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Wills Adam's will identifies his wife as Mabel Caine. They had six children...three boys and three girls.. Two of the children are listed on the parish record. The others were identified by wills. The land records show that Adam and a Margaret Ine Callister, who was probably his sister, owned the quarterland of Ballamanagh in the treen of Orestall plus two nearby intacks. They also show that he was one of the four jurors for Kirk Michael for the years 1610, 1615, 1617, 1623, 1625, 1626 and 1627, and was Officer of the Lord's Moar for the years 1615, 1617, 1621, 1623, and 1634. (Other records show he died in 1633, so this might be an error. More likely it reflects the confusion in dates for this period caused by the change over from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. (Or is it the other way around. Check this.) Adam's eldest son, Hugh, died when he was about 20, making the second son Robert his heir. My family is descended from his youngest son, Gilbert, who apparently moved onto the Bishops Demesne. Reading the wills takes a lot of patience as they are often hard to decipher. But because of the gaps and omissions in the parish records, the wills were instrumental in establishing the link between Thomas and Adam, They also tell us a lot about the live of the people over the years: the untimely deaths that were common in the era before modern medicine, and the hardships and poverty of the people under the oppressive economic policies of the British government at that time. It's sad to see how little the members of my families had by the 18th century. Their wills describe bequests of a coate and blanket, a petticoat, a heifer, a churn, a few pence. One of them left his wife "half the roofs of the houses."... In another a red petticoat, k sheep, a heifer, a spinning wheel where divided between sisters, friends, children, grandchildren.. By patiently comparing parish records, wills and land records Aunt Francella has been able to track our family back to Adam Callister who lived and raised a family in Kirk Michael. From his will we know he died there in 1633. Francella has made copies of some of the wills. As I read them I feel a kinship with my ancestors. And it saddens me to realize how little some ofd them had. There was a time when the family may have been relatively prosperous. But by the 18th century the oppressive economic policies of the British government and the practice of leaving land holdings only to the firstborn son had impoverished many of my family. In 1773, after he "committed his soule to Almighty God and his Body to Christian burial, my great, great, great, great, great, grandfather Dollin Callister "departed this life." It's not clear what he left his heir Thomas, my ancestor, who he appointed executor of "all the rest of his goods, moveable and immoveable, of what nature so ever they be." But the other children's legacies are spelled out. To his son, John, he "left and bequeathed... a coate that was at ye Taylor, and also a cedde (?) and blanket as legacy. To the rest of his children he left six pence apiece. Dollins's brother Gilbert left his wife a sheep, and "during her life, the roofs of ye houses, and the same (to which his wife consented) to his son Thomas after her death. Now I'm not a wealthy man by any means, but I can imagine how amazed they would be at my warm comfortable townhouse with carpets on the floor, my telephone, television, and stereo; my computer, my closet full of clothing, the abundant and varied supply of food available to me, and the little pickup truck that carries me quickly and comfortable for miles in a matter of minutes. Medicine and sanitation were primitive by today's standards. From the wills and parish records we see them dying before their time...infants, children and adults. "Sick in body, but whole in minde and of good and perfect memory--the Lord be prased," begins the will of Jane Corlett. She was the first wife of Dollin's father, Gilbert, and was probably about 30 years old when she died. After her death, Gilbert would remarry and have a second family, including Dollin. Three generations in a row of my male ancestors married a second wife after losing the first one to an early grave. Sometimes entire families were wiped out. These wills enabled Francella to find Dollin's family. There was a gap in the parish records which included the year he was born. The wills supplied information missing from the Parish records... Francella knew that Thomas's g reat grandfather, also named Thomas, was the son of a Dollin Callister (or Calister) and his second wife, Joney Norris. She knew that Thomas had been Christened in Michael in 1703, and buried in Ballaugh in 1777, and had three brothers and one sister. John and Adam were full brothers. Gilbert and Catherine were children of Dollin's first wife, Christian Cowle. Francella's problem was to locate the parents and family of Dollin. There was no record of his birth, and a gap in the parish records for Michael from 1655 to 1663. Sifting patiently through the wills, Francella found a will in Ballaugh for 1721 in which an Adam Callister (of Ballacurn) left money and clothing to his brother Dollin, and Dollin's son Thomas. This Adam made another bequest to his sister, Joney. Ballacurn adjoins the Bishop's Demesne. Across the line in Michael parish there was another Adam Calister, known as Adam of the Four Towns, who owned a lot of land. Both Adams were the grandchildren of an earlier Adam Callister who had died in 1633. Adam of the four Towns was the son of Robert, the first Adam's heir. Adam of Ballacurn was the son of Gilbert, the youngest son of the earilier Adam. Neither was listed as Adam's child on the parish records, but both were identified in their father's will. The parish records did show Gilbert's birth, (?)and his marriage to Jane Corlett. Froom her will Francella knew she died in 1653. Adam who made a bequest to his brother Dollin was one of their children. Dollin was not. There was no record of a second marriage or the birth of Dollin or Jony. But there was a gap in the record from 1655-1663. Francella also found a will for Jony (Callister) Birrag of Jurby, who left money to her brother Dollin Callister, and the will of Catherine (Birrag) Cain who also left money to her Uncle Dollin. |