agust next, otherwise they will be put upon it to propegate our law further for your remoovals./ And you are hereby warned to remoove. July ye 12th one thousand six hundred and eighty three: By ye Councill

Arthur ffenner Assist:
Richard Arnold Assist:
william Hopkins
Thomas ffield
Thomas Olney
Nathaniell Waterman
Edward Smith
Thomas Arnold

On August 6th, four days before she was ordered to depart Providence, Mary Bellowes was granted an additional amount of time. The Town Council allowed that she and her child could now remain until the following April. Nothing more is known of this Mary Bellowes.
Samuel eventually settled on the land of his father in Pettaquamscutt, appearing on the tax list at Kingstown in 1687, and from that time until the early 20th century Samuel and his descendants lived and worked that piece of land. Samuel was also one of the original participants in the Shannock Purchase, a tract of land that lay in the so-called vacant lands. Today most of this 9,722 acre parcel lies in the towns of Richmond and Exeter. Much of this land was in the Tefft family for many years. The Shannock Purchase was recorded June 28, 1709 in Westerly Land Evidence Vol. 2:48. The other purchasers were:

William Gibson Nicholas Utter Francis Colegrove
George Babcock George Foster William Knowles
Samuel Clark John Ennis William Clark
Thomas Parker Peter Parker James Adams
Daniel Willcox Daniel Tenant Samuel Lewis
William Utter John Witter Peter Tefft
Jeremiah Crandall Eber Crandall Samuel Perry
Joseph Brown Weston Clarke John Tefft
Nicholas Utter, Jr.

Samuel Tefft died after March 16, 1725 when he made his will, and before December 20, 1725 when the probate of the will is mentioned in the South Kingstown Probate Vol. 2:26.

Pg. 26. Dec. 20, 1725,"The probate of the the will of Samuell Tefft dec is repaired till the next council in Jan."
Pg. 27. Jan. 10, 1726, "The probate of Samuel Tefft's will is repaired till the next council in Feb."
Pg. 28. No date. "It is the opinion of this council that this is a lawful will & that it shall go to record (presumably the will of Samuel Tefft). Samuel Tefft (Jr.) appeared before Town Council & promised to give bond for the maintenance of his sister Tabitha Tefft. Joseph Tefft appeared before Town Council & desired to appeal to the Genll Council.
Pg. 29. "Att a town Council held at the hous of Robert Potter in South Kingstown this 14 day of March 1725/6
Elizabeth Tefft Widow and Executrix to Samuell Tefft Late of South Kingstown Deceased appeared before the town Council of South Kingstown this day of March 1725/6 and did declare that She did Except of the Legacy Given to her in her husbands Last Will in Lew of here thirds on all Raill Estate of here husband afore sd Deceased and that She would abide by the will according to the true intent and meaning in Every Respect

this Court is Disolved the next to be at the house of Ichabod Sheffield the Second Monday in Aprill"

The Last Will and Testament of Samuel Tefft [transcribed and contributed by A. Craig Anthony]

In the Name of God Amen the sixteenth day of March Anno Dom one Thousand seven hundred and Twenty four or five I Samuell Tefft, Senior, of South Kingstown in ye Collony of Rhode Island & Providence Plantations in New England Yeoman being Ancient & weak in body but of perfect Mind and Memory Thanks be Given Unto God Therefore calling Unto Mind the Mortality of my body and knowing it is Appointed for all Men once to dy Do make & ordaine this my Last will & Testament that is to Say Principally & first of all I give & commend my soul into the hands of God that Gave it & my body I recommend to the Earth to be buried in Decent Christian buriall at the Discretion of my Executrix hereafter named Nothing Doubting but at the General Resurrectin I shall receive the same again by the Mighty Power of God And as touching Such Worldly estate wherewith it hath pleased God to Bless in this life I give demise & Dispose of the Same in following manner & forme
Imprimis.
I Will that all my Just Debts & funerall Charges be paid in Due time
Item
I Give & bequeath to my beloved son John Tefft a Certain Neck of land the which I bought of Robert Little It being Scituate in South Kingstown aforesd Containing by estimation one hundred Acres & is bounded Northwardly by lands of William Knowles Westward on Chippuxet River Southerly on a brook that runs out of a pond into said river Easterly by a piece of land that I Sold to My sd Son which nech of Land I Give & bequeath to my said son John Tefft and to his heirs & Assigns forever
Item
I Give & Bequeath Unto my beloved son Samuell Tefft the one halfe my Whomested farme Where I now live to be taken of at the south side that is to say that part of it that lies to the westward of the brook that runs throw the great bog to be bounded Northwardly by the old Ditch that run from the pond to or near the bridge that is over sd brook in the said bog & Westerly by Land of John Tefft & and that part of in liesto the Eastward of said brook is to be run of by a East & West line so far Northward as to make up the one halfe of said farme in ye whole & it is bounded Southerly partly by Undivided Lands of William Gardner son to Henry & partly by land of Christopher Allen & Easterly by a highway & Northerly by the remaining part of sd farme to be & remaine to my sd son Samuell Tefft & his Heirs & Assigns forever
Item
I Give and Bequeath to my two before mentioned sons (Viz) John Tefft & Samuell Tefft a Certaine Tract of Land Containing one Hundred & Thirty five acres Lying and being Scituate in The Townshipp of Westerly and is part of the Shannock Purchase & Is bounded Southwardly by land of John Tefft & Westerly by land of Thomas Rogers & Easterly by Land now in the possession of Jeffery Haszard to be Equally Divided between my sd Two Sons as they shall agree to it. After my Decease & to remaine to them & their Heirs & Assigns forever
Item
I Give and Bequeath to My Beloved Son Joseph Tefft one Tract of Land Lying in Shannock Purchase in the Township of Westerly and Lyes Adjoining to Weston Clerke's Land the bounds whereof may appear by my Deed to be and to remaine to him my Son Joseph Tefft and to his Heirs and Assigns forever---
Item
I Give and bequeath to my Welbeloved Wife Elisabeth Tefft My Now dwelling House together with my Barne and Orchard with the one halfe of My Whomested farme Where I now live to be taken of at North Side sd farme and bounded Southerly by the other halfe which I Gave to my son Samuell Tefft Easterly by a highway Northwardly by Land of Henry Knowles and Westerly by Land of John Tefft to be & Remaine to my said Wife During the Time of her Naturall life and after her Decease the sd Northward most halfe of my Whomested Farme with the Housing & Orchards Thereon to return to my two before mentioned sons John Tefft and Samuel Tefft to be Equally Divided Between them as they two shall agree in ye Division of the Same
Item
My Will is that my sd two sons John Tefft and Samuell Tefft Shall be at Equall Charge in Maintaining of my Daughter Tabitha Tefft after my decease that is to say they shall Provide all Things Necessary for her maintenance & Comfortable Support During the Whole time of her Naturall Life
Item
I Give to my Welbeloved daughters (viz) Elizabeth Carpenter Esther Mumford and Mary Newton Each of Them Twenty pounds Apiece to be paid to them by me said son John Tefft within one year Next after my Decease
Item
I Give my Two Wellbeloved Daughters, Marcy Tefft & Susannah Crandell Each of them Twenty pounds apiece and also Twenty pounds to the Children of My Daughter Sarah Witter Deceased to be Equally Divided mongst the said Children & to be paid to the said Marcy Tefft Susannah Crandall & Children aforesd by My before mentioned Son Samuell Tefft within one Year Next of my Decease
Item
I Give to My before mentioned Daughter Marcy Tefft Thirty pounds to be paid to her by my Executrix within one Year Next after my Decease--
Item
I give to My Grand Daughter Sarah Witter Ten pounds to be paid her by my Executrix when she arrives to the age of Eighteen Years--
Item
I give to my Grand Son Daniel Tefft Son to Peter Tefft Deceased the sum of Twenty pounds if he lives in My family where I now live till he arrives to the age of Twenty one Years which is to be paid by My Executrix
Item
It is to be Under Stood that My Will & meaning is That the Legacies before mentioned which are only set forth to be paid so many pounds are to be paid in Current Money or passable bills of Publick Credit in ye Colony Aforesd
Item
I give all My Movable Estate both household Good and all My other Chattels that I have not already Given Away In this Instrument to My Sd Wife Elizabeth Tefft for her to dispose of as she shall see Cause Amongst My Children and I doe hereby also Constitute Make & Ordaine My Sd Welbeloved Wife Elizabeth Tefft to be my whole and Sole Executrix of This My Last Will & Testament and I doe hereby Uterly Disallow Evoke and Disannull

all and Every other former Testaments Wills Legacies & bequests and Executors by Me in any wise before Named Willed & bequeathed ratifying & Confirming this and no other to be My Last Will & Testament In witness Whereof I have hereunto Sett My hand & Seall the day & year first before written 1724/5

The Mark of Samuell T Tefft Senior (seal)

The witnesses to Samuel's will were Robert Hannah, Abraham Perkins, and Rowse Helme. They appeared before the South Kingstown Town Council on December 20, 1725 and declared that they had indeed witnessed Samuel sign this document. Elizabeth presented an inventory on the 16th and 17th which was accepted. Then an additional inventory was presented February 17th, 1726. The personal inventory of Samuel Tefft exceeded £1000, a large sum for the early 1700's.

In Rhode Island Land and Public Notary Vol. 4:14 it is recorded that Elizabeth testified that she was about 70 years old in 1722. This leads to the birth year I have recorded of 1652. Elizabeth Jenckes Tefft continued to live on the Tefft Homestead until her death in 1740. Elizabeth made her will on July 4th, in the twelfth year of the reign of King George II. King George ascended the throne June 11,1727, therefore we can surmise that her original will was written in 1739. It was recorded into the South Kingstown Council & Probate Volume 3, page 136r on May 16, 1740.
Though her will was not proved until May 12, 1740, an inventory of her estate was taken by the subscribers Isaac Shelden and Samuel Tefft, Jr on April 22, 1740. Therefore it is likely that Elizabeth died before that date.

The Last Will and Testament of Elizabeth Tefft South Kingstown Town Council & Probate 3:136r-137 [transcribed and contributed by A. Craig Anthony]

In the name of God Amen the fourth day of July in the Twelfth Year of his Majestys Reign George the second King of great Britain &c. I Elizabeth Tefft of South Kingstown in the County of Kings County &c. Widow, Being weak in Body but in perfect mind and memory, Thanks be given unto God, And calling to mind the Mortality of my Body And knowing that it is appointed for all persons once to Die Do make and ordain this my last Will and Testament, First of all I recommend my Soul into the Hands of God that gave it And my Body I recommend to the Earth to be Buried in decent Christian burial at the discretion of my Executor Nothing doubting but to that I shall (x out that I shall) receive the same again by the mighty Power of God, And as touching such worldly Estate wherewith it hath pleased God to Bless me in this Life, I give demise and dispose of the same in the manner and form following, after my just Debts are paid.
Imprimis I give to my Son John Tefft Twenty Shillings whom I also nominate Constitute and appoint my sole Executor of this my last Will and Testament
Item I give to my son Samuel Tefft Twenty Shillings in Money
Item I Give unto my Grand daughter Sarah Witter five pounds in Money
and all the rest and residue of my Estate I give in Six equal parts Viz.
Item To my Daughter Elizabeth Carpenter I give one Sixth part
Item I give to my daughter Mary Newton one Sixth part
Item I give to my daughter Esther Mumford one Sixth part
Item I give to my daughter Tabitha Tefft one Sixth part
Item I give to my daughter Susanna Crandell one Sixth part
Item I give to the Children of my daughter Sarah Witter deceased one Sixth part, my said Grand Daughter Sarah Witter being one of the Children of the said deceased and shall have equal part with her brothers and Sisters besides ye aforesd Five pounds
disannulling all other Testaments and bequests by me made ratifying

Recorded May 16th 1740
Ratifying and confirming this and none other to be my Last Will and Testament In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my Hand and Seal the day and Year first above written

Signed Sealed Published Pronounced and declared by ye sd Elizabeth Tefft as her last Will and Testament In presence of us the Subscribers

Abraham Perkins The mark of X Elizabeth Tefft (Seal)
Elisha Reynolds
Isaac Shelden

Samuel married Elizabeth Jenks,¹⁹ daughter of Joseph Jenks Jr. and Esther Ballard. Elizabeth was born in 1652 in Lynn, Massachusetts and died in April 1740 in South Kingstown, Rhode Island at age 88.

Children from this marriage were:

+ 12 M i. John Tefft ²⁰ died before June 21, 1762 in South Kingstown, Rhode Island.

+ 13 M ii. Joseph Tefft ²² was born in Rhode Island and died about 1735.

+ 14 M iii. Samuel Tefft ²² was born about 1683 in Kingstown, Rhode Island ^²⁴ and died in 1760 in South Kingstown, Rhode Island ^{²⁵^,26} about age 77.

+ 15 F iv. Sarah Tefft ²⁷ was christened in 1679 in Newport, Rhode Island and died before 1724.

+ 16 F v. Esther Tefft ²² died after July 4, 1739.

+ 17 F vi. Mary Tefft ²² ^,28 died after July 1739.^²⁹

+ 18 F vii. Susannah Tefft ²² ^,26 died after July 1739.^²⁹

+ 19 F viii. Elizabeth Tefft ²² died in 1750 in South Kingstown, Rhode Island.

20 F ix. Tabitha Tefft ²² died after July 1739.^²⁹

21 F x. Mercy Tefft ²² died before July 1739.^²⁹

5. Tabitha Tefft ⁷ (John¹) was born in 1653 in Portsmouth, Rhode Island ^⁸ and died after October 29, 1722.^⁸

"February ye 13th 1670: George Garner of Petequamset & Tabitha Tiffe of ye said Petequamsett were maried by Capt. John Greene at Mr Jenkes his house, and took tooke for testimony of their lawfull publication in this Collony ye oaths off Samuel Tiffe Henry Gardner & benony garner" (Record of Marriages-Warwick 1649. MS. A1:4, contributed by Donna Potter)

On October 29, 1722, Tabitha Gardiner stated in a deposition she was 69 years old. (Rhode Island Genealogical Register, Vol. 9, No. 2, p. 98)

Tabitha married George Gardiner,⁹ son of George Gardiner and Herodias Long, on February 13, 1670 in Warwick, Rhode Island.⁹ George was born about 1649 in Newport, Rhode Island ^³² and died about 1724 in North Kingstown, Rhode Island ^⁹ about age 75.

Children from this marriage were:

22 M i. George Gardiner ⁹ died before 1716.

+ 23 M ii. Joseph Gardiner ⁹ was born about 1671.

+ 24 M iii. Nicholas Gardiner ⁹ was born about 1673 and died in 1746 about age 73.

+ 25 M iv. Samuel Gardiner ⁹ was born about 1675.

+ 26 M v. Robert Gardiner ⁹ was born about 1677.

+ 27 M vi. John Gardiner ⁹ was born about 1679.

+ 28 F vii. Hannah Gardiner ⁹ was born about 1680 in Kingstown, Rhode Island ^³³ and died in April 1756 about age 76.

+ 29 F viii. Tabitha Gardiner ⁹ was born on February 2, 1687 and died in 1760 at age 73.

+ 30 F ix. Joanna Gardiner .⁹

+ 31 F x. Lydia Gardiner .⁹

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