1) it seems Laurence had a son John (the elder) who had a son John Laurence's grandson, and also Laurence had another son John (the younger) who became his executor. Is this correct ? I have read elsewhere that two offspring sometimes had the same first name.
I have checked through the original.
He has
John Death my elder sonne, mentioned in Snippet #1.
He has
John Death ye younger of my sonnes, mentioned in Snippet #2 & #3. This John should be the one made executor.
The original wording concerning the possible grandson is this:
...Item I geve & bequeth to ye sonne John my sonne one chist & a peulter dish...There's no
of. This is ambiguous - has an
of been omitted or is it just a clumsy way of referring to the son John (which from context would be the elder John)?
So there may or may not be a grandson. Reading the whole passage - including
the best he cane chose - I would lean towards there not being a grandson, because it implies the beneficiary is old enough to choose the best.
2) In Reply No. 8, 2nd line, what is the meaning of "forten" ? I tried looking it up but no reference to it.
forten = fortune.
It's a standard phrase:
fortune to die /
fortune to marry3) In Reply No. 8, 4th line, to what does the "eight years" refer ? Is this definitely "eight" as I don't see any other mention of it in the Will ?
It's almost certainly
eight. The
e and the
r are similarly formed, but I'm 99.99% certain it's
eight.
The meaning is probably as you have said in your Reply #11.