He died on the 21 St of June, 1631, and the same day made his last will,
to which he appended his mark, as he seems to have been too feeble to
write his name. In this he describes himself as “Captain John Smith
of the parish of St. Sepulcher's London Esquior.” He commends his soul
“into the hands of Almighty God, my maker, hoping through the merits of
Christ Jesus my Redeemer to receive full remission of all my sins and to
inherit a place in the everlasting kingdom”; his body he commits to the
earth whence it came; and “of such worldly goods whereof it hath pleased
God in his mercy to make me an unworthy receiver,” he bequeathes: first,
to Thomas Packer, Esq., one of his Majesty's clerks of the Privy Seal,
“all my houses, lands, tenantements and hereditaments whatsoever,
situate lying and being in the parishes of Louthe and Great Carleton, in
the county of Lincoln together with my coat of armes”; and charges him
to pay certain legacies not exceeding the sum of eighty pounds, out
of which he reserves to himself twenty pounds to be disposed of as he
chooses in his lifetime. The sum of twenty pounds is to be disbursed
about the funeral. To his most worthy friend, Sir Samuel Saltonstall
Knight, he gives five pounds; to Morris Treadway, five pounds; to his
sister Smith, the widow of his brother, ten pounds; to his cousin Steven
Smith, and his sister, six pounds thirteen shillings and fourpence
between them; to Thomas Packer, Joane, his wife, and Eleanor, his
daughter, ten pounds among them; to “Mr. Reynolds, the lay Mr of the
Goldsmiths Hall, the sum of forty shillings”; to Thomas, the son of
said Thomas Packer, “my trunk standing in my chamber at Sir Samuel
Saltonstall's house in St. Sepulcher's parish, together with my best
suit of apparel of a tawny color viz. hose, doublet jirkin and cloak,”
“also, my trunk bound with iron bars standing in the house of Richard
Hinde in Lambeth, together--with half the books therein”; the other half
of the books to Mr. John Tredeskin and Richard Hinde. His much honored
friend, Sir Samuel Saltonstall, and Thomas Packer, were joint executors,
and the will was acknowledged in the presence “of Willmu Keble Snr
civitas, London, William Packer, Elizabeth Sewster, Marmaduke Walker,
his mark, witness.”
We have no idea that Thomas Packer got rich out of the houses, lands and
tenements in the county of Lincoln. The will is that of a poor man, and
reference to his trunks standing about in the houses of his friends, and
to his chamber in the house of Sir Samuel Saltonstall, may be taken as
proof that he had no independent and permanent abiding-place.
It is supposed that he was buried in St. Sepulcher's Church. The
negative evidence of this is his residence in the parish at the time of
his death, and the more positive, a record in Stow's “Survey of London,”
1633, which we copy in full:
This Table is on the south side of the Quire in Saint Sepulchers, with
this Inscription:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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