LAKIN FAMILY. IO9 



Testament : as also two ox chains, & foure wedges, & a beetle ring : 

 bequeathed to me in the said will : I say 



Received by me. 

 Witnesse : William Lakin 



Samuel Willard 

 Elezebeth Sherman 



Groton. August : 5. 1673. 



Received by John Lakin of Groton the full suiue of fourty shillings 

 upon the account of a legacye of the said suine, bequeathed to mee by 

 the last Will & Testament of my Loving friend W" Martin, deceased. 



I say Received 

 Witnesse by me 



William Lakin Sam'^ Willard. 



Elezebeth Sherman 



The first of these receipts was lately given to me by Mr. 

 Charles Butler Brooks, of Boston, who found it among the 

 papers of his grandfather Caleb Butler, Esq., the historian 

 of Groton ; and the other two were given to me more than 

 sixty years ago by the late Hon. John Boynton, of Groton. 

 It is somewhat singular that these old manuscripts, relating 

 to similar transactions in the same family, should now come 

 together after the vicissitudes of nearly two centuries and a 

 half. Elizabeth Sherman, one of the witnesses, was a younger 

 sister of Mr. Willard's wife. 



William Lakin, senior, was the oldest person among the 

 original settlers of Groton, and he died on December 10, 1672, 

 aged about 91 years. 



William Martin's house-lot at Groton lay on the borders of 

 a large sheet of water which in his lifetime was known as 

 Martin's Pond, and still keeps the same name. In the record 

 of James Parker's land, on July 6, 1666, "the pond called 

 Goodman Martin's Pond " is mentioned. There is also a 

 Martin's Pond within the original limits of the town of Read- 

 ing, — but now lying in the northwest corner of North Reading, 

 — which may have been named after him, as he lived there 

 before coming to Groton. Perhaps some local antiquary of 

 that neighborhood can give the origin of the name. 



"The New-England Historical and Genealogical Register" (XLVIII. 444- 

 446) for October, 1894. 



