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Joseph Peace Hazard's father's will (Hazard Diary 064)

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My father spoke to me in regard to his will only on one occasion and this was about a year before his death.

I declined conversation upon the subject, excepting that I asked him to see that his daughters had a fair share of his property.

He made his will while upon his death bed at his house at 'Bloom's Mills", Dutchess County, State of New York, but not until he had become quite incompetent to do so.

I was in the city of Newport at the time of my father's demise, and the terms of his will soon becoming generally known, my friends then soon observed that my share therein was far less than that of the others of his children.

I think however this was unintentional.

Some of my friends in Newport spoke to me upon the subject and felt that I had been wronged.

One of these was the famous lawyer, Benjamin Hazard of Newport, who was man of great power and a Friend of my father and all his family.

He proposed to break this will, and that he would himself do so, and gratuitously.

I declined, however, preferring poverty to remonstrance.

My father gave me the estate of two hundred acres in Point Judith (at what is now known as 'Narragansett Pier' ) that was then rented for one hundred and fifty doll's (150 Doll's) per year, and so continued for years thereafter, but is now worth several hundred thousand dollars.

Jos. P. Hazard

August, 1888

Transcriber's note: "Point Judith" designated a large area at the time Joseph P. Hazard was writing, and included Narragansett Pier. It was defined as "the southern part of South Kingstown, lying between the open sea and Point Judith Pond" on page 24 of the 1894 Geographic Dictionary of Rhode Island. (Present-day Narragansett was part of South Kingstown until 1902).

Transcribed by Jessica Wilson