The New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

The following piece is an exact translation of the last Will and Testament of an Indian Minister at Gay Head, on Martha's Vineyard, who died in the fall of 1735, as we have it from the Duke of Probate for Dukes-County, before whom it was proved and approved: The idiom of the Indian Language is preserved as well as it could be: all that needs explanation in it, is, first, the name that he gives his house, for he common Indian house have no cellars to them; secondly, the witness that calls himself the ruler of men, was the ruling elder of the church there.

At Gay Head, Sep. 6, A. D. 1735

NOW this all ye people, what is come to pass at Gay Head. This is the will and testament of Peter Oquanhut, of Gay Head, pastor: and he the said Peter, saith, I have a house, a cellar-house and a chamber, which is the uppermost room in the house. And this house has three parts in it from the top of it to the bottom, and the middle part of this house I divide off to my daughter called Dorcas Amos, and the other two parts belonging to me Peter Oquanhut, the uppermost and lowermost parts of this cellar house: Peter Oquanhut also says, he has one yoke of oxen, and one mare, and one cow and calf, and sheep he does not exactly know how many, besides sundry other small things for use. And I Peter Oquanhut of Gay Head, pastor, do all these things of mine in this writing mentioned. Know all the people in the world, that I now say, that the said two parts of this house, and the oxen, and the mare, and the cow and calf, and the sheep, and the small things for use (if I die) shall all go to my wife, or into her hands; she shall have any thing that was mine, and which I used, for her to use and improve, for wherewith to eat and wear as long as she lives.

Sept. 9, 1735.

I Josiah Pomuk, of Gay Head, ruler of men, one witness to this, that Peter Oquanhut, of Gay-Head, pastor, has thus settled his estate: if so be he dies, it goes to his wife—her certainly; so to my knowledge. See my mark

I Zechariah Hononi, Gay-Head justice, as witness to Peter Oquanhut, pastor of Gay Head, his settlement of what he has: it is—for I am witness my hand.

Zechariah Hononi