Bridget Varney

Widow of William Varney, and administratrix of his estate in 1654 (Probate Records of Essex County 1:173). Babson: “Bridget Varney was of Ipswich in 1663. In 1669, then a widow, she sold house and land, with the harbor and neck of land on the south-east, to Bartholomew Foster.” He places the property near the present Mill Street in Gloucester.

Her will, dated 10 Nov 1671, “Bridget (her mark) Verney of Glocester,” “being by God’s providence cast upon my Bed of Sickenesse,” gives “my Sonne Humfrey Verney” £20, “to be payd by my sonne Jeffrey Parsons of this Towne”; “my Daughter Rachel Vinson (the wife of William Vinson)” £20; and “my sonne Thomas Verney Seaven Sheepe.” The residue goes to her son-in-law William Vinson, as sole executor (Essex Quarterly Courts 5:119). Her inventory, taken 21 Nov 1672 by Thomas Millett Sr. and John Collens Sr. of Gloucester, lists “Two Cowes and two hefer Calves, 8li.; nine sheepe … Three Akers of marsh in Chebacco.”

Her daughter Rachel married William Vinson at Gloucester on 10 June 1661 as “Rachell Cooke.” A “Rachall” Vinson, probably she, died at Gloucester 15 Feb 1707 (Gloucester VR 3).

Open questions

• A “Widow Varnie, aged about seventy-one years,” deposed in a Gloucester abuse case alongside Jeffrey Parsons and William Vinson (Essex Quarterly Courts 6:116). The papers are printed with Dec 1676 business, after her death, so the deposition must be older or refer to another widow. If it is hers, she was born about 1600.