Last Will and Testament
John Nicholas Lohnes
Rensselaerwycke

Information on this page was submitted by John Hills of Portland, Oregon.

A Copy Of The Will Of John Nicholas Lohnes Deceased

In the name of God amen, I, Johann Nicholas Lohnes in Rensselaerwycke, Farmer, being in perfect health and memory at the present time but in old age ... (enfeebled/in feeble state) ... altho in perfect mind and memory helped by the Almighty God for the same calling to mind the mortality of all men do make this my Last Will and Testament in the form following.

First I give my Eternal Soul to the Great God who gave it to me and my body to the Earth from whence it came to be buried in a Christianlike manner.

Secondly, I do give and bequeath my worldly affairs with which the Lord of Hosts has been pleased to give me in the following manner viz
I do give and bequeath to my first born son Johann Lohnes for his Right of Primogeniture the sum of one pound ten shillings New York money out of my estate.
Further I do give to my two sons Andreas Lohnes and Adam Lohnes after my death and not before all my possessions real and personal houses, farms, household goods, tools, horses, cows, sheep, hoggs and in fine everything belonging to me and nothing shall be taken from them either on the house or land what properly belongs to me for which consideration both of them must satisfy the Lord of the Manor and pay all my debts.
And it is my Last Will and Testament that my beloved wife Margaretha shall have her maintenance from my two sons Andreas and Adam Lohnes in victuals and clothes and they are to succor her as long as God spares our life in Sickness or Health and attend on us in everything we have need of either in victuals, drink, apparel or nourishment.
Lastly, I do give and bequeath to my beloved daughter Elizabeth a cow, a blanket and a bed from my estate which my two sons Andreas and Adam must deliver to her.

And I hereby revoke all former Wills by me made and acknowledged this to be my Last Will and Testament in whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this twenty eight day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand and seven hundred and eighty six.

Pronounced, Signed and Proclaimed

Signed Johan Nicholas (by x) Lohnes

Witnessed by Hulbert Lansing (signed by mark) Johannes Heines and John Clint.


NOTES FROM SUBMITTER: This will was presented on the 5th day of March 1792 for probate before the Rensselaer County Surrogate Court Judge Kent by Hulbert Lansing and Johannes Heines.

Johann Nicholas Lohnes is listed among the Palatines who sailed into Philadelphia on either the Nancy or the Friendship from Dover, England and who signed a loyalty oath on September 20, 1738. There he xed as Nicklas Lones. His name is recorded in various places as Onas, Lonis, Lones, Lohnes, Launes, Lonas and other variations. He died in Brunswick. He married Susanna Hoenichen, who was born in 1720 and who died after 1794. Like other members of the family, his wife appears in various records in various ways Anna Margaretha Hengen/Hentgen/Heintje. Her family shows as Palatines who arrived in New York in 1710. Apparently, German was difficult for early Americans to translate. Some of the family names are nicknames or Americanizations. The exact number of his children is unknown but possibly seven or eight. The Adam mentioned in the will was George Adam Lohnes (1755-1839), who married in 1793 Elizabeth Barend/Bornt. Their third child, Elizabeth, was born in 1798 and married Samuel D. Hills on June 7, 1820.



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