The 19th day of April, 1634, I Joan Patten of Crewkerne, co. Somerset, being weake of bodie, do make and ordain this my last will and testament in manner and form following: I give to every one of my brothers twenty shillings apiece; to my sister Sarah my best gown, and to every of her children twelve pence; to my sister Elizabeth twenty marks; to William Gaylard in New England five pounds to be bestowed for him as my executor shall think fit; to Richard Pore forty shillings; to Giles Browne twenty shillings; to Henrie Brooke twenty shillings; to the widow Arundell five shillings; and all the rest of my goods I give to my sister, whom I do make sole executrix of this my will. Memo that if it be so devised and expressed by my father's last will that my portion given (by) my father shall after my decease be equally divided between my sisters Marie and Elizabeth, then the twenty marks before given to my sister Elizabeth shall cease and not be paid. Memo also that Marie the sister of Joan Patten was nominated by the said Joan for her executrix.

Witnesses: John Bull, Elizabeth Patten, widow.
No Probate.

(Cons. Wells, Book 47, f. 11.)

The above most interesting will serves to give us a clue to an important family of Pitminster, in the County of Somerset, of which the founders (so far as at present known) were Nicholas Gayler (i. c, Gaylord) and Joan, his wife (afterwards married to Giles Alwyn), whose wills follow, supplying the children of Nicholas, whose names he very inconsiderately omitted in his own will.

Joan Patten, the testatrix, was probably a daughter of one of the five sons Christopher, Hugh, William, John or Edmund, thus obtained but, as none of their wills have been discovered, it is, from the present view-point, impossible to say which. It seems evident that the William named in her will was that William of Dorchester, Mass., who died in 1673, aged nearly 88 years, and could not, therefore, have been her brother as both the putative parents had long been dead in 1585, and therefore he and his brother John, also of Dorchester, were probably her nephews. John was probably dead at the time of the making of her will (the last mention of him in our records being 1632), which accounts for his omission and strengthens the probability of the connection. Hugh Gaylord, of whom later, who remained in England but whose daughter Alice, wife of Richard Treat, came to America, could not for similar reasons of age, have been the brother Hugh of the will, but must also have been a nephew and probably a brother of the Dorchester emigrants. A brief sketch of what is known of these three may be of interest to the reader.

William Galler (as he signs himself in the Dorchester records) was a deacon at the gathering of the Church in Plymouth, Eng- land, in 1630. He came in the Alary & John the same year and made application for admission as Freeman, 19 October following, being admitted 18 May, 1631. He was Representative for Dor- chester, 1635, 1636 and 1638. Removed to Windsor, Conn., and was Representative from that place for nearly 40* semi-annual sessions to 1664, and died 20 July, 1673, in his 88th year.