• "Will: George Claypool, 1731" (http://images.goldbergauctions.com/php/lot_auc.php?site=1&sale=27&lot=4174).

• Category: Abstract

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George Claypoole's last will and testament, executed in Philadelphia, "this Sixteenth Day of the Eleventh month called January," (the Quaker year started in March) 1729, being a certified true copy "taken from and compared with the Original remainng In the Regr. Generals office at Philada. the 26 July 1731," 3 pp, large folio. Claypoole's extensive holdings include many acres of land in Chester and Bucks counties, as well as numerous lots in Philadelphia: on the north side of High Street, two lots on Society Hill, land on the east side of Second Street, on the south side of Union Street, etc. His wife Deborah is to retain the use of the slaves during her lifetime, then they are to be divided: "…my Will is that my Negro man named Jacob be my Daughter Deborah's, and my negro woman Hannah be my Daughter Mary's, and my Negro boy named Ishmaiel shall be my Son Abrahams, and my Negro girl named Rachel shall be my Daughter Hannahs…." Andrew Hamilton is named as overseer of the will; he is best known for defending printer John Peter Zenger in the first free speech trial in America.

"In his will George Claypoole mentions in addition to his wife and children, his nephew James Claypoole (currier), his nephew James Claypoole of Sussex, Delaware, his brother Joseph and sister Mary Cooke" (Rebecca Graff, "The Claypoole Family," p. 61)