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William Taverner
LAST WILL & TESTAMENT PLEASE NOTE: this Will is badly damaged. The document was folded into eight and something was spilled on the right-hand side. The top right-hand eighth has been torn away altogether and is lost. The bottom right-hand eighth has been washed away and torn almost to illegibility. In the Name of God Amen. This nine & twenty day of October … First and principally I bequeath and committ my Soule into the most mercyfull ha[nds]… William Taverner Signed sealed published and declared by the above named Testator - these presents to be his Last Will and Testament : in presence of :/ Edwin Lintern junior Dorset History Centre Reference: C/P/W 2 NOTES: William Taverner, fisherman of Poole and planter of Newfoundland, loved his grandchildren. His Will is almost entirely about them and he makes seven of them (all the children of his two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth) his joint Executors and Executrices. Unfortunately, his Will is badly damaged and so some names are missing, like the name of his son who was father to his grandchildren Andrew, Robert, John and James. The document was folded into eight, and at some stage something was spilled on it. The top right-hand eighth became detached, and is lost, while the bottom right-hand eighth is so badly stained and torn, it is barely legible in places. Still, his Will yields a lot of information about the Taverner family, which is all the more valuable because the parish register of Poole St James for the period 1598-1652 has rotted, or been eaten away, to almost nothing. He was married to Margaret, whom he termed his "beloved wife", and had at least 7 children: 1. John - joint inheritor of the NF plantation with his brother James 2. James - joint inheritor of the NF plantation with his brother John 3. William; married to Ma... [Mary?] whose children are mentioned in the Will, but not named. From reading Taverner Wills, they can be deduced to be the siblings mentioned by Isaac Taverner, writing master of Poole, in his will of 1718: William, Mary Woodford, Elizabeth Corbin and Rachel Lester. (In the entry for Benjamin Lester, MP for Poole, in the History of Parliament online, it states his mother Rachel was the daughter of "William Taverner of Newfoundland"). William Taverner, the third of that name, is the one who conducted the first survey of Newfoundland in 1718, which means there is another sibling to add to the list: Abraham. His name was often coupled with that of his brother, until his untimely death in 1709. William would one day take on a boy apprentice, John Masters, who would grow up to become a successful merchant himself, marry the boss's daughter (Sarah Taverner) and serve as Mayor of Poole. 4. Fourth son; name on the lost segment of the Will; probably Andrew, going by Sir John Berry's 1675 Census of the Bay Planters, and assuming Sir John followed the convention of naming the sons in age order. If this is indeed Andrew, he must have gone back and forth from Newfoundland to father Andrew, Robert, John and James, who are all mentioned in his father's will, since on the 1675 Berry Census he had no wife or children with him in Newfoundland. His son James may be the James of Newfoundland whose Will was proved at Poole in 1745, in which case Andrew had three more children, as James's Will talks of 3 more siblings: Jacob, Mary and Emma/Amy Taverner. (Note, Jacob was appointed as one of the first Justices of the Peace for Trinity in Newfoundland in 1729, but later dismissed for "being a dissenter".) 5. Robert - not named in the Will, but he was the father of the grandson Robert who is named in the Will (whose mother Elizabeth must have died in childbirth, as he was christened on the same day she was buried; she was probably Elizabeth, daughter of William Balling and Edith Dolling of Swanage, given the name of Robert & Elizabeth's first son, William Balling Taverner, who died shortly after his mother). Robert senior appears on Sir John Berry's 1675 Census of Newfoundland planters, so must have returned shortly afterwards to father Robert (it was roughly a 5-week trip). Robert would later re-marry, to Mary, and have one more son christened at Poole in 1690, John Taverner. Given his grandson's references to various Taverner uncles and aunts in his will, there may have been other children christened elsewhere. 6. Mary, wife of Samuel White, of Poole and Conception Bay, Newfoundland, married at Poole St James on December 6th, 1669. They were the parents of William, Samuel and Mark White, who are all named in the Will. Later they would have a fourth son, Joseph, who would one day build the first ship ever to be constructed in Newfoundland (the Brig Joseph, 1723). This family was non-conformist (Quakers), so do not appear in the christening register, but Samuel and at least two of the sons left Wills confirming each other's identity. 7. Elizabeth, wife of William Williams, married at Poole St James on May 23rd, 1671. Their four youngest children are named in the Will: William (b.1674 - named 1st because he's the eldest boy); Elizabeth (b. 1672); Mary (b. 1677) and Jane (b. 1679). Later there would be another son, Philip (b. 1682). This family were Anglican, and the christenings of all these children can be found in the parish register of Poole St James. William Williams senior would later serve as Mayor of Poole. The Executors of the Will were William, Samuel & Mark White and William, Elizabeth, Mary and Jane White. Some of them were literally babies, so William named two trusted friends, Nicholas Efford and John Carter, both merchants and Justices of the Peace of Poole, to be "Trustee Executors" and Overseers of his Will. According to the Lester-Garland House website: "This dwelling is built on a fishing property (or Room) once known as Taverner's Plantation. Buildings have stood here since at least 1700. The Taverner family originated in Poole, England and first settled in Newfoundland at Bay de Verde c.1650." William's wife Margaret is recorded there in 1675 with three of their sons: William junior, Andrew and Robert. After a French raid in 1697, in which their property was burnt down, and some settlers were murdered, the Taverners moved to Trinity. Jacob Taverner, thought to be a son of Andrew born c1683, gifted the land to his daughter Susannah and her husband Benjamin Lester when they married in 1748. Lester built the original house, which was later rebuilt in the Georgian style by George Garland, the husband of one of their female descendants, Sarah Lester, to whom the property had passed. William Taverner senior was buried at Poole on March 27th, 1680, and his widow Margaret on June 14th, 1701. (With the exception of information on the Bay de Verde property, all notes are taken from images of original documents.) Kim Parker
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Page Contributed & Transcribed by Kim Parker
Page Revised by Ivy F. Benoit (Saturday May 30, 2020)
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