vital records sources
go to Mary How's page

John's signature on his will

John was probably born in Dorchester, Massachusetts Bay Colony, by about 1647. His death record in 1721 says he was 74 and swore to his stepmother's inventory in 1667.1 So little is known about his father that it can only be guessed that the family was in Dorchester in the 1640s. They were certainly there by 1654, according to a deed in which his father was involved.2 They evidently moved to Sudbury between 1662 and 1665 based on his siblings' births, but John was a mason and would have apprenticed with someone in roughly 1660. He settled in Marlborough, which is next to Sudbury, so he may have apprenticed in that area a little later than thirteen years old, after the family moved to Sudbury.
     John was about 20 or 21 when his father died and was evidently the oldest child. He co-signed an undated confirmation of an inventory of his stepmother's belongings. Being in his father's estate papers, this was obviously Margaret's intent to separate them from the whole because Edmund was in debt when he died, and his personal estate was legally available for liquidation. The other signer was had the first name Mary and a last name that looks like "Potar," but may have been "Bokar." This may be where the idea came from that Edmund married "Mary Potter," however flawed the logic may be. It's tempting to think that this was Mary (How) bouker, John's wife, but later in life she signed with a mark. No other evidence has come to light to support the existence of a wife with this name, nor are there any likely Mary Potters, even variously spelled, at this time in New England. There weren't any apparent Mary boukers, however spelled. John had a sibling Mary who was a toddler at the time. Whoever she was, she would also need to have known what was Margaret's personal property.
     John didn't marry until he was about 30-31 to Mary How, over ten years his junior. He bought land in Marlborough on 22 April 1680 from the co-heirs of Thomas Barrett of Marlborough.3 This was a ten-acre house lot given to Thomas Barrett by the Town of Marlborough. Thomas's inventory includes separate parcels of homestead and meadow land, as well as twenty acres of upland in the Second Division.4 The land John bought was bordered by Second Division upland, "an extention of the house lot," so this may have been half the twenty acre parcel shown in the inventory. If so, the person said to be occupying this other half, John Barnes, doesn't have a recorded deed of purchase from the Barretts.
     John also became a freeman relatively late in life. He took the oath as John "Bouker" at the Massachusetts Bay Colony General Court on 21 July 1685.5
     John's will grants half the use of his house and homestead to his wife Mary, but no other provision about who would get the homestead when she died or the use of the other half of it while she was still alive.6 There is no estate inventory, which is very odd. None of his heirs are on record as having received or sold the homestead. Asa, the oldest son, moved from Marlborough to Shrewsbury, but there isn't a deed of sale for his home when he moved that might show he ended up with his father's house. To further confuse things, a deed by which John bought land in Sudbury from Joshua Haynes in 1717 says he was a carpenter of Sudbury.7 Whoever wrote the deed may have been mistaken about John's residence, but did he identify as a carpenter as well as a mason? This wasn't his son John, who had died by then.

John's will:

In the name of God amen the thirteenth day of November in the year of our Lord 1717 I John Bouker of the town of Marlborough and the county of Middlesex in New England, being well stricken in years and weak of body but a perfect mind and memory thanks be given to God

I give and bequeath to Mary my dearly beloved wife all my movable estate both within doors and without to be her own and at her disposal. I also give unto her two certain tracts of land within the Township of Marlborough for to be hers and at her dispose and to her heirs and assigns forever, the one parcel is within the Cow Common in the town aforesaid and it contain eighty eight acres and fifty six rods all in one entire piece as it stands record to me on our book of records, the other parcel is without the Cow Common near Barefoot Meadow and Solomon's Pond and it contain fifty seven acres as it is also record to me, and if it so happens that my wife shall not dispose of the land above specified, my will is that after her decease that my daughter Rachel Bouker shall have that which lyeth within the Cow Common and my grandson Josiah Bouker shall have that which is without. Also my will is that my wife shall have the privilege of half of my home place to improve as her own during her natural life as well meadows and woodland abroad as plowland orcharding and pasture at home. Also my will is that she shall have such a part in my house and other buildings as she shall need for her comfortable subsistence and all rent free

I give unto my well beloved son Isaac Bouker thirty four acres of land being a part of my second division of land in the aforesaid township without the Cow Common. It is situated at the North Brook with what buildings and fences there is on it. I also give unto my son Asa all my town rights within the Cow Common in said town of Marlborough as well lying in common as all additions and division that shall hereafter be had or made by the proprietors of said town. I also give to him my son Asa all my share or part in the land which lately hath been petitioned for adjoyning to our Township. I also give unto him all my interest in lands and meadows which I have in the Township of Lancaster as well what is made out to me already as that which is lying in common. Also I give unto him one lot of cedar swamp being the lot drawn from Thomas Barnes, his right. These and each of these premises I give unto my son Asa and to his heirs and assigns forever with all other lands or meadows that is not or shall not be other ways disposed in this my will which I have any right to without said Cow Common in Marlborough aforesaid

I give unto my well beloved son Ezekiel Bouker my place with all my land and meadows which I have within the Cow Common in the Township of Marlborough only what is [not] above disposed of other ways with all my meadow and upland which I have at Hockenum already laid out to me and stand record to me and all my meadow and land that lieth at Assabet River as it now laid out to me there and also I give unto him two lots of cedar swamp which lots was drawn from Thomas Barrett's right with all my town right within the Cow Common in Marlborough aforesaid with all additions or divisions whatsoever with all the buildings and fences on it to him my son Ezekiel Bouker and to his heirs and assigns forever the half I gift him at my decease and the other half at his mother’s decease. My will further is that my two daughters Hannah and Rachel which are yet single shall have their portion paid to them by my executrix and executor when they come of age or at their demand afterward and to be made equal with what their sister already married is, and my will further is that my said daughters Hannah and Rachel Bouker shall have free liberty of living in my now dwelling house and making it their home during the time they live unmarried and that rent free

Concerning my three grandchildren [children of John, Jr.] which are now living with me and notwithstanding their father hath had his full portion already in his lifetime, my will is that there be paid to each of them five pounds as they come of age out of my estate by my executrix and executor. Further my will is that there be paid to my daughters Mary Gates and to my daughter Martha Forbush beside what they have had ten pounds to each of them in or as money within one year after my decease by my executrix and executor, and I do constitute and ordaine Mary my dearly beloved wife my executrix and Ezekiel my well beloved son my executor of this my last will and testament, in witness here unto I have put to my hand and seal the day and year above written, signed, sealed and declared by John Bouker to be his last will and testament before us the subscribers

John Bouker

John Banester
Daniel How
Joseph Straton

Children of John Bouker and Mary How (Marlborough records):

John, b. Sep. 1679
Mary, b. 6 Mar. 1685/86
Martha, b. 6 Mar. 1685/86
Asa, b. 22 Nov. 1691
Ezekiel, b. 5 Nov. 1693
child, "6th" son, b. 25 Mar. 1698, stillborn
Hannah, b. 21 Sep. 1699
Rachel, b. 9 Sep. 1702

vital records sources: He was married in Marlborough "Jno Buuker & Mary How marryed 8 11 78." "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," familysearch.org database online (Salt Lake City, UT: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1972), Middlesex>County>Births, marriages, deaths 1651-1793, FHL film 4198966, image 38. Although his death can be found in trancriptions and published in the MA vital records series for Marlborough, the original record can be found on the Family History Library film 7009656, image 323.

1. Marborough, Massachusetts, vital records, FHL film 7009656, image 323; Middlesex Co., MA, probate case 2319.
2. Suffolk Deeds, vol. 2 (Boston, MA: 1883), 304.
3. Middlesex Co, MA, deed 7:234.
4. Middlesex Co., MA, probate case 1271.
5. Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, vol. 5 (Boston: William White, 1854), 543. 6. Middlesex Co., MA, probate case 2327.
7. Middlesex Co., MA,deed 20:205.