Nathaniel White (abt. 1645 - abt. 1690)

Ancestors

Descendants

Died about Oct 1690 at about age 45 in Eastchester, Westchester, New York Colony

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Biography

The origins of Nathaniel White and his sister Elizabeth remain to be uncovered.

Nathaniel and Elizabeth White received legacies from Dr. Thomas Pell, the Fairfield man who purchased from the Indians Pelham Manor, Eastchester, and Westchester, in Dr.Pell's will dated 21 Sep 1669.^[1]

So what is their relationship to Dr. Pell? That section of his will is offers some insight. It reads:

Item - I give to my sonne (his wife's son) Francis French, all my tobacco, growing or not growing, in casks, or otherways made up in tools or twist. Item - I give to Nathaniel French two young cowes and one young bull. Item - To Elizabeth White I give the worst feather bed and boulster, one iron pott, six porringers, six spoons of alcamy, six pewter platters, one brass skellet, and fifteen poiunds more in goods or cattle, current pay, and two comely suits of apparel, one for working days, another for Sabbath dayes, with two paire of shoes. Item - to Mary White I give six pounds and one suite of aparell of serge, with two shifts, and wool for stockings. I give to Nathaniell White, an apprentice in some handicraft trade; and if it be for his advantage, to give tenne pounds with him out of my estate, not diminishing his twenty pounds, which is to be improved for his use. I give to Barbary my servant - I set her at liberty to be a free woman . . . and one flock bed and boulster, and two blancoats, a pair of sheets, and cotton rug, one iron pott, an iron skellett, six trays and chest . . . six porringers, two pewter platters, six pewter spoons or ye value of them, two cowes or the value of them.^[2]

That wording suggests that Nathaniel, Mary, and Elizabeth White were in some way Dr. Pell's dependents, possibly distant relatives, more likely employees in view of the similarity of the bequests given to Elizabeth and the freed slave Barbary: enough linen and kitchen equipment to set up housekeeping. Also, this is the only mention yet found of Mary White, perhaps a younger sister to Elizabeth and Nathaniel. Nathaniel presumably was apprenticed, Dr. Pell having paid the cost in advance, and must still have been underage at 1669. That suggests he was born in 1648 or, probably, later.

Nathaniel White arrived in Eastchester before 1680, when he signed the covenant.^[3] His elder sister Elizabeth was already there, having married Nathaniel Tompkins before 1672 and started a family.

Nathaniel participated in the second division of land in Eastchester, drawing the last of 22 lots. ^[3] His lot was just west of and uphill from the center of town, across the road from the garrison house constructed by William Haiden.^[4]

Nathaniel White was named co-executor in the 1684 will of his brother-in-law Nathaniel Tompkins.^[1]

Nathaniel contributed in 1685 to fund the new minister.^[3]

Nathaniel White died in Eastchester in October 1690, based on a notation in Westchester county probate records,^[1] and the subsequent transfer of his land.^[5]

Nathaniel apparently had a wife and definitely had children. The birth of their son William was recorded in Eastchester town records on 26 August 1684^[4] and the notation in county records about his death stated that he left a daughter Sarah as well, but did not mention a wife.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Pelletreau, William S., Early Wills of Westchester County , New York, from 1664 to 1784 . . . a careful abstract . . ., (New York, 1898, Francis P Harper), pp. 1, 379-380, 390
2. ↑ Bolton, Robert, History of the County of Westchester, from its first settlement to the present time, (New York, 1848, Alexander S. Gould), Vol. 1, pp. 523-524
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} Town records, Vol. 1, p. 75, Vol. II, p. 8 & 5
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} Tompkins, David A., Eastchester Village, Colonial New York 1666-1698: Maps and Inhabitants, (Eastchester Historical Society, 1997)
5. ↑ Westchester County Land Records, Liber B-75, cited by David A. Tompkins

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