Suffolk County, Massachusetts, probate files of the Ellingwood family, 1753-1790

Read in the research file (Ellingwood_Master_Research.md, October 2026), image by image on FamilySearch.

• 8 June 1753 (dockets 10462-10465): Israel Ellingwood, mariner, appointed guardian of his children for their portions “in right of his Grandfather Robert Rand late of Boston Joyner”, “your Son Richard Ellingwood a minor aged about 11 years”, Susannah “about nine.”
• 5 Nov 1784 (docket 18305): “Sarah Ellingwood of Boston Widow” administratrix of “Richard Ellingwood late of Boston Cooper deceased”, with Enoch James, blacksmith, and Asa Stoddard as sureties. The inventory is a small household (a black walnut desk, a mahogany table, six flag-bottom chairs, a dozen china plates, pewter, silver teaspoons, a bed), with no real estate.
• 19 Mar 1785 (docket 18396): the will of “Israel Ellingwood of Boston … Mariner”, proved before Judge Oliver Wendell: a third to his wife Hannah for life (she had died in December), the rest to “my beloved Children Richard Susanna Ralph & Sarah in equal shares”; Robert Hitchborne executor. The appraisals: at Beverly (3 May 1785), “one half a dwelling House and about twenty two poles of Land … on the south side of the way that leads from the Ferry to Ellingwoods point”, £162 10s; at Boston (Dec 1785), “Two Tenements with the Land thereunto belonging near the head of Cross Street”, £600, and a quarter of a lot near Black Horse Lane.
• 22 Nov 1785 (vol. 84 pp. 694-695, dockets 18559-18562): Enoch James of Boston, blacksmith, guardian “unto Richard Ellingwood a Minor above 14 years of age Son of Richard Ellingwood late of said Boston, deceased”; “unto Ralph Ellingwood a minor above 14 years of age Grand Son of Israel Ellingwood late of said Boston deceased”; “unto William Ellingwood a minor above 14 years of age (now out of this State) Grandson of Israel Ellingwood”; and “unto Joseph Ellingwood a minor under 14 years of Age Son of Richard Ellingwood late of said Boston deceased.”
• 19-26 Jan 1790 (vol. 89 p. 71, docket 19424): the estate of “Joseph Ellingwood late of said Boston”, £86 12s 4d in cash, distributed “To Sarah, the wife of Isaac Downs, the Mother of said deceased … one third … To Richard Ellingwood, and Ralph Ellingwood, brothers of said Joseph”, £23 5s 1½d each. Sarah signed by mark.

Together they carry the line from Israel through Richard the cooper to the Richard and Ralph who appear on the Penobscot from 1787.