Record from Minerva, NY Historical Society Pertaining to Samuel West's Memorandum Book

This document concerns the Memorandum Book of one Samuel West, a descendant of Francis and Susannah West, from the Minerva Historical Society records, Minerva, Essex County, New York. I would assume that the Mayflower Society or one of the large New England organizations has the original and possibly even the copy of the Boston Transcript it was published in.

NOTE: Notice the difference in the spelling of Susanna's name. I am still trying to figure out which was the correct spelling so often my records will show both.

FRANCIS WEST emigrated from England probably about 1634. It is thought that he lived at Duxbury, Mass., and later moved to North Kingstown, R. I. He married SUSANNA SOULE, daughter of of George Soule, who came on the Mayflower in 1620. Susanna was born in Mass. (Absolute proof of this marriage is lacking).

The following is a copy of a document in the possession of Mrs. Clarence Jones, Minerva, N. Y.

"Susanna Soule, a daughter of George and Mary (Becketts) Soule, was mentioned in her father's will. Her name disappeared from the records of Duxbury and nothing was known of her fate for many years. Some who were interested in the history of the Soules and who had searched for some recorded item that would prove a clue to her after-life and failed to find such reference came to believe that there was no such daughter and discontinued their inquiries; but at last, some time during the year 1924, a Diary or memorandum was found in an ancient house not distant from Boston that contained her name and proved that she was married to one Francis West, who had come from England soon after the first settlement, by whom she had seven sons and two daughters whose names were written down under her own. This discovery raised considerable excitement among genealogists throughout New England at the time it became known, and a full account of the finding with a facsimile of the page of the Diary of which the record was written was clearly legible, was published in the Boston Evening Transcript. Continued research may reveal much more concerning her children and descendants. In his will her father had given her "twelve pence", a meager legacy that a of some disaffection."

The children of Francis and Susanna were:

Francis (Francis was Justice of the Peace in Hopkington, R. I. - 1774-1788.

Thomas b. Sept. 18, 1684. Vital Records of Rhode Island.

Peter

WILLIAM b. May 31, 1681

Richard

Clement

John (Probably John who married Alicw Sweet in 1731).

Martha (Married Fones).

Susanna (Married Moses Barber, Mar. 20, 1691).

The reason William West's name is in capital letters is because his son, Ebenezer, founded the Minerva, New York branch of the West-Soule Family, the branch I am descended from.