Silas SALISBURY
1826 - Witness to a Will - Cortland County, NY

Probate Record: Will & Codicil of Alexander Leach — Silas Salisbury as Witness

This is a probate proceeding from Cortland County, NY, and it connects directly to the Silas Salisbury you've been tracking in that county (the same one from the 1840 Niles deed) — here he appears as a subscribing witness to the will of a neighbor, Alexander Leach, deceased.

The Document

Two proceedings are recorded here:

1. Proof of the Original Will (page 269)
Testator: Alexander Leach, late of "Harrison" [Homer? — hard to read], deceased
Will dated: August 15, 1826
Proved before: Jabez B. Phelps, Surrogate of Cortland County
Date of proof: September 19, 1827
Witness giving testimony: James Jones (one of the subscribing witnesses)

James Jones testified that he was present with Daniel Sherman and Silas Salisbury — the other two subscribing witnesses — when Alexander Leach, being of sound disposing mind and memory, published and declared the instrument as his last will and testament, and that all three witnesses signed in the testator's presence at his request.

2. Proof of a Codicil (page 270)

Alexander Leach later added a codicil, also dated August 15, 1826 (or possibly a later date — the codicil text mentions provisions for his widow), leaving property to his beloved wife Lavinia Leach for her natural life or widowhood, with remainder — upon her death or remarriage — to sons Silas Leach and William Leach.

Codicil witnesses (signatures visible): Silas Salisbury, James Jones, Jonas F. Jones
Proved before: Jabez B. Phelps, Surrogate, same September 19, 1827 session
What This Tells You About Silas Salisbury
He was a known, trusted neighbor of Alexander Leach in Cortland County in 1826, present and literate enough to sign as a witness to both the will and its codicil.
This places Silas Salisbury in Cortland County as early as 1826 — 14 years before the 1840 Niles land sale you had transcribed earlier — helping establish a longer residency timeline there.
The Leach family connection is notable: recall that Charles Leach served as the Commissioner of Deeds who took Silas Salisbury's acknowledgment on the 1840 deed to Niles. Alexander Leach's sons here are named Silas Leach and William Leach — worth checking whether Charles Leach (the commissioner) is one of Alexander Leach's sons or a close relative, which would explain the ongoing Salisbury-Leach association in the same county across multiple decades.

ark:/ 61903/ 3:1:33S7-9YCW-P8R

Learn more about the life of    Silas SALISBURY.

Visit Scituate, Rhode Island, USA (North Scituate)
Discover the people who lived there, the places they visited and the stories they shared.