Hi easternhammer, those are the 5 will copies that I have and I agree with your impressions of the kind of people that they were and what was important to them, Aunt Philadelphia leaves her mother, Mary Boys childbed linen to her niece Philadelphia, as well as a ring with her sister Jane's hair, Jane Simons died on the 21st of February 1724, her brother William and his wife Elizabeth had a son born after Boys in 1723, Edward was born in 1724, he died aged 2 years in 1726 and was buried with his Aunt Jane, William and Elizabeth then had another son in 1727 and gave him the name Edward.
Philadelphia's nephew Boys gets a few bits and pieces in the will as well as a picture of her mother, Mary Boys, that picture is later handed on to Mary Simons by her mother Hester, I would love to see it, I wonder who ended up with it.
With regard to the Sharp family I found a will of a John Sharpe of Northiam in the County of Sussex,
1683, Probate 1687, he has sons John and Thomas, as well as land in Northiam he has property in Sandhurst, I thought that he may be the ancestor of our Sharpe's.
My 4th Great grandmother Priscilla Elizabeth Sharp was born in Sandhurst in 1768, she married John Hopgood born Staplehurst, B 1764, in All Saints, Maidstone, on the 2nd of February 1784, she was 16 and he was 20, that's very young, I have to wonder about that one, they had 11 children, John Hopgood, Marden, 1785, Thomas Hopgood, Staplehurst, 1788, Priscilla Hopgood, Boughton Monchelsea, 1791, Philadelphia Simmons Hopgood, Marden, 1794, Robert Hopgood, Boughton, Monchelsea, 1796, Samuel Hopgood, Boughton, Monchelsea, 1798, Mary Anne Hopgood, Boughton, Monchelsea, 1800, Boyce Simmons Hopgood, Boughton, 1806. Elizabeth Etherington Hopgood, Boughton, 1806, died 7 months, Sarah Etherington Hopgood, Boughton, 1808, died in Plumstead 1809 at 19 months, Caroline Hopgood, Woolwich, 1814.
Priscilla Elizabeth Hopgood ne Sharpe died in 1840 and was buried St Nicholas, Deptford, her son Samuel, B 1798 emigrated to Victoria in 1849 with his second wife and their daughter, his older son Samuel, born to his first wife, along his family joined him in 1854, they had a Dairy Farm at Duck Pond near Lara outside Geelong, Victoria.
Priscilla Elizabeth's daughter Priscilla Hopgood was my 4x Great grandmother, she married Charles Jenner, their oldest son Charles Jenner, 1812, sailed for Sydney Australia with his wife and children aboard the Java in November 1852 arriving in Sydney in April 1853, this journey was horrific, many died, about 40, mainly children, there is a diary online for this voyage,
Priscilla's youngest daughter Eliza Jenner married William Jones, their son Major Jones was my Great grandfather, he came out to Victoria in 1875, he went to live and work on his mothers Hopgood relatives Dairy Farm at Duck Pond, he later became a Butcher and raised a large family in Warracknabeal.
I am very interested in your families history also, your family are a fairly new arrivals to Australia, there are now many of us descendants of my Great Grandfather Major Jones living in Australia and New Zealand.
The next item I want to send for from the Marden History Group, is a 1732 Marriage Settlement of Edward Simons, I think that would be very informative, that would involve his marriage to Hester Chilman I would say.