I'm attaching the text of my 8th great grandmother Dorothy (??) Jordan's will. I transcribed it from a photocopy taken from microfilm at the court house in Accomac. Grandmother Jordan owned Whitelaw's area A2. She called her plantation Belle Haven. She also owned 250 acres in Northampton County. It was the eastern half of N117 which she called her lower plantation.  She and her son-in-law John Shepheard (d. 1709), my 7th great grandfather, were "in the thick of things" during the last half of the 1600s. Grandmother Jordan continued to work her husband's land but also patented 500 acres in her own right after her husband William died in 1662. John Shepheard was, as you probably know, a 2nd great grandfather of John Shepheard Ker who built Kerr Place in Onancock. 

John Shepheard did his share to populate the Shore. He had two daughters by Elizabeth Jordan who I believe was his first wife. He was married to Margaret (Parker) Hall about 11 years after Elizabeth died. He and Margaret had at least two children together--Morris and Jean Shepheard.

When John Shepheard wrote his will in 1709 he left land to several of his grand children. One of those grand children was Jacob Johnson. Jacob has been a mystery to me and apparently to a lot of others as nobody has been able to discover which of John Shepheard's daughters married a  Johnson and had a son named Jacob. If you read the abstract of Dorothy Jordan's will from Nottingham's will book you will notice a reference to a John Shepheard as being the grandson of Dorothy Jordan. In her full will which was recorded in the old court records, Dorothy does not call John Shepheard her grandson. Instead she refers to him as "John the son of the said John Shepheard." John Shepheard (Sr.?) had no sons by Elizabeth Jordan, his first wife. This is born out in a legal statement made by John Shepheard (Sr.?) in 1696. 

Since Elizabeth (Jordan) Shepheard died ca. 1673 and John Shepheard did not marry Margaret (Parker) Hall until about 1684, John Shepheard, son of Morris Shepheard, could not have been Dorothy's "grandson" John Shepheard as I had assumed for some time. Dorothy Jordan wrote her will in 1683 before Morris Shepheard was born. 

Since John Shepheard had about 11 years between the death of his first wife, Elizabeth Jordan, and his marriage to Margaret Hall, he could have easily married, had children and lost his "second" wife before marrying Margaret Hall. I am convinced that he did and that his mysterious "second" wife was the mother of "John the son of the said John Shepheard." I also think that he had a daughter by his "second" wife and that she married a Johnson and had a son named Jacob. I would like to throw the challenge of identifying his "second" wife and his daughter by his "second" wife, out to the cousins and the other Ghotes. Can anybody make these identifications? Who were John Shepheard's "second" wife and their daughter? Which Johnson did this daughter marry?

I suspect there are several cousins who might enjoy Dorothy Jordan's full will so post it if you like. 

Silver