1725MarriedAnn Arnold — King William, King William, Virginia, United States
10 Feb 1737MarriedAnn Arnold — King William, King William, Virginia, United States
—ArrivalVirginia
—LocationSpotsylvania Co., VA

Life as they lived it

Not the dates — the person. What the records happen to show of work, habits, possessions and the odd episode. Each line says where it comes from.

1744 His will of 20 December 1744 left his wife Ann half of "the plantation I live on" for life, with "the use of negroes and half my livestock", and gave each of his five daughters, Hannah, Ann, Sarah, Mary and Pattee, "a negro girl". The abstract of the will names none of the enslaved people.

household · Abstract of his will, 20 December 1744 (PCC, St Eloy), Society of Genealogists copy, typed by Sally Temple Barnes 1984 — Temple Family Collection, The History Center, Diboll

1744 The same will spread his sons' land across four more counties: 400 acres in King and Queen and 250 in Spotsylvania to Joseph, 2,000 acres "in Duckinghole Swamp in Louisa Co." to Liston, 980 acres in Spotsylvania to Benjamin, and land in Caroline and Louisa to Samuel. His brother in Bristol, "Mr. William Temple", got a mourning ring of 20 shillings, and half the estate if every child died and Ann remarried: "Nothing to be construed as an entail."

possession · Abstract of his will, 20 December 1744, Temple Family Collection, The History Center, Diboll

1749 At the King William County court on 16 June 1749 his widow Ann produced three versions of his will. She swore that soon after his daughter Hannah married he made erasures and had his son William copy it out, but "was not satisfied with the transcription"; then, a few days before he died, news came that his brother William of Bristol was dead and the estate "fallen to him", and he said he would make a new will "as soon as he got an account". The court received the first version as his will.

episode · King William County court proceeding, 16 June 1749, abstracted with his will

Records behind this page

Ancestry.com, England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858 (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013)

The National Archives, Kew; Records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Series PROB 11; PROB 11/485/235 (register Gee, quires 223-265; image ref. 358). Will of Elizabeth Temple, widow, of Bishopstrow, co. Wilts, dated 17 September 1705; proved at London 3 December 1705. ORIGINAL REGISTER IMAGE READ.

read the transcript

Opening: "I ELIZABETH TEMPLE of the Parish of BISHOPSTROW in the County of Wilts, WIDDOW, being sensible of my declineing Condition, but blessed be God at present of good and perfect mind and memory, doe make and ordaine this to be my last Will and Testament (hereby revoakeing all former Wills by me made)..." HER OWN KIN - the first bequests, and they give her family: "Imprimis I give and bequeath unto my lo: Brother JOHN BENNETT Esq and to my Sister ffrances his wife five pounds each..." · (margin) "Item I give and bequeath to my lo: Bro: WILL: BENNET Esq and to my Sister Catherine his Wife five pounds each and also twenty shillings each to buy them Rings" · "my nephew THOMAS BENNETT five pounds to be paid when he comes to the age of twenty one yeares" · "my lo: Sister MARY KIRKMAN ten pounds, as alsoe the Bedd, Boulster, Curtains, Vallens, Rugg and Blanketts with four green Chaires now in my Chamber at BISHOPSTROW" · "my lo: Kinswoman ELIZABETH daughter of my Sister Kirkman aforesaid ten pounds" · "my Brother in Law EDWARD CARRANT Esqr twenty shillings to buy him a Ring." OTHER KIN AND FRIENDS: "my lo: Kinsman Tho: LAMBERT of the Citty of New Sarum five pounds" · "my lo: Kinsman BENJAMIN KENDALL and SARAH his wife twenty shillings each and alsoe the furniture belonging to my Hall Chamber in UPTON" · "my lo: Kinsman THOMAS WALLIS twenty shillings" · "my lo: Kinsman [-] PALMER twenty shillings And to my Kinswoman ANNE his wife forty pounds with my two silver Salvers" · "my Coz: MARY SWIFT, BENJ: GIFFORD Esq and DOCTOR WICKMAN twenty shillings each to buy them Rings." ⭐⭐ THE PEIRCE FAMILY: "I give unto my lo: SONNE IN LAW ED: PEIRCE five pounds And alsoe to his SIX CHILDREN ANNE, MARGARET, MARY, EDWARD, JOHN and THOMAS five pounds each, to be paid when they come of age 21 yeares the Sonns / 18 the Daughters." ★★ THE VIRGINIA LINE, NAMED AND LIVING: "Item I give unto my lo: DAUGHTER IN LAW HANNAH TEMPLE five pounds And alsoe to her THREE CHILDREN forty pounds viz To MARY TEMPLE twenty pounds, To WILL: TEMPLE and JOSEPH TEMPLE ten pounds each, to be paid when they come of the age of 21 yeares the Sonns and 18 yeares the Daughters." PETER'S FAMILY: "Item I give unto my daughter in Law MARY TEMPLE five pounds, as alsoe to her SIX CHILDREN viz SAM:, MARY, ANNE, ELIZABETH, PRISCILLA and PETER five pounds each to be paid at the age of 21 yeares the Sonns and 18 yeares the Daughters." SERVANT, POOR, RESIDUE: "my Servant PRUDENCE CARTER five pounds if she be liveing with me as my Servant at the time of my Death" · "unto the poor of the Parish of UPTON five pounds to be distributed as my Executor shall thinke fitt" · "all the rest and residue of my Goods and Chattells unto my lo: SON IN LAW PETER TEMPLE whom I make, appoint and ordaine my whole and sole Executor of this my last Will and Testament." DATE: "In Witnesse whereof I have sett my hand and Seale this SEAVENTEENTH DAY OF SEPTEMBER in the yeare of our Lord God one thousand seaven hundred and five" - ⭐ subscribed "THE MARKE of Eliz: Temple": SHE COULD NOT WRITE. Witnesses: MARY CHOE, WILLIAM PRYOR, PRUDENCE CARTER, RICHARD ARCHER his mark. PROBATE: "Probatum fuit huiusmodi Testamentum apud London coram venerabili et Egregio viro Dno RICHARDO RAINES Milite Legum Doctore Curiae Prerogativae Cantuar Magistro Custode sive Commissario legitime constituto TERTIO DIE DECEMBRIS Anno Dni millesimo septingentesimo quinto Juramento PETRI TEMPLE Executoris in dicto Testamento nominati..." - 3 December 1705, sworn by Peter Temple, executor. Richard Raines also proved William Temple in 1686 and Joseph Temple in 1699.

The National Archives, Kew; Records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Series PROB 11; PROB 11/450/343, fos. 311-312. Will of Joseph Temple of the City of Bristol, mercer, dated 31 March 1699, with a codicil of 19 April 1699; proved at London 16 May 1699. ORIGINAL REGISTER IMAGE READ.

read the transcript

Opening: "I Joseph Temple of the City of Bristoll Mercer being fully sensible of the declineing condition of my body but being (blessed be God) of sound and disposing mind and memory considering with my self the certainty of my death and the uncertainty of the time thereof do therefore make and ordain this my last Will and Testament..." Executors: "my loving Brother Peter Temple of Bishopstrow in the County of Wilts Gent, my loving Brother in law Edward Peirce of the Devizes in the County of Wilts Woollen draper, my loving kinsman Morgan Smith of the City of Bristoll Grocer, and my loving friend William Gough of the said City of Bristoll Woollendraper." Wife: "Imprimis I give and bequeath unto my dear and loving wife Hannah Temple the sum of two hundred and fifty pounds of lawfull money of England to be paid unto her within the space of twelve months next after the time of my decease." THE POSTHUMOUS CHILD: "To the use of such Male Child or Children as my said wife is now enseint or goeth with and the heires of the body of such Male Child or Children lawfully to be begotten for ever. And for want of such heires then to the use of such Female Child or Children as my said wife is now enseint or goeth with, my son William Temple and my daughter Mary Temple..." ("enseint or goeth with" = pregnant.) Property: a messuage or tenement with grounds, orchards, gardens and stables "now in the tenure or occupacon of my Tenant [name not legible] situate in Haytsbury in the said County of Wilts" (Heytesbury), and a messuage in Corn Street, Bristol, tenant Robert Webb. Mourning rings at 20s: "my mother in law Mrs Elizabeth Temple, my mother in law Mrs Mary Liston, my said Brother Peter Temple and Mary his wife, my Brother in law Edward Peirce, my said kinsman Morgan Smith and the said William Gough"; and "my Uncle Robert Liston and Mary his wife, my Aunt Joane Wood, my Brother in law Stephen Walter, my loving Nephew Mr William Phillips and Mary his wife and my kinswoman Elizabeth the wife of the said Morgan Smith." Children: legacies to males at 21, to females at 18 or marriage, whichever first; the wife to have the use of the household goods and plate during the minority; "the guardianship tuition and custody of all my said Children unto my said wife, my said Executors and the survivors of them during the several minorities." Dated: "this one and thirtieth day of March in the Eleventh year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord William the Third... And in the year of our Lord God One thousand six hundred ninety and nine" - signed "Jos: Temple." Witnesses: Sarah Swetnam, Richard Cary, Edward Whitehead, Nich: Cooper. Codicil, the nineteenth day of April 1699, adding Joseph Smith of Bristol, ironmonger, as a fifth executor with five pounds. Codicil witnesses: Jos: Smith, Sarah Swetnam, Edward Whitehead, Richard Cary. Probate act: "Probatum fuit huiusmodi Testamentum apud London una cum Codicillo annexo coram venerabili viro Dno Richardo Raines milite... Curiae Prerogat Cantuar... Decimo sexto die mensis Maij Anno Dni Millesimo Sexcentesimo nonagesimo nono Juramentis Petri Temple, Edwardi Peirce, Morgani Smith, Gulielmi Gough et Josephi Smith Executorum..." - all five executors sworn, 16 May 1699.

Ancestry.com, Virginia Genealogical Society Quarterly

Ancestry · subscription

Family Data Collection - Deaths

Gale Research, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s

Place: Virginia; Page Number: 270

Place: Virginia; Year: ; Page Number: 80.Ancestry · subscription

Arrival placeVirginia

U.S., Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970

SAR Membership Number: 74540

Virginia Land, Marriage, and Probate Records, 1639-1850

Research notes

Working notes from the research, kept verbatim — what was read, what it proved, what stays open. Many open with a line grading the parentage; what the grades mean.

Research note · 5 Aug 2026

Audited 22 Jul 2026, REVISED 30 Jul 2026, REVISED AGAIN 31 Jul 2026 (PM) — this note supersedes both earlier texts. Junction #1. POSTHUMOUS BIRTH PROVEN by his father's PCC will, PROB 11/450/343, now read from the ORIGINAL REGISTER IMAGE (Joseph Temple, mercer of Bristol: dated 31 Mar 1699, codicil 19 Apr 1699, proved at London 16 MAY 1699 - corrected from the 26 May given in the 22 Jul note; the Latin reads "Decimo sexto die mensis Maij"). The will provides for "such Male Child or Children as my said wife is now enseint or goeth with" and entails the Corn Street, Bristol property on that unborn male child; it names as living children only son William and daughter Mary, so Joseph was not yet born at the will date. His father died between 31 Mar and 16 May 1699, so Col. Joseph was born roughly Jun 1699 to early 1700 at Bristol. The tree's 1699 birth year therefore stands, and it stands as a POSTHUMOUS birth. His guardianship was vested jointly in his mother Hannah and the five executors - Peter Temple of Bishopstrow, Edward Peirce of Devizes, Morgan Smith, William Gough and Joseph Smith, a Bristol cloth-and-goods merchant network. THAT IS THE MECHANISM behind his own later career: documented life, principally from Dr Malcolm Hart Harris, Old New Kent County - came to Virginia about 1722 as attorney for the Bristol merchants running the Essex County iron works; merchant near Aylett, King William County; justice 1732, sheriff 1738, coroner; acquired about 6,000 acres; will dated 20 Dec 1744; willed Presquile to son Benjamin; ten children, all surviving to adulthood - Ann, Joseph, William, Benjamin, Sarah "Sally", Hannah, Samuel, Martha, Molly and Liston. STILL UNRESOLVED, deliberately not changed: the death year. Geni gives about 1749 (the tree's value); Harris via Todd's Archives gives "shortly before 1760". Most King William probate was lost in the 1885 courthouse fire, so the discrepancy may not be resolvable from that county. Memo: ancestry/temple-arnold-liston-junction.md ── ADDENDUM 31 Jul 2026 (evening): ★ THE FIRST RECORD THAT NAMES HIM AS A LIVING PERSON. Elizabeth Temple of Bishopstrow's will (PROB 11/485/235, dated 17 Sep 1705, read from the register image) leaves 40 pounds among 'her three Children' of his mother Hannah - 'To Mary Temple twenty pounds, To Will: Temple and JOSEPH TEMPLE ten pounds each', payable to the sons at 21 and the daughters at 18. He is therefore alive on 17 SEP 1705, aged about six. ⭐⭐ Until now his existence as the posthumous child rested on his father's 1699 will (which provides for an unborn child without naming it) plus Lucy Temple Temple's 1970s account. This is a THIRD, INDEPENDENT source, contemporary, naming him - and it confirms both the name and the birth year. The legatee's benefactress is his step-grandmother; her executor is his uncle Peter Temple of Bishopstrow. His birth year 1699 stands. ---- ADDENDUM 5 Aug 2026 (night): THE FAMILY'S OWN PRINTED ACCOUNT IS IDENTIFIED, AND IT IS NOT A RECORD. ---- The History Center at Diboll sent a large manuscript CIRCULAR FAN CHART centred on "JOSEPH TEMPLE married ANN ARNOLD" (sources/diboll-history-center-joseph-temple-ann-arnold-2026-08-05.pdf; register M1-M4). Its own inscriptions give its chain: signed J. Henley Walker, Aug 1918, "constructed from one made by Rev. Jos. W. Shackford about 1875", and its prose copied from THE SUN (Baltimore), Sunday 1 April 1906, p. 14 - "VIRGINIA HERALDRY: TEMPLE ARMS AND LINEAGE", by JANE GRIFFITH KEYS. That column was pulled and read on the page image the same day (sources/baltimore-sun-19060401-p14-...-FULLPAGE-2026-08-05.jpg; register M5). ⛔ CITE NEITHER TO THIS PERSON, AND THE CHART TO NOBODY AT ALL. The chart garbled its own source in the one line that is verbatim-checkable: Keys prints the motto "Arbor Honoretur Quae Nos Tuetur"; the chart renders it "Cujus nos umbra tuetur Arbor honoretur". A degraded copy of a document we hold is an artifact of the family's tradition, not evidence. WHAT KEYS IS, MEASURED RATHER THAN ASSUMED. A competent compiler working from PUBLISHED LITERATURE, not an independent witness, and her errors are of ATTRIBUTION rather than invention: (a) She gives THIS MAN "member of the Committee of Safety for King William county in 1774, and also a member of the Order of the Cincinnati." BOTH ARE IMPOSSIBLE FOR HIM. Heitman's Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army contains exactly two Temples - Benjamin (Va) and John (Mass) - and NO Joseph; the Virginia Society of the Cincinnati's own 1905 roll likewise carries only "Temple, Benjamin ... Lt. Colonel". Original Cincinnati membership required Continental commissioned service, so for him it was not merely absent but impossible. Read personally in Heitman 5 Aug 2026, with controls. (b) The honours belong to a BENJAMIN TEMPLE, and Heitman's dates match Keys's own text date for date: "Temple, Benjamin (Va). Captain Virginia Dragoons, 15th June, 1776; Lieutenant-Colonel 1st Continental Dragoons, 31st March, 1777; transferred to 4th Dragoons, 10th December, 1779, and served to close of war; Colonel, 30th September, 1783. (Died 1802.)" ⛔ WHICH Benjamin is NOT settled: Keys writes "Benjamin Temple, SON OF BENJAMIN, served in the Revolution" - a grandson - while a research pass read it as the son of Joseph and Ann. Nothing has been cited to either until that is resolved, because citing it now would relocate the very error being documented. (c) Her medieval tier is the standard fabricated pedigree - Leofric, Earl of Mercia, husband of Godiva - and SHE HEDGES IT HERSELF ("I think", "is said to have assumed the name of Temple"). The hardening into family certainty happened after her, not in her. ✪ AND A REAL RECORD DID SURFACE FROM CHASING HER. A Joseph Temple was elected to the COMMITTEE FOR KING AND QUEEN COUNTY on 12 December 1774 - read personally in two corpora, Force's American Archives 4th ser. v1 and Coleman in William and Mary Quarterly v5 citing the Virginia Gazette (Dixon and Hunter, 4 March 1775). King William was carved out of King and Queen in 1701, and Presquile sits on the King William bank with Arnold's Ferry crossing over, so a one-county slip explains Keys's wording. ⛔ IT IS NOT THIS MAN - he was long dead by 1774 on either reading of his death (the tree's abt 1749, or Harris's "shortly before 1760"). WHICH Joseph Temple it was is OPEN; the committee list gives no identifying detail beyond "gentlemen". ☞ WORTH KEEPING: that roster seats Richard Tunstall (chairman), John Tunstall jun. (clerk), Gregory Baylor, George Brooke and Robert Hill - and Keys independently marries this man's children into those same families (Sallie to John Tunstall son of Col. Richard Tunstall; Benjamin to Mollie Brooke Baylor; Joseph to Mollie daughter of Col. Humphrey Hill). A 1774 record and a 1906 column agreeing on the SOCIAL NETWORK from opposite directions is worth more than a name-match. ⭐ A CORRECTION TO OUR OWN REASONING, recorded because it was nearly missed. Keys's list of the ten children matches this family exactly, and that was first read as possible circularity - the fear that Keys IS where our tree's data came from. THIS NOTE ALREADY SAID OTHERWISE: the tree's ten children are sourced above to Dr Malcolm Hart Harris, Old New Kent County. So the agreement is HARRIS against KEYS, two separate compilations, not our tree against its own source. The agreement of Harris's Old New Kent County with Keys's 1906 Sun column is therefore weak positive corroboration rather than an echo - but it is agreement between two compilers, and it stays that until a record speaks. ◎ THE NAMED NEXT DOCUMENT, and it is better than anything above: the will of his son COL. BENJAMIN TEMPLE of Presquile, proved King William County 27 September 1802. King William's clerk's office burned 17 January 1885 and nearly everything was lost - but the Library of Virginia records that SEVENTEEN WILL BOOKS SURVIVE. If his is among them it is a primary record from inside a burned county, naming this family directly.

Elsewhere

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