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Joan MURTON
Est 1554 - 1631 (~ 77 years)
Has 3 ancestors and 502 descendants in this family tree.
Set As Default Person 
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Name Joan MURTON Relationship 
with Teresa Ann GOATHAM Born Est 1554 - Based on dates of birth of children
Gender Female Bequest From 31 May 1595 Main[?] beneficiary in the will of husband Hercules Hills - Joan was left "all my sheepe & one cowe wth one budd [calf], wth all my Corne growing on the grownd ... except ...". The exceptions as far as the livestock went were 8 ewes and 3 lambs which Hercules left in varying numbers to his children.
She was also left all Hercules' other "moveable goods, cattell, & household stuffe ... except ...". In this context 'cattell' would have meant 'Chattels', goods not fixed to land or property, not bovine animals. The exception was small sums of money that Hercules left to three siblings, brothers Michael and William and sister Susan, amounting in total to 6 shillings.
There is no mention of the land or house, which would presumbably have been inherited according to the custom of the manor where they were living.
Executrix From 31 May 1595 Of the estate of her husband Hercules Hills Step-children From 1596 - Although Joan only had children by her first marriage, she gained step-children by the next three. Unfortunately as she left no will (dying before her 4th husband she had no right to do so) there is probably nothing to give us any clues as to the relationship she enjoyed (or didn't!) with those children.
When she first remarried it was to Laurence Brooke, who had had 4 children, but two had died in infancy. It seems probable that the two surviving, Thomas (aged 5) and Thomasyn (9), would have lived with Laurence and Joan after their marriage. Joan had five children (including Mary, who may have been a step-daughter by her first marriage), aged 4 months to 15 years. Thomasyn may well have been attracted to 'mothering' baby Frances, and this may have helped her settle in the new blended family. Thomas would have gained two brothers of a similar age to play with.
The marriage only lasted three and a half years, so Joan would have been left with 2 step-children when Laurence died. Did they stay with her, or were they then looked after by blood relations? It is evident from Laurence' will that his mother was still living, although he entrusted execution of the will to his step-father by his marriage to Joan, Augustine Murton; clearly he trusted Augustine to be fair to his children that weren't related to Augustine.
I don't know what became of Thomas. Whether or not the children continued to live with Joan, it is hard to imagine there would not have been a bond between Joan and Thomasine that would have kept them close. Thomasin herself married 3 years after Joan's subsequent remarriage, and Joan may have rejoiced in the birth of her step-granddaughters. However, the first died before her second birthday (assuming she was baptised soon after birth, as seems to have been the norm then). At least the second, Elizabeth, seems to have survived childhood as more tragedy was to follow. In 1618/9 Thomasyn gave birth to triplets. Not surprisingly they did not survive; all were buried just 4 days after their baptism. Hopefully having one surviving child was some solace for Thomasyn; her step-mother may well have been there to support her in her grief. Childbirth was risky for all women, but perhaps especially where multiple births were concerned; however, Thomasyn not only survived the birth of triplets but had another son, seemingly her last, some 3 years later. Thankfully he too seems to have survived infancy.
Joan had married just 9 months after first being widowed. After being widowed for a second time it was to be over 7 years before she committed to a new husband. The wedding was in Boughton but Edmund Goffe was from Ashford, about 13 miles from Bougton under Blean, and it seems probable that that is where Joan lived with him.
Edmund had had 7 children with his first wife and only one appears to have died in infancy. The surviving were aged about 3 to 19 when Edmund and Joan married. To the youngest at least, who are unlikely to have retained any memory of their birth-mother, Joan is likely to have become an important figure, at least for a few years. But again the marriage lasted less than 4 years.
Joan's last wedding was just after she lost a husband for the third and final time. Again the ceremony took place in Boughton, and she probably moved back to Boughton; at any rate she is unlikely to have reamined in Ashford. Her 'Goffe' step-children, though, married etc. in Ashford so it seems probable that they did remain there. Did they retain much contact with their step-mother? Maybe, maybe not.
When Joan married Nicholas Juce she had five children living (including Hercules' daugher Mary), and maybe eight step-children. Nicholas had had eight children; two had died in but the other six were still living when he wrote his will in 1631 - so they all became Joan's step-children at the marriage and remained so for nearly 20 years until her death. However, they were aged 15 to 28 at the time of she married their father, so her role in their lives may well have been less. That said, she may well have seen more of them: surely they will have visited their father, or Joan will have visited them with him. Her two step-daughters may well have sought her advice prior to their marriages, both in 1616.
Bequest From 21 Jul 1599 Main beneficiary to her husband Laurence Brooke Bequest 1614 In her father's will - Joan and her sister Marie were jointly left a lifetime interest in their father's house, land and orchard.
Executrix 1614 Of her father's will - Jointly with her sister Marie
Buried 21 Sep 1631 Ss. Peter and Paul’s Church, Boughton under Blean, Kent, England 
- From PR entry (image on FMP, viewed 24 Feb 2020)
"The 21th of Septeb. bur Joan the wyfe of Nicholas Juce."
Joan was clearly still alive when her 4th husband wrote his will in May 1631. He didn't die until the November so the description of her as 'wyfe' rather than 'widow' is correct.
Given her age it is unlikely she would have married for a 5th time, and this is the only burial I can find to fit. (looking for a Joan or variant, with a surname indexed as Ince or Juce and variants, in or near Boughton, including Godmersham and Faversham). And I can find no other marriage of a Nicholas Juce to a Joan whose burial this could be.
Bequest Aft 16 Nov 1631 In the will of her last husband, Nicholas Juce - It may be inappropriate to describe Joan as a beneficiary of her husband's will, since she had pre-deceased him, but I think it is of interest to see what he intended her to have following his death.
I don't think they would have passed to her family; dying in the lifetime of Nicholas all she had was his, he was her heir to anything she inherited and I think as her heir the goods would have returned to th residue of his own estate.
Siblings1 sister Patriarch & Matriarch 
Nicholas MURTON, b. Est 1490, d. 1534, (probably), Graveney, Kent, England (Age ~ 44 years) (Grandfather) 
Person ID I29651 All | Teresa's direct ancestors Last Modified 27 Oct 2020
Father Augustine (“Austen”) MURTON, [Parents?], b. Est 1525, bur. 22 May 1614, Ss. Peter and Paul’s Church, Boughton under Blean, Kent, England (Age ~ 89 years) Family ID F11471 Family Group Page | Family Chart
Family 1 Hercules HILLS, [Father?], b. Est 1552, d. 1595 (Age ~ 43 years) Married Bef 1580 - Estimate of date assumes all Hercules' children were Joans. If Mary's wasn't then they must have married about 1581.
Hercules' wife at the time of his death was Joan; whether she was the mother of all of his children I am not certain, although her children named in her father's will shows that at least all from Augustine on were - i.e. all those known of except Mary (each was to receive 40 shillings). By contrast Hercules' daughter Mary (unlike the others not described as Joan's daughter, but simply as the wife of Laurence Juce was only to receive 10 shillings). Augustine Murton's Godchildren did include Augustine Tilson, one of this Mary's sons by her first marriage. If Mary had lost her mother early in life I guess that Joan and Joan's father could have played a big enough part in Mary's life for her to choose her step-grandfather as a Godfather for her son and (as seems to have been the norm) to have given her son the name of a Godparent, in this case Augustine. Mary had married by the time the will was written, and she may well have received less because her grandfather had given her her portion at the time of her marriage, though two Joan's three sons had also married before the will was written.
Boughton under Blean marriages in the PRs survive from 1558; the fact that Hercules and Joan's is not there suggests they probably married elsewhere, although it could have been accidentally omitted. If Hercules had been married before the PRs could also be expected to have his previous marriage, unless that too were elsewhere, and his first wife's burial - could have been elsewhere but less likely. No Hills were buried between the baptism of Hercules' children Mary and Augustine, further suggesting that Mary was Joan's daughter.
Children7 children Last Modified 23 Oct 2020 Family ID F11401 Family Group Page | Family Chart
Family 2 Laurence BROOKE, bur. 21 Jun 1599, Ss. Peter and Paul’s Church, Boughton under Blean, Kent, England
Other Partners: Ann TEDMAN m. 29 Oct 1581; Alice m. 30 Mar 1586; Margaret m. Bef 1595Married 26 Jan 1595/96 Ss. Peter and Paul’s Church, Boughton under Blean, Kent, England - From PR entry (image on FMP, viewed 22 Apr 2019)
"The 26th of Januarie were Married Laurence Brooke and Joan Hills wid"
That the marriage was of this Joan is shown by Laurence's will in which he names his 'father' as Augustine Murton, the latter naming Joan Juce (as she then was) and her 'Hills' children as his daughter and her children in his will.
In a bequest to his son Thomas, Laurence referred to a pot(?) " that I brought wyth me". Brought from and to where? - I wonder if this indicates that when they married he moved in with Joan rather than vice versa? I think it most likely does. Although described as a labourer in his will he left a cow to his daughter - maybe the one Joan had inherited from her previous husband - so he must have had the use of some land.
The fact that Joan was not only his residual beneficiary (and therefore probably his main one, though impossible to know without knowing the value of his estate) but there were no lifetime restrictions may indicate that she had brought most of the household goods to the marriage.
Last Modified 27 Oct 2020 Family ID F11413 Family Group Page | Family Chart
Family 3 Edmund GOFFE, bur. 29 Sep 1610, St. Mary’s Church, Ashford, Kent, England
Other Partners: Johane TRITTON m. 11 May 1584Married 26 Jan 1606/07 Ss. Peter and Paul’s Church, Boughton under Blean, Kent, England - From PR entry (image on FMP, viewed 4 Jan 2020)
"The same Daie [26th of Jan] Mar Edmund Goffe & Joan Brooke"
That it was this Joan Brooke that married Edmund shown by the will of her next husband, who she married as a Brook.
Last Modified 7 Oct 2020 Family ID F11528 Family Group Page | Family Chart
Family 4 Nicholas JUCE, b. Est 1553, bur. 3 Nov 1631, St. Lawrence’s Church, Godmersham, Kent, England (Age ~ 78 years)
Other Partners: Alice CLYFFORD m. 29 Jan 1581Married 20 Jan 1611/12 Ss. Peter and Paul’s Church, Boughton under Blean, Kent, England - From PR entry (image on FMP, viewed 4 Jan 2020)
"The 20th of Januarie mar. Nicholas Juce & Joan Gooffe"
Nicholas' will refers Augustine Hilles, the son of his wife, linking him to this Joan, and in addition Joan's father names her as Joan Juce in his will.
The fourth and last but probably longest of Joan's marriages, although all their children were born to previous marriages. Lasting nearly twenty years, it ended with Joan's death, less than two months before Nicholas had died. He had made his will a few months before her death so we can see what provision he had made for her. Sadly there is no sign of warmth or of any great concern for her welfare. Nothing is said about where she would live, for example. Where there were step children involved (as in this case) it would often be that the widow would be sharing a house with a step-son and his family, and so the testator might wish to make sure his widows rights of access to all she needed were preserved. Of course, in this case it may have been clear they would not be living in the same house, and whilst the goods bequeathed to Joan were few Nicholas' will suggests and his inventory confirms he left little. I think it would be unsafe to read into the will that this was a marriage without warmth, but there seems to be nothing to suggest it was.
One interesting fact is that Joan was not buried in Faversham, where Nicholas was living when he wrote his will in May 1631, nor in Godmersham where it seems he died that November, but in Boughton. This may suggest they were living apart. Both were most likely in their late 70s; perhaps they were simply living with family who could best look after them, but it does seem unusual.
An interesting item in the will is that "Tenn shillinges by the yeare wch was to be paid unto my said wife by Augustine Hilles her sonn shalbe paid unto my said Executor." What was this 10/-? I think most likely part of a marriage settlement.
Last Modified 27 Oct 2020 Family ID F11526 Family Group Page | Family Chart