fyxmW mmmiii^ f ilratg I THE GIFT OF .A..2.to.n.^.7.S - ^S..|-i}d.i^ CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 1924 092 514 813 Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924092514813 CERTAIN COMEOVERERS BY HENRY HOWLAND CRAPO VOLUME I NEW BEDFORD, MASS. E. ANTHONY & SONS, Incobp., Pbinters 1912 Ps K-g-nMis FOR WILLIAM WALLACE CRAPO THE SECOND OF THE NAME THESE MEMORABILIA OF HIS FOREBEARS ARE WRIT DOWN BY HIS PATERNAL UNCLE HENRY HOWLAND CRAPO MCMXII Vita mortuorum in memoria vivorum est posita TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS Volume I PAGE ExplaTiatory 1 List of Comeoverers ..... 9 PART I ANCESTORS OF JESSE CBAPO Circular Chart .... facing 18 CHAPTER I. Origo Nominis 19 II. Peter Crapo, the First . 29 III. Resolved White . 43 IV. Judith Vassall 59 V. Thomas Clark 69 VI. Thomas Tobey 77 VII. Peter Crapo, the Second 85 VIII. Jesse Crapo . 97 PART II ANCESTORS OF PEE BE ROWLAND Circular Chart facing 104 CHAPTER I. John Cooke . 105 II. Richard Warren 123 III. Arthur Hathaway 129 IV. Henry and Arthur Howland 135 V. John Russell 155 vm TABLE OF CONTENTS PART II— Continued CHAPTER VI. John Smith . ■ . VII. VIII. George Allen Benjamin Hammond IX. WiUiam Spooner X. John Briggs XT. Adam Mott . XII. Phebe Howland PART III PAGE 165 179 187 197 205 213 225 ANCESTORS OF ANNE ALMY CHASE Circular Chart .... facing 232 CHAPTBE I. Thomas Cornell 233 II. Philip Sherman 243 III. Richard Borden 251 IV. William Chase 261 V. William Almy 269 VI. John Tripp 281 VII. Anthony Shaw and Peter Tallman . . 289 VIII. Pardon Tillinghast . . . .297 IX. Philip Tabor 305 X. Stukeley Westcote and Thomas Stafford . 315 XI. Richard Kirby 323 XII. Anne Almy Chase . . . .327 PART IV ANCESTORS OF WILLIAMS SLOCVM Circular Chart .... facing 332 CHAPTER I. Giles Slocum 333 II. Bliezer Slocum 345 TABLE OF CONTENTS IX PART lY— Continued CHAPTER PAGE III. Richard Scott 361 ' IV. Catherine Marbury 369 V. Christopher Holder 381 VI. Joseph Nicholson . 395 VII. Ralph Earle 409 VIII. Edward Dillingham 419 IX. Williams Slocum . 423 PART V ANCESTORS OF SARAH MORSE SMITH Circular Chart . . . - . facing 434 CHAPTER I Nicholas Noyes 435 II. Thomas Smith 447 Ill John Knight 459 IV Richard IngersoU 463 V. Anthony Morse . 467 Vi The Newbury Witch 477 VII. William Moody . 491 VIII James Ordway . 499 IX. John Emery 507 TABLE OF CONTENTS Volume II PART Y— Continued CHAPTER PAGE X. Aquila Chase .... 521 XI. George Carr .... 529 XII. John Perkins .... 541 XIIT. Thomas Bradbury- 547 XIV. Mary Perkins Bradbury, the "Witch 551 XV. John Bailey .... 557 XVI. Thomas Newman 567 XVII. John Spark .... 571 XVIII. Eichard Kimball 575 XIX. William PhilUps 583 XX. Robert Long .... 597 XXI. "William Hutchinson 603 XXII. Anne Marbury Hutchinson . 613 XXIII. Sarah Morse Smith PART VI 633 ANCESTORS OF ABNEB TOPPAN Circular Chart .... facing 1 642 CHAPTER I. Abraham Toppan 643 II. Henry Sewall .... 651 III. Stephen Dummer .... 665 IV. Jacob and Hannah Toppan 671 V. Michael Wigglesworth 687 TABLE OF CONTENTS xi PART YI— Continued CHAPTER PAGE VI. The Day of Doom . 699 VII. Tristram Coffin .... . 709 VIII. Edmund Greenleaf . 725 IX. Theodore Atkinson . 731 X. Abner Toppan .... . 739 PART VII ANCESTORS OP AARON DAVIS Circular Chart .... facing 744 CHAPTER I. John Davis . 745 II. William HaskeU .... . 755 III. Zaccheus Gould .... . 761 IV. William Knapp .... . 769 V. Nathaniel Eaton .... . 775 VI. Aaron Davis, Third .... . 791 PART VIII ANCESTORS OF ELIZABETH STANFORD 795 PART IX TABLES OF DESCENT CHAPTER I. Descent of William Wallace Crapo from his sixteen great great grandparents . Circular Chart . . . facing 821 822 xu TABLE OF CONTENTS PART IX— Continued CHAPTER PAGE II. Descent of Jesse Crapo . . . 831 Circular Chart . . . facing 832 III. Descent of Phebe Howland . . .839 Circular Chart . . . facing 840 IV. Descent of WiUiams Slocum . . 861 Circular Chart . . . facing 862 V. Descent of Anne Almy Chase . . 869 Circular Chart . . . facing 870 VI. Descent of Abner Toppan . . . 885 Circular Chart . . . facing 886 VII. Descent of Aaron Davis . . . 899 Circular Chart . . . facing 900 7III. Descent of Sarah Morse Smith . . 909 Circular Chart . . . facing 910 IX. Descendants of Jesse Crapo and Phebe Howland 929 X. Descendants of "Williams Sloeum and Anne Almy Chase .... 949 XI. Descendants of Abner Toppan and Eliza- beth Stanford 959 XII. Descendants of Aaron Davis and Sarah Morse Smith 995 Addenda : Rebecca Bennett Index of Names 1009 1017 EXPLANATORY EXPLANATORY To William Wallace Crapo of Detroit, Michigan. My dear William: At the present lustrimi of your life you are, and should be, supremely indifferent to your ances- tors. They are dead and gone and that's an end on't. Your utmost powers of receptivity are properly absorbed by vital considerations. "Dead uns are nit" — as you would put it. In presenting you the foEowing notes I ask not that you con- sciously attempt to change your present attitude. Inevitably there will come a time when these records of your forebears will have for you at least a passing interest. To you at that time I dedicate them. I hope, indeed, the time will never come when the pulse of glorious life will beat so slowly that you can afford to devote it to genea- logical study. A lonely and a sterile life alone can find sufficient satisfaction in the dry-as-dust occupation of delving into dreary records to find a name, a mere name, the date when the name was bom and died, the date when the name married another name, and the dates of all the other names that went before and came after. 2 CERTAIN COMEOVBRBRS Hoping to save you from so deplorable an expenditure of vitality, I, not inappropriately, present to you the names of many of the men and women who are responsible for your exist- ence. Were that all I offer it would be hardly worth while for either of us. I seek, however, to offer something more. These men and women whom I name were all once fellows and girls, as much alive as you are now. They were born, and had the measles, and loved and lived and died much in the same way and to the same purpose, as has been and will be your experience. As Slender said of Shallow in the Merry Wives of Windsor: "All his successors gone before him have done 't ; and all his ancestors that come after him may." Three hundred years hence there will, I trust, be some of your descendants who may care a little to realize even vaguely that you were alive once upon a time and had a vital his- tory which, to you at all events, was filled with interest. To call these old fellows and girls back — nay forward — as living realities is what I seek to offer you. As vital personalities they deserve your kindly attention and affection. They are all your grandfathers and grandmothers, and had it not been for them you would not have been — surely not you at all events. They are your own people, flesh of your flesh, and blood of your blood. In Japan the old Shintoism made the Cult of Ancestors the supreme religion. I do not suggest your adoption of such a faith. Your ancestors were no better than they should have been, if, in- deed, in many instances, they reached that stand- EXPLANATORY 3 ■ard. You at all events are, or should be, im- measurably their superior. Yet there is ethical value in Shintoism. To keep alive and present in one 's home and life the memory of those remote beings whose existence produced one's own exist- ence is a form of human allegiance which tran- scends even patriotism. Many millions, to be sure, yes bUlions, and trillions (and whatever ■comes next) of human beings are, in truth, direct- ly responsible for your existence. The retro- progression is too stupendous for sensible con- ception. There is a limit, moreover, to genea- logical endeavor. The limit in this case I fix at your "comeoverers." Certain men and women ■came to this country which we now caU the United States of America from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, from England mostly, one, per- haps, from France, none so far as I know from any other European coimtry, who are your pa- ternal ancestors. It so happens that almost all of these paternal comeoverers of yours came dur- ing the early days of immigration. If the same is true of your maternal comeoverers, and I fancy it is, you are for the most part of the tenth gen- eration of New JiUgland descent and consequently liave two thousand and forty-six ancestors to be accounted for, of whom one thousand and twenty- four were comeoverers. You may, perhaps, un- derstand why I regard it as fortunate that my inquiries exclude one-half of them, namely your mother's progenitors. The one thousand and twenty-three ancestors and the five himdred and twelve comeoverers are quite sufficient to appal 4 CERTAIN COMEOVERERS me, and you, too, doubtless, if you are fearful that I mean in these notes to vitalize for you so vast a congregation of ' ' dead uns. ' ' It is, indeed, only a comparatively few of the one thousand and twenty-three ancestors to whom I shall be able to give you a personal introduction. In the cir- cular charts which I furnish you in connection with these notes you will perceive the blanks, which in the radiation backwards cause such vast hiati. These paternal ancestors of yours, with the exception of the Stanfords, were of early Massa- chusetts stock. They were for the most part of the "yeoman" or farmer class; there were some "artisans" among them, a few "merchants," a few "gentlemen," and a very few "ministers." Few of them were of distinguished liaeage. Your grandfather William Wallace Crapo's progeni- tors, without exception, so far as I have been able to ascertain, are descended from the early settlers of the Plymouth Colony and the Ehode Island Colonies, and your grandmother Sarah Tappan Crapo's progenitors all, except the Stan- fords, spring from the early settlers of the Massa- chusetts Bay Colony. In Plymouth and Bristol Counties or ia Ehode Island on the one side, and in Essex and Suffolk Counties on the other they dwelt. Few among them were renowned. They were almost without exception very decent sort of folk, exemplary and mediocre, whose personal histories if not of much importance to the world at large are none the less worthy of your interest and mine. EXPLANATORY 5 Yolir father, like most people, had four great grandfathers and four great grandmothers. They were: Jesse Crapo Phebe Howland WiUiams Slocum Anne Almy Chase Abner Toppan Elizabeth Stanford Aaron Davis Sarah Morse Smith For purely literary reasons I shall present to you the ancestors of these eight forebears in the following order, in the divisions of these notes : Part I. Ancestors of Jesse Crapo. Part II. Ancestors of Phebe Howland. Part m. Ancestors of Anne Almy Chase. Part rV. Ancestors of "Williams Slocum. Part V. Ancestors of Sarah Morse Smith. Part VI. Ancestors of Abner Toppan. Part VII. Ancestors of Aaron Davis. Part VIII. Ancestors of Elizabeth Stanford. It is more especially my purpose to tell the S'tories of some of the comeoverers from whom these eight great great grandparents of yours descended, and something also about a few of the descendants of these comeoverers from whom in direct lineage you spring. The temptation to stray froBa the direct line of descent has been ^eat. So many interesthig people are coUat- 6 CERTAIN COMBOVERBRS erally connected with these lineal ancestors of yours that it has required much resolution on- my part not to bring some of them into these notes. I have, however, for the most part, stead- fastly held to my determination not to be led astray from the straight path. Necessarily the personal stories of your come- overers are intimately connected with certain episodes of the early story of New England, and in presenting their biographies I have unavoid- ably made frequent references to events in the history of the founding of New England which doubtless assume a more intimate knowledge of history than you have any reason to possess. The history of the settlement of the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colonies is fundamentally the basis of the history of your comeoverers. The history of the settlement of the towns of New Plymouth, Sandwich, Eochester, Dartmouth^ Salem, Boston, Ipswich, Newbury, Salisbury,, Gloucester, Providence, R. I., Portsmouth, R. I.,^ and Warwick, R. I., and other early New England towns is necessarily intimately involved in the personal history of their settlers from whom you descend. The Pilgrim and the Puritan religious faiths, the Antinomian controversy, the Quaker persecutions, the Witchcraft delusion, the Indian wars, and other burning topics of the early days, cannot be ignored in telling the stories of your ancestors who were closely affected by them. To attempt, however, to elucidate in these notes the historical conditions which bore directly on the fortunes of your forefathers and mothers would EXPLANATORY ^ involve us both in an effort whicli would be far more laborious than satisfactory. Nor do I ex- pect my presentation of these biographical notes will stimulate your interest to such a pitch that you will seek to familiarize yourself with the mise-en-scene of the play in which your forebears acted their subordinate parts by any attempt to assimilate the vast accumulation of literature which portrays it. To me, however, the knowl- edge of the story of the settlement of New Eng- land which I have, perforce, acquired in the wide search for facts connected with my inquiries in your behalf, has been an ample reward for the work. To imitate the delightfully absurd style of Cotton Mather, I confess that the first and best fruit of my genealogical labors has been a realiza- tion of the demonstration through a wondrous concatenation of simple testimonies that this New England of ours was founded by men and women who were dominated by spiritual and not material aspirations.. By their works we may know them, but through their faith were we made. These notes make no claim of completeness or of unassailable accuracy. They make no pre- tense of masquerading as original contributions of any importance to genealogical or historical lore. They lack, indeed, the essential virtue of serious genealogical work — the scrupulous exam- ination and analysis of the direct evidence of original records. On the contrary they are based largely on hearsay. Very little independent work in the investigation of original sources of information has gone into their construction. The 8 CERTAIN COMBOVBRERS published genealogies of a considerable number of the families with whom you are of kin ; the mar- vellous compendium known as the New England Historical and Genealogical Eegister; Mr. Aus- tin's admirable work on the early settlers of Rhode Island; the publications of Historical Societies, notably the Old Dartmouth Historical Society; town histories; and in general the free use of the numerous handy tools of the trade of genealogy have, with the assistance of several kind helpers, supplied the data which I now pre- sent to you. The utmost to which these notes may aspire is to give you sometime in the future, when you have ceased to see visions and have come to dream dreams, a roughly sketched picture of that little portion of long ago humanity which by the accident of your birth involves your exist- ence. The notes may not even achieve that aspiration. I keenly appreciate the undeniable fact that they contain much dry statistical in- formation which may reasonably bore you. After all, even if you can not take pleasure in reading them all you will, perhaps, be pleased to know that they have given me much pleasure in writ- ing them. Affectionately your uncle, Henky H. Cbapo. A LIST OF CERTAIN COMEOVERERS FROM WHOM YOU DIRECTLY DESCEND WHO ARE MENTIONED IN THESE NOTES LIST OF COMEOVEREES NAMB SHIP Tear of Immigration Alcock, George . Alcock, wife of George Alcock, John Allen, George . Allen, Kalph Almy, Audrey . Almy, Christopher Almy, 'William . Atkinson, Abigail Atkinson, Theodore Bailey, John Bailey, John, Jr. Bennett, Elizabeth Bennett, Rebecca Bennett, Robert Borden, Joan . Borden, Richard Bradbury, Thomas Briggs, John Briggs, wife of John Briggs (Taunton) Brown, Mary . Brown, Thomas Brown, William Brown, Mary . Carr, George Ghase, Aquila . Chase, Mary Chase, "William Chase, William, Jr, Clark, Thomas Abigail Abigail Abigail Angel Gabriel Angel Gabriel James James Ann 1630 1630 —1637 1635 1635 1635 1635 1635 1634 1634 1635 1635 —1642 —1639 —1639 —1637 —1637 1634 —1638 —1638 1635 1635 —1633 —1636 1630 1630 1630 1623 12 CERTAIN COMBOVERERS Coffin, Dionis . Coffin, Joan Coffin, Tristram Coffin, Tristram, Jr Coker, Robert . Cook, John Cook, Mary Cook, Thomas . Cook, Thomas . Cooke, Francis Cooke, Hester . Cooke, John Cornell, Rebecca Cornell, Thomas Crapo, Peter Cutting, John . Davis, John Day, Anthony Deacon, Phebe . Dillingham, Drusilla Dillingham, Edward Dillingham, Henry Dummer, Alice Dummer, Jane . Dummer, Stephen Barle, Ralph Earle, Joan . Eaton, Nathaniel Emery, Ann Emery, Eleanor Emery, John Emery, John, Jr. Emery, Mary . Fisher, Edward Fisher, Judith . Fitzgerald, Elephel Mary and John Mayflower Ann Mayflower Bevis Bevis Bevis Hector James James James James James . abt. 1642 1642 1642 1642 1634 -1643 -1643 -1643 1620 1623 1620 -1638 -1638 1680 -1634 -1638 -1645 -1638 1632 1632 1632 1638 1638 1638 1634 1634 1637 1635 1635 1635 1635 1635 -1638 -1638 -1680 LIST OF COMEOVBRERS 13 FoUansbee, Thomas , , —1660 Godfrey, John . . . . ] tfary and John 1634 Godfrey, wife of John . I Vlary and John 1634 Godfrey, Peter ... I VEary and John 1634 Gould, Phebe . , . —1638 Gould, PrisciUa , , . —1638 Gould, Zaccheus , , —1638 Graves, Thomas , —1635 Graves, son of Thomas . —1635 Greenleaf, Edmund 1634 Greenleaf , Judith . 1634 Greenleaf, Sarah . . 1634 Hammond, Benjamin . Srifan 1634 Hammond, Elizabeth Penn < SrifSn 1634 HaskeU, William . . . , 1637 Hathaway, Arthur . . . —1643 Hilton, Mary .... . Holder, Christopher . . ( Speedwell 1656 Howland, Arthur . . . t fames or Ann 1621-3 Howland, Henry . . . t Fames or Ann 1621-3 Hutchinson, Anne . . . ( 3^rifSn . . 1634 Hutchinson, Bridget . . ( jriflfin 1634 Hutchinson, Susanna . . ( Griffin 1634 Hutchinson, WiUiam . . ( Griffin 1634 IngersoU, Ann . . . . ' ralbot 1629 IngersoU, Bathsheba . . ' ralbot 1629 IngersoU, Richard . . . ' ralbot 1629 Kimball, Richard . . ] Elizabeth 1634 Kimball, Thomas . . ] Elizabeth 1634 Kimball, Ursula . . ] illizabeth 1634 Kirby, Richard . —1636 Kirby, Jane . . —1636 Knapp, John . . 1630 Knapp, William . 1630 Knight, John t Fames 1635 Knight, Elizabeth e fames 1635 14 CERTAIN COMBOVBRBRS Knott. George —1637 Knott, Martha . —1637 Long, Robert . Defense . 1635 Long, Zachariali Defense . 1635 Lott, Mary . Defense . 1635 Maehett, Susanna 1649 Marbury, Catherint Griffin . . 1634 Masters, Jane 1630 Masters, John 1630 Masters, Lydia . 1630 Merrick, James James 1635 Moody, "William Mary and John 1634 Moody, Sarah . Mary and John . 1634 Morse, Anthony James 1635 Morse, Mary James 1635 Mott, Adam . . Defense . 1635 Mott, Adam, Jr. Defense . 1635 Mott, John . . abt. 1639 Mott, Sarah Defense . 1635 Mudsre. Marv 1638 Mudge, Thomas 1638 Newland, Mary —1637 Newman, Thomas Mary and John 1634 Nicholson, Joseph Noyes, Nicholas —1659 Mary and John 1634 Odding, Sarah . —1633 Oliver, Elizabeth —1633 Ordway, James Paine. Anthony —1648 —1638 Paine, Mary —1638 Palgrave, Anne Palgrave, Richard 1630 1630 Palgrave, Sarah Perkins, John . 1630 Lyon . 1631 Perkins, Judith Lyon . 1631 Perkins, Mary . Lyon . 1631 LIST OF COMEOVBRERS 15 PhilUps, William . . . Falcon (?) . . ( ?) 1635 Porter, Margaret —1633 Pratt, Bathsheba . . . Ann .... 1623 Pratt, Joshua .... Ann .... 1623 Eicketson, WilUam —1679 Ring, Mary 1629 Ring, Susanna 1629 Russell, Dorothy —1642 Russell, John —1642 Sawyer, Ruth —1643 Sawyer, William —1643 Scott, Martha .... EUzabeth . . 1634 Scott, Richard .... Griffin . . . 1634 Sears, Thomas — 1638 Sennet, Walter —1638 Sewall, Hannah . . Prudent Mary . 1661 Sewall, Henry 1634 Sewall, Henry, Jr. . . Elizabeth and Dorcas 1634 ShatsweU, Mary Shaw, Anthony — 1653 Sherman, Philip 1633 Sisson, Richard — 1653 Slocum, Giles —1638 Slocum, Joan — 1638 Smith, Joanna .... James . . . 1635 Smith, John —1628 Smith, Rebecca . . . James . . . 1635 Smith, Thomas . . . James . . . 1635 Smith, Thomas Spark, John Spooner, William — 1637 Sprague, Francis . . Ann .... 1623 Sprague, wife of Francis . Ann .... 1623 Stafford, Thomas —1626 Stanford, John (?) or 1635 Stanford, Thomas (?) 1684 16 CERTAIN COMEOVBRBRS Stonard, Alice . —1645 Stonard, John . . —1645 Tabor, Philip . . . —1633 Tallman, Peter . —1648 Tibbot, Mary . . . —1640 Tibbot, Walter . —1640 Tidd, Joshua . —1636 Tidd, Sarah . . . —1636 Tillinghast, Pardon 1643 Tobey, Thomas . —1644 Toppan, Abraham Mary Anne 1637 Toppan, Susanna . Mary Anne 1637 Tripp, John . —1638 Vassall, Anna . Blessing 1635 Vassall, Judith Blessing 1635 Vassall, William Arabella 1630 Vincent, John . . . . . —1637 Vincent, Mary . . . . . —1637 Walker, John . • • • . —1639 Walker, Katherine . . . . —1639 Warren, Elizabeth Ann 1623 Warren, Richard . Mayflower 1620 Webster, John • • > . —1634 Westcote, Mercy . . . . . —1636 Westcote, Stukeley • • • . —1636 Wheeler, John . Mary and Jol m . 1634 Wheeler, Anne . Mary and Jol in . 1634 White, Resolved Mayflower 1620 White, Susanna Mayflower 1620 White, William . Mayflower 1620 Wigglesworth, Edward • ■ • * 1638 Wigglesworth, Esther 1638 Wigglesworth, Michael 1638 Wilde, John . . . . —1637 Williams, Mary . . . . —1639 Williams, Nathaniel . . —1639 PART I ANCESTORS OP JESSE CRAPO Chaptek I ORIGO NOMINIS ORIGO NOMINIS ODE TO AN EXPIRING FEOG BY MRS. LEO HUNTEE "Can I view thee panting, lying On thy stomach, without sighing; Can I unmoved see thee dying On a log Expiring frog ! ' ' 'Beautiful," said Mr. Pickwick. 'Pine," said Mr. Leo Hunter, "so simple." 'Very," said Mr. Pickwick. 'AH point, sir, all point," said Mr. Leo Hunter. To me, my dear WiEiam, these pathetic verses of Mrs. Leo Hunter (wouldn't you have liked to hear her spout them at the fete-champetre in the character of Minerva?) have indeed a point. "Johnny Crapaud" as the generic designation of a Frenchman I was told in my callow youth was the name which the insular prejudice of per- fidious Albion applied to the natives of la belle France, because, forsooth, they ate frogs. I used to wonder whether the correlative nickname of "John Bull" was similarly traceable to a predi- lection for the "good roast beef of old England." This dogma of the frog-eating Frenchman I obedi- 22 CERTAIN COMBOVBRBRS ently accepted until I chanced in turning the pages of a French Dictionary to find that the word crapaud — was it possible 1 — meant TOAD ? Now it may perhaps be a question of taste as to whether frogs' legs, skinned, well salted and broUed over a quick fire, are entitled to a place in the roll of epicurean delights, but it is impos- sible to believe that even the perverseness of insular bigotry would have charged a Frenchman with such a depth of culinary depravity as broiled toads. PerceiAdng that the frog-eating theory must be abandoned, I set forth in the valley of the shadow of philology. In my wanderings I found the expla- nation vouchsafed to my youthful inquiries so widely entertained and so often reiterated as to furnish almost an excuse for the ignorance of the French language entertained by my preceptors. None the less it is manifest that toads are not frogs. Some iconoclast propounded this idea under the head of "Notes and Queries." The usual result followed. Totally inconsistent and equally confident answers were contributed by that anonymous group of old-fogies who live and breathe and have their being in Notes and Queries. The Editors of Notes and Queries having negli- gently or maliciously failed to establish a court of final appeal to decide the queries mooted under their direction, you are at liberty to adopt any one of the learned explanations of the origin of the name of Crapo which happens to please your fancy. I will furnish you with a few specimens only from which to make a choice. ORIGO NOMINIS 23 In the edition of Fabyan's Chronicles edited by Henry Ellis (1811) there is a good representation of "Ye olden armes of France," namely, "a shield argent, three toads erect, sable, borne by the name of Boterenx." Newton's Heraldry (London, 1846) thus discourses about this ancient emblem: "The toads exhibited in this shield of arms are of very ancient appropriation and by some heralds are supposed to have been derived from services performed by an ancestor in the French army as early as the time of ChUderic in the fifth century, by whom it is said toads were borne as the heraldic symbol of the country of Tournay in Flanders of which he was king. These toads were afterwards changed to fleur-de- lis in the royal standard of France." And to the same effect Elliott's Horae Apocapyticae. One naturally wonders by what process of trans-substantiation the toads were turned iato lilies. Surely he was an inept blazoner whose toads were mistaken for lilies. That, at least, seems more plausible than the explanation of a certain Miss MulUngton (Heraldry in History, Poetry and Eomance, London, 1858) who writes that the "legend of the noxious toad passing into the heaven-descended lily symbolizes respectively the gross errors and impure worship of paganism and the purity, majesty and dignity of the true faith embraced by Clovis at his baptism." The romantic and poetical Miss MuUington is, how- ever, corroborated by Eaone de Presles (Grans Croniques de France) who says, "the device of Clovis was three toads, but after his baptism the 24 CERTAIN COMBOVERERS Arians greatly hated him and assembled a large army under King Candat to put down the Chris- tian King. While on his way to meet the heretics he saw in the heavens his device miraculously change into three lilies or on a banure azure. He had such a banner instantly made and called it his 'liflamnie.' Even before his army came in sight of King Candat the host of the heretic lay dead, slain like the army of Sennacherib by a blast from the God of battles. ' ' As an illustration of this explanation of the use of the sobriquet of Crapaud for a Frenchman you will find in Seward's Anecdotes the following: "When the French took the city of Aras from the Spaniards under Louis XIV it was remem- bered that Nostradamus had said *Les anciens crapauds prendront Sara' — the ancient toads shall Sara take. This prophecy of Nostradamus (he died in 1566) was applied to this event in a somewhat roundabout manner. Sara is Aras backwards. By the ancient toads were meant the French, 'as that nation formerly had for its armorial bearings three of those odious reptiles instead of the three fleur-de-lis which it now bears.' " I will give you only one other explanation of our nickname. This is furnished by one W. T. M. of Reading, Mass. (1891). He says: "Jean Crapaud. The popular notion runs that this term was applied to Frenchmen through the idea gen- erally entertained that frogs were their favorite or national food. It seems, however, that the phrase is really associated with the natives of ORIGO NOMINIS 25 Jersey. Moreover, crapaud is a toad and not a frog. The number of toads on the Island of Jer- sey, says an old magazine article, gave rise to the nickname Crapaud, applied to Jersey men. This by a sort of nautical ratiocination has been transferred to Frenchmen generally." To be able to slip off one's pen such a phrase as "nauti- cal ratiocination" in itself marks W. T. M. as a man of abUity, but I found his statements cor- roborated by another learned individual, by name, "Perez," who says, "The natives of Jersey are indeed called Crapauds by Guernsey men, who in return are honored by the title of 'Anes. ' " A neat rejoinder certainly. Quite between you and me, my dear WUliam, my own opinion is that all this learned discussion is beside the mark. "Toad" as a term of con- tempt is almost as old as the English language. Burton in his Anatomy of Melancholy so uses it. Johnson (the great Johnson) so uses it. Char- lotte Bronte, whose phrases came from the very soil of her north country, says, "If she were a nice pretty child one might compassionate her forlornness, but one can not really care for such a little toad as that." "Toady" — a servile de- pendent doing reptile service; "Toad eater," a poor devU who is in such a state of dependence that he is forced to do the most nauseous things imaginable to please the humor of his patron; "Toadyism" used by Thackeray as a synonym of snobbishness ; — there is, indeed, no end of illustrations to be adduced to show the use of toad as a general term of contempt. For instance, in 26 CERTAIN COMEOVERERS our civil war (1861-65) the term "toad-sticker" was well nigh universal as the designation of a sword. So when an Englishman calls a French- man a toad one need not seek a recondite explana- tion in coats of arms, or sayings of Nostradamus, or local nicknames from Jersey. He calls him a toad because he thinks he is a toad. You are wondering, perhaps, what this dis- coursive rigmarole has to do with you and your name. Well, it's just here. The first known ancestor of your name was a little French chap cast ashore from a wreck on the shore of Cape Cod, and whether he didn't know what his name really was, or if he did the Cape Codders couldn't pronounce it with comfort, they called him Crapaud, for short, — a Frenchman. For myself I like to fancy that when the little waif, our ancestor, was brought dripping from the sea, and dazed and frightened crouched before the hearth fire of a fisherman's hut by the shore, the good wife, in imitation of her ancestress Eve, said: ' * It looks like a toad, and it squats like a toad, — let's ca,ll it a toad." However it happened, my dear William, you're a Toad. Never put on the airs of a Frog. After all, there's something to be said for those "noxious reptiles." Louis Agassiz, at all events, held a brief for us. He says "toads should rank higher than frogs because of their more terres- trial habits." (I don't see just why, do you?) Lyly in his Euphues (a sufficiently long time ago) reminds us that "The foule toad hath a faire stone in his head." Shakespeare tells us "The ORIGO NOMINIS 27 toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head." In Queen Elizabeth's inven- tory is a "Crapaud Eing" — a ring set with a precious stone supposed to be from the head of a toad. After all a jewel in one's head is better than mere jumping hind legs, don't you think? Chaptbb n PETER CRAPO Came over about 1680 Peter Crapo ? 1670 — 1756 (Penelope White) John Ceapo 1711 — 1779+ ( Sarah Clark) Peter Crapo 1743 — 1822 (Sarah West) Jesse Crapo 1781 — 1831 (Phebe Howland) Henry H. Crapo 1804 — 1869 (Mary Ann Slocum) William W. Crapo 1830 — (Sarah Davis Tappan) Stanford T. Crapo 1865 — (Emma Morley) William Wallace Crapo 1895 — PETER CRAPO Possibly the little cast-away, although he had forgotten or was denied his surname, did remem- ber and attempt to preserve his Christian name — Pierre. If so he must have become discouraged at the perversity of his neighbors and the scriven- ers who have designated him upon the public records as Pier, Pero, Peroo, Perez, and other ways, so in the end he called himself just plain Peter. I have two signatures of his which do him credit. (Some of your other ancestors who doubtless considered themselves very much more pumpkins signed thus — "his X mark.") I re- produce them here: peieP>CR«P o o P«tep,cfJ PETE3R TALLMAN 393 make dillegent Inquirie how and in what manner a Indian hoo is found deead in the Towne of Portsmouth on Rodeh Island came to his death and make A true Retiurn of your vardit thereon unto the Corrone, and this inqiorement you make and give upon the penalty of perjury Aug. ye 16th 1684. . . . Upon Indian lad of Widow Fish he being found dead in ye woods of Portsmouth ye Juries verdict is wee find according to the best of our Judgments that he murdered him selfe being found upon the ground with a walnut peaUing hanging over him upon A lim of A tree. Anthony Shaw bought his home in Portsmouth of Philip Tabor and paid "£40 and 300 good boards" for it. How he acquired the three hun- dred good boards is not evident. He may have been engaged ia the lumber business. His name is mentioned in connection with several civil suits in which he was a party. In 1680 he was taxed 9s. 6d. In 1688 he was fined 3s. 4d. for breaking the peace. He died August 21, 1705, and his in- ventory discloses that he was very well to do. He had of personal property £213 12s. 2d., iucluf]- ing a "negro man £30." Israel Shaw, the son of Anthony Shaw and Alice Stonard, was born in 1660. He was alive in 1710, and how long after that date he lived I know not. He lived in Little Compton. In 1689 he married a daughter of Peter Tallman. They had a daughter, Elizabeth, bom in 1706. I have found no record that clearly proves that this Elizabeth Shaw was the same Elizabeth Shaw who married Nathan Chase and was the grandmother of Anne Almy Chase. The date of her birth and the absence of a record of any other Elizabeth Shaw of a corresponding age would seem to indi- 294 CERTAIN COMBOVERERS cate that she and none other was the hride of Nathan Chase. If so, you descend from Peter Tallman. It has been stated, on what authority I know not, that Peter Tallman was Dutch and that he came over in 1648 in the ship Golden Dolphin to New York, bringing with him three negroes. His name first appears in Newport. He was made a freeman in 1655. He was in Ports- mouth in 1658 when several tracts of land were deeded to him. In 1660 a highway was laid out by land which "Peter Tallman bought of Daniel Wilcox." In 1661 he was on a coroner's jury which found that "he, the said Richard Eels, wos drounded by stres of wethar axedentually. " In 1661 it is stated that he was "Solicitor General" of the Colony. In 1662 he was a Commissioner for Portsmouth to the federated government of Portsmouth, Newport and Warwick. Afterwards he served as Deputy to the General Assembly on several occasions. In 1671 Ensign Lot Strange complained to the town that Peter Tallman would not do the fair thing about maintaining a division fence. The town sympathized with the Ensign and advised him to sue Peter. In 1673 Peter was "behind in rates." He claimed an offset against the town which was allowed in settlement. In 1674 he was "presented" and imprisoned for taking a deed of land from an Indian, and on surrender of the deed was released. In 1675 he was indicted for failure to maintain the fence that Ensign Strange had complained about. In this same year he brought suit against Rebecca Sadler, wife of Thomas, for breach of the peace ANTHONY SHAW AND PETER TALLMAN 295 and threatening his family. Thereafter there are records of his serving on juries and in other capacities until about 1683 when he seems to have ceased to live an active life. He lived, however, xmtil 1708. Peter Talhnan's married career was varied. From his first wife, Aim, he was granted a divorce by the General Assembly. In 1665 he married Joan Briggs of Taunton. The antenuptial agree- ment between Peter and Joan and the deeds by which it was confirmed are set forth in full in the Portsmouth town records. The documents are elaborately and excellently written, and indicate a very liberal settlement on the bride. She bore him several children, of whom your ancestress is listed as the twelfth, and there were still others. Joan died in 1685 and in 1686 Peter married for the third time one Esther. Elizabeth Shaw, the granddaughter of Anthony Shaw and Peter Tallman, who married Nathan Chase, was a grandmother of Anne Almy Chase. Chapter VIII PARDON TILLINGHAST Came over 1643 Paedon Tillinghast 1622 — 1718 (Lydia Tabor) Joseph Tillinghast 1677 — 1763 (Freelove Stafford) Lydia Tillinghast 1700 — 1774 (Job Almy) Job Almy 1730 — 1816 (Ann Slocum) Mary Almy (Benjamin Chase) Anne Almy Chase 1775 — 1864 (Williams Slocum) Mary Ann Slocum 1805 — 1875 (Henry H. Crapo) William W. Crapo 1830 — (Sarah Davis Tappan) Stanford T. Crapo 1865 — (Emma Morley) William Wallace Crapo 1895 — PARDON TILLINGHAST Pardon Tillinghast was born in 1622 at Severn Cliffs, Beechy Head, in the Comity of Sussex on the southeast coast of England. He was a free- holder and started life as a shop-keeper. "Non- conformist heart and soul, tradition has it that on the outbreak of the civil war he joined the army of Cromwell, in which case he may have taken part in the battles of Edgehill and Marston Moor." (From A Little Journey to the Home of Elder Pardon Tillinghast, by John A. and Frederick W. Tillinghast, 1908). Although he would seem to have been with the then prevailing party, yet that part of England where he dwelt was still loyal to the King and Pardon's out- spoken insurgency may have involved him in trouble. At all events, he left his home and came to New England in 1643, about the same time as did that other ancestor of yours, Tristram Coffin, and probably for a similar reason, although their situations as Roundhead and Royalist were reversed. Pardon Tillinghast settled in Providence, which had been founded some seven years before by Roger Williams. He was a "Quarter Shares Man." In the division of "Home Lots" made soon after his coming, he was allotted a plot of 300 CERTAIN COMEOVERERS five acres on the "Towne Street" near what is now the corner of South Main and Transit Streets. "All of the Home Lot proprietors built their houses back from the Towne Street so as to give each house a strip of greensward around it. An orchard was generally buUt in the rear of the house on the west slope of the hill, and narrow lanes were laid out between the lots allowing passage for cattle going back on the hill for pasture ... At the rear of the houses, where Benefit Street now runs, each proprietor, inde- pendent to the last, laid out a separate graveyard for the use of his family and his descendants. Upon his home lot Pardon Tillinghast buUt his house which, like those of his neighbors, was small and buUt of rough woodwork that was wrought chiefly with an axe, and following the example of his neighbors he also located a graveyard in the rear of his lot. There he is now buried, together with about thirty of his descendants." Pardon TUlinghast is best known as a Baptist preacher, but he was also a man of many activities. His business ventures were considerable and formed the origin of the great mercantile wealth of his descendants. He built the first wharf in Providence, opposite his house lot, and carried on various commercial enterprises in which his sons later joined. He also was prominent in the political life of the town, being a member of the Town Council for nineteen years. Town Treasurer for four years, and a Representative from Provi- dence to the Colonial Assembly for six years. PARDON TILLINGHAST 301 In 1681, Pardon Tillinghast became the minister of the First Baptist Church, being the sixth suc- cessor to Eoger Williams, who founded the church in 1636. The church had no meeting-house for many years, and in 1670 Pardon Tillinghast built a church building on a lot owned by him "between the Towne Street and salt water" — on the west side of what is now South Main Street. The consideration stated in the deed is ''Christian love, good will and affection which I bear to the Church of Christ in Providence, the which I am in fellowship with and have the care of as being the Elder of said Church." The following memo- randum is appended to the deed: Memo. — before the ensealing hereof I do declare that whereas it is above mentioned, to wit, to the church and their successors in the same faith and order, I do intend by the words "same faith and order" such as do truly believe and practice the six principles of the doctrine of Christ mentioned Heb. — 6 — 2, such as after their manifestation of repentance and faith are baptized in water and have hands laid on them. A sermon by Pardon Tillinghast preached in 1689, doubtless in this church, where he probably continued to act as minister until his death in 1718, has been preserved. The sermon was printed in a pamphlet entitled "Water Baptism Plainly proved by Scripture to be a Gospel Pre- cept — By Pardon Tillinghast, a servant of Jesus Christ. Printed in the year 1689. " It is an ably written controversial document. It reminds one of a lawyer's brief with its eitationfi from the Bible to prove its points. It is logical and in- tensely partisan. It was written in answer to a 302 CERTAIN COMEOVBRBRS Quaker, whose name was Kent, who had asserted that it was the "Baptism of the Spirit" which the holy writ meant. Tillinghast demolishes this "spiritual" doctrine. He shows to his own com- plete satisfaction that it is water, (HgO), that was clearly prescribed. One can fancy what his in- dignation would have been with the later develop- ment of New England transcendentalism which spiritualized away all the material and historical stand-bys of religion. Listen for a moment to his indignant outburst : But those boasters of the spirit, being as clouds without water, carried about by the wind, make it their work as canker, as Hymeneus and Philetus did, to the fault of the gospel and ordinances of the Lord Jesus, wresting the Scriptures as Peter by the spirit did fore- tell their own destruction. . . . Although he (the Quaker) grant there may be such a state of childhood as may use such things for a time as outward ordi- nances, and wait thereon for the inward and spiritual appearance of Christ's kingdom, yet their ministry and dispensation are above it, and are bom monsters, and not babes to be fed with milk, as the Saints heretofore ; the least of these babes despising outward ordinances — pretending to inward revelations. By his wUl, dated December 15, 1715, Pardon Tillinghast bequeaths "my life and spirit unto the hands of the Fountain of Life and Father of Spirits from whom I have received it." He died January 29, 1718, aged ninety-six years. He had been twice married, first to Butterworth, by whom he had three children, and second to Lydia, daughter of Philip Tabor and Lydia (Masters), by whom he had nine children, of whom the fourth was Joseph, born August 11, PARDON TILLINGHAST 303 1677, from whom you descend, Joseph, was a suc- cessful merchant living in Providence and associ- ated with his brothers in Newport, where also he lived during part of his life. It was his daughter Lydia, named after Grandmother Tabor, who married Job Almy, a great grandfather of Anne Ahny Chase. Chapter IX PHILIP TABOE Came over prior to 1633 Philip Taboe (Lydia Masters) 1605 — 1672+ Lydia Taboe (Pardon Tillinghast) — 1718+ Joseph Tillinghast (Freelove Stafford) 1677 — 1763 Lydia Tillinghast (Job Almy) 1700 — 1774 Job Almy (Ann Slocum) 1730 — 1816 Maey Almy (Benjamin Chase) Anne Almy Chase (Williams Slocum) 1775 — 1864 Maey Ann Slocum (Henry H. Crapo) 1805 — 1875 "William W. Ceapo (Sarah Davis Tappan) 1830 — Stanfoed T. Ceapo (Emma Morley) 1865- William Wallace Ceapo 1895 — (< PHILIP TABOR Philip Tabor may be designated as your migratory eomeoverer." Most of your come- overers, after a brief period of vacillation "sat down" and stayed put. It was not so with Philip Tabor. Whence he came I know not. He was probably born in England about 1605. He may have come over with Winthrop in 1630, and settled first at Boston. His was evidently a nature which could permit no "pent up Utica" to contract his powers, even if he did not go to the extreme of making the ' ' whole boundless continent his. " Yet his was not a "vaulting ambition which o'erleaps itself," since he appears to have always landed on his feet. Wherever he went he at once became a "person of mark." Surely there must have been something about his personality which im- pressed itself with an exceptional force on the various communities in which he sojourned. There can be no doubt of Philip Tabor's vitality. I confess that in trying to vitalize for you many of your ancestors, I have been constrained to "back to its mansion call the fleeting breath," having, in truth, nothing to call but "the shadow of a shade." In the case of Philip Tabor, how- ever, there is nothing shady about him except his ■conduct. So far as his personality is concerned. 308 CERTAIN COMEOVERBRS it is singularly distinct. He was in no sense an important individual in the early history of New England, and yet he succeeded in projecting his personality rather more vividly than most of your ancestors. Philip Tahor was admitted a freeman of the Massachusetts Bay Colony October 19, 1630. On May 14, 1634, he was admitted a freeman of Watertown. He was a carpenter and builder, and must have come to New England with some capital as well as skill in his trade. He was one of the original contributors to a floating fort to protect Boston in 1633-4. "Upon consideration of the usefulness of a moving fort to be built forty feet long and twenty-one wide, for defense of this colony, and upon the free offer of some gentlemen lately come over to us of some large sums of money to be employed that way" the Court asked for further subscriptions. The record shows that Philip Tabor was among the gentlemen who had already subscribed by offering to give two hun- dred four inch planks, a substantial and useful donation. In Watertown he was the proprietor of five lots which he sold to John Wolcot. Here he married Lydia, the daughter of John Masters, with whom very probably he was associated in construction work. What caused him to remove to Yarmouth we cannot know. It is quite likely that there was an opportunity there for him as a builder. He was propounded as a freeman of Plymouth Colony January 7, 1638-9, and was admitted June 4, 1639. That he should have served the same year as a PHILIP TABOR 309 Deputy for Yarmouth to the first General Court at Plymouth is a striking example of his force; - fulness in impressing others with his ability. In March, 1639, he was one of a committee to make division of the planting lands at Yarmouth, In 1640, he again represented Yarmouth at the Gen- eral Court. On October 4, 1640, as appears by the church records of Barnstable, the Rev. Mr. Lothrop baptized "John, son of Phillipp Tabor dwelling at Yarmouth, a member of the church at Watertown. ' ' Philip Tabor remained in Yarmouth a few years only and then removed to Great Harbor, later known as Edgartown, on the island of Martha's Vineyard. Thomas Mayhew of Water- town had bought this island in 1641, and in 1642 "divers families including some of Watertown" made the first settlement. It is quite probable that Philip Tabor and his wife knew some of these people as former neighbors in Watertown, and it is evident that the newly started settlement was in need of a builder. Just when Philip Tabor first came to the Vineyard is uncertain. He was living there before 1647, when he sold to John Bland his interest in a tract of land "lying against Mr. Bland's house at Mattakeekset. " PhUip Tabor, himself, lived at Pease 's Point. He was evidently one of the "proprietors" of the island, as he shared in all the divisions of lands as long as he was a resident of the island. That he was somewhat closely associated with Thomas Mayhew is evidenced by his witnessing a docu- ment relating to Mr. Mayhew 's ward, Thomas Paine, in 1647. 310 CERTAIN COMEOVERBRS It is evident that he left the island occasionally to undertake some new work of construction on the continent. In 1651 he was in New London working with his brother m law, Nathaniel Mas- ters, on the Mill Dam. It is, indeed, possible that after leaving Yarmouth and before going to the Vineyard, he was in New London in 1642, or soon after. It was then that the settlement was made by the followers of the Eev. Mr. Blynman, from Gloucester. Philip Tabor is named as one of the early settlers, and seems to have had property there. Very likely he assisted in building the habitations of the original settlers. His wife's sister, Elizabeth, the wife of Carey Latham, was an early resident of New London. After leaving the Vineyard, he still had some interests in New London and in Connecticut, and several of his descendants were afterwards there settled. In 1653, Philip Tabor was back on the island, when with Thomas Mayhew he was chosen one of the four who acted as town 's committee, or Select- men. In May, 1653, Thomas Mayhew, Thomas Burchard, and Philip Tabor were chosen "to divide to the inhabitants out of all the Necks so much land as they in the best judgment shall see meet." To Philip Tabor, himself, was set off "The neck called Ashakomaksett from the bridge that is at the East side of the head of the swamp." The modern name of this locality is Mahachet^ Philip Tabor, in the same year, shared in the division of the planting lands. During this and the next year or two he made several conveyances of land. PHILIP TABOR 311 A year or two after, Philip Tabor was guilty of certaia indiscretions, which made it desirable for him to remove from the island. He went to Portsmouth. Under date of January 3, 1655, the town records of Portsmouth say "Philip Tabor is received an inhabitant and taken his ingage- ment to the State of England and government of this place and hath equal right of commonage with the rest of the inhabitants of this towne." It was probably after his final departure from Edgartown that the foUowiug entry was made in that town's records: "May 15, 1655. Itt is agreed by ye 5 men yt Philip Tabor is proved to be a man that hath been an attempter of women's chastities in a high degree. This is proved by Mary Butler and Mary Foulger, as divers more remote testimonies by others, and words testified from his own mouth with an horrible abuse of scripture to accomplish his wicked ends'' ^ August of the same year, Philip Tabor co:pveyed his house and lot at Mahachet to Thomas Lawton, a son in law of Peter Tallman, another ancestor of yours, and thereafter he had no further his- tory on the Vineyard. Evidently the story of Philip Tabor's indis- cretions on the Vineyard in no way prevented him from taking a leading part in the affairs of his new place of residence. In 1656 he acted on the jury at the Court at Newport. In 1660, 1661, and 1663, he represented Portsmouth as a com- missioner to the General Court of the Union of the Rhode Island Colonies, in the latter year being on a committee to devise means of raising money 312 CERTAIN COMEOVERBRS to pay Mr. John Clarke for his services as the agent of the Colonies in England. During his residence of ahout ten years in Portsmouth, he constantly served the town as Rater, Tax Col- lector, Constable, etc. In 1664 he described him- self as "of Newport. ' ' In 1665 he sold his house in Portsmouth, which was on the Newport road, to Anthony Shaw, another of your comeoverers, for £40 and three hundred good boards. In 1667 he was living in Providence, where he witnessed certain deeds of real estate to his son in law, Pardon Tillinghast, who had married his daughter Lydia, April 16, 1664. It is evident that PhUip Tabor had a position of some distinction in Providence. His daughter's marriage to the leading minister and wealthiest merchant of the town would have accomplished that. In a deposition made in June, 1669, in which he says that he is sixty-four years old, he describes the events connected with the drowning of a young boy, "the widow Ballou's lad," and tells how he "went down to the river which runneth by his house." Where this house was I have not dis- covered. In 1671, "at his Majestie's Court of Justices sitting at Newport for the Colony of Ehode Island and Providence Plantations ' ' Philip Tabor and Eoger Williams gave evidence against one William Harris for "speaking and writing against his Majestie's gracious Charter to his Colony," which treasonable conduct was evidently regarded very seriously by the Court. There is no further record of Philip Tabor. He probably died in Providence soon after 1672. At PHILIP TABOR 313 what date his wife, Lydia Masters, died does not appear, but he evidently married a second time one Jane, who joined in the deposition above referred to. His son Philip came to Dartmouth and married Mary Cooke, the daughter of John Cooke, and was the ancestor of the numerous Taber families of Dartmouth. The Tabers set- tled on the west branch of the Coakset River and there built a mill, the locality being then known as Taber 's Mills, and now known as Adamsville. It was probably a grandson, Philip, who was a well known Baptist minister of Coakset. He lived at the south end of Sawdy Pond in Tiverton and had many descendants. It is possible that the first PhUip may have spent his last days in Tiver- ton, as there seems to be some tradition to that effect. John Masters, the father of Philip Tabor's wife Lydia, and your ancestor, undoubtedly came over with Winthrop in 1630. Winthrop writes under date of January 27, 1631: "The governor and some company with him went up by Charles River about eight miles above Watertown, and named the fish brook on the north side of the river . . . Beaver Brook because the beavers had shorn down divers great trees there and made divers dams across the brook. Thence they went to a great rock, upon which stood a high stone, cleft in sunder, that four men might go through, which they called Adam's Chair, because the youngest of their company was Adam Winthrop. Thence they came to another brook, greater than the former, which they called Masters ' Brook, because 314 CERTAIN COMEOVERERS the eldest of their company was one John Masters. ' ' This brook was later known as Stony Brook and now forms the boundary, in part, divid- ing Waltham and Weston. On May 18, 1631, John Masters was made a freeman of Watertown. In June of the same year he undertook the first engineering feat of its kind in the Colony. It was the original intention of the magistrates to locate the seat of govern- ment at Newtown, later called Cambridge, and with this in view, perhaps, it is recorded that: "Mr. John Maisters hath undertaken to make a passage from Charles River to the New Town, twelve foot broad and seven foot deep, for which the Court promiseth him satisfaction, according- as the charges thereof shall amount unto." The cost was thirty pounds. In 1631 John Masters was one of those who pro- tested against the admission of unworthy mem- bers to the church at Watertown. In 1632 he and John Oldham were a committee from Watertown to advise with the Grovernor and assistants re- specting the raising of the public funds. In 1633 John Masters removed to the New Town. At first it would seem that he lived on the highway to Windmill Hill. He had other properties. In 1635 he owned a house and seven acres of land on the west side of Ash Street, near Brattle Street. In the same year he was licensed to keep an ordi- nary and discharged from his duty as innkeeper shortly before his death in 1639. He died in Cam- bridge December 2, 1639, and his wife, Jane, died on December 20 of the same year. In his will he provides for his daughter, Lydia Tabor. Chapter X STUKELEY WESTCOTE Came over prior to 1636 AND THOMAS STAFFOED Came over prior to 1626 Stukeley Westcote 1592 — 1677 ( ) Mercy Westcote — 1700 (Samuel Stafford) Feeelove Statfoed — 1711+ ( Joseph Tillinghast) Lydia Tillinghast 1700 — 1774 (Job Almy) Job Almy 1730 — 1816 (Ann Sloeum) Maey Almy (Benjamin Chase) Anne Almy Chase 1775 — 1864 ("Williams Sloeum) Maey Ann Slocum 1805 — 1875 (Henry H. Crapo) William W. Ceapo 1830 — (Sarah Davis Tappan) Stanfoed T. Crapo 1865 — (Emma Morley) William Wallace Ceapo 1895 — STUKELEY WBSTCOTE The parentage of Stukeley Westcote is Tin- known. Doubtless he was in some way a descend- ant of a St. Ledger Westcot, who ia 1300 married a daughter of the line of Stukeleys of Affeton. The combination of somewhat unusual names cer- tainly indicates this origin. He was born about 1592, probably in County Devon. When about forty-four years of age he came to this country with his family, and was received as an inhabitant and freeman of Salem as early as 1636. A house lot of one acre near the harbor was granted to him in 1637. A short time only was he allowed to enjoy it. He was the warm friend and sup- porter of Eoger Williams, the minister, for a time, of the first church at Salem. "Mr. Williams did lay his axe at the very root of the magistrati- cal powers in matters of the first table, which he drove on at such a rate so as many agitations were occasioned thereby that pulled ruin upon himself, friends, and his poor family. ' ' On March 12, 1638, the General Court passed upon Stukeley Westcote the "great censure" for heresy and banished him with other adherents of Williams, from the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Westcote followed his leader, Eoger Williams, to Providence, and was one of the 318 CERTAIN COMEOVERERS twelve "loving friends and neighbors" whom Williams admitted as co-owners of the tracts of land which he had acquired from Canonicus. He was one of the signers of the remarkable agree- ment for civil government at Providence. In the division of the "Home Lots" at Providence, of which mention is made in the notes on Pardon Tillinghast, Westcote was given a lot extending from what is now North Main Street to Hope Street, half way between College Street and Waterman Street. For the next ten years and more his name is frequently found in the records of the sales of the undivided lands of Providence, and in connection with various real estate trans- actions. Stukeley Westcote was one of the found- ers in 1638 of the first Baptist Church in Provi- dence and remained faithful to the tenets of the church during his life, although he differed with many of the members of the church about infant baptism. In 1642 Samuel Gorton and some others, who had found difficulty in abiding in peace under several jurisdictions, purchased of the Sachem Miantonomi a tract of land called Shawomet "be- yond the limits of Providence where English charter or civilized claim could legally pursue them no longer." Here was started the settle- ment afterwards known as Old Warwick. The government of Massachusetts Bay Colony at- tempted to assert jurisdiction over the would-be independent settlement. In a sworn statement made in 1644, Stukeley Westcote, who, although not then as yet an inhabitant of Shawomet, STUKELEY WESTCOTE 319 showed that he was familiar with the conditions of the settlement, and describes the depredations and outrages committed upon the settlers by the Massachusetts Bay authorities. Their homes, he says, were burned, their cattle kUled, their fami- lies compelled to flee, and all of the able-bodied male settlers were arrested and taken by force to Boston as traitors in failing to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts government. The trial of these poor men, who had been dragged from their devastated homes to Boston, is one of the most outrageous examples of "in- spired Puritanism." They were originally pro- ceeded against as insurgents against the King's authority, yet it was not for disloyalty to civic allegiance, but for heterodoxy in religion that they were condemned and suffered. Governor Winthrop, whose diary has been to me a source of inexhaustible interest and admiration, gives a naive account of his own indefensible action as chief magistrate. The Magistrates thought the heretics should be put to death, but the Deputies of the people dissented, and the final judgment of the Court was "that they should be dispersed into seven several towns, and there kept to work for their living, and wear irons on one leg, and not depart the limits of the town, nor by word or writing maintain any of their blasphemous or wicked errors upon pain of death . . . and this censure to contiaue during the pleasure of the court. ... At the next court they were all sent away because we found they did corrupt some of our people especially the women by their heresies. ' ' 320 CERTAIN COMEOVBRERS Four months later, under date of January 7, 1643, Governor Winthrop writes: "The court finding that Gorton and his company did harm in the towns where they were confined and not know- ing what to do with them, at length agreed to set them at liberty, and gave them fourteen days to depart out of our jurisdiction in all parts, and no more to come into it under pain of death. This censure was thought too light and favorable, but we knew not how in justice we could inflict any punishment upon them, the sentence of the court being already passed." This banishment from the jurisdiction of Massachusetts meant, of course, in the theory of the Court, a banishment from their own homes in Warwick. Some of the exiles went to Portsmouth on Aquidneck, which had never submitted, although hard pressed, to Massachusetts rule, and some gradually collected their scattered families and found their way back to Warwick, which was soon afterward estab- lished an independent jurisdiction under charter from the Earl of Warwick, and subsequently joined in a federation with Portsmouth and New- port, and stUl later came under the jurisdiction of the general Rhode Island charter. It was five years after the persecutions of the original settlers of Warwick, in the spring of 1648, that Stukeley Westcote, being then fifty-six years old, removed with his family from Provi- dence to Warwick, in the undivided lands of which he had acquired a considerable interest. From his first advent in this little community, until his death in 1677, Stukeley Westcote was STUKELBY WESTCOTB 321 prominently identified with the history of the settlement. He was on many occasions chosen a Deputy to the Colonial Assembly and at least twice he served as one of the Governor's Conncil, as well as constantly serving the town in many capacities, among which may be mentioned that of innkeeper to entertain when the King's Com- missioners held Court at Warwick, which implies that he had a commodious dwelling. His house was about a mile and a half from the modern "Eocky Point." His name often appears on the town and Court records in ways which clearly show him to have been a man of activity and probity. King Philip's War brought disaster to the town. In March, 1676, the Indians sacked the settlement, burning every house in it but one. Stukeley Westcote's oldest son, Eobert, was killed, and he, himself, then eighty-four years old, sought refuge with his daughter, Damaris Arnold, the wife of Caleb Arnold, a son of Governor Bene- dict Arnold, who lived in Portsmouth. There, in January, 1677, he died. "His remains, borne by his sons across the Bay to its western shore, near to which the last thirty years of his life had been passed, were laid at rest beside those of his wife, in the first public burial ground of Warwick ad- joining his home lot and former residence." (J. Eussell Bullock, Life and Times of Stukeley West- cote, 1886). His wUl, written in 1676, was not executed, but was, with some changes, confirmed by the Town Council, resulting ia subsequent litigation among 322 CERTAIN COMEOVERERS the heirs. In this will he mentions his daughter Mercy, who in 1660 had married Samuel Stafford. Samuel Stafford was the son of Thomas Staf- ford, who was born about 1605. He is thought to have come from Warwickshire. He was iu Plymouth in 1626 and is said to have built there the first grist mill run by water power. In 1638 he was admitted an inhabitant of Newport. Sub- sequently he lived in Providence, where he erected a grist mill at the north end of the town near the miU bridge. In 1652 he removed to Old Warwick, settling at the head of Mill Cove, where he erected another grist miU. His homestead was on the north side of the mill stream. He died in 1677, and in his will names his wife as Elizabeth. His eldest son Samuel, born in 1636, possibly in Ply- mouth, succeeded to his father's business at War- wick as a mill wright, and took a prominent part in public affairs. He filled many town offices and was a Deputy from Warwick many times. He was elected an assistant of the Governor in 1674, but declined to serve. He died March 20, 1718, aged eighty-two. Freelove Stafford, the daughter of Samuel Staf- ford and Mercy Westcote, was the mother of Lydia Tillinghast, who married Job Almy and was a great grandmother of Anne Almy Chase. Chaptek XI EICHARD KIRBY Came over prior to 1636 Richard Kiebt (Jane ) — 1686+ RUHAMAH KlEBT (John Smith) ■ 1707+ Deliverance Smith (Mary Tripp) — 1729 Deborah Smith (Eliezer Slocum) 1695 — Ann Slocum (Job Almy) 1732- Mart Almy (Benjamin Chase) Anne Almy Chase (Williams Slocum) 1775 — 1864 Mary Ann Slocum (Henry H. Crapo) 1805 — 1875 William W. Ceapo (Sarah Davis Tappan) 1830- Stanford T. Ceapo (Emma Morley) 1865 — William Wallace Ceapo 1895 — RICHARD KIRBY Eichard Kirby takes us away from Rhode Island back to Plymouth Colony. He is thought to have come from Warwickshire in England. He was an inhabitant of Lynn in New England as early as 1636. He was one of the company of Lynn men who went to Sandwich in 1637 and started the settlement there. He is named as an executor of a wUl made iu Sandwich in March, 1637. He appears first on the records of Sand- wich in 1638. He was granted land in 1641. In 1651 he was "presented" (to the Court) for non- attendance at public worship. This was before the advent of Quakerism, and seems to indicate only some negligence on the part of Richard towards the established church, or, possibly, some "anabaptist" tendencies. As soon, however, as the Quaker influence reached Sandwich in 1656, Richard Kirby was at once involved in the schism. He suffered in the same way as did so conspicu- ously that other ancestor of yours, George Allen. The fines which Richard Kirby and his son were made to pay for religion's sake amounted to £57 12s. — an excessive amount in view of their re- sources. Like so many other of your ancestors, Richard Kirby took advantage of the new Quaker settlement at Dartmouth to escape the rigor of 326 CERTAIN COMEOVBRERS the law. In 1670 he purchased of Sarah "Warren one-half of Thomas Morton's full share in the Dartmouth purchase, and afterwards acquired other interests in the Dartmouth lands. In 1683 he purchased of Zachariah Jenkins of Plymouth, a tract of land on the Coakset River, lying on the westerly side of the road leading to Horse Neck, near Akin's Corner, and it was here that he dwelt. It is probable that he removed from Sandwich to Dartmouth soon after 1670. He evi- dently did not take any prominent part in the affairs of the town as his name seldom appears upon the records, except as having taken the oath of fidelity in 1684 and again in 1686. He died some time after May, 1686, and before July, 1688. It was from his daughter Ruhamah, who mar- ried John Smith, that you descend through their son, Deliverance, who was a great great grand- father of Anne Almy Chase. Of Deliverance Smith you have already had tidings in the notes on the ancestors of Phebe Howland. Chapter XII ANNE ALMY CHASE ANNE ALMY CHASE Of your great great grandmother, Anne Almy Chase Slocum, I can give you little definite in- formation. I have been told that I visited her on several occasions at the Barney's Joy house, but my personal recollection of these visits is ex- tremely vague, siQce I was only a few months more than two years of age when she died. I have, however, heard many pleasant things about her from her granddaughters, your grand- father's sisters, who used to visit her when they were girls. In the notice of her death in some record which was cherished by her grandchildren she is designated as "the amiable Anne Chase Slocum. ' ' She is said to have been beautiful and to have transmitted the distinctive form of alert gracefulness which distinguished her daughter, your great grandmother Crapo, and several of her granddaughters, your great aunts. She was very fond of your grandfather, William W. Crapo, and used to coddle him when she lived with his parents in New Bedford during several winters. She was always loyal to her own family, and throughout her life kept in close touch with her Chase and Almy relatives, many of whom lived in Tiverton, Portsmouth, and Newport. Your 330 CERTAIN COMEOVERBRS grandfather and his sisters often visited their Ehode Island cousins. Her sister, Deborah Chase, married her cousin, Abner Chase, and they lived in Portsmouth. "Aunt Deborah" and "Uncle Abner" were important members of the family. Another sister. Content Chase, who never mar- ried, was a useful "maiden aunt." On the way down to "Uncle Abner 's" the children always stopped with "Cousin William Almy," who lived in Portsmouth in the fine old house at the end of the Stone Bridge. There were several intermar- riages between Chases and Almys and the family connection was a large one. This loyalty to all her kiQ and the various ramifications of cousins distinguishes her from the three other of your grandfather's grandparents. I have never heard of any especial or sustained interest or intimacy between Jesse Crapo, Phebe Howland, or Wil- liams Slocum and their relatives. With Anne Almy Chase it was quite otherwise. I have in my possession her writing box of black enamel with her name in large letters painted in yellow on the under side of the lid. I fancy the box has held many letters and papers in its day which, were they now at my disposal, would enable me to give you a more complete picture of your great great grandmother Slocmn, and her immediate family and relatives. From the little which I have been able to learn about her, she has im- pressed me as a singularly sweet and lovable per- sonality. PAET IV ANCESTOES or WILLIAMS SLOCUM Chapter I GILES SLOCUM Came over prior to 1638 Giles Slocum — 1682 (Joan ) Peleg Slocum 1654 — 1733 (Mary Holder) Peleg Slocum 1692 — 1728 (Rebecca Bennett) Peleg Slocum 1727 — 1810 (Elizabeth Brown) Williams Slocum 1761 — 1834 (Anne Almy Chase) Maey Ann Slocum 1805 — 1875 (Henry H. Crapo) William W. Crapo 1830 — (Sarah Davis Tappan) Stanpoed T. Ceapo 1865 — (Emma Morley) William Wallace Ceapo 1895 — GILES SLOCUM Anthony Slocmn was one of the forty-six origi- nal purchasers from Massasoit of Cohannet, later called Taunton, in 1637. In 1643 he was listed as "able to beare arms." In 1654 and again in 1662 he was Surveyor of Highways. In 1657 he was admitted as a freeman of the Colony. In 1659 he was of the grand jury, and in the same year land in Taunton was set off to him. In 1662 he dis- posed of his holdings to Richard Williams and his name does not thereafter appear on the records of Taunton. Iron ore had been discovered in Taunton at an early date, and in 1652 a com- pany was formed to mine and smelt it at "Two Mile Eiver." Henry Leonard was the leader in the enterprise and Anthony Slocmn had an in- terest in the company. In 1660 a new company was formed, of which Anthony Slocum appears to have been a third owner. It is a matter of tradition that Anthony Slocum was associated with Ralph Russell in establishing the iron forge at Russell's MUls and that he lived in Dartmouth and was the father of Giles Slocum. This tradi- tion, which has been accepted by historians, may not be dismissed lightly. There is, however, no recorded evidence that Anthony Slocum ever lived in Dartmouth. There is, moreover, no satis- 336 CERTAIN COMEOVERBRS factory evidence that Giles Slocum, who was liv- ing in Portsmouth, Ehode Island, in 1638, and there died in 1682, and from whom you are de- scended, was the son of Anthony Slocum of Taun- ton. In 1670, at all events, Anthony Slocum was in Albemarle County, North Carolina, where he petitioned the Court, presided over by the Hon- orable Peter Carteret, Esquire, Governor and Commander in Chief, for the return of his hat which he had lost, perhaps, on the voyage from New England to his new home. It was ordered on September 27, 1670, by the Court that "he have his hatt delivered by yd fisherman at Eoanok, he paying the fee. ' ' In 1679 he appears as Anthony Slocum, "Esquire," a member of the "Palatine Court" for the County of Albemarle, North Caro- lina. In 1680 "Anthony Slocumb, Esqr. one of ye Ld^ Prop^'s Deputies aged ninety years or there- abouts" made a deposition in regard to some "rotten tobacco," signing the instrument by "his X mark." His name appears several times in 1680, 1682, 1683, and 1684 as a member of the Court. In several instances he is designated as the ' ' Honorable Anthony Slocum Esqr. " In May, 1684, he received a patent to six hundred acres of land ' * on the north side of Mattacomack Creek by the mouth of a swamp called by ye name of Miry Swamp. ' ' His will, dated November 26, 1688, was pro- bated in January, 1689, making him almost a cen- tenarian. In this document he describes himself as a " gentleman. ' ' This will proves beyond ques- GILES SLOCUM 337 tion that the Honorable Anthony of Albemarle County, North Carolina, was the Anthony Slo- cnm who was Surveyor of Highways in Taunton, in 1662, since he provides for certain grandchil- dren by the name of Gilbert, about whom he had written to WUliam Harvey in Taunton, his brother in law. In his wUl, signed "Anthony A. Slockum, his X mark," he provides for his sons John and Joseph and their families. The wUl is a rather lengthy document, reciting his family relations, and it is certainly strange, indeed, that if he had a son Giles living in Portsmouth, Ehode Island, he should not have even mentioned him. More- over, the dates relating to Anthony Slocum and to Giles Slocum, although they do not prohibit the relation of father and son, make it unlikely. In this conclusion I differ from Charles Elihu Slocum, of Defiance, Ohio, the author of an elabo- rate and excellently prepared genealogical his- tory of the Slocums of America. He asserts that Giles Slocum of Portsmouth was a son of Anthony Slocum of Taunton. If, indeed, it is so, you may pride yourself on being descended from an "Hon- orable Esquire," a member of a "Palatine Court, ' ' who could not write his own name. There is, at all events, no question about your descent from Giles Slocum. He was born, it is thought, in Somersetshire, England, and came to America prior to 1638, at which date he was settled in Portsmouth, Ehode Island. In 1648 he was allotted thirty acres of land in Portsmouth. In the subsequent years he acquired more land by various recorded conveyances. His home- 338 CERTAIN COMEOVERBRS stead farm, which he purchased of William Bren- ton, prior to 1649, adjoined that of John Cook, his ' ' brother in law. ' ' Whether being a ' ' brother in law" means that Joan, Giles Slocum's wife, was a sister of John Cook, or whether both John and Giles married sisters is not clear. The home- stead farm was on the easterly side of the island, about half way between the present villages of Portsmouth and Middletown, nearly opposite Fog- land Point. It is a beautiful tract of land and is now known as the "Glen Farm," berag one of the many estates on the island occupied by wealthy New Yorkers. In 1655 Giles Slocum was in the roll of freemen. In 1668 his "ear mark" was recorded as "a crope in the right eare and a hapenny under the same, one the same eare, with a slitt in the left eare and ahapeny under, of thirty years standinge." He acquired con- siderable real estate in Rhode Island, and in New Jersey, and was evidently a man of some means. It was in 1659 that he purchased of Nathaniel Brewster and his brothers of Plymouth a one half share in the Dartmouth purchase "which was a gift from our dear mother Mistress Sarah Brewster." Ralph Earle is named in the deed, which runs to Giles Slocum, as having paid the consideration of thirty-five pounds. He evidently acquired an additional quarter share in the Dart- mouth purchase, although I have not discovered the record of the conveyance. Giles Slocum and his wife Joan were early members of the Society of Friends. He died in 1682. His will is a most interesting document. GILES SLOOUM 339 probated March 12, 1682. He describes himself as "Gyles Slocum, now of the towne of Ports- mouth in Road Island and ye Kings Providence Plantation of New England in America, sinner." In this will he gives to his son Peleg Slocum, your ancestor, "half a sheare of land lying and being in the towne of Dartmouth," and unto his son Eliezer, also your ancestor, one quarter of a share. He provides for all his eleven children and several grandchildren, and then gives "unto my loving friends the peple of God called Quakers foure pounds lawful moneys of New England." Peleg Slocum was the sixth child of Giles and Joan Slocum, born in Portsmouth August 17, 1654. He took up his interest in the Dartmouth purchase on the neck of land at the confluence of the Pascamansett River with Buzzards Bay, which has since been known as Slocum 's Neck. His "mansion house" stood near the home of the late Paul Barker on Slocum 's Neck, and after its demolition was long known as the "old chimney place. ' ' Peleg Slocum, in 1684, is named as one of the proprietors of Dartmouth in a list by certain new comers, who complained that the said proprietors refused to permit an equitable division of the lands. In 1694 he, as well as his brother Eliezer, is named as one of the proprietors in the confirmatory deed of Governor Bradford. His share equalled sixteen hundred acres and he acquired other lands by purchase. When he died his homestead farm consisted of one thousand acres, and in addition he held a large interest in the still undivided lands, and several specific par- 340 CERTAIN COMEOVERERS eels, and an interest in the islands of * ' Nashawina, Pennykest, and Cuttahnnka. " He seems to have owned most of the latter island, which became known as Slocum's Island and for many genera- tions remained in the Slocum family. Peleg Slocum and his wife, Mary Holder, were zealous members of the Society of Friends. The monthly meetings were for a number of years, and until the completion of the meeting-house in 1703, often held at Peleg Slocum's house. There, too, the women's meetings were held. At a "man's meeting" held at the house of John Lapham on the sixth day of the eleventh month, 1698, Peleg Slocum, Jacob Mott, Abraham Tucker and John Tucker undertook "to buUd a meeting house for the people of God in scorn called Quakers (35 foot long 30 foot wide and 14 foot stud) to worship and serve the true and liv- ing God in according as they are persuaded in conscience they ought to do and for no other use, intent, or purpose. ' ' Then, in the record, follows the list of eleven subscribers giving in all £63. Much the largest individual subscription, £15, was given by Peleg Slocum, who also gave the six acres of land on which the meeting-house, called the Apponegansett meeting-house, was built, and where the burying ground was located. Peleg Slocum was one of the first approved ministers of the society. In John Eichardson's Journal, under date of 1701, is the following : "Peleg Slocimi, an honest publick Friend, carried us in his sloop to Nan- tucket. We landed safe and saw a great many GILES SLOCUM 341 people looking towards the sea for great fear had possessed them that our sloop was a French sloop, and they had intended to have alarmed the Island, it being a time of war. I told the good-like people that Peleg Slocum near Ehode Island was master of the sloop, and we came to visit them in the love of God, if they would be willing to let us have some meetings amongst them." Richardson describes the meeting at Mary Starbuck's house. He then says: "I remember Peleg Slocum said after this meeting that 'the like he was never at — for he thought the inhabitants of the island were shaken and most of the people convinced of the truth.' " Thomas Story, another of the shining lights among the early Quakers, was entertained several times at the home of Peleg Slocum. In his journal he writes : "On the thirteenth day of the fifth month (1704) about the tenth hour of the morning I set saU for the island of Nantucket in a shallop belonging to our Friend Peleg Slocum, which under divine Providence, he himself chiefly conducted, and landed there the next morning about six." Peleg Slocum remained steadfast to his faith and in 1724 eighty of his sheep were seized because of his refusal to contribute toward building a Presbyterian church at Chilmark. He died in 1732-3 in the fifth year of his Majesty's Reign, George the Second. Like his father, he remembered the monthly meeting of Friends by a bequest of £10. Peleg Slocum married Mary Holder, of whom you wUl hear in connection with her father, Christopher Holder. Their son Peleg married 342 CERTAIN COMEOVERERS Eebecca Bennett, who was born in Newport about 1698-9. She was the daughter of Jonathan Bennett and his wife Anna. Jonathan Bennett was born in Newport in 1659. He died July 11 and was buried Aug. 13, 1708. His will, pro- bated in September, 1708, made his wife Anna executrix and left his real estate to his sons, John and Jonathan, and to his daughters, Eebecca and Anna, £50 each when they became of age. That he was well to do is indicated by his legacies of silver spoons, a silver tankard, cup and porringer and other articles. He mentions the goods in his shop, but does not indicate of what nature they were. The fact that the daughter Eebecca named in the will married Peleg Slocum is conclusively shown by a record in the probate files at Newport under date of 1724-5 as follows : "Peleg Slocum of Dartmouth, Massachusetts, filed a receipt for sixty pounds in full settlement of the claim his wife had against the estate of her late father, Jonathan Bennett." Jonathan Bennett was the son of Eobert Bennett, the comeoverer, and his wife Eebecca.' Eobert was in Newport in 1639, when a homestead lot of ten acres was granted to him. He was a tailor by trade, and was in the employ of Governor Coddington. He was admitted a freeman in 1655. The discovery of the parentage of Eebecca, the wife of Peleg Slocum, the second, was the most pleasureable achievement which I experienced in my labors to identify your multitudinous grand- mothers. The Slocum G-enealogy, an unusually good one, states that she was a Eebecca Williams. GILES SLOCUM 343 Since her grandson, your great great grandfather, was named Williams Slocum, I was firmly con- vinced she was a Williams. Much time and effort were expended in the attempt to identify her as such. The descendants of Roger Williams of Providence and Eichard Williams of Taunton, and of other original immigrants of the name of Williams were exhaustively investigated without result. I abandoned her as impossible when, because of the happy suggestion of a friend, I made certain inquiries which gave the hint that her maiden name was not Williams at all, but Bennett. Acting on this hint I was able to com- pletely identify her as Rebecca Bennett.* Peleg Slocum and Rebecca Bennett had four children. Two of them bore Slocum names, Giles and Peleg. It is from Peleg, the third of the name, who married Elizabeth Brown, that you de- scend. Two of the children bore Bennett names, Jonathan and Catheriae. In 1729 Peleg Slocum died, and fifth month 5, 1733, his widow, Rebecca, married Edward Wing of Scorton Neck in Sand- wich. There were four children, alao, by this mar- riage, and one of Rebecca's grandchildren was named Bennett Wing. Rebecca Bennett Slocum Wing died first month 22, 1781, in the eighty-third year of her age. Of her it was said that ' ' she was remarkable for her quick apprehension, her clear and sound judgment, and the universal respect which she commanded." *See page 1009, Volume II. Chaptee n ELIEZER SLOCUM Giles Slocum — 1682 (Joan ) Eliezeb Slocum 1664 — 1727 (Blephel Fitzgerald) Eliezer Slocum 1693 — 1738 (Deborah Smith) Ann Slocum 1732 — (Job Almy) Maey Almy (Benjamin Chase) Anne Almy Chase 1775 — 1864 (Williams Slocum) Mary Ann Slocum 1805 — 1875 (Henry H. Crapo) William W. Crapo 1830 — (Sarah Davis Tappan) Stanford T. Crapo 1865 — (Emma Morley) William Wallace Crapo 1895 — ELIBZER SLOCUM Giles SlocTim's youngest son was Eliezer. He was ten years younger than his brother Peleg, being born the twenty-fifth day of tenth montli (December) 1664. As a boy Eliezer grew up in his father's home at Portsmouth. The older brothers and sisters had married and left the homestead. There came to the household a maiden ycleped Elephel Fitzgerald, the daughter, so the story goes, of The Fitzgerald, Earl of Kil- dare. It is a pretty story, so we may as well believe it. This story explains the presence of this blossom from so stately a tree in the rough home of a Quaker pioneer of Ehode Island in the following fashion : Once upon a time, which since nobody can dispute us we might as well say was the year 1666, or thereabouts, an English army officer fell in love with a fair Geraldine. The Geraldines as a race had no love for the English, remembering how Lord Thomas, the son of the great Earl, known as "Silken Thomas," with his five uncles, on February 3, 1536, were hung at Tyburn as traitors of the deepest dye, because of their fierce resentment of the English domination of Erin. To be sure. Queen Elizabeth afterwards repealed the attainder and restored the title and family estates, but the Fitzgeralds, descendants 348 CERTAIN COMEOVERERS of kings (like most Irishmen), never forgave. And so the Earl, for the time being acting the part of "heavy father," forbade the marriage. He probably stamped around the stage thmnping his cane. They always do. Whereupon, quite in accord with the conventions of such tales, the young people eloped. They crossed the Atlantic to America, bringing with them a young sister of the bride, our Lady Elephel. Perhaps the Earl, in the manner of Lord Ullin, stood on the shore of the Emerald Isle, and "sore dismayed through storm and shade his child he did discover" as she embarked to cross the raging ocean. "Come back! Come back!" he may have cried "Across the stormy water, And I'll forego my Irish pride My daughter! Oh! my daughter!" The Ullin girl only tried to cross a ferry with her Highland Chief, if you remember, yet of the noble father's piercing cries Tom Campbell says: 'Twas vain. The loud waves lashed the shore, Return or aid preventing, The waters wild went o'er his child And he was left lamenting. Fortunately, our grandmother Elephel and her sister set forth in more favorable weather, and although she may possibly have left her noble sire lamenting, the waters of the Atlantic did not go "o'er her," and she made a safe landing on the other side. In what manner our little Irish lady was sepa- rated from her sister, and came to find a home in ELIEZBR SLOCUM 349 the simple household of Giles Slocum in Ports- mouth, the tradition sayeth not. "Irish maids" were not commonly employed in those early days, and even in later times "Irish maids" were sel- dom Earls' daughters. None the less, it is proh- ahle that the Lady Elephel did in fact serve in a "domestic capacity" in the household of the old people whose daughters had married and gone away. That the youthful Eliezer should fall in love with the stranger maiden was, of course, a fore- gone conclusion. That the Quaker parents should be scandalized at the thought of an alliance so unequivocally "out of meeting," the little lady doubtless being a Romanist, was equally to be foreseen. The young people were sternly chided and forbidden to foregather. There are stories of this Portsmouth courtship, which have found their way down through more than two centuries, which hint at the incarceration of the maiden in the smoke-house, — not at the time, let us hope, in operation for the curing of hams or herrings, — and of the daring Quaker Romeo scaling the roof by night and prating down the chimney of love and plans to hoodwink the old folks. Possibly he did not say: She speaks ! Ah ! speak again, bright angel ! for thou art As glorious to this night, being o'er my head As is a winged messenger of Heaven Unto the white upturned wondering eyes Of mortals, that fall back to gaze on him, "When he bestrides the lazy-pacing clouds. And sails upon the bosom of the air ! 350 CERTAIN COMEOVERBRS Probably he did not use those precise words, yet doubtless he felt them in much the same way as did the inspired Montague. Indeed, such glowing panegyrics of the free vault of the heavens might have proved a bit irritating to the fair one im- prisoned in her sepulchral and ashy dungeon. And yet, if she did not say ' ' Eliezer, Oh ! where- fore art thou, Eliezer Slocum, the Quaker!" her sentiments were unquestionably identical with those of the fair Capulet. Eliezer appears to have inherited a more practical turn of mind than the love-sick Montague, since he crawled down the chimney and rescued the maiden. Just how he managed it is not explained. The door was manifestly locked. Perhaps he boosted her up the chimney. At all events these Portsmouth lovers succeeded in arranging matters far more satisfactorily than did their prototypes of Verona. And so they were married before they were twenty and came to Dartmouth and lived happily ever afterwards. The quarter share which Eliezer derived from old Giles he took up near his brother Peleg, farther down the Neck at a place called "Barne's Joy. ' ' He and Elephel were living there, it would seem, prior to 1684. In 1694 Eliezer and his brother Peleg are named as proprietors of Dart- mouth in the confirmatory deed of Governor Brad- ford. Eliezer 's share would have amounted to something like four hundred acres. The title to his homestead farm, however, was not confirmed to him until November 11, 1710, by the "com- mittee appoynted by her Majestie's Justices of ye ELIEZBR SLOCUM 35I Quarter Sessions," William Manchester, Samuel Hammond and Benjamin Crane. The farm in the layout is described as the farm on which "the said Eliezer is now living." It contained two hundred and sixty-nine acres. It is described as being "on ye west side of Paskamansett river on ye eastward side of Barnsess Joy." It seems that in addition to the rights Eliezer derived from his father he was entitled by purchase to sixty acres in the right of Edward Doty and nine acres in the right of WUliam Bradford, old Plymouth worthies. In what year he built the mansion house I know not. It seems probable that it was built about 1700. Subsequently, not long before Eliezer 's death in 1727, he buUt "a new addition," an ell to the west of the main structure. By what means Eliezer acquired so ample a store of worldly goods is not readily comprehended. It is evident, however, that among the very simple Friends of his acquaintance he was considered remarkably "well to do." His house was a "mansion." He doubtless had a few silver spoons, possibly a silver tankard, and he had cash. When he died in 1727 his estate was appraised at £5790, 18s. lid., of which £665 was personal, and this is said to have been exclusive of the gifts he made to his children before his death. This is a large sum for those days. It may be that this appraisal was in "old tenor," a somewhat inflated currency in Massachusetts prior to 1737, yet, even so, it still indicates a marvellous accumulation of wealth for a "yeoman." I regret to say that one of the 352 CERTAIN COMEOVERERS learned historians of the Old Dartmouth Histori- cal Society is inclined to believe that your honored ancestor, Peleg Slocum, that conspicuously "hon- est public friend," was not only a farmer but a merchant ' ' on the wrong side of the law, ' ' in fact, a smuggler, and that his famous shallop was not always used for errands of "religious concern- ment, ' ' but in a very profitable contraband trade. His inventory certainly indicates that he was somewhat mysteriously a "trader." His brother Eliezer very likely may have joined in these mer- cantile enterprises. Indeed, there has always clung about the old farm at Barney's Joy a flavor of slaves and smuggling. The Lady Elephel, whose hard labor and frugal- ity had doubtless contributed to this store of wealth, comparing herself with her neighbors may have been justified in feeling that she was "well set up. ' ' Yet there was one crisis in her life when her plain home and country fare must have seemed humble indeed in her eyes. It was all a wonderful romance, the coming of that sister who took her from her father's castle and, leaving her with Giles Slocum went away to New Amsterdam with her English husband, prospered and became a lady of high fashion and degree. So remark- able in the annals of Slocum 's Neck is the entry of this great lady in her coach and four, with postillions maybe, that unto this day the tale is told by the great great grandchildren of the Neckers. The progress of the coach through the sandy roads was probably sufficiently slow and majestic to permit of all the neighbors getting a ELIEZBR SLOCUM 353 glimpse of the great personage in her silks and flounces, with bepowdered hair, and, I fondly trust, patches upon her fair cheeks, and jewels in her ears. When the ponderous coach bumped down the narrow lane and drew up before the door of the Barney's Joy house the excitement of its inmates must have been intense. As the Lady Elephel in her severely demure garb welcomed her gorgeous sister to her simple home, and they "fell into each other's arms" (at least I hope they did), I wonder did their thoughts hie back to Kil- dare and their father's castle in the green island of their birth? The little granddaughter Ann, who afterwards married Job Almy and was the grandmother of Anne Almy Chase, your great great grandmother, may have stood entranced by the doorstep as the gloriously bedecked lady en- tered and was escorted to the "great low room." Perhaps it was she, this little Ann, who told the story to her granddaughter, who in turn told it to her daughter Mary Ann Slocum, your grand- father's mother. Eliezer Slocum died on the "eleventh day of the first month, called March, in the thirteenth year of His Majestie's King George His Reign 1726/7. ' ' By his will he gave to his beloved wife Elephel, twenty pounds per annum and all his household goods and furniture, and "one mear wch now she commonly rides together with her furniture," also "two cows wch shall be kept at the proper cost and charge of my executors, ' ' also "an Indian girl named Dorcas," under indenture. 354 CERTAIN COMEOVERERS and various other items. The will then provides as follows : Item. I give and bequeath to Elephel, my beloved wife, the great low room in my dwelling house, with the two bedrooms belonging, together with the chamber over it and the bedrooms belonging thereto, and the garett, and also what part of the new addition she shall choose and one-half of the cellar during her natural life. I will that my executors procure and supply Elephel, my wife, with fire wood sufficient dur- ing her natural life and whatsoever provisions and corn shall be left after my decease I give to Elephel, my wife, for her support, and also hay for support of her cattle. He divides his farm into three parts, giving the northerly part of about one hundred acres to his son Eliezer, your ancestor, "where his dwell- ing house stands." This tract in more modern times has been known as the Henry Allen farm. It was there, doubtless, that the little Ann was born, and there was married to Job Almy. To his son Ebenezer he gave "that southerly part of my homestead farm on which my dwelling house now stands." This, of course, refers to the old house. The ' ' middle part, ' ' between the northerly and southerly parts, together with stock and money and gear he gave to both sons to be equally divided. Naturally Ebenezer took the southerly portion of this middle part. To a grandson, Benjamin Sloeum, Eliezer gives £100 and a salt marsh and a fresh meadow. "And whereas Maribah Sloeum, the widow of my son Benjamin, being with child, if the same prove a male child, I then give and bequeath to the same male child (as yet not born) a tract of land lying BLIBZER SLOCUM 355 near John Kerby's with a dwelling house and orchard thereon, and also a tract of land lying in Aarons Countrey, so called, and also one tract of land lying on the side and joining Coaksett River, and also two acres of meadow lying near Guinny Island, and also two acres of cedar swamp in ^^nanpoge Swamp, he the said male child paying unto his brother Benjamin £250. But if the child which is not yet bom should prove a female child all the inheritance I have here given to it, being a male child, shall be given to Benjamin Slocum, the said Benjamin paying his sister £50 when she becomes eighteen years of age." He also gives £200 for "the bringing up" of these two grand- children. You may be interested to learn that ^4t" proved to be a male child. The father had died about six months before Eliezer's death. In his will he made a similar provision for his un- born child. The child was born May 22, 1727, and was named John. He married Martha Tilling- hast and was a highly respected and prosperous citizen of Newport, Ehode Island, leaving many descendants. The widow Elephel lived with her son Ebenezer in the homestead for twenty-one years after her husband's death, dying in 1748, and disposing by her will of a considerable estate. A year or two later Ebenezer, desiring to remove back to Ports- mouth, possibly that he might be nearer the ^'meetings," his wife Bathsheba (Hull) joining, ■conveyed his farm at Barney's Joy of two hun- dred and twenty acres to his cousin Peleg Slocum, the father of Williams Slocum, your great great 356 CERTAIN COMBOVERERS grandfather. The date of the deed is March 20, 1750. The consideration is two thousand pounds. This seems an amazing price to pay for a farm on Slocum's Neck. It is also much to be won- dered how Peleg Slocum, who was but twenty- three years of age, was able to put up the price. To be sure he was one of three sons of his father Peleg, who was one of four sons of his father Peleg, whose estate measured in acres of land was considerable, yet two thousand pounds was "a terrible sight of money" in those days. It is hardly likely, indeed, that the transaction was on a "cash basis." No doubt the farm at Barney's Joy was an immensely profitable one. The ground had been cleared and cultivated for nearly three-quarters of a century. The fish at the mouth of the Pasca- mansett were plentiful. They were caught in great quantities, landed at Deep Water Point, and placed thickly on the soU. It was a case of what is now called "intensified fertilization." The crops were doubtless many times as abundant as the cleverest Portuguese of today could raise. Then, too, the island of Cuttyhunk, at one time known as Slocum's Island, afforded good grazing for the cattle m the summer. The cattle were taken over in boats each spring, and in the autumn brought home and the increase sold. Yet admitting the advantages of this farm of two hun- dred acres, much of which after aU was ledge, salt marsh, and sand, it is difficult to understand how Peleg Slocum had the courage to pay two thousand pounds for it in the year 1750. Its pres- ELIEZER SLOCUM 357 ent value is predicated solely upon its exceptional beauty of location and its charming scenic variety. It has been a favorite place of sojourn of Eobert Swain Gifford, the artist, who has pictured its autumn glories on many a canvas. It is not to be supposed, however, that Peleg Slocum purchased the farm for esthetic reasons. He proved, at all events, that he knew what he was about, for he prospered abundantly and lived for many years on the old place keeping up its traditions of opulence. Two years before Peleg purchased the Barney's Joy farm, when he was twenty-one, he married Elizabeth Brown, and they lived together in the old house forty-nine years, she dying in 1797. He lived thirteen years longer and died in 1810, aged eighty-three. They had seven children, of whom the fifth, Williams, born in 1761, was your great great grandfather. It was in the mansion house on this farm built by Eliezer Slocum for his bride, the Lady Elephel, that your grandfather, William Wallace Crapo, was born. He remembers the old house well and his grandfather's family who dwelt there. It was snbstantially the same without doubt at the time when he recalls it as it was when the marvellous coach drew up before it and the two noble Fitz- geralds were reunited. It was a picturesque and pleasing structure well set. A sheltered meadow sloped downward from its southern front to the salt pond and the winding inlets of the river. From the windows one looked out over the meadow to the white sands of Deep Water Point, 358 CERTAIN COMEOVBRBRS and the long stretch of Allen's Beach, and, beyond,, to the waters of Buzzards Bay as they merge with the ocean. The main portion of the house was of two stories with an ample garret above, the gables facing east and west. The front door, plain in design but with a certain dignity, was at what was the west end of the southern front of the original structure, but after the "new addition" in 1720 it was about a third of the way along the long facade with two windows to the west and three to the east. The entrance hall was small, with a narrow winding stairway leading to the chambers above, the huge stack chimney behind taking up far more room than the hall. To the right as one entered was the "great low room" from which led two chambers. To the left was a good sized room which in your grandfather's time was used as a "parlor" by certain members of the family. Behind the "great low room" was a still larger room, the kitchen and living room, the most inter- esting of the apartments. The logs in the long fireplace were always burning, since here all the family cooking was done on the coals and by pots hung to the cranes, and in the brick oven by the side. Above the fireplace was a panel some six feet by four, hewn from a single board, which today is the only relic of the structure which has been preserved. On this panel your grandfather remembers the musket and the powder horns hung ready to be seized at alarm. On the west side of the room was a huge meal chest. In the north- west corner stood the old black oak high clock with Chinese lacquer panels, which now stands in BLIBZER SLOCUM 359 your grandfather's house in New Bedford, and will, I trust, some day stand in yours. This clock was buried in the barn meadow with the silver and valuables packed in its ample case, when the Brit- ish man-of-war Nimrod was cruising along the shore in the War of 1812. In the northeast corner was an ample pantry closet, where your grand- father and his sisters found cookies. Near the fireplace was a trap door leading to the cellar, down which your great aunt Lucy fell on a mem- orable occasion when she was romping about the house. Off from the kitchen was a good-sized bedroom. Behtad was the covered stoop with the cheese press. Behind this there were several low shed-like additions, which gave a feeling of con- siderable size to the whole structure. Above there were a number of chambers, in. one of which your great grandfather, Henry Howland Crapo, and his bride, a daughter of the house, lived after their marriage. After the death of Williams Slocum, the house and part of the farm came into the possession of his son, George Slocum, who was far from carry- ing on the traditions of prosperity of his family, and the place quickly fell into decay. It was almost a ruin in 1887, when I visited it and made a little sketch, which you may see. In 1900 the house was torn down, and now only the cellar remains to mark the spot where Eliezer Slocum, the Quaker, and the Lady Elephel lived their lives of love and happiness two centuries ago. Chaptee III EICHAED SCOTT Came over 1634 Griffin RiCHAED Scott 1607 — 1680 About (Catherine Marbury) Maby Scott About 1640 — 1665 (Christopher Holder) Maet Holder 1661 — 1737 (Peleg Slocum) Peleg Slocum 1692 — 1728 (Eebeeca Bennett) Peleg Slocum 1727 — 1810 (Elizabeth Brown) Williams Slocum 1761 — 1834 (Anne Almy Chase) Maey Ann Slocum 1805 — 1875 (Henry H. Crapo) William W. Ceapo 1830 — (Sarah Davis Tappan) Stanford T. Crapo 1865 — (Emma Morley) William Wallace Crapo 1895 — RICHARD SCOTT Eichard Scott and Ms wife, Catherine Marbury, are among the more interesting of your come- overers. Eichard was the son of Edward and Sarah (Carter) Scott; and was born at Glensford, England, in 1607. Edward Scott was of the Scotts of Scott's Hall in Kent, who traced their lineage through John Baliol to the early Kings of Scot- land. I quote from an article by Stephen F. Peck- ham in the New England Historical and Genea- logical Eegister, which has furnished me with much of the information which I present to you about this comeoverer. Eichard Scott, who is designated as a "shoe- maker, ' ' probably came over in the Griffin in 1634, the same ship in which came Anne Hutchinson and her sister, Catherine Marbury. It was, per- haps, on the voyage that Eichard and Catherine became lovers. Governor Winthrop writes under date of November 24, 1634: "One Scott and Eliot of Ipswich was lost in their way homewards and wandered up and down six days and eat nothing. At length they were found by an Indian, beiag almost senseless for want of rest. ' ' Eichard Scott had been admitted as a member of the Bos- ton Church in August, 1634. He was probably a resident of Boston during the early days of the 364 CERTAIN COMEOVBRBRS tmnultuous upheaval of that little town by his iconoclastic sister in law to be. Perhaps he was not altogether in sympathy with Anne Hutchin- son's goings on. At all events, it would seem that he removed about 1636 to Ehode Island at a place called Moshasuch, near what was later Providence, in the vicinity of what has since been called Scott 's Pond in Lonsdale. This was before Roger WUliams organized his settlement at Providence. The so-called "Providence Compact" was writ- ten by Eichard Scott and his is the first signature to it. The other signatures are those of other neighbors at Moshasuch, most of whom subse- quently became Quakers and were not included among the original proprietors of the town of Providence under Roger Williams. It was after- wards that Roger Williams obtaiaed a grant of the lands pre-empted by Richard Scott and his friends which caused an acrimonious feud between Williams and his * ' loving friends and neighbors ' ' of Moshasuch. None the less Richard Scott was admitted to the Providence purchase and was allotted a home lot next north of Roger Williams, with whom, however, he did not always live in friendly neighborliness. In 1640 the differences between the so-called "loving friends and neigh- bors" were patched up by an agreement arrived at by arbitration, to which Richard Scott was a party, which was known as the "Combination." In 1637 he returned to Boston and there married Catherine Marbury. Things were getting very hot for Catherine's sister Anne and it may be that Richard felt that he should stand by his sister in RICHARD SCOTT 365 law in her trouble. He was present at her mem- orable trial and on March 22, 1638, testified in part as follows: "I desire to propound this one scruple, which keeps me that I cannot so freely in my spirit give way to excommunication, whether it was not better to give her a little time to con- sider of things that is devised against her, because she is not yet convinced of her lye, and so thiags is with her in distraction, and she can not recollect her thoughts." Immediately after the trial he returned to Rhode Island either volun- tarily or because he was banished from the Colony with all Anne Hutchinson's friends. In 1650 Eichard Scott was taxed in Providence £3 6s. 8d., a very large assessment, the largest assessment of £5 being levied on Benedict Arnold. About this time he gave up his town residence in Provi- dence and removed to his lands at Moshasuch. He had evidently acquired a liberal competency and his holdings of real estate were considerable. It was probably during Christopher Holder's first visit to Providence that Eichard Scott and his wife were converted to Quakerism, in which faith they remained true through many disturb- ing experiences, as will be narrated in connection with the notes on Catherine Marbury. In 1655 Eichard Scott was made a freeman. In 1666 he was a Deputy for Providence to the General Assem- bly. From December, 1675, to August, 1676, he and his son Eichard fought in King Philip 's War, he being described as a "Cornet." The son Eichard was doubtless slain in battle. Another son, John, who also served, came home at the close 366 CERTAIN COMEOVBRERS of the war, but soon after was shot and killed by an Indian as he was standing on his own doorstep. I quote the following from Mr. Peckham's arti- cle: "In 1672 George Fox visited New England and preached in Newport with great acceptance, which greatly disturbed Eoger Williams. In 1676 Williams published in Boston a book entitled ' George Fox digg 'd out of his Burrowes, ' which for scurrilous abuse has few equals, and which, when considered as the production of an apostle of lib- erty of conscience, is one of the most extraordi- nary books ever printed. In 1678 George Fox pub- lished in London 'A New England Fire-Brand Quenched, Being Something in Answer unto a Lying, Slanderous Book, Entitled George Fox Digged out of his Burrows,' " etc. George Fox had written to Richard Scott to know what manner of man Roger WUliams was and Scott's reply is given in full by Fox. It is as follows : Friend, concerning the Conservation and Carriage of this Man Roger "Williams I have been his Neighbor these 38 years: I have only been Absent in the time of the Wars with the Indians, till this present. I walked with him in the Baptist "Way about 3 or 4 months, but in that short time of his Standing I discerned that he must have the Ordering of all their affairs, or else there would be no Quiet Agreement amongst them. In which time he brake off from his Society. . . . That which took most with him, and was his Life, was, to get Honor amongst Men, especially amongst the Great Ones. For after his Society and he, in a Church-"Way, were parted, he went to England and there he got a charter; and coming from Boston to Providence at Seaeonk the Neighbors of Providence met him with fourteen Cannoes, and carried him to Providence. And the Man being hemmed in in the middle of the Cannoes, was so Elevated RICHARD SCOTT 367 and Transported out of himself, that I was condemned in my self that amongst the Rest I had been an Instru- ment to set him up in his Pride and Folly. And he that beforce could reprove my Wife for asking her Two Sons, why they did not pull off their Hats to him. And told her She might as well bid them puU off their Shoos as their Hats. (Though afterward She took him in the same Act, and turned his reproof upon his own Head.) And he that could not put off his Cap at Prayer in his Worship, can now put it off to every Man or Boy that puUs off his hat to him One particular more I shall mention, which I find written in his Book concerning an Answer to John Throckmorton in this manner : To which saith he, I will not answer as George Fox answered Henry Wright's Paper with a scornful and Shameful Silence, — I am a Witness for George Fox, that I Received his Answer to it, and delivered it into Henry Wright's own hands. Yet R. W. has pub- lisht this Lie so that to his former Lie he hath added another scornful and shameful Lie .... (Signed) Richard Scott. Richard Scott died late in 1680 or early in 1681. His oldest daughter Mary, born about 1640, mar- ried Christopher Holder, whose daughter, Mary Holder, married Peleg Slocum, a great grand- father of Williams Slocum. Chaptee IV CATHERINE MARBURY Came over 1634 Griffin Catherine Maeburt 1617 — 1687 (Richard Scott) Mary Scott About 1640 — 1665 (Christopher Holder) Mary Holder 1661 — 1737 (Peleg Slocum) Peleg Slocum 1692 — 1728 (Rebecca Bennett) Peleg Slocum 1727 — 1810 (Elizabeth Brown) "Williams Slocum 1761 — 1834 (Anne Almy Chase) Mary Ann Slocum 1805 — 1875 (Henry H. Crapo) William W. Crapo 1830 — (Sarah Davis Tappan) Stanford T. Crapo 1865 — (Emma Morley) "William "Wallace Crapo 1895 — CATHERINE MARBURY There are few of your ancestors whose lineage can be definitely traced in the Peerage of Eng- land. Catherine and Anne Marbury are such. They were children of the Eev. Francis and Bridget (Dryden) Marbury. Francis Marbury was born at Grisby in the parish of Burgh-upon- Bain, in the County of Lincoln, England. He was the son of William Marbury, Esq., and Agnes, daughter of John Lenton, Esq., of Old Wynkill. An elder brother, Edward, was knighted in 1603 and served as High Sheriff of the County of Lincoln. In 1589 Francis Marbury married Bridget Dryden, the daughter of John Dryden, Esq., of Canons Ashby, Northampton, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Cope. Francis Marbury was the great grandson of William Marbury and Anne Blount. Anne Blount was the sister and co-heir of Robert Blount of Grisby, and was a niece of Walter Blount, first Lord Mountjoy, by his wife Agnes, a granddaugh- ter of Sir Thomas Hawley. Your ancestor. Sir Walter Blount, whose granddaughter Anne was the grandmother of Francis Marbury, is an an- cestor worth knowing about. In 1367 he went with the Black Prince and John of Gaunt into Spain. There he married Donna Sancha de 372 CERTAIN COMEOVBRBRS Ayola, daughter of Diego Gomez de Toledo — so you see you descend also from the Grandees of Spain. There is much that is recorded in history about this ancestor of yours which I might tell you, but I prefer to present him through Mr. William Shakespeare. In the first scene of the first act of Henry IV he is introduced by the King as follows: Here is a dear and true industrious friend, Sir "Walter Blouat, new lighted from his horse, Stain 'd with the variation of each soil Betwixt that Holmedon and this seat of ours ; And he hath brought us smooth and welcome news ; The Earl of Douglas is discomfited : Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights, Bath'd in their own blood, did Sir Walter see On Holmedon 's plains. Throughout the play Sir Walter appears as an honorable and trusted friend of the King. Yet what to me distinguishes him more than his loyalty to the King is his acquaintance with Fal- staff. It doesn't in the least matter to us now that Falstaff was a creature of imagination and Blount a creature of fact. Sir John Falstaff is just as real a person to you and me to-day as Sir Walter Blount. And although Shakespeare created the one and God the other, Shakespeare's creation is much the more important from our present point of view. If not so picturesque as Sir John, none the less, your forebear Sir Walter, as portrayed both in history and fiction, was typi- cal of the sturdy honesty of purpose which has distinguished the aristocracy of England as its highest exemplars of manhood. He was killed in CATHERINE MARBURY 373 the battle of Shrewsbury in 1403, being mistaken for his King. The family of Catherine Marbury's mother, Bridget Dryden, is even more interesting. She was the sister of Sir Erasmus Dryden and conse- quently a great aunt of the poet, John Dryden. She was born and lived in her grandfather Sir John Cope's place of Canons Ashby. It is a fine old Elizabethan manor house still standing. Through her grandfather Sir John Cope you are connected by direct descent with many noble families of England. His great grandfather. Sir William Cope, was one of the most powerful rulers of the destinies of England in the reign of Henry VII. His mother, Jane Spencer, a grand- daughter of Sir Eichard Empson, chief justice in Henry VII 's reign, descended through many noble alliances from Eobert de Despenser, who "came over" to England with William the Conqueror in 1066. The poet Spencer lived with his cousias at Canons Ashby, and it was there his love for some damsel by the unpoetic name of Cope in- spired his lyrics. Bridget Dryden 's grandmother was Bridget Ealeigh, the daughter of Edward Ealeigh, the son of Sir Edward Ealeigh, Lord of Farnborough, and Margaret, the daughter of Sir Ealph Verney. To be even collaterally related to Sir Walter Ealeigh is perhaps a more satisfactory distinc- tion than to trace one's descent through Sir Edward Ealeigh 's mother. Lady Jane de Grey, whose lineage makes you, to ignore your royal ancestors of England, a descendant of Clotaire I, 374 CERTAIN COMEOVERERS King of the Soissuns in 511 and of Pharaman, first Christian King of the West Franks in Gaul. This you must admit is going some. Indeed, were it worth while, which certainly it isn't, I might, doubtless, by sufficient study, connect you by kin- ship through Catherine and Anne Marbury with half the noble families of England, and a few royal families to boot. As a matter of fact, the chances are that should sufficient study be de- voted to the lineage of certain other of your come- overing ancestors a like result would be obtained. When one gets so far back among the multitude of your English grandfathers and grandmothers "there are bound to be some few among the count- less many who were of noble standing. You, like most of the descendants of the early New Eng- land immigrants, descend from a vast number of the common people of old England, and likewise from some few who in one way or another de- scended from the gentle folks. I haven't a doubt that you have the blood of earls and dukes and princes and kings in your veins. No more have I a doubt that you have also the blood of a multi- tude of country bumpkins, a goodly number of poachers, a respectable number of highwaymen, and a few thieves and murderers. Many good commonplace men and women, a few exceptionally fine men and women, a few distinctly degenerate men and women, a few nobles and a few of the scum of the earth, are doubtless responsible for your existence. You are necessarily an average product of humanity. That the better tendencies of human development have happened to com- CATHERINE MARBURT 375 bine in your immediate ancestry is your good for- tune and not your birthright. The Rev. Francis Marbury and his wife, Bridget Dryden, had a large family of children — twenty in fact. Francis was the rector of the parish of Alford in Lincolnshire. Here, also, lived the Hutchinsons. William Hutchinson mar- ried Anne Marbury, and John Wheelwright, the adherent of Anne Hutchinson in later days in Boston, married a sister of William Hutchinson. Nearby lived Mr. Cotton, the imperial minister of Boston in New England. Francis Marbury later removed to London and had various prefer- ments. It is probable that your ancestress Cath- erine, who was much younger than Anne, was born in London, since her birth is not recorded at Alford. There are several interesting facts known about Francis Marbury, who was a strict Church of England adherent. To repeat them here, I fear, will stretch your forebearing atten- tion to the breaking point. Anne Marbury Hutchinson became deeply in- volved with the Puritanical doctrines of her brother in law, and it is not to be wondered that the family determined to come to New England. Why they brought with them the young Catherine we may not know. The Hutchinsons, Catherine with them, came over in tjie Griffin, which reached Boston late in the year 1634. What is of more interest to you, Richard Scott was also a pas- senger. During the long passage over he came to know Catherine Marbury, and later he wooed and married her. 376 CERTAIN COMBOVERERS Catherine Marbury doubtless lived with her sister Anne, and necessarily became intimately connected with all the phases of the Antinomian controversy. Whether she was a loyal sympa- thizer with her sister we cannot know. If so, she was unquestionably a valiant partisan, since in later years she proved that she had the fire of enthusiasm as a champion for conscience's sake. It may be, however, that Catherine Marbury was not altogether in sympathy with her intellectually more ambitious sister. Her character and her temperament certainly were far different from Anne's. In later years, when they were both liv- ing, in Ehode Island, there seems to have been little association between them. Anne Hutchin- son, I fancy, even from a sister's point of view, may have been a somewhat impossible sort of person to agree with. Catherine's absorbing interest in the last days of the tragic trial of her sister was very probably centered in her lover, Eichard Scott, to whom she was married in 1637. As soon as the awful sen- tence of excommunication and banishment against Anne Hutchinson had been dramatically pro- nounced by Governor "Winthrop in November, 1637, Catherine and her husband went to their future home at Moshasuch, near Providence. On January 16, 1638, "Winthrop writes: "At Provi- dence things grow still worse, for a sister of Mrs. Hutchinson, the wife of one Scott, being infected with anabaptistry, and going last year to live in Providence, Mr. Williams was taken, or rather emboldened, by her to make open profession CATHERINE MARBURY 377 thereof, and accordingly was rebaptized by one Holyman, a poor man late of Salem." Probably Governor Winthrop was misinformed about Catherine Scott's influence over Eoger Williams. As Mr. Peckham, in his admirable article on Richard Scott, remarks, Catherine Scott and Eoger Williams never could get along together in peace. Williams on two occasions had her arrested with other wives of his neighbors for conduct of which he did not approve. There is no doubt, however, that Catherine Scott was un- settled in her religious convictions and might be properly designated by Winthrop as infected with "Anabaptistry." Whether she was ever con- verted to the "Baptist" doctrines of Roger Wil- liams, a very diiferent matter, may be questioned. It was in 1656, when she was about thirty-nine years old, that Catherine Scott received the true light from George Fox through Christopher Holder, of which she ever afterwards was a valiant torch-bearer. Two years later she, with her daughters, journeyed to Boston, to comfort Holder at the time of his trial. Bishop in his "New England Judged by the Spirit of the Lord," thus tells the story : And Katherine Scott of the Town of Providence, in the jurisdiction of Rhode Island, a mother of many children, one that hath lived with her Husband, of Unblameable Conversation, and a Grave, Sober An- cient Woman, and of Good Breeding, as to the Out- ward as Men account, coming to see the Execution of said Three as aforesaid (Christopher Holder, John Cope- land, and John Rouse) all single young men, their ears cut off the 7th of the 7th month 1658 by order of John 378 CERTAIN COMBOVERERS Bndieott, Gov.; and she saying upon their doing it privately that it was evident they were going to act the Works of Darkness, or else they would have brought them forth Publickly, and have declared their offence, that others may hear and fear, ye committed her to Prison and gave her Ten Cruel Stripes with, a three fold corded knotted whip, with that Cruelty in the Execution, as to others, on the second Day of the 8th month 1658. Tho' ye confessed when ye had her before you, that for ought ye knew, she had been of Unblameable Conversation ; and tho ' some of you knew her Father, and called him "Mr." Marbury, and that she had been well bred (as among Men) and had so lived, and that was the mother of many children, yet ye whipp'd her for all that, and moreover told her that ye were likely to have a law to Hang her, if she came thither again. To which she answered: "If God call us. Wo be to us if we come not. And I question not but he whom we love, will make us not to count our Lives dear unto ourselves for the sake of his Name." To which your Governor, John Endicott, re- plied, — "And we shall be as ready to take away from you your lives as ye shall be to lay them down ! ' ' How wicked the Expression let the Reader judge. Catherine Scott was in no way chastened by her whipping with the triple knotted cord and returned to Providence with her daughters still championing Christopher Holder. In the spring of 1660 she, with her daughter Mary, went to Eng- land with Holder, where the young people were married. In the fall she returned. In a letter written September 8, 1660, from Eoger Williams to Governor John Winthrop, the Second, of Con- necticut, he says : ' ' Sir, my neighbor, Mrs. Scott is come from England and what the whip at Boston could not do, converse with friends in England, and their arguments have in a great measure drawn her from the Quakers and wholly CATHERINE MARBURY 379 from their meetings." This was doubtless one of those "scornful and shameful Lies" of Eoger Williams which Eichard Scott so scathingly de- nounced to George Fox. Williams had doubtless heard the gossip about Catherine Scott 's visits to her aristocratic relatives in England who were, of course, orthodox Church of England people, and fabricated from his own imagination the story of her back-sliding from Quakerism. There is no reason whatever to suppose that Catherine Scott ever receded one jot from her strong adherence to the views of George Fox. After her husband's death in 1680, she went to Newport to the home of her son in law, Christopher Holder. She was probably present at the wedding in Newport of her granddaughter Mary Holder to Peleg Slocum, about 1680. She died in Newport May 2, 1687, as is recorded in the records of the monthly meet- ings of Friends. She was a "veray parfit gentel lady," to paraphrase Chaucer, and her descend- ants may well be far more proud of her earnest, upright, loyal character than of her heraldic lineage. Chapter V CHRISTOPHEE HOLDEE Game over 1656 Speedwell Cheistopher Holder 16^1 ~ 1^^^ (Mary Scott) Mary Holder 1661 — 1737 (Peleg Slocum) Peleg Slocum 1692 — 1728 (Rebecca Bennett) Peleg Slocum 1'727 — 1810 (Elizabeth Brown) "Williams Slocum 1761 — 1834 (Anne Almy Chase) Mary Ann Slocum 1805 — 1875 (Henry H. Crapo) William W. Crapo 1830 — (Sarah Davis Tappan) Stanford T. Crapo 1865 — (Emma Morley) William Wallace Crapo 1895 — CHRISTOPHER HOLDER Christopher Holder is, next to Anne Hutchin- son, yonr most distinguished comeovering ances- tor. This is no mean distinction. Most of the comeoverers from whom you paternally descend were martyrs for conscience sake. There is hardly an adventurer, save for the work of Christ, to whom you can hark back. There were few for- tune seekers among your forebears. They were not pioneers intent on bettering their material cir- cumstances, but seekers after religious freedom. To be sure, for the most part, their idea of re- ligious freedom was simply the escape from inter- ference on the part of established authority with their peculiar doctrinal notions. As soon as they established communities across the seas in which their notions became ascendant, they became more intolerant in enforcing compliance to their espe- cial brand of "ism" than the most intolerant of their former oppressors. Such, however, was not the case of the followers of George Fox in deri- sion ealed Quakers. No class of heretics were ever more persistently down-trodden, yet, when, after much patient sufferings of outrageous Uls, they obtained the freedom which they sought and became a leading sect in several New England com- munities, they persecuted not in their turn. The 384 CERTAIN COMEOVERBRS founder, and in some way the leading martyr of the Friends in this country, was Christopher Holder. Whether he ever grasped the idea of full religious freedom may be doubted. That he was one of the foremost champions of that idea can- not be doubted. Christopher Holder was born in Wiaterbourne, Gloucestershire, about nine miles from Bristol, in 1631. His ancestry has not been definitely deter- mined. He was doubtless of the Holders of Holderness. He was unquestionably a man of high education and refinement and of independent fortune. It is possible that he was a younger brother of William Holder, a churchman and author of much celebrity in his day, who married a sister of Sir Christopher Wren. It has even been suggested that Christopher Holder may have received his Christian name from his con- nection with the Wrens. Like William Penn, a young man of education, wealth, and distin- guished family, Christopher Holder became deep- ly interested in the teachings of George Fox and devoted his life and his fortune to spreading the doctrines of the Friends. In 1656, with eight other Friends, he sailed on the Speedwell from London, arriving in Boston on the twenty-seventh of June. The company was arrested before they could land. A special council was called by the Governor, and the boxes and chests of the "Quakers" were ordered searched for "erroneous books and hellish pam- phlets." As a result of the personal examination of these heretical prisoners, they were banished CHRISTOPHER HOLDER 385 from the Colony and committed to prison pending their departure. For eleven weeks Christopher Holder and his friends were kept m a foul prison, their personal belongings being appropriated by the gaoler, for his fees, and at length in August they were forcibly put on board the Speedwell and deported to England. To their grief they had enjoyed no opportunity to spread the light in New England. None the less, they were determined to do so. With the assistance of Robert Fowler of Holderness, who for the purpose built a ship which he called the Woodhouse, Christopher Holder and other Friends sailed again for Amer- ica in August, 1657. The log of the voyage of the Woodhouse, writ- ten by Eobert Fowler and endorsed by George Fox, has been preserved- It is certainly a curious log from a navigator's point of view. The mari- ners depended on special divine messages, in mov- ings of the Spirit, and in visions, to set their course. On the last day of the fifth month, 1657, they made land at Long Island "for contrary to the expectations of the pilot," the daily "draw- ing," that is to say, the advice of the Lord given at the daily meetings, had been to keep to the southward "until the evening before we made land and then the word was 'There is a lion in the way' unto which we gave obedience, and soon after the middle of the day there was a drawing to meet together before our usual time, and it was said that we may look abroad in the evening, and as we sat waiting on the Lord they discovered land . . . Espying a creek our advice was to 386 CERTAIN COMEOVBRERS enter there, but the will of man (in the pilot) re- sisted, but in that state we had learned to be con- tent." "And the word came to Christopher Holder 'You are in the road to Long Island.' " Some of the Friends went ashore at New Amsterdam to spread the faith, but Christopher Holder and his faithful co-worker, John Cope- land, determined to continue in the Woodhouse towards Boston. They stopped at Providence and thence went to Marthas Vineyard. Bishop thus tells the story: "For they having been at Martius Vineyard (a place between Rhode Island and Plimouth Colony) and speaking there a few words after their Priest Maho had ended in their meeting House, they were both thrust out by the constable, and delivered the next day by the Governor and Constable to an Indian, to be car- ried in a small cannoo to the main Land, over a sea nine miles broad (dangerous to pass over) having first took the Money from them to pay the Indian, who taking the custody of them, showed himself more Huspitable (as did the rest of the Indians) and supplied them freely with all neces- sities according to what the Indians had during the space of those three days they stayed there waiting for a calm season, and refused to take any consideration; he who had them in custody, say- ing, 'That they were Strangers and Jehovah taught him to love Strangers.' (Learn of the Heathen, Ye, who pretend yourselves Christians.) An opportunity presenting they set them on shore on the mainland, where they were soon set upon." On foot through the pathless woods they made CHRISTOPHER HOLDER 387 their way to Sandwich, where they found recep- tive listeners. To avoid the surveillance of the authorities their meetings were held in a pic- turesque glen in the woods which has since been known as "Christopher's Hollow." Here was organized the first Friends ' Meeting in New Eng- land. Soon Christopher and his companions aspired to carry their tidings to Plymouth, but were met with vigorous resistance by the govern- ment and arrested as "ranters and dangerous persons." They were banished from the Colony on threat of being "whipped as vagabonds" if they returned. Ehode Island gave them a refuge for a time, and the report of their successful proselyting there was a subject of much disturb- ance to Governor Endicott of Massachusetts. In the early summer of 1657 Christopher Holder started for the Massachusetts Bay Colony, mak- ing converts at each stopping place, and reached Salem on the fifteenth of July. It was the cus- tom of the orthodox churches after the minister had done preaching to permit any member of the congregation, or any gifted person present, to speak for the edification of those who were gath- ered together for worship. It was this custom which enabled Christopher Holder during his proselyting work to get the ears of the people. It was in the first church of Salem, on July 21, that Holder attempting to speak was furiously attacked, seized by the hair and a glove forced into his mouth. He was arrested and the next day, in Boston, was examined by Deputy Grovernor Bellingham, and afterwards brought before Gov- 388 CERTAIN COMEOVERERS ernor Endicott, who ordered that Holder and Samuel Shattuck, who had befriended him, receive thirty lashes each. The sentence was executed on Boston Common by the common hangman, who used a three corded knotted whip, and to make sure of his blows "measured the ground and fetched his strokes with great strength and advan- tage." Judge Sewall says that so horrible was the sight of the streaming blood that ' ' one woman fell as dead." Holder and Shattuck were then taken to the jail and for three days were denied food or drink. They remained in jail without bedding, in a dismal damp cell for some nine weeks. It was during this incarceration that Christopher Holder and John Copeland, who was with him, composed their famous "Declaration of Faith. ' ' This and another pamphlet which Holder succeeded in issuing aroused the Governor to the utmost fury, and summoning them before him he told them they deserved to be hanged, and that he wished the law permitted him to hang them. He ordered that they be whipped twice a week in jail, thirty lashes at first and then by a successive progression each week. On this occasion Chris- topher Holder received three hundred and fifty- seven lashes, each drawing blood. This excessive persecution aroused sentiments of repugnance among the more liberal Puritans and Governor Endicott found it advisable to cease the torture and, if possible, get rid of the "dangerous villains, devil-driven creatures" as Cotton Mather called them. On September 24 the Governor ordered their release, summoning them before him and CHRISTOPHER HOLDER 389 sentencing them to banishment after reading to them a law which had been passed during their imprisonment providing that any person who pro- claimed the doctrines of the Quakers should have "their tongues bored through with a hot iron and be kept at the house of correction close to work till they be sent away at their own charge." Holder returned to England and thence went to the Barbadoes, where Quakerism was making con- siderable headway. From there, as he wrote George Fox, he embarked for Ehode Island in 1658 by way of Bermuda. John Copeland, who had remained in America, joined him at Newport, and together they again went to Sandwich, where they were promptly arrested and carried to Barnstable, where "being tied to an old Post they had Thirty Three cruel stripes laid upon them with a new tormenting whip, with three cords and knots at the ends, made by the marshal." (Barlow.) The marshal then "had them back to Sandwich," and the next day they were deported to Ehode Island, where Christopher sought refuge with his staunch friends, Eichard and Catherine Scott. After recovering from his scourging in June, 1658, Holder with Copeland set forth once again to carry their gospel to Boston. They were arrested in Dedham and brought to Boston, and at once carried to the house of Governor Endicott, who issued an order that their ears be cut off- This order the Court of Assistants confirmed. The sentence was executed on July 17, Chris- topher Holder, John Copeland and John Eouse each having their right ears amputated by the 390 CERTAIN COMBOVBRERS hangman and being confined in jail for nine weeks, being beaten twice a week with the knotted cord. During this imprisonment a law was passed for the banishment of Quakers upon pain of death. After his release Christopher Holder carried the gospel into Virginia and Maryland and early in 1658 returned to Rhode Island and prepared again to testify in Boston. He well knew that this meant death. On this pilgrimage he had William Eobinson as a companion, and with them went Patience Scott, the eleven year old daughter of Richard and Catherine Scott. Holder was arrested in Boston and jailed, as also was his young protege, Patience Scott. George Bishop afterwards wrote about the examination by the magistrates of the little daughter of Richard Scott: "And some of you confessed that ye had many children and that they had been educated, and that it were well if they could say half as much for God as she could for the DevH." The Court hesitated to enforce the death penalty and sentenced Holder again to banishment under paia of death. He refused to go and travelled for some time in Northern Massachusetts, until in August he was again arrested in Boston. There were some seventeen Friends together in Boston jail at this time and their adherents flocked to Boston to render such support as might be possible. It was during this confinement that Christopher Holder experienced the romance of his life. Three young women came from Rhode Island "under a feeling of religious constraint" to give succor and sympathy to the imprisoned Friends. One was CHRISTOPHER HOLDER 391 Mary Dyer, who was afterwards hung on Boston Common. One was Hope Clifton, who afterwards became Christopher Holder's second wife. The other was Mary Scott, the daughter of Richard Scott and Catherine Marbury. These girls suc- ceeded in getting into the prison and visiting Christopher Holder. For this offence they were apprehended and cast into the same prison, which was probably exactly what they planned. It was doubtless during this joint imprisonment of two months that Christopher Holder and Mary Scott foimd that they loved each other. When they were released the men prisoners were given fifteen stripes each and the older women ten, for which they were stripped in the public street and beaten before the mob. Both Hope Clifton and Mary Scott were only admon- ished by the Governor. Christopher Holder was again relieved from the death penalty and ban- ished from the Colony. He went to England to appeal to Cromwell that the laws of England be observed in New England. Several friends accompanied him and among them his betrothed, Mary Scott, and her mother. They were married at Olveston, near Bristol, in England, on the twelfth day of the sixth month, called August, in the year 1660. The register of their marriage is in Somerset House, London. Without question they lived, as they promised in their compact, "in mutual love and fellowship in the faith till by death they were separated." Christopher Holder and his friend George Pox soon obtained from Charles II on his restoration 392 CERTAIN COMBOVERERS full pardons for their persecuted friends in Amer- ica, and a total change of policy in the treatment of Quakers- This was a bitter pill to swallow for Governor Endicott and the Boston hierarchy. When Christopher and his wife returned to America, which they soon did, they found a very different condition of life awaiting them. They lived in Providence and later in Newport. During the five years of their married life Christopher travelled about the country preaching the gospel of the Friends. He evidently was possessed of estates in England which yielded him an ample income, and in Newport he was taxed £2 6s. Id. in 1680, a large tax. It is probable that his wife Mary when she did not accompany him on his missions had a comfortable home in Newport where she nursed the babies and enjoyed the com- panionship of congenial neighbors, free from any manner of persecution for her religious beliefs. She died October 17, 1665, and the following year Christopher Holder married Hope Clifton, her companion in the escapade in Boston when the two girls were jailed for visiting him. During the remainder of his life Christopher Holder, "The Mutilated," as he was called, unre- mittingly pursued his calling of an evangel. In 1672 he was with George Fox in New York. In 1676 he with George Fox was with Nathaniel Sylvester at his manor house on Shelter Island and conducted meetings on Long Island. In 1682 he was in England, where he was imprisoned for refusing to take the oath of allegiance. For more than four years he was confined in prison, being CHRISTOPHER HOLDER 393 at length pardoned on the accession of James II. He did not return to America again. He lived at Puddimore in the County of Somerset, and died at his old home at Ircott in the parish of Almonds- bury June 13, 1688, and lies buried at Hazewell. Mary Holder, the daughter of Christopher Holder and Mary Scott, was born September 16, 1661, in Newport. She married Peleg Slocum of Portsmouth, later of Dartmouth, that "honest publick Friend" when she was nineteen years old, before her father went on his last voyage across the Atlantic. She brought to her husband as her dowry the island of Patience in Narragansett Bay. Her grandfather, Richard Scott, had presented this island to his daughter Mary when she mar- ried Christopher Holder, and in 1675 gave a con- firmatory deed to her heirs Mary and Elizabeth. At the request of Peleg Slocum, Roger Williams on January 6, 1682, further confirmed the title to Mary Slocum and her sister Elizabeth. Eliza- beth subsequently died without issue. Mary Holder was a profitable helpmeet to her husband, and at her home the women's meetings of Dartmouth began in 1699. She bore her hus- band ten children, of whom the fifth, Peleg, was a grandfather of Williams Slocum. She died in 1737 in Newport at the home of her daughter, Content Easton, and was buried in the Friends' new burying place at Newport by the side of her son Giles Slocum. Chaptee VI JOSEPH NICHOLSON Came over prior to 1658 Joseph Nicholson — 1693 (Jane ) Jane Nicholson 1669 — 1723 ( ) William Brown 1696 — 1739 (Hannah Earle) Elizabeth Brown 1727 — 1797 (Peleg Slocum) Williams Slocum 1761 — 1834 (Anne Almy Chase) Mary Ann Slocum ^ 1805 — 1875 (Henry H. Crapo) William W. Crapo 1830 — (Sarah Davis Tappan) Stanford T. Crapo 1865 — (Emma Morley) William Wallace Crapo 1895 — JOSEPH NICHOLSON The story of your ancestor Joseph Nicholson is a continuation of the tale of the persecutions of the Quakers. Mr. Austin, in his admirable book on Ehode Island families, states that Joseph Nicholson was the son of Edmund Nicholson of Marblehead. I am somewhat doubtful as to whether this is so, and yet I have no evidence which warrants me in denying the statement. If it be true, your ancestor began his life of persecu- tion at an early age. Bishop in his New England Judged, tells this story, which he addresses to the magistrates of Boston : "And to this, let me add a cruel Tragedy of a Woman of Marblehead near Salem and her two sons, Elizabeth Nicholson and Christopher and Joseph, whom you without ground charged with the Death of Edmund Nichol- son her Husband and their Father, who was found dead in the Sea ; you having received Information from some wicked Spirits (like yourselves) that the People did shew Love sometimes to the People of the Lord, whom you call Cursed Quakers, your Eage soon grew high against them, and unto your Butcher's Cub at Boston you soon had them all three; and from Prison you had them to the Bar to try them for their Lives; but notwith- standing all your cunning and subtile Malice, to 398 CERTAIN COMEOVBRBRS destroy the Mother and her Children at once, yet ye were not able; notwithstanding you fined her a great Sum (which, in behalf of the Court, your Secretary, Rawson, was willing to take in good fish, and Salter for Dyet and Lodging in Barrels of Mackerel, so devouring the Widow's house) and her two sons to stand under the Gallows cer- taia hours with Ropes about their necks and to be whipped in your market place which was per- formed with many bloody lashes; at which the young men being not appaled, old WUson stand- ing by, said 'Ah! Cursed Generation!' And at Salem they were ordered to be whipped also, where Michelson, the marshal (a bloody spirited Man) came to see it executed, where it was so mercilessly done that one of the young men sunk down, or dyed away under the Torture of his cruel suffering, whose body they raised up again and Life came to him. This was near about the time of your Murthering William Leddra. ' ' This fixes the date as in the early part of 1658. The bloody spirited minions of the "Butcher's Cub" evidently also came near "murthering" Joseph Nicholson, and it may well be that he deemed it wise to leave the jurisdiction of Massa- chusetts soon after. There is one record of him in 1659 at Salem, when he "protested" about something. I find in Besse's Collection of the Sufferings of the People called Quakers in Eng- land that in 1659 a Joseph Nicholson was im- prisoned in Newgate with one hundred and eighty other Friends by Richard Brown, Lord Mayor of London. If this is your ancestor, he must have JOSEPH NICHOLSON 399 soon returned to New England with his wife Jane, whom he perhaps married in England, in the latter part of the same year. In a letter which he wrote from prison in Boston, in February, 1660, he says, "upon the 7th of the First month, I was called forth before the court at Boston, and when I came, John Endicott bade me take off my hat, and after some words about that, he asked me what I came into the country for. . . . He then asked me where I came from. I told him from Cumberland where I formerly lived." It is this statement of your ancestor's that he formerly lived in Cumberland which has caused me to doubt his identity with the Joseph who was the son of Edmund Nicholson of Marblehead, and yet the facts are not irreconcilable. In his letter Joseph Nicholson further describes the examina- tion of Governor Endicott : ' ' The Governor said What would I follow when I had my liberty? I told him labor with my hands the thing that was honest as formerly I had done if the Lord called me thereto. He said, would I not go a-preaching? I told him if I had a word from the Lord to speak wherever I came I might speak it. ' ' The account of his imprisonment and experi- ences in Boston in 1660, as told by himself, is a soberly written narrative. Bishop makes rather more of a story out of it in his indictment of the magistrates of Boston. He says "Joseph Nichol- son and his Wife came to sojourn amongst ye, as they in right might, on as good Terms as you came hither first to inhabit; but instead thereof were committed to Prison and banished upon Pain 400 CERTAIN COMBOVBRERS of Death against whom you had nothing, yet so ye did unto them, though she was great with child, that she could not go forth of Prison till the last day limited by you. After which day ye sent for them and apprehended them at Salem, whither they went, and his wife there fell in Travel and he was not suffered to stay to see how it might happen to his wife but had to Boston. On the way he was met with an Order, sent by your Deputy Governor Eichard Bellington; and thither he was had and Committed and his wife with him, after she was delivered, and after ye had Condemned Mary Dyer the second time to death, even that very day in which she was Exe- cuted, ye had them both before you again to see if the Terror thereof could have frightened them. But the Power of the Lord in them was above you all, and they feared not you, nor your threats of putting them to death." Joseph Nicholson, in his letter to Margaret Fell, fully confirms this story. In reference to the second arrest at Salem, he says "then came two constables and took us both and carried us to prison. As we passed along the street we met the gaoler who said I was come again to see if the gallows would hold me. ' ' From a letter writ- ten in September, 1660, from one of the Quakers in jail, it appears that Joseph Nicholson was very desirous of returning to England and that the Court was quite willing he should do so. "A boat was pressed to carry him on board the ship at Nantasket but the Master of the ship refused to carry him, and he came to Boston again and went JOSEPH NICHOliSON 40I before the Governor and desired to have prison room or some other private house to be in till there was another opportunity to go." It was, doubtless, during this somewhat voluntary resi- dence in prison that he wrote The Standard of the Lord lifted up in New England. The only extract from this treatise which I have read is one of rather un-Quaker-like vituperation against the magistrates. Bishop cites it as a "prophecy" which was fulfilled. The quotation is too long to introduce here, but I wUl give a few sentences that you may appreciate the ability of your an- cestor in dealing with the English language: "When they that caused them to be put to Death shall howle and lament ; for their Day of Sorrows is coming on, for the Innocent Blood cries aloud for Vengeance upon them who put them to Death. Your Enchantments and Laws which you have hatched out of Hell shall be broken. And the People in scorn by you called Cursed Quakers shall inhabit amongst you, and you shall be broken to pieces. The Lord hath said it and he will shortly bring it to pass." After all you may pardon your ancestor for these very un-Friendly utterances, since surely his provocation was heavy. Not being able to find a ship which would take them home, Joseph Nicholson and his wife and young baby sought refuge in the Plymouth Col- ony. Let Bishop tell the story: "So ye set them at liberty who departed your jurisdiction in the Will of God; and to Plimouth Patent they went . . . (another Habitation of Cruelty) 402 CERTAIN COMEOVERERS and demanded to sojourn in tliat jurisdiction, but there they could not be admitted, the same Spirit ruling in Plimouth as in Boston, and so the Magis- trates told them that if they had turned them away at Boston they would have nothing to do with them. (How exactly do they write after your Copy!) And his wife they threatened to whip. So they passed away in the Moving of the Lord to Rhode Island." A letter from Joseph Nicholson to Margaret Fell "from Ehode Island the 10th of the fifth month 1660" is as follows: M. F. — "We have found the Lord a God at hand and although our lives were not dear unto us, yet He hath delivered us out of the hands of bloodthirsty men. "We put our lives in our hands for the honor of the truth, and through the power of God we have them as yet. Although we pressed much to have our liberty to go as we came, yet could not, but are banished again. How it will be ordered afterward, if they let not their law fall, as it is broken, we know not ; for if the Lord call us again to go, there we must go, and whether we live or die it will be well. His powerful presence was much with us in Boston. We found much favor in the sight of most people of that town. The Power of God sounded aloud many times into their streets, which made some of them leave their meetings and come about the prison which was a sore torment to some of them. I think I shall pass towards Shelter Island ere long and some places that way where I have not yet been, and for ought we know at present, Jane may remain here awhile. Boston people were glad at our departure, for there were not many, I believe, would have had us to have been put to death. "We are well in the Lord. I was a prisoner in Boston about six months and my wife a prisoner eighteen weeks. Thy friend in the Truth, Joseph Nicholson. JOSEPH NICHOLSON 403 From Rhode Island Joseph Nicholson and his family went to Connecticut. Bishop says "And Joseph Nicholson and his wife (who went thither from Ehode Island, being moved of the Lord, to place their sojourning upon all the colonies) and the Commissioners of the Four United Colonies were also there, and Dan Denison in particular, who denied them. ' ' Joseph and his wife and the baby at length succeeded in re-crossing the At- lantic, but it was for them a case of falling out of the frying pan into the fire. I find in Besse's Sufferings in the County of Kent in 1660 a list of the Quaker prisoners at Dover Castle, among whom was "Joseph Nicholson who was just landed at Deal from New England and was im- prisoned there for refusing to swear." The account which Besse gives of this imprisonment is truly harrowing. He calls it ' ' barbarous ; " he might have called it "filthy." Your ancestor, writ- ing from Dover Castle, says "If the Lord make way for my liberty from these bonds shortly, I shall pass to Virginia in the Friends ' ship and so to New England again, but which way Jane will go, or how it is with her, I can not say. ' ' It would seem that it was by way of Virginia that Joseph Nicholson and his wife next came to New England. On the "tenth day of the last month 1663" he wrote the following letter to George Fox from the Barbadoes : G. F. Dearly and well beloved in the Lord my love is to thee. I should be glad to hear from thee if it might hi. I received a letter from thee in New Eng- land, written to Christopher Holder and me, wherein 404 CERTAIN COMEOVBRERS I was refreshed. I wrote to thee from Virginia about the last first month, and since then I have been in New England about eight months. I passed through most parts of the English inhabitants and also the Dutch. I sounded the mighty day of the Lord which is coming upon them, through most towns, and also was at many of their public worship houses. I was prisoner one night amongst the Dutch at New Amsterdam. I have been prisoner several times at Boston, but it was not long, but I was whipt away. I have received eighty stripes at Boston, and some other of the towns; their cruelty was very great towards me and others. But over all we were carried with courage and boldness, thanks be to God! We gave our backs to the smiter, and walked after the cart with boldness, and were glad in our hearts in their greatest rage. ... I came to this Island about twenty days ago from Ehode Island . . . It was during the next year, 1664, that Joseph Nicholson and his wife Jane with others were "cruelly whipped through Salem, Boston and Dedham." "Thus ran your cruelty from Dover to Salem, and from Salem to Boston, and that way; and now it thwarts the Country again and to Piseataqua Eiver it posteth from Boston, as it had from thence to Piseataqua, almost the two ends of your jurisdiction. On the great Island in the Eiver aforesaid, it seems, Joseph Nichol- son and John Liddal, crying out against the Drunkards and the Swearers, they were almost struck down with a piece of Wood by Pembleton's Man, the Ruler of that place .... who ordered them whipped at a Cart's-tail at Straw- berrybank by John Pickering the Constable." It is evident that from time to time during these stirring experiences Joseph Nicholson and his wife Jane had some quiet intervals at Ports- JOSEPH NICHOLSON 405 mouth in Ehode Island. I find mention of him in the Portsmouth records as early as 1664, when he is associated with Christopher Holder as an executor of the will of Alice Courtland. Bishop tells of Jane coming from Rhode Island in March, 1665, in company with some Quakers "to your bloody Boston," where they were arrested. It is probable that at least as early as 1669 Joseph and Jane were settled in Portsmouth in their own home. In that year their daughter Jane, your many times great grandmother, was born. It is probable that thereafter they often went forth to the southern colonies and the Barbadoes, and now and again to England, to carry the word of George Fox. From 1675, however, for a period of about ten years, Joseph Nicholson and his wife seem to have been quite constantly in Newport and in Portsmouth. He was "propounded" to be a free- man in 1675, and was actually admitted in 1677. In 1680 he went to the Barbadoes. In 1682, 1684, and 1685 he was a Deputy for Portsmouth to the Colonial Assembly. There are various records of his civic activities during this period. It would seem that Jane Nicholson, his wife, was in Eng- land in 1684, as there is a record of her persecu- tion there in "Westmoreland County. Joseph Nicholson died on the ship Elizabeth, going from the Barbadoes to London, in June, 1693. His will, dated in April, 1693, and proved in Ports- mouth,^ September 29, 1693, names his daughter Jane, who was then twenty-four years old, his executrix, and leaves to her £100, and one-half of the rest and residue of his property. James 406 CERTAIN COMBOVBRBRS Bowden, in Ms History of the Society of Friends in America, says that Jane Nicholson, the wife of Joseph, died in Settle, Yorkshire, England, in 1712. In view of several inaccuracies in Bowden 's account of the Nicholsons, I am not at all certain that he is correct about the time and place of Jane's death. There can be no doubt that Joseph and Jane Nicholson were earnest and persistent purveyors of the "Truth." Perhaps, however, had they not been "moved of the Lord to place their sojourn- ing upon all the colonies" and had devoted them- selves somewhat more to the care and upbringing of their children, your ancestress, Jane, their daughter, would not have committed the indiscre- tion of placing the only bar sinister on your escutcheon. To be sure, it was after her father's death and when she was twenty-seven years old, presumably an age of discretion, that, being un- married, she gave birth, in April, 1696, to a son, your several times great grandfather, who was called William Brown. Naturally the records are silent as to the paternity of this ancestor of yours. It may have been one Tobias Brown, the grand- son of old Nicholas Brown, one of the original settlers of Portsmouth in 1639. At aU events, Tobias was the only young man by the name of Brown whom I discovered as living at Portsmouth about the time of Jane's mishap. Jane Nicholson lived always in Portsmouth. She died December 14, 1723, aged fifty-four. In her will she describes herself as a "spinster" and bequeaths her property "to my son William JOSEPH NICHOLSON 407 Brown, so called. ' ' William Brown lived in Ports- mouth and prospered. He was a mariner and a merchant, and had interests in Newport, where he may have lived for a time. He was honored with the title of "Esquire." In 1719 he married Hannah Earle of Dartmouth, who died May 2, 1731, and on December 10, 1734, he married Re- beckah Lawton of Portsmouth. He had seven children, one of whom he named Nicholson Brown. His fourth child, Elizabeth, bom April 19, 1727, who married Peleg Slocum, was the mother of Williams Slocum. William Brown's will was executed January 27, 1738, he being then "in- tended with God's permission on a voyage to sea. " He left a large estate valued at £3,325 6s. 7d., iacluding numerous slaves. To his daughter Elizabeth, your great great great grandmother, he left "£300 in current bills of public credit of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plan- tations, my silver beaker marked J N, with my negro girl Peg." Elizabeth's uncle, Barnabas Earle of Dartmouth, was appointed her guardian after her father's death, and she came to Dart- mouth to live, and met Peleg Slocum "in meet- ing." Chaptek VII RALPH EARLE Came over 1634 Ralph Eaele 1606 — 1678 (Joan Savage) Ralph Eaele — 1716 (Dorcas Sprague) Ralph Eaele 1660 — 1718 (Dorcas Dillingham) Hannah Eable 1701 — 1731 (William Brown) Elizabeth Brov?n 1727 — 1797 (Peleg Slocum) Williams Slocum 1761 — 1834 (Anne Almy Chase) Mart Ann Slocum 1805 — 1875 (Henry H. Crape) WiLLMM W. Ceapo 1830 — (Sarah Davis Tappan) Stanford T. Ceapo 1865 — (Emma Morley) William Wallace Crapo 1895 — Ralph Barle 1606 — 1678 (Joan Savage) William Baklb 1715 (Mary Walker) Mary Eaele lg55 ns4. (John Borden) Amet Borden 1678 1716 (Benjamin Chase) Nathan Chase 1704 (Elizabeth Shaw) Benjamin Chase 1747 (Mary Almy) Anne Almy Chase 1775 1864 (Williams Sloemn) Mary Ann Slogum 1805 — 1875 (Henry H. Crapo) WiLLUM W. Crapo 1830 — (Sarah Davis Tappan) Stanpoed T. Ceapo 1865 — (Emma Morley) William Wallace Ceapo 1895 — RALPH EARLB Ralph Earle was born in 1606. He is thought to have come from Exeter and crossed in 1634. He was an original settler of Portsmouth, ad- mitted as an inhabitant of Aquidneck in 1638. He was a signer of the compact on the first page of the Portsmouth town records. He took the free- man's oath in 1639. In 1640 he agreed to sell the town "sawn boards," which indicates perhaps that he had a mill. In August, 1647, "Ealph Erie is Chosen to Ceepe an Inne to sell beer & wine & to intertayn strangers." In July, 1650, this liquor license was transferred to a new location to which Ealph Earle had moved. It may be that this new location was one which Henry Peran conveyed to him in March, 1650. It was "upon the south side of the head of the Mill Swamp and bounded upon Newport path." If so, the inn was not long established there, since Ealph sold this estate to Thomas Lawton in 1653. Yet in 1655 he was again licensed to keep a house of enter- tainment and to set out a "convenient" sign in a "perspicuous" place. Ealph Earle was the town's Treasurer in 1649 and for several years subsequently. He served the town in several other capacities and his name is of frequent occurrence in the records. He died RALPH EARLB 413 in 1678. His will, of which his friend John Tripp was the overseer, after providing for his widow, leaves two-thirds of his real estate to his son Ealph, and one-third to his grandson Ealph, the son of his son William. That his son William, being alive, was cut off with a shilling is probably due to the fact that he had already provided for him. Indeed, in April, 1655, he conveyed to him a homestead in Portsmouth near John Tripp's. Ealph Earle had married in England Joan Sav- age, who outlived him. Concerning her we learn something from that delightful diarist, Judge Samuel Sewall, of whom you will hear much in connection with your Newbury ancestry. Judge Sewall had been holding court in Bristol, and on adjournment took an excursion to Point Judith. He writes under date of September 14, 1699, "The wind was so high that could not get over the ferry" (Bristol Ferry). "Dined at How- land's. Lodged at Mr. Wilkins. Friday 15th Mr. Newton and I rode to Newport. See aged Joan Savage (now Earl) by the way. Her husband Ealph Earl was born 1606 and his wife was ten or eleven years older than he. So she is esteemed to be one hundred and five years old. Pass over the ferry to Narragansett," etc. Ealph Earle, the second, was probably born before his father came to Portsmouth, i. e. prior to 1638. He was admitted as a freeman of the town in 1658. About this time he married Dorcas, the daughter of Francis Sprague of Duxbury. Francis Sprague was one of the original thirty- four purchasers of Dartmouth, and in 1659 he 414 CERTAIN COMEOVERERS conveyed to Ms "son in law Ralph Earl of Rhode Island one-half of his share," and in the confirma- tory deed of Grovernor Bradford, Ralph Earle is named as a proprietor of Dartmouth. I think, however, that it is not likely that he removed to Dartmouth for some years. In 1667 Ralph Earle of Portsmouth, joined Captain Sanford's troop of horse, and afterwards himself became the Cap- tain. It is surely more likely that this warlike Ralph was Ralph, the second, who would have been about thirty years old, rather than Ralph, the first, who was over sixty. Francis Sprague, the father of Dorcas who married Ralph Earle, came over in the Ann in 1623 with his wife Lydia and one chUd. It was of this ship's company that Morton tells us that the new comers "Seeing the low and poor condi- tion of those that were before them, were much daunted and discouraged." Governor Bradford says "the best dish we could present them with is a lobster or a piece of fish without bread or anything else but a cup of fair spring water ; and the long continuance of this diet, with our labors abroad has somewhat abated the freshness of our complexion; but God gives us health." Francis Sprague may have been daunted and discouraged, yet none the less he took hold of the problem of self support in good earnest, and in 1633 was taxed eighteen shillings, a considerable tax. In the division of the cattle in 1627 Francis Sprague shared in the sixth lot. "To this lot fell the lesser of the black cowes came at first in the Anne which they must keep the biggest of the two steers. RALPH EARLE 415 Also this lot has two shee goats." It is to be hoped that the little Dorcas obtained at least her father's thirteenth share of the milk of the lesser cowe and the two shee goats. Francis Sprague removed to Duxbury prior to 1637. He lived by the shore between Captains Hill and Blueflsh River. It is said of him that he was of an "ardent temperament and great in- dependence of mind." That he was a "grave and sober" person is clearly indicated since he was permitted to sell spirituous liquors, since it was to "grave and sober" persons only that this privilege was granted. None the less, in 1641 he was before the Court for selling wine contrary to the orders of the Court. He was living in Dux- bury in 1666, and died probably a few years thereafter when his son took up his business of keeping an ordinary. One wonders how Ralph Earle of Portsmouth, who so far as we may know had no relation with the Pilgrims at Plymouth, happened to meet and woo and win a Duxbury girl. To be sure they were both "ordinary" chil- dren. At least as early as 1688 Ralph Earle and his wife Dorcas Sprague were living in Dartmouth, since in that year and the years following he so describes himself ia conveyances of land in Dart- mouth to his sons. His homestead farm of some four hundred acres was on the westerly side of the Apponegansett River, extending westerly be- yond the Tucker Road on both sides of the road from the head of Apponegansett to Macomber's Corner, or Slocum's Corner as it was known in 416 CERTAIN COMEOVERERS earlier days. He evidently had allotted to him as a part of his share of Dartmouth the island of Cuttyhunk. In conveying one half of this island to his son Ralph in 1688 he describes it as "the westernmost island called Elizabeth Island." In 1693 in conveying a quarter of the island to his son William he describes it as the island called by the Indians "Pocatahunka being the westernmost island." We hear of him in con- nection with his neighbor John Russell in the troublous times of the Indian war. Ralph the third, the son of Ralph, the son of Ralph, was born about 1660 and died in 1718 leaving an estate of £1,862. At one time he lived on the island of Cuttyhunk, afterwards selling his interest to his brother William. He married Dorcas DUlingham, who outlived him twenty-four years. Hannah, the daughter of this third Ralph and his wife Dorcas, married William Brown and was the grandmother of Williams Slocinn. William Earle the son of the first Ralph was probably younger than his brother Ralph. He remained in Portsmouth. He was admitted a freeman on the same day in 1658 as his brother Ralph. In 1665 he became associated with Wil- liam Cory in erecting and operating a wind-mill for the town's use. As an "inducement" the town offered to give the partners certain land. The mill was built and operated by Earle and Cory for Some years. The history of this quasi- public enterprise is rather complicated and occu- pies considerable space in the town records. Numerous transfers and retransfers of land be- RALPH EARLE 417 tween the to"wii and Earle and Cory and Cory's widow were necessary to straighten out the in- volvements, but in the end it seems to have been satisfactorily adjusted. William Earle had interests in Dartmouth in- dependent of those of his son Ealph who had settled there. That this William Earle ever lived in Dartmouth I think unlikely. Since Ralph the second had a son Ealph and a son William, and William the son of the first Ealph had a son Ealph and a son William, and since all of these Ralphs and Williams had sons named Ealph and William, it is not easy to distinguish their identity from the records. It seems clear, at all events, that William the son of the first Ealph was lining in Portsmouth in 1691, in which year the-t^wn meet- ing was held at his dwelling house. In 1704 and 1706 he was a Deputy from Portsmouth to the General Assembly. In 1715 he died. William Earle had married Mary, the daughter of John and Katheriae Walker. John Walker's name is not appended to the civic compact of Portsmouth, but at the meeting at which it was executed on April 30, 1639, "for the helpe and ease of publique business and affaires," he was chosen one of a committee of five to act as the town government. In 1639 he was allotted one hundred acres of land. His name appears in the town records in 1644 in reference to a grant of land to his son in law, James Sand. His will is dated March 18, 1647, and it would seem likely that he died soon afterwards, although the will was not recorded until 1671 in connection with 418 CERTAIN COMBOVBRERS his widow's will. Both wUls make it evident that there were but two chtldren, a daughter Sarah, who married James Sands, and a daughter Mary who subsequently married William Earle. It is from Mary Earle, the daughter of William Earle and Mary Walker, who married John Borden, that you trace your descent through Anne Almy Chase. Chaptee VIII EDWARD DILLINGHAM Came over 1632 (f) Bdwabd Dillingham — 1667 (Drusilla ) Henry Dillingham 1627 — (Hannah Perry) Dorcas Dillingham 1662 — 1742 (Ralph Earle) Hannah Earle 1701 — 1731 (William Brown) Elizabeth Brown 1727 — 1797 (Peleg Slocum) Williams Slocum 1761 — 1834 (Anne Almy Chase) Mary Ann Slocum 1805 — 1875 (Henry H. Crapo) William W. Crapo 1830 — (Sarah Davis Tappan) Stanford T. Crapo 1865 — (Emma Morley) William Wallace Crapo 1895 — EDWARD DILLINGHAM It seems reasonably well established that Ed- ward Dillingham was the son of Henry Dilling- ham, Rector for many years in Queen Elizabeth's time of the parish of Caftesbach, Leicestershire. That Henry Dillingham was of the gentry is indi- cated by the fact that he was the patron of the benefice and in 1626 presented a priest. Edward Dillingham, who is always described as a "gen- tleman," and who also "bore arms," lived at Bittesby, Leicestershire, on "Watling Street." He probably came over soon after the establish- ment of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He had some capital and brought money entrusted to him by friends to invest. The first record of him which I have found is in 1636, when he was a witness ia a civil case in Salem. He lived in Saugus (Lynn) and was one of the ten original purchasers of Sandwich in 1637 and doubtless went thither at the origin of the settlement. His wife died in 1656. He was among those who em- braced the teachings of Christopher Holder and in 1657 he was arrested and fined for entertaining Quakers. He died in 1667. His descendants have always been people of some distinction on the Cape. His son, Henry, born in England in 1627, married Hannah Perry. He lived in Sandwich. 422 CERTAIN COMEOVERERS Dorcas, the daughter of Henry Dillingliam and Hannah Perry, who married Ralph Earle, was a great grandmother of Williams Slocum. Chapteb IX WILLIAMS SLOCUM WILLIAMS SLOCUM Peleg Slocuin, the son of Peleg, the son of Peleg, the son of Giles, at the time of his death in 1810 left two sons and three daughters. One daughter, Eebecca, had married George Folger of Nan- tucket, and it was for her that her brother Wil- liams Slocum asked that his granddaughter, your great aunt Eebecca Folger Crapo (Durant) be named. One son Caleb was married and probably was not then living at home. All the others lived together in the Barney's Joy homestead. At the time of his father's death Williams Slocum was forty-nine years old. He had married rather late iQ life some seven years before and had three children then alive of whom your great grand- mother, Mary Arm Crapo, was the oldest. It was thus a large household that occupied the old house of which I have told you. Hannah Slocum, the oldest sister of Williams, then about fifty-six years old, was an invalid, and her father in his will, written in 1801, after bequeathing to her his "great bible and one feather bed, bedstead, cord, and furniture that she commonly sleeps upon free and clear at her own disposal," provided as fol- lows : "And my will is that my two sons, Williams and Caleb shall provide for my said daughter Hannah all things necessary for her comfortable 426 CERTAIN COMBOVBRERS support in sickness and health at all times and also to provide for her all suitable apparel doc- tors and nurses when needed and to carefully help her to meetings when and where it shall appear reasonable." Towards his daughters, Mehitable, who died before her father, and Deborah, who was the widow of Philip Howland, he was equally thoughtful. In addition to con- siderable bequests of money, horses, cows, stab- ling, etc., he provides that they shall have "the great room and the two bedrooms adjoining it and the chamber rooms above them . . . also the privilege of the kitchen to do their work and oven to bake in . . . one-sixth of the orchard or profits . . . one-half of the garden . . . one-quarter of the cellar ... a privilege to the wells," etc., etc. "I also order my sons to provide and bring to the door firewood of suit- able length sufiScient for one fire yearly; also to keep one hog for them with their own hogs the yestr round ; and that my two said daughters have the privilege of riding the chaise when convenient and to be helped to it by my said sons and that it be kept in good repair." Deborah alone was left to ride in the chaise. To Williams, his son, he gave "my house clock a free and clear gift to him." This is the tall clock which two years later was buried in the meadow with the silver and valuables and is now in the possession of your grandfather. In the clock was doubtless buried a silver tankard which he gave his daughter Mehitable, providing that ' ' if my son or sons shall lay any claim or right to WILLIAMS SLOCUM 427 the silver tankard by virtue of Hannah Slocnm, then they shall pay unto their sister Mehitable seventy dollars equally between them ia lieu thereof." I know not what has become of the silver tankard, but as Mehitable died before her father, doubtless it came into possession of one of the brothers. To each of his grandsons, Peleg Slocimi Folger and Peleg Slocum Howland, he left a "two year colt of a midling value." To his sons WUliams and Caleb he left his farm and the rest and residue of his estate, which was an ample one. Caleb was a man of some promiaence ia the community. He represented Dartmouth in the Great and General Court of Massachusetts ia 1809. He engaged quite extensively in shipping and at one time was successful. Soon after his father's death, however, he became financially em- barrassed and finally insolvent, involving his brother Williams through indorsements ia the loss of much of his inheritance. In 1812 Caleb re- leased to Williams all his iuterest in the home- stead farm and moved to LeRoysville in New York State. Williams Slocum was somewhat handicapped by the financial losses sustained through his brother, yet he managed to carry on the old farm at Barney's Joy and live in the comfortable way in which his predecessors had lived. Two negro slaves, then free, were his faithful servitors, about whom your great aunts had an interesting story which I regret I have not preserved. In 1774 the Friends meeting of Dartmouth had required Peleg 428 CERTAIN COMEOVERERS Slocum and several others to free their slaves. In Williams Slocmn's time the family still had a coach, and doubtless also the chaise in which Deborah was to be permitted to ride. Williams Slocmn had many dealings with his neighbors and with merchants in New Bedford. I had at one time a mass of documents relating to his affairs, which came into the possession of your great grandfather, Henry H. Crapo, who settled his estate. The considerable number of promissory notes for small amounts which he took and gave indicate how largely business was done without the use of cash by an interchange of evidences of credit in the form of notes. There must still be, in a package in" my desk, a hundred or more of these notes ranging from one hundred dollars to one or two dollars. The promissory notes given and the memoranda of notes received represented deferred payments for sheep, hogs, firewood and other farm products, and purchases of household supplies, etc. Williams Slocum 's estate amounted to nearly fifteen thousand dollars according to the inventory. The elaborate and careful work of your great grandfather Henry H. Crapo, as evidenced by the papers preserved in connection with this estate, furnishes one among a thousand other instances of his painstaking exactness. The only personal recollection of Williams Slocum which I can give you is that of your grandfather who when a child about four years old was taken by his mother down to Barney's Joy to visit the old folks. He remembers his grandfather as a short, stout little gentleman, WILLIAMS SLOCUM 429 very asthmatic, with knee breeches and silver shoe buckles, who took him by the hand and toddled down with him into the vegetable garden and showed him a gigantic squash which was evidently a keen delight to the old gentleman. A few months after this visit of his grandson Williams Slocum died, January 23, 1834. He is buried in the little enclosed graveyard by the road-side as you drive down from Tucker Allen's place, and when last I was there the purple blooms of the myrtle carpeted the ground. If you should stand by the iron gate of this enclosed plot, which is now or wUl be in part your real estate ia fee, you would view the wonderfully beautiful scene iu which your Slocum ancestors lived from the time of Eliezer and the Lady Elephel until, not many years ago, the race on the old farm went ignominiously out. Of WUliams Slocum 's youngest daughter, Jane Brown Slocum, I would like to tell you, if you can bear with the reminiscences of a still not very aged old fellow. "Aunt Jane" was a distinct feature in the youthful lives of your father and myself. She was not more than sixty years old, probably, when first I remember her, and yet she seemed to me then a very old lady, quite as old as she did thirty years later when I used to call on her and hear her tell again the tales of her girl- hood at Barney's Joy. Aunt Jane had a way of turning up at our house with her goatskin trunk (it had a convex top studded with brass nails and she promised to give it to me, but I never got it) at inconvenient times. Her idea of making a 430 CERTAIN COMEOVERERS visit to one's relatives was to do so when one felt like it. I think she must have been a little "nut brown maid" when she was young, she was cer- tainly a little nut brown old maid when I knew her. She looked amazingly like her older sister, my grandmother, but as I recall the sisters, Aunt Jane had much more vivacity. In fact she told me so many yarns about the lively days of her youth that I looked upon her as distinctly a sporty person. She used to tell me about the mare she rode when she was a girl, and it was a very wonderful mare indeed and she had many hair raising escapades with her. She used to tell me of the dances she went to, and yet she never explained why one of the young sparks did not mate her as she most surely deserved. My mother used to have Aunt Jane on her mind to some extent, and so we frequently drove out to Bakertown where she lived. She possessed a little white telescope of a house on the east side of the road, half way between the Gulf Eoad and Holder Brownell's Corner. Sometimes we carried her a bonnet. She was rather keen on gay bonnets although she professed to be a Friend. She lived quite alone and fended for her- self. On one occasion when we called on her we heard a mysterious mufiled wailing in the sitting- room, and seeking the explanation were informed that the cat had fallen between the studding and couldn't get out — but would probably soon be dead. The situation seemed to my mother to demand action of some kind, but Aunt Jane said that to get the cat out was a man's work and she \VlLLIAMS SLOCUM 431 hadn't any man and didn't propose to call one in. If you could have had the privilege of knowing your grandmother, you could have no doubt that the cat was extricated before she left the house. When Aunt Jane became rather too old to fend for herself, she went to live with her niece, Aeria Baker, the daughter of George Slocum, in Eussell's Mills, where her brother Benjamin, an old bachelor who hunted rabbits all his life, also lived. The little house stood behind dense spruce trees, which have long siace disappeared, on the road near the turning which leads to the old forge. Here your father's faithful old nurse, Margaret Sullivan, herself an old woman then, undertook the care of his great aunt. It was no easy job I fancy. Aunt Jane was never a docile person. In this dwelling at Russell's Mills I used to call oc- casionally on Aunt Jane after my mother's death. She was nearly ninety then, yet she always re- sponded to the understanding between us that she was a true sport. She died after several days of unconsciousness. A few hours before her death, however, she called in a clear voice the signal to her girlhood's friend across the Pascamansett Eiver at Barney's Joy. She had told me the story of how when a young girl she used to slip away from home in the evening and row across the river to see her bosom friend. This friend of hers had been dead for more than three quarters of a century. Do you suppose she heard the call? That singularly clear and youthful call as it was described to me, could it have found the receptive intelligence which unconsciously it sought? PAET V ANCESTORS OP SARAH MORSE SMITH Chaptbb I NICHOLAS NOYES Came over 1634 Mary and John Nicholas Noyes 1615 — 1701 (Mary Cutting) Timothy Notes 1655 — 1718 (Mary Knight) Mabtha Noyes 1697 — (Thomas Smith) Thomas Smith 1723 — 1758 (Sarah Newman) Nathaniel Smith 1752 — 1790 (Judith Morse) Sarah Moese Smith 1780 — 1869 (Aaron Davis) Serena Davis 1808 — 1896 (George Tappan) Sarah Davis Tappan 1831 — 1893 (William "W. Crape) Stanford T. Crapo 1865 — (Emma Morley) William Wallace Crapo 1895 — NICHOLAS NOYES Nicholas Noyes was a yoimger son of the Rev. William Noyes, rector of Cholderton, "Wilts, a little hamlet about eleven miles from Salisbury. The father of the Rev. "William Noyes was proba- bly Robert Noyes. The name Noyes, originally Noye, is Norman. There was a "WUliam Noyes of Erchfort who was assessed for a subsidy of £80 in the fourteenth year of Henry VIII. He died in 1557. One of his sons was a member of Parliament from Lain, the township in which Cholderton is located. Another son, Robert, pur- chased the manor of Kings Hatherdene, Berks. Whether the Rev. William Noyes of Cholderton was of kin to these people of his name and locality is merely a matter of speculation. William Noyes was born in 1568. He matric- ulated at Oxford November 15, 1588, and gradu- ated B. A. May 31, 1592. He was instituted as rector of Cholderton in 1602. He died intestate before April 30, 1622, at which date an inventory of his estate was taken. He had married in 1595 Anne Parker, a sister (probably) of the Rev. Robert Parker, whom Cotton Mather calls "one of the greatest scholars in the English nation, and in some sort the father of all non-conformists of our day." Anne Parker Noyes died 1657, 438 CERTAIN COMBOVBRERS being buried at Cholderton. In her will she men- tions her sons James and Nicholas "now in New England." The eldest son of William and Anne Parker Noyes was Ephraim, bom in 1596. He married a ParneU and lived at Orcheston, Saint Mary, dying in 1659. Their second son was the Eev. Nathan Noyes, who matriculated at Lincoln Col- lege, Oxford, May, 1615, and graduated B. A. October, 1616. In 1622 he succeeded his father as the rector of Cholderton. Their third son, the Eev. James Noyes, was born in 1608. He matricu- lated at Brasenose College, Oxford, August 22, 1627, but seems not to have graduated. With his cousin, the Eev. Thomas Parker, he taught school at Newbury, England. Nicholas, the fourth son, was your ancestor. He was born in 1615-16, and was therefore only eighteen years old when with his brother James, and cousin Thomas Parker, and several other of your ancestors, he sailed on the ship Mary and John for New England. The ship was detained in the Eiver Thames by an order of the Privy Council, February 14, 1633-4, and all the passengers were required to take the following oath, which I quote in full as a specimen of pure and vigorous English : I do swear before the Almighty and ever living God, that I will beare all faithful allegiance to my true and undoubted Soveraigne Lord King Charles, who is Lawful King of this Island and all other of his dominions by sea and by land, by the law of God and man and by lawful succession, and that I will most con- stantly and cheerfully even to the utmost hazard of my life and fortune, oppose all seditions, rebellions, con- NICHOLAS NOTES 439 spiracles, covenants, and treasons whatsoever against his Majesties Crowne and Dignity or Person raysed or sett up under what pretence of religion or colour soever, and if it shall come veyled under pretence of religion I hould it most abominable before God and Man. And this oath I take voluntarily, under the faith of a good Christian and loyall subject, without any equivocation or mental reservation whatsoever, from which I hold no power on earth can absolve me in any part. So far as this oath related to the allegiance of a subject to his King it is probable that this band of non-conformists could at that time take it with- out "equivocation or mental reservation," al- though I fancy had these men tarried in England for the space of ten years longer they would have been found at Marston Moor and Naseby under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell. To the further order of the Council, however, to the effect that "prayers as contained in the Book of Common Prayer, established by the Church of England, be said daily at the usual hours of morning and even- ing prayers, and that all persons on board be caused to be present at the same," I doubt if they submitted with good grace. The motive which caused these zealous seekers of freedom to leave their comfortable homes in England and embark on the hazardous voyage across the seas, and the still more hazardous life in the wilderness, was a spiritual one. They sought simply the op- portunity to worship God in the manner which they firmly believed was His holy ordinance. Thomas Parker, their leader, and his beloved friend and co-worker, James Noyes, were con- spicuous exemplars of that high zeal for religious 440 CERTAIN COMBOVBRBRS freedom which was the fundamental cause of the settlement of New England. Your ancestor, Nicholas Noyes, was a sturdy, healthy, active lad, to whom probably the questions at issue be- tween the established church and the non-conform- ists were not of vital personal importance, yet as a loyal comrade of his brother and his cousin he followed them to the new country and was ever their earnest friend and warm supporter. The company who came on the Mary and John landed at the mouth of the Mystic Eiver and stopped a while at Medf ord, and thence removed to Ipswich, which was then called Agawam. There they abode untU the spring of 1635, and albeit they had doubtless achieved their desire to wor- ship God according to the dictates of their con- sciences, they suffered the appalling hardships and privations of ill equipped pioneers in a wild and practically uninhabited wilderness. It is for- tunate that among the religious enthusiasts who immigrated to New England there were some practical men of affairs who had the commercial instinct. There was a small society of gentlemen of non-conformist views in Wiltshire, England, among whom were Sir Eichard Saltonstall, Henry Sewall, Eichard and Stephen Dummer and others, who organized a company for the purpose of stock raising in New England. After looking over the ground they determined to start a plantation not far from Agawam at a place on the Quascacum- quem Eiver, or, as it has been called since, the Parker Eiver. They induced many of the come- overers by the Mary and John to join in this NICHOLAS NOTES 441 settlement under the spiritual leadership of Thomas Parker and James Noyes. The first boat load of these pioneers who came from Agawam through Plum Island Sound landed on the north shore of Parker River, a little below where the bridge crosses the river, in May, 1635. It was your lusty ancestor, Nicholas Noyes, who first leaped ashore from the boats and entered the territory of Newbury as a settler. The difficulties and dangers of this little settle- ment by the Parker River were many, but the settlers were undaunted. ''Here and there along the winding river they appropriated the few clear spots where the Indians had formerly planted corn, and took possession of the neighboring salt marshes where the growing crop of salt grass promised an abundant harvest." The infant set- tlement was named Newbury in compliment to Thomas Parker, their "minister," and James Noyes, their "teacher," because it was at New- bury in England that these two men formed the strong friendship which ever held them together as loyal and affectionate brothers. Thomas Par- ker never married and always lived with James Noyes, who later built the "old Noyes house" which still stands and is still occupied by his descendants. The place of the settlement was at what is now known as the "lower green." Here they built a meeting-house and at first the dwellings were clustered about it. As the community increased in numbers the available farming lands were taken up and the settlement became scattered. About 442 CERTAIN COMEOVBRERS 1642 the question of moving the meeting-house began to be agitated and was the subject of a pro- longed and bitter controversy in the community and church. Indeed the history of the commu- nity is the history of the church. In this con- troversy all of your Newbury ancestors took an active part. Nicholas Noyes was naturally on the side of the ministry in favor of moving. Ed- mund Greenleaf and Henry Sewall were bitterly opposed and petitioned the General Court to put a stop to the proceedings. Their application was not successful and they removed in high dudgeon from the town, Greenleaf to Boston, and Sewall to Eowley, After much discussion and dissension it was finally determined at "a town meeting of the eight men," January 2, 1646, that in order to "settle the disturbances that yet remayne about the planting and settling the meeting house, and that all men may cheerfully goe on to improve their lands at the new towne" the meeting-house be located and set up before October next "in or upon the knowle of upland by Abraham Toppan's barn." The removal of the meeting-house to the "new towne," which in the whirligig of time is now known as "Oldtown," may have tended to the formation of two opposing factions in the church which took opposite sides in the protracted eccle- siastical controversy for which the church of Newbury was famous in the history of New Eng- land Congregationalism. The question was one of church government rather than of doctrine. It was, moreover, a theoretical question rather than NICHOLAS NOTES 443 a practical one. As a matter of fact the deeply respected minister of the church, Thomas Parker, and his friend, James Noyes, the teacher, Johnson in his Wonder Working Providence teUs ns, "car- ried it very lovingly toward their people, per- mitting them to assist in admitting of persons into the church society, and in church censure, so long as they acted regularly, but in case of mal- administration they assumed the power wholly to themselves. ' ' A large number of the members of the congregation, however, demanded as a right what the pastor and teacher "lovingly permitted" as a favor, and asserted that the church in its corporate capacity had a right, and was conse- quently under a sacred obligation, to manage its own affairs, and not be under the domination of the clergy. This controversy which was based on no actual grievance, being simply a question of theoretic government, reached a crisis in 1669. The civil authorities were appealed to. A series of pre- sentments were made to the Courts at Ipswich and Salem. Petitions to the General Court at Bos- ton, and a most violent rumpus all round ensued. The records of these legal proceedings and of the lengthy petitions and counter petitions to the Gen- eral Court give the history of this controversy with great fullness. Most of your Newbury an- cestors were on one side or the other of the dis- pute. The General Court in 1671 rendered a decision which was intended to be final in favor of the clerical party, and the revolutionists in the church were fined. At this time there were 444 CERTAIN COMEOVERERS exactly forty-one male church members enrolled on each side of the question, so that the congrega- tion of the church was evenly divided. Such was not the case, however, in regard to your ancestors, the large majority of whom were of the revolu- tionary party. The following of your ancestors were of the clerical party : Nicholas Noyes, John Knight, Tristram Coffin, Henry Sewall and James Smith, five in all. The foUowiag were of the revolutionary party : John Emery, Sen., John Emery, Jr., Thomas Brown, Anthony Morse, Abraham Toppan, William Moody, Caleb Moody, James Ordway, John Bailey and Eobert Coker, ten in all. The controversy was not in fact settled by the decision of the Court and continued with more or less acrimony during the life of Mr. Par- ker, after whose death it was gradually dropped siace the growing democratic spirit of the times made it evident that it was the People, with a big P, who were destined to rule both in Church and State. Nicholas Noyes became one of the influential men of the settlement at Newbury. In 1638 ' ' Dea- con Nicholas Noyes and Deacon Tristram CofiSn" were chosen Overseers of the Poor. In 1645 he was granted a house lot at the "new towne," where he built a house. In 1646 he was one of the ' ' town-men. ' ' In 1652 he was the School Com- mittee. Between 1654 and 1681 he was nearly every year chosen as the civil Magistrate "to end small causes." He represented Newbury as Deputy to the General Court at Boston in 1660, 1679, 1680, 1681. He died November 23, 1701, NICHOLAS NOTES 445 aged eighty-six years. He left a considerable estate for those days, his personal property being inventoried at £1531 and his real estate at £1160. Nicholas Noyes married Mary Cutting, a daugh- ter (probably) of Captain John Cutting, who came from London and at first settled in Charles- town, later removing to Newbury about 1642, where in 1648 he bought a house of John Allen. He was a ship master, sailing from Boston, and is said to have crossed the Atlantic thirteen times. He was a man of much humor and many stories are told of his peculiarities which afforded much diversion to himself and others. Governor Win- throp in 1637 mentions Captain Cutting's ship and tells of a Pequod whom the Governor had given to him to take to England. In 1651 he was directed by the town of Charlestown to carry "Harry's" wife to London and "if her friends do not pay, the town to pay, if Harry pays him not." Mary Cutting Noyes, the wife of Nicholas, was on September 27, 1653, presented to the court for wearing a silk hood and scarf, which was a crime under the sumptuary laws of the time which regu- lated female costume, but upon proof that her husband was worth above two hundred pounds she was cleared of her presentment. These laws regu- lating the details of costume are often very amus- ing, but on the subject of periwigs it is evident that our ancestors became seriously in earnest. The subject of periwigs was at one time a burn- ing one. One distinguished anti-periwigger went so far to say that the aflSiction of the second Indian war was brought upon the people of New 446 CERTAIN COMEOVERERS England "as a judgment and testimony of God against the wearing of periwigs. " Nicholas Noyes and Mary Cutting had thirteen children, of whom the eighth, Timothy, who is your ancestor, was born June 23, 1655. When he was twenty-one years old, in 1676, he served in King Philip's War, and "helped drive the enemy out of the Narragansett country." He does not appear to have held public office and his name does not often appear in the records. He must, however, have been a prudent man of affairs since when he died his estate inventoried £510 of per- sonal and £809 of realty, and he had already pro- vided for his children during his lifetime. Tim- othy Noyes married in 1681 Mary KJaight, the daughter of John Knight, and had several chil- dren, of whom Martha, your ancestress, married Thomas Smith, the great grandfather of Sarah Morse Smith. In the old town graveyard his tombstone with its quaint inscription still stands: Mb. Timothy Notes Died August ye 21 1718 & in ye 63d yeare of his age Good Timothy in His Youthful Days He lived much Unto God Prays When Age came one He and his wife They lived a holy & A Pious life Therefor you children Whos nams are Noyes Make Jesus Christ Your ondly Choyes. Chapteb n THOMAS SMITH Came over 1635 James Thomas Smith — 1666 (Rebecca ) Lieut. James Smith 1645 — 1690 (Sarah Coker) Thomas Smith 1673 — 1760 (Martha Noyes) Thomas Smith 1723 — 1758 (Sarah Newman) Nathaniel Smith 1752 — 1790 (Judith Morse) Sarah Morse Smith 1780 — 1869 (Aaron Davis) Serena Davis 1808 — 1896 (George Tappan) Sarah Davis Tappan 1831 — 1893 (William W. Crape) Stanford T. Crapo 1865 — (Emma Morley) William Wallace Crapo 1895 — THOMAS SMITH Thomas Smith came from Eomsey in Ham- shire, whence came several of your Newbury an- cestors. He came over in 1635 in the ship James. He went first to Ipswich in 1635 and lived there three years, removing to Newbury in 1638. In the first layout of lots in the original settlement at Parker's River in 1635 he was as- signed lot number five "by the east gutter." Whether he ever availed himself of this lot for a dwelling I know not. He settled on Crane Neck where the farm which he started has remained in the possession of his descendants to this day. In 1639 he joined the Rev. Stephen Bachelor and founded Winicowett, now Hampton, but remained there only a short time, returning to Newbury. His wife Rebecca came over with him. It would seem that they were young people and without children when they first came across the seas. Their oldest son, Thomas, was born in 1636, and was drowned by falling into a clay-pit on his way to school, December 6, 1648, as more fully appears in the note on your ancestor Anthony Morse, who was held responsible for the accident. Their youngest son, Thomas, was born July 7, 1654, and was killed by the Indians in 1675 at Bloody Brook. This was the second Indian war, due, if you re- 450 CERTAIN COMEOVERBRS member, to the wearing of periwigs. A consider- able company of the young men of Essex County under Captain Lathrop volunteered to go to the assistance of the English forces in the Connecticut Eiver Valley to protect the wheat being threshed at Deerfield and convoy its carriage to Hadley. Journeying with the wheat they stopped to gather grapes which hung in clusters by the side of the narrow road and were surprised by a band of Indians in ambush who poured upon them a mur- derous fire. Of the eighty men in the company not more than seven or eight escaped. John Toppan, the son of Jacob and the brother of Abraham, your ancestors, was wounded in the shoulder, but succeeded in concealing himself in a dry water course by drawing grass and weeds over his body, and although the Indians on several occasions stepped almost over him he was not discovered. Mrs. Emery in her Recollections of a Nonagena- rian tells us that John Toppan brought home to Newbury the sword of Thomas Smith, who was a Sergeant, and two hundred years later, in 1875, this sword was borne by a descendant, Edward Smith, of Newburyport, at the duo-centennial celebration of the Massacre at Bloody Brook, it being the sole memento of that cruel fray. Thomas Smith, Senior, is often mentioned in the early records of Newbury. He was a pros- perous farmer and had a large family. He died April 26, 1666. It is from James, the fourth child of Thomas and Rebecca Smith, that you are de- scended. James was born September 10, 1645. "When he was twenty-one on July 26, 1667, he mar- THOMAS SMITH 4,51 ried Sarah Coker, the daughter of Robert Coker. Eobert Coker was one of the company who came over with Mr. Parker and Mr. Noyes in the ship Mary and John in 1633^. The records of the Court at Ipswich in 1641 indicate that he was rather a gay young man. He seems to have finally settled down and taken unto himself a wife by the name of Catherine. He held various offices in Newbury and died Nov. 19, 1690. His son, Joseph, married Sarah Hawthorne of Salem, a daughter of William Hawthorne, the ancestor of Nathaniel Hawthorne. James Smith probably served in the Indian wars. He was a Lieutenant in the disastrous attack on Quebec in 1690. He was in command of one of the companies which left Nantasket August 9, 1690, under the generalship of Sir William Phips. Winsor ia his Narrative and Critical History of America says : "With a bluff and coarse adventurer for a general, with a Cape Cod militiaman in John Walley as his lieutenant, with a motley force of twenty-two hundred men crowded in thirty-two extemporized war-ships, and with a scant supply of ammunition" they sailed. Frontenac was well prepared for the attack. After some ineffectual bombarding, and some rather futile fighting on land, Phips with- drew his fleet from Quebec and ignominiously sailed back to Boston. At the mouth of the Saint Lawrence the fleet encountered a storm and the vessel on which was your many times great grand- father, Lieutenant James Smith, was wrecked, and he was drowned off Cape Breton, near Anti- 452 CERTAIN COMEOVERBRS costi, on "Friday night the last of October, 1690." The Smiths of Newbury seem to have been war- like people, since several of the descendants of Thomas the first, and of Lieutenant James, were renowned for military prowess. With reference to Thomas, the third son of Lieutenant James Smith and Sarah Coker, I find no military refer- ence. It is from him that you descend. He was born March 9, 1673, and married Martha Noyes, daughter of Mr. Timothy Noyes. Of his personal histoiy I know nothing save that he was a com- municant of Saint Paul 's Church in Newburyport and was buried in the church-yard. Thomas Smith, Junior, the son of Thomas Smith and Martha Noyes, was born in 1723. He was a sailmaker. It would seem that he did other odd jobs, since I find that he was paid £12 18s. in 1746 for work on the beU at Saint Paul's Church, which Lord Timothy Dexter gave. He married Sarah Newman, the daughter of Thomas Newman. Of his personal history I know little. It is probable that he had no especial success in his short life of thirty-five years. He died Sep- tember 28, 1758, and was buried in Saint Paul's church-yard, and when the present Saint Anne's Chapel was built, his tombstone being in the way, the "Wardens ruthlessly disposed of it and erected over his bones the incongruous Gothic edifice which swears at the dignified colonial church of Bishop Bass. The children of Thomas Smith, Junior, and Sarah Newman were Leonard, Nathaniel, Mary, Sarah, and Martha. As I shall have occasion to THOMAS SMITH 453 speak of the descendants of several of their chil- dren in connection with your great great grand- mother, Sarah, who was a daughter of Nathaniel, I will here give a brief account of them. Leonard, the eldest, was successful in business and became "one of the merchant princes" of Newburyport. He married Sarah Peabody, of an old Essex family. She was the aunt of George Peabody, the London banker and philanthropist. Mrs. Emery in her Eeminiscences has much to say about the Peabodys and their connections. The following extract may perhaps interest you: "Sophronia Peabody accompanied her Uncle Leonard Smith to the dedication" of the Old South Church. "Mr. Smith had purchased the upper comer pew on the side towards Green Street and to accommodate his large family" (he had twelve children) "two pews had been let into one. Yet this double pew was so crowded that Fronie and her cousin Sophy Smith were perched on the window seat where they vastly enjoyed the scene." At least seven of Leonard Smith's chil- dren were baptized at Saint Paul's, and I am therefore led to suppose that it must have been his wife, Sarah, who joined her sister in law, Mrs. General Peabody, in being "inclined to the more Calvinistic preaching at the Old South," which led to the double pew. Mary was adopted by General John Peabody, an uncle of George Peabody, and the father of "Fronie." He was a man of great wealth at one time. Mary married, first Thomas Merrill of Portland, Maine, and second John Mussey, of 454 CERTAIN COMBOVBRBRS Portland, the father of "Old Uncle Mussey," whom I remember, and of whom yon will learn later. Sarah married John Pettingill, and had fonr daughters, two of whom married Bands. Subse- quently other Rands married Smiths, and you have many Rand cousins. Martha married John Wills March 6, 1781. This was old Captain Wills. He was a master mariner. His ship was once captured by a Bar- bary corsair and he was sold into slavery. His eldest son, John WUls, married a Sarah Newman, the same name as his grandmother's, and had twelve children, of whom one of the youngest, Caroline, married Henry M. Caldwell, United States consul at Valparaiso, where they adopted a little Spanish girl, Maria del Carmen, who became my wife. The descendants of all of these people have been known to me as cousins, but as the genera- tions increase the kinship widens and it is, per- haps, hardly likely that you will care to further trace your relationship with them. Nathaniel Smith, your direct ancestor, the sec- ond son of Thomas Smith, Jr., and Sarah New- man, was born September 11, 1752, and baptized at Saint Paul's October 15 following. His life, like his father's, was a short one, yet it had at least two striking incidents. When he was twenty-three years old, a year and a half after he had married Judith Morse, he volunteered in Cap- tain Moses Nowell's company of minutemen and marched to Lexington on the alarm of April 19, THOMAS SMITH 455 1775. Although he was not an "embattled farmer," only a trader in fact, he joined in firing "the shot heard round the world." Two months later he volunteered in Captain Ezra Lunt's com- pany, and on June 17, 1775, marched to Charles- town, reachiag Bunker Hill towards evening as the British charged in their third assault. The company did good service in covering the retreat of their exhausted co-patriots, whose ammunition was weU-nigh expended. Captain Lunt's com- pany, with other troops, by a sustained fire held the enemy back and prevented them from com- pletely annihilating the fleeing Yankees. It may be that Nathaniel Smith saw Warren fall, shot through the head, as the retreat commenced, and revenged his death with a well directed shot at some one of the red coats. With Prescott he sor- rowfully marched to Cambridge, filled with mor- tification, no doubt, at the failure of his company to arrive in time to be in the thick of the fray, and discouraged at what seemed the total failure of the first important engagement of the Continental army. "Neither he nor his contemporaries under- stood at the time how a physical defeat might be a moral victory." (Justin Winsor, speaking of Prescott.) How long he served in the Eevolu- tionary War, and whether he was present at any other battles, I know not. Yet to have fired a tousket at Lexington and at Bunker Hill was well Worth while. Nathaniel Smith, like his brother Leonard, was a "trader," but in a different way and with a very different result. Leonard, a« you remem- 456 CERTAIN COMEOVERERS ber, in part, perhaps, by means of his Peabody connections, became "a merchant prince," but Nathaniel was little more than an unsuccessful peddler. He tried his fortune in Amesbury, and West Newbury and along the shore. No two of his seven children were born in the same house. It was in West Newbury, in January, 1774, that he married Judith Morse, the daughter of James Ordway Morse and Judith Carr. Her married life must have been one of hardship from the start. His efforts to support his family achieved little success, and when in 1790, being then only thirty- eight years old, he undertook his last venture, his wife must have had some misgivings as she bade him farewell. Some little money of her own he had invested in furniture, and chartering a vessel for Virginia, he sailed from Newburyport. On the voyage he was taken ill with a fever and died, being buried at Old Point Comfort. His widow was left in desperate circumstances and several of the children were taken care of by friends of the family. She, with the aid of her daughters, Judith and Sarah, your great great grandmother, man- aged to support herself and some of the children by sewing and dressmaking. There must, indeed, have been a striking contrast between the lives of those of the children who remained with their mother, and those who with their cousins were members of the families of Leonard Smith and General Peabody. One cannot but feel grateful that Judith Morse, after she had married off her daughters, she being then in the forty-fifth year of her age, herself married Ezra G. Lowell, Febru- THOMAS SMITH 457 ary 20, 1803, and had a comfortable home in Poplin, New Hampshire, untU her death July 15, 1817. The children of Nathaniel and Judith Morse Smith were: Judith. Mehitable. Mary. Harriet. Sarah Morse. John PettingUl. Martha Wills. Judith married Abner Lowell and had four chil- dren, Abner, Alfred Osgood, James Morse, and John Davis. Mary married Alfred Osgood and had six chil- dren, Nathaniel Smith, John Osgood, Charlotte, Alfred, WUliam Henry, and Mary Ann. "Cap- tain Nat" was a bluff old fellow whose memory I cherish since he was very kind to me when I was a boy. He had three daughters, the young- est of whom, Charlotte, married your cousin George Tappan Carter, and their daughter, Caro- line Lee Carter, is not so old now that you may not sometime come to know her. John Osgood, a quiet, precise sort of man, quite unlike his brother, Nat, I remember weU. He lived on High Street, not far from the Wills house. His daughter, Florence Osgood, is one of the cousins whom I have always known. She has lived much abroad since her father's death. Alfred Osgood and his family of sons I was always glad to visit when I went to Newburyport. He was a clever crafts- man, interested in natural history, and brim-full of information of interest to a child. "Aunt 458 CERTAIN COMEOVERERS Mary Ann Osgood" was one of the familiar fig- ures of my youth. She was a fine specimen of the New England maiden lady. Your grand- mother, Sarah Tappan Crapo, was very fond of her. Sarah Morse, your great great grandmother, of whom I will write in another place. Mehitable was adopted by her uncle, Leonard Smith, the "merchant prince." She was the "Aunt Mussey" of my youth, of whom many whimsical stories were told. She married first John Eand of Portland, and had a son, John Rand She married second John Mussey of Portland, the son of John Mussey, who had married her aunt. She had two daughters, Margaret Sweat, and Harriet Preble. "Uncle Mussey" lived to be a very old man. I remember him well as a " gentle- man of the old school." The beautiful colonial house in Portland where he lived is now an art museum, a gift to the city by his daughter Margaret. Harriet was adopted by a family in Epping, New Hampshire, and married James Chase of Epping. Of her children I know nothing save their names, which surely will not interest you. John Pettingill followed the sea. He was in the United States navy in the War of 1812, and afterwards Sergeant of Marines in the Ports- mouth Navy Yard. He was subsequently the master of a Mississippi River steamboat, on which he died. He married Sarah Parsons. Martha married first Amos Buswell and second Jacob Pike. Of her descendants I know little. Chaptbb III JOHN KNIGHT Came over 1635 James John Knight — 1670 (Elizabeth ) John Knight 1622 — 1678 (Bathsheba IngersoU) Mary Knight 1657 — (Timothy Noyes) Martha Noyes 1697 — (Thomas Smith) Thomas Smith 1723 — 1758 (Sarah Newman) Nathaniel Smith 1752 — 1790 (Judith Morse) Sarah Morse Smith 1780 — 1869 (Aaron Davis) Serena Davis 1808 — 1896 (G-eorge Tappan) Sarah Davis Tappan 1831 — 1893 ("William W. Crapo) Stanford T. Crapo 1865 — (Emma Morley) "William "Wallace Crapo 1895 — JOHN KNIGHT John Knight came from Eomsey. Romsey is in Hampshire, near Wiltshire, half way between Southampton and Salisbury, from which general locality the majority of the Newbury immigrants came. Romsey is an extremely interesting medieval town, beautifully situated on the River Test, flowing into Southampton Water. It boasts a fine early Norman abbey church. Saint Mary's, in whose church-yard lie buried the bones of a multitude of your ancestors, Knights, Emerys, Smiths and others. John Knight came over in the James with his wife Elizabeth in 1635. They sailed from Southampton in April and reached Boston in June. He settled at Newbury. In the same ship was his brother, Richard Knight, who subsequently was known in Newbury as "Deacon Knight," and took a prominent part in town affairs. Both brothers were merchant tailors. In 1637 John Knight was licensed by the Gen- eral Court at Boston to "keep an ordinary and give entertainment to such as neede." He was the predecessor of Tristram Coffin, another ances- tor of whom you will hear later, as the innkeeper of the town. Although John Knight was not so prominent in public affairs as his brother Richard, he served as Selectman and as Constable in 1638, 462 CERTAIN COMBOVBRERS and in both capacities several times in later years. In 1639 he was granted a lot "on condition that he follow fishing." In 1645 he had a house lot in the "new town" joining South Street. John Knight's wife, Elizabeth, died March 20, 1645, and not long after he married Ann Langley, the widow of Richard IngersoU of Salem. John Knight 's son John, your ancestor, in 1647 married Bathsheba IngersoU, the daughter of his step mother. John Knight, the first, died in May, 1670. His son John Knight, the second, was born in 1622. He was admitted a freeman in 1650. He acted as Selectman in 1668. It is from Mary, a daughter of John Knight, second, and his wife, Bathsheba IngersoU, who married Timothy Noyes, that you descend. This Mary was a great great grandmother of your great great grandmother, Sarah Morse Smith. Chapter IV EICHARD INGEESOLL Came over 1629 Talbot EiCHABD Ingeesoll — 1644 (Ann Langley) Bathsheba Ingeesoll — 1629 — 1705 (John Knight) Mart Knight 1657 — (Timothy Noyes) Maetha Notes 1697 — (Thomas Smith) Thomas Smith 1723 — 1758 (Sarah Newman) Nathaniel Smith 1752 — 1790 (Judith Morse) Saeah Moese Smith 1780 — 1869 (Aaron Davis) Seeena Davis 1808 — 1896 (George Tappan) Saeah Davis Tappan 1831 — 1893 (William W. Crapo) Stanford T. Crapo 1865 — (Emma Morley) William W. Ceapo 1895 — RICHARD INGERSOLL Eichard LagersoU probably lived in Sands, Bed- fordshire. There at all events he was married to Ann Langley October 20, 1616. She is said to have been a consin of Mr. John Spencer, one of the original settlers of Newbnry, who built the old stone mansion which I knew as "Aunt Pettingill's." In May, 1629, the Governor of the New England Colony ia England wrote to the Governor ia Salem in regard to the passengers who came over with the Rev. Francis Higginson : "There is also one Eichard Howard and Eichard IngersoU, both Bedfordshire men, who we pray you may be well accommodated not doubting but they win well and orderly demean themselves." Eichard Ingersoll brought with him his wife and two sons and four daughters. One of the daugh- ters was Bathsheba, your ancestress. In 1636 he had laid out to him in Salem a house lot with two acres and eighty acres of plantation. In the next year more land by Frost Fish Brook was given him and in 1639 thirty acres in the Great Meadow. He seems to have lived near Leach's Hill, now known as Brown's Folly. In the handwriting of Governor John Endicott is this memorandum: "The XVIth of the 11th month called January 1636 it is agreed that Ric'd 466 CERTAIN COMEOVERERS Inkersall shall hence forward have one penny for every p'son hee doth ferry over the North River during the town's pleasure." It is probable that the town was pleased to continue this franchise as long as Eichard lived, since he is usually desig- nated as ' ' ferryman. ' ' At a Salem town meeting held the seventh day of the fifth month, 1644, it was: "Ordered that two be appointed every Lord's day to walk forth in time of Grod's worship to take notice of such as either lye about the meeting house, or that lye at home or in the fields, without giving good account thereof, and to take the names of persons and to present them to the magistrate, whereby they may be proceeded against." Richard IngersoU was named for the ' ' sixth Lord 's Day. ' ' Whether he performed this monitor's duty I know not. He died soon after in 1644. His wUl, dated July 21, 1644, was proved October 4, 1644. In it he gives to his daughter, Bathsheba, two cows. Governor Endicott read the will to him and he signed it by his mark. The tradition that Richard IngersoU buUt the House of the Seven Grables immortalized by Haw- thorne is incorrect. It was probably built by John Turner between 1664 and 1680. In 1782 it came into the possession of Captain Samuel IngersoU. It remained in the IngersoU family untU 1880. Chaptbb V ANTHONY MOESE Came over 1635 James Anthony Morse 1606 — 1686 (Mary ) Joshua Morse 1653 — 1691 (Hannah Kimball) Anthony Morse 1688 — 1729 (Judith Moody) Caleb Morse 1711 — 1749 (Sarah Ordway) James Ordway Morse 1733 — 1762 (Judith Carr) Judith Morse 1758 — 1817 (Nathaniel Smith) Sarah Morse Smith 1780 — 1869 (Aaron Davis) Serena Davis 1808 — 1896 (George Tappan) Sarah Davis Tappan 1831 — 1893 ("William W. Crape) Stanford T. Crapo 1865 — (Emma Morley) "William Wallace Crapo 1895 — Anthony Mobsk 1606 — 1686 (Mary '■ — ) Hannah Morse 1642 (Thomas Newman) Thomas Newman 1670 — 1715 (Rose Spark) Thomas Newman 1693 — 1729 (Elizabeth Phillips) Sabah Newman 1722 — (Thomas Smith, Jr.) Nathaniel Smith 1752 — 1790 (Judith Morse) Sabah Moese Smith 1780 — 1869 (Aaron Davis) Serena Davis 1808 — 1896 (George Tappan) Sabah Davis Tappan 1831 — 1893 (William W. Crapo) Stanford T. Cbapo 1865 — (Emma Morley) William Wallace Ceapo 1895 — Anthony Morse 1606 — 1686 (Mary ) Benjamin Morse 1640 — (Ruth Sawyer) Ruth Morse 1669 — 1748 (Caleb Moody) Judith Moody 1691 — 1775 (Anthony Morse) Caleb Morse 1711 — 1749 (Sarah Ordway) James Ordway Morse 1733 — 1762 (Judith Carr) Judith Morse 1758 — 1817 (Nathaniel Smith) Sarah Morse Smith 1780 — 1869 (Aaron Davis) Serena Davis 1808 — 1896 (George Tappan) Sarah Davis Tappan 1831 — 1893 (William W. Crapo) Stanford T. Crapo 1865 — (Emma Morley) William Wallace Crapo 1895 — ANTHONY MORSE Anthony Morse of Marlborough, England, was a shoemaker. He was bom May 9, 1606. He came over in 1635 with his brother William in the ship James, sailing from Southampton, which brought so many of your Essex County ancestors. His wife's name was Mary. He settled in New- bury. He was admitted as a freeman in 1636. His homestead was about one and a half miles northeasterly of the Parker Eiver landing place and its ruins can stUl be distinguished. In 1647 he was allotted a lot in the "new town. ' ' In 1649 he was presented by the grand jury, and on March 26, 1650, fined by the Court £5 "for digging a pit and not filling it up whereby a child was drowned. ' ' In the town records of Newbury under date December, 1648 is the following: "Thomas Smith, aged twelve years, fell into a pit on his way to school and was drowned. ' ' Although the modern remedy would doubtless be sought on the civil rather than the criminal side of the court, the legal responsibility for one's actions even upon one's own territory seems to be properly exemplified by the court's decision. The boy who was drowned was a son of your ancestor, Thomas Smith of Eomsey, whose son. Lieutenant James Smith, from whom you are descended, was also drowned, but not in a pit, at Anticosti in 1690. 472 CERTAIN COMEOVBRBRS Notwithstanding the pitfall Anthony Morse seems to have been regarded as a man to be depended upon. On April 8, 1646, Mr. Henry Sewall (the second of the name, I assume,) with several others was fined twelve pence for "being absent from town meeting." The Constable was ordered "to collect the fines within ten days and bring them to the town oflScers." The Selectmen seem to have had some doubts about the Constable since they further provide: "In case he bring them not in by that time Anthony Mors is appointed to Distraine on ye constable for all ye fines. ' ' This seems to be an early illustration of our democratic method of electing officers to enforce the law, and then striving to appoint some Buperlegal authority to compel them to actually attend to their duties. ' * Civic Clubs ' ' and ' ' Com- mittees of Twenty" and that sort of thing, attempt this duty nowadays on the apparent assumption that a man considered worthy of the public 's con- fidence once elected to office for the purpose of carrying out the public's will, needs watching and encouragement. December 25, 1665, the Selectmen ordered that : "Anthony Morse, Senior, is to keep the meeting- house and ring the bell, see that the house be cleane, swept, and glasse of the windows to be carefully look't unto, if any should happen to be loosened with the wind and be nailed close again." He must have proved faithful in his office of sex- ton, since he was still acting in that capacity August 18, 1680, under which date appears the fol- lowing in the town records: "The Selectmen ANTHONY MORSE 473 ordered that Anthony Morse should every Sab- bath day go or send his boy to Mr. Richardson and tell him when he is going to ring the last bell every meeting and for that service is to have ten shillings a year added to his former annuity." In 1678 he took the oath of allegiance. On October 12, 1686, he died, his will dated April 29, 1680, being proved April 23, 1687. It is some- what unusual that he made Joshua Morse, your ancestor, his twelfth and youngest child, his heir, or "aire" as he calls him in his wUl. To him he gave all his lands and freeholds. "AUso I give to my son Joshua Morse all my cattell an horsis and sheep swine and all my toules for the shu- making trade as allso my carte wheles, dung pot, plow, harrow, youke's chains, axis, hones, forkes, shovel, spad, grindstone, yk as allso on father bed which he lieth on with a bouster and pilo and a pair of blinkets and coverlit and ton par of shetes a bedsted and mat, a pot and brass ceteel, the best of the ton ceteels, and a scUlet and tou platars and a poringer and a drinking pot and tou spoons and the water paUs and barils and tobes." To all his other children except to Benjamin he gave money legacies which Joshua was to pay. "To my dafter Newman children I geve £12." She also was your ancestress. To Benjamin he gave an interest in the undivided lands above the Arti- choke Eiver, which rather involved the will and evidently put him to much trouble to express him- self clearly. The original will is in the Salem Court. It is a quaint document probably written by Anthony Morse himself. It certainly lacks the 474 CERTAIN COMEOVERBRS stereotyped phraseology of the legal scrivener. It is ' ' Sined, solid and onid in the presence of uss — James Coflui — Mary Brown." Captain Daniel Peirce, Tristram Coffin and Thomas Noyes, his "loving and crisian friend" were named as the "overseers" of the will. The estate as returned by Joshua Morse, the executor, was £348 6s. 7d. Of Joshua Morse, the "aire," I have learned nothing save that he was a blacksmith and mar- ried Hannah Kimball and died March 28, 1691. The third child of Joshua was Anthony Morse, second, from whom you descend. He was born April 15, 1688. His name often appears in the town records and he appears to have been active and successful in business. He married April 19, 1710, Judith Moody, daughter of Deacon Caleb Moody. The following letter addressed to Anthony Morse, second, may serve to bring him before you as a living personality : Mr. Morse This is to desire ye favour of you to gett me one, two, or three or more of ye first sammon yt can be had this year. I am willing to give a good price rather than not have it and will pay a man and horse for bringing it to content, but observe he do'nt bring for any body else at ye same time. If there be but one single sammon send away forthwith. If more then it wiU help the extraordinary charge, but do'nt let them be kept till almost spoiled in hopes of more. Pray give my service to your father Moody and I desire his help in this affair. If you have success let ye bearer call at Mr. "Woodbridge 's and at Captain Corney's in his way to me, for they may happen at ye same time to have some. I shall take it very kindly if you will be mindful. H. Whitton Boston, March 21st, 1728. ANTHONY MORSE 475 One hopes that Mr. Whitton obtained his salmon that spring from the Merrimack, and that nobody else had any as early. Perhaps he wished to sur- prise his cronies up in Boston by inviting them to a feast and setting forth the very first salmon of the season. If so we may hope the Madeira wine was not forgotten. Anthony Morse's oldest son was Caleb, your ancestor. He lived in Hampton for awhile and in 1734 was given a letter to the Second Church of Newbury. He married Sarah Ordway, of whom I have learned nothing save that she lived one hundred years and three months. One of their children, James Ordway Morse, who married Judith Carr, the widow of his cousin Stephen Morse, was the grandfather of Sarah Morse Smith, your great great grandmother. Chapteb VI THE NEWBUEY WITCH THE NEWBURY WITCH Although collateral, your connection with the witch of Newbury may warrant my telling the story here. The witch was remotely your great aunt by marriage, so to speak, yet her story doubt- less nearly touched your many times great grand- father Anthony, her brother in law. On High Street, at the corner of Market Street, opposite Saint Paul's Church, in Newburyport, stood in my boyhood what was known as the "Witch House." Joshua CofBn says it was built soon after 1645 by William Morse, the brother of your ancestor Anthony. John J. Currier, how- ever, disputes this generally accepted tradition and places the William Morse house in Market Square. Wherever it was located, the old house has been well chronicled in the annals of the mar- vellous. Cotton Mather, whose credulous pre- dilection for the uncanny was equalled only by his intemperate picturesqueness in stating it, tells us that this house "was so infested with demons that before the DevU was chained up, the invisible hand did begin to put forth an astonishing visi- bility." His circumstantial account of the dia- bolical happenings which occurred here is, as Mr. Joshua Coffin avers, perverted and amplified to a "prodigious and nefandous extent." The 480 CERTAIN COMEOVBRERS Court records, however, have preserved much of the story and it is from these rather than from the decorated statements of Mather that I set it forth. Listen to the testimony of your own many times great grandfather : I Anthony Mors ocationely being att my brother Morse's hous, my brother showed me a pece of a brik, which had several times come down the chimne. I sit- ting in the cornar towek the pece of brik in my hand. Within a littell spas of tiem the pece of brik came down the chimne. Also in the chimny cornar I saw a hamar on the ground. Their being no person near the hamar it was sodenly gone; by what means I know not, but within a littell spas after, the hamar came down the chimny, and within a littell spas of tiem after that, came a pece woud, about a fute loung, and within a littell after that came down a fiar brend, the fiar being out. This was about ten deays agoo. Newbury December Eighth 1679. Taken on oath December eighth 1679 before me John Woodbridge, Commissioner. These happenings, however, were tame com- pared with the experiences of the Goodman Wil- liam Morse. In addition to accounts of still more remarkable exploits of the eccentric chimney he tells of "great noyes against the ruf with stekes and stones;" at midnight "a hog ia the house ruimiag about, the door being shut;" "pots hang- ing over the fire dashing against the other;" "an andiron danced up and dune many times and into a pot and out again up atop of a tabal, the pot turning over and speling aU in it;" "two spoons throwed off the table and presently the table throwed downe;" "a shoo which we saw in the THE NEWBURY WITCH 481 chamber before come downe the chimney, the dore being shut, and struk me a blow in the hed, which ded much hurts;" "I being at prayer, my hed being cnfred with a cloth, a chaire did often times bow to me and then strike me on the side;" "the cat thrown at my wife and thrown at us five times, the lampe standing by us on a chest was beaten downe ; ' ' and many other unquestionably disturb- ing misadventures which very naturally were the talk of the town. The neighbors seem to have had some suspicion that the Goodwife herself was not above suspicion as the diabolical cause of these troubles. Not so one Caleb Powell, "the mate of a vessel in the harbor." He would seem to have been a friend of William Morse and his wife, and was inclined to believe that the so-called supernatural occur- rences were the result of human agency. More- over, he seems from the first to have entertained a shrewd guess as to the identity of the culprit. At any rate, he volunteered to clear up the whole mystery. In view of the credulous temper of the community and the evident senility of Goodman Morse, he pretended that he would tmravel the mystery by means of "astrologie and astrono- mic," under certain conditions of assistance which he named. This proved a most unfor- tunately false step which involved him in much trouble. He at once came under suspicion of witchcraft and dealing in the black art. On December 3, 1679, he was arrested, and on Decem- ber 8 brought before the Court at Salem charged with "suspicion of working with the devil to the 482 CERTAIN COMEOVBRERS molesting of William Morse and Ms family." It was at this trial that the testimony of William Morse and Anthony Morse was given. The learned Court, after weighing all the evi- dence that could be produced against Caleb Powell, rendered the following remarkable de- cision, as appears by the Court records at Salem : Upon hearing the complaint brought to this court against Caleb Powell for suspicion of working by the devil to the molesting of the family of "William Morse of Newbury, though this court cannot find any evident ground of proceeding farther against the sayd Powell, yett we determine that he hath given such ground of suspicion of his so dealing that we cannot so acquit him but that he justly deserves to beare his own shame and costs of prosecution of the complaint. It is referred to Mr. Woodbridge to hear and determine the charges. Mr. Joshua Coffin well points out the profound wisdom and accurate discrimination of this Court. The determination was : First, That the defend- ant was just guilty enough to pay the expense of being suspected; Secondly, That he should "bear his own shame ; ' ' and, Thirdly, That they had no reason to believe he was guilty at all. The more logical community, however, were not satisfied with this equivocal decision. If Caleb Powell was not guilty of being in league with the devil, then some other person must be, since it was patent that the experiences at the Morse house were susceptible of no other explanation than witchcraft. Accordingly they selected Elizabeth Morse, the wife of WHliam Morse, she being then sixty-five years of age, as the guilty person. THE NEWBURY WITCH 483 As William Morse, aided by your great grand- father Anthony, had been the prosecutor in the first trial, he was now placed in the embarrassing position of modifying his testimony as to the dia- bolical doings at his house in order to protect his wife from this grave charge. Other witnesses, however, proved beyond a reasonable doubt that "Goody Morse" was indeed a witch. Some seventeen of her friends and neighbors gave their testimonies "why they verily believed Goody- Morse to be a witch, and ought to be hung, accord- ing to the Old Mosaic law, which says : 'thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.' " The only "testi- monie" which is found in the files of the General Court in Boston, to which the case was finally taken, is that of Zechariah Davis. At the risk of being tedious I will give it in full as a specimen of the kind of evidence on which a court con- demned a harmless old woman to death: Zechariah Davis : When I lived at Salisbury William Morse's -wife asked of me whether I could let her have a small passell of winges and I told her I woode, so she would have me bring them over for her the next time I came over, but I came over and did not think of the winges, but met Goody Morse, she asked me whether I had brought over her winges, and I tel her no I did not think of it, so I came 3 ore 4 times and had them in my mind a litel before I came over but still forgot them at my coming away, so meeting with her every time that I came over without them aftar I had promised her the vnnges, see she tel me she wonder at it that my memory should be soe bad, but when I came home 1 went to the barne and there was 3 cafes in a pen. One of them fel a dancing and roreing and was in such a condition as I never saw on cafe before, but being almost night the catle come home and we putt him to 484 CERTAIN COMEOVERERS his dam and he sucke and was well 3 or 4 dayes, and one of them was my brother's then come over from New- bury, but we did not thinke to send the winges, but when he came home and went to the barne this cafe fel a danceing and roreing so we putt him to the eowe but he would not sucke but rane roreing away so we gate him again with much adoe and put him into the barne and we heard him rore several times in the night and in the morning I went to the barne and there he was set- ing upon his taile like a doge, and I never see no cafe set aftar that manner before and so he remained in these fits while he died. Taken on oath June seventh, 1679. I regret to be obliged to state that your many times great grandfather, Caleb Moody, Senior, was one of the seventeen or more unfriendly neighbors on whose ridiculous tales this poor woman was condemned as a witch. It is at least a source of satisfaction that his wife, your great grandmother, Judith Bradbury, was possessed of a saner judgment. She did not, it is true, know at this time that her own mother, your ancestress, was to be tried as a witch several years after- wards in the height of the Salem witchcraft delu- sion, yet it would almost seem as if she realized the awful consequences of accusing an innocent old woman of co-partnership with the devil. Her generous and sane point of view is disclosed in the record of the distracted William Morse's peti- tion to the General Court of the Colony ia 1681, in which at great length he makes answer to the various testimonies offered in the lower court, taking them up seriatim. To Caleb Moody: As to what befell him in and about his not seeing my wife, yt his cow making no THE NEWBURY WITCH 485 hast to hir calfe, wch wee are ignorant of, it being so long since, and being in church communion with us, should have spoken of it like a Christian and you pro- ceeded so as wee might have given an answer in less time yn tenn yeares. Wee are ignorant yt he had a shepe so dyed. And his wife knowne to be a pretious godly whoman, yt hath oftne spoken to hir husband not to be so uncharitable and have and doe carry it like a Christian with a due respect in hir carriage towards my wife all along. The answers of William Morse to the various testimonies indicate that they were all of equal irrelevancy, and yet they were deemed sufficient to support a judgment of a Court of law which would be unbelievable were it not set forth in the official records as follows : At a court of assistants on adjournment held at Bos- ton May twentieth, 1680. The grand Jury presenting Elizabeth, wife of William Morse, senior. She was indicted by the name of Elizabeth Morse for that she, not having the fear of God before her eyes, being instigated by the Divil and had familiarity with the Divil, contrary to the peace of our Sovereign Lord the Bang, his Crown and Dignity, the laws of God, and of this jurisdiction; after the prisoner was at the bar and pleaded not guilty, and put herself on God and the country for triall, the evidences being produced were read and committed to the jury. The jury brought in their verdict. They found Elizabeth Morse, the pris- oner at the bar, guilty according to indictment. The Governor on the twenty seventh of May after ye lec- ture pronounced sentence. 'Elizabeth Morse, you are to goe from hence to the place from whence you came and thence to the place of execution and there be hanged by the neck, till you be dead, and the Lord have mercy on your soul.' The court was adjourned diem per diem and on the first of June 1680 the governor and magistrates voted the reprieving of Elizabeth Morse condemned to the next session of the Court in October, as attests Bdwabd Rawson, Secretary. 486 CERTAIN COMEOVERERS The Deputies to the General Court were much incensed at the action of the Governor and magis- trates ia delaying the execution, and adopted a resolution in November, 1680, requesting the magistrates to proceed. On the 18th of May, 1681, was presented the following petition in the hand- writing of Robert Pike : To the honored governor, deputy governor, magis- trates and deputies now assembled in Court May the eighteenth 1681. The most humble petition and request of "William Morse in behalf of his wif (now a condemned prisoner) to this honored court is that they would be pleased so far to hearken to the cry of your poor prisoner, who am a condemned person, upon the charge of witch- craft and for a wich, to which charge your poor pris- oner have pleaded not guilty, and by the mercy of God and the goodness of the honored governor, I am reprieved and brought to this honored court, at the foot of which tribunal I now stand humbly praying your justic in heariag of my case and to determine therein as the Lord shall direct. I do not imderstand law, nor do I know how to lay my case before you as I ought for want of which I humbly beg of your hours that my request may not be rejected but may find acceptance with you it being no more but your sentence upon my triall whether I shall live or dy, to which I shall humbly submit unto the Lord and you. William Moese in behalf of his wife Elizabeth Morse. To the good sense and firmness of Governor Bradstreet Elizabeth Morse owed her life. The frenzy which soon after seized Essex County and found its expression in the appalling action of the Court at Salem at which my dear old friend and kindly diarist, Samuel Sewall, actually THE NEWBURY WITCH 437 assisted and abetted as a presiding magistrate, had not as yet completely demented the com- munity. Governor Bradstreet was able by means of diplomatic firmness to save this old woman from the penalty of death, and see that she did not "go to the place whence she came and thence to the place of execution." She was, indeed, sent back to Newbury, the place whence she came, yet allowed to abide there ''provided she goe not above sixteen rods from her owne house and land at any time except to the meeting house in New- bury nor remove from the place appointed her by the minister and selectmen to sitt in whilst there. " How long after her release from prison she lived I know not, or whether she lived to hear of those other helpless old women who a few years later were actually executed on the charge of witchcraft. The most marvelous part of the story is that the official records of the trials, still in existence, giv- ing the evidence considered by two Courts of law and in review by the General Court and the magis- trates, disclose beyond a shadow of a doubt the true explanation of the queer happenings at the Morse house on which the whole fabric of witch- craft was built. In the original testimony of William Morse, when he was in effect prosecuting Caleb Powell as the Devil's agent, is the follow- ing: "A mate of a ship" (Caleb Powell) "com- ing often to me said he much grefed for me and said the boye was the case of all my truble and my wife was much ronged and was no wich, and if I would let him have the boye but one day he would warrant me no more truble. I being per- 488 CERTAIN COMBOVBRBRS suaded to it he cum the nex day at the brek of day, and the boy was with him until night and I had not any truble since." The deposition of Mary Tucker, aged twenty, is to the following effect: "She remembered that Caleb Powell came into their house and says to this purpose, that he coming to William Morse his house and the old man being at prayer he thought fit not to go in but looked in at the window and he says he had broken the inchantment, for he saw the boy play tricks while he was at prayer and mentioned some and among the rest that he saw him to fling a shoe at the old man's head." After the pre- sentment of his wife William Morse gave the fol- lowing testimony. He said that Caleb Powell told him "this boy is the occasion of your grief e, for he does these things and hath caused his good old grandmother to be counted a witch. Then said I, how can all these things be done by him? Then sayd 'although he may not have done all, yet most of them, for this boy is a young rogue,, a vile rogue ; I have watched him and see him do things as to come up and down. Groodman Morse if you are willing to let mee have the boy, I will undertake you shall be freed from any trouble of this kind while he is with me. ' I was very unwill- ing at the first and my wife, but by often urging me to, and when he told me whither and in what employment and company he should goe, I did con- sent to it, and we have been freed from any trouble of this kind ever since that promise made on Monday night last till this time being Friday afternoon. ' ' THE NEWBURY WITCH 489 If ever a boy deserved a vigorous spanking foi* cutting up antics that grandson of Elizabeth Morse most assuredly did. Chapteb VII WILLIAM MOODY Came over 1634 Mary and John William Moody — 1673 (Sarah ) Caleb Moody 1637 — 1698 (Judith Bradbury) Caleb Moody 1666 — 1741 (Ruth Morse) Judith Moody 1691 — 1775 (Anthony Morse) Caleb Morse 1711 — 1749 (Sarah Ordway) Jambs Ordway Morse 1733 — 1762 (Judith Carr) Judith Morse 1758 — 1817 (Nathaniel Smith) Sarah Morse Smith 1780 — 1869 (Aaron Davis) Serena Davis 1808 — 1896 (George Tappan) Sarah Davis Tappan 1831 — 1893 (William W- Crapo) Stanford T. Crapo 1865 — (Emma Morley) William Wallace Crapo 1895 — WILLIAM MOODY William Moody, thought to be of Welsh origin, lived in Ipswich, England. He was a saddler by trade. He came over with Mr. Parker's company on the Mary and John, arriving in Boston May, 1634, and at once went to Ipswich, where on De- cember 29, 1634, he had a house lot of "four acres of meadow and marsh by the landside, northward the towne." From thence with the first settlers he went to Newbury. In the original allotment of lands he was granted ninety-two acres, which being a much larger allotment than most, indi- cated that he had been able to contribute substan- tially to the founding of the Parker Eiver settle- ment. He settled on a farm near Oldtown Hill, which is stm in the possession of his descendants of the tenth generation. William Moody was admitted as a freeman of the Colony May 6, 1635. In 1637 and 1638 he was chosen Selectman. He is often mentioned in the early town records of Newbury. He seems to have acted as the village blacksmith, and in- vented a method of shoeing oxen with iron so that they might travel over the ice. He died Octo- ber 25, 1673. His wife's name was Sarah. His son Caleb Moody, your ancestor, was born probably in 1637 in Newbury. He married first Sara Pierce, 494 CERTAIN COMEOVERERS a sister of Captain Daniel Pierce, August 24, 1659. She died May 25, 1665, and on November 9, 1665, he married Judith Bradbury, the daughter of Thomas and Mary (Perkins) Bradbury. Caleb Moody was a man of strong character and took a leading part in the affairs of Newbury. In 1666 he took the freeman's oath, and later, 1678, the oath of allegiance. In 1669, 1670, 1671 and 1672, and probably in other years, he was of the Selectmen of Newbury. In a deed to him in 1672 of a house lot near Watts Cel- lar, the first rude dwelling in the locality where later was the Market Square of Newburyport, he is designated as a "malster." In 1677 and 1678 he represented Newbury at the General Court in Boston and made a vigorous and plucky resistance to the usurpations of the "Tyrant" Andros. In 1682 I find him designated as "Sergeant," indi- cating some military service. There are several records of his ownership in vessels and it is not surprising to find his name at the top of the list of subscribers to the petition made in May, 1683, to the General Court for the establishment of Newbury as a port of entry. The phraseology of this petition, which may have been written by Caleb Moody, is rather quaint. It begins as fol- lows: "Humbly craving the favour that your Honors would be pleased to consider our little Zebulon and to ease us of that charge which at present we are forced unto by our going to Salem to enter our vessels, and thereby are forced to stay at least two days, before we can unload, be- sides other charges of going and coming." "Re- WILLIAM MOODY .495 f erred to the next General Court," is the famil- iarly discouraging endorsement on this petition. In 1684 Caleb Moody was licensed to "boU stur- geon in order to market." There were many sturgeon in the Merrimack, very big ones indeed, from twelve to eighteen feet long, if we may be- lieve the fish stories of these ancient times. The town gave to one or more persons the exclusive right to catch and prepare them for market. They were pickled and sent to England and the business for a time was very profitable. Caleb Moody had shown himself a fearless and outspoken critic of Governor Andros, and he was probably an instigator of rebellion in Newbury and highly objectionable to the Colonial govern- ment. In 1688 he was arrested and imprisoned for sedition. In his subsequent petition for re- dress he says that one Joseph Bailey gave him a paper in January, 1688, which he had picked up in the King's Highway. The title of this paper was: "New England alarmed To rise and be armed, Let no papist you charme, I mean you no harme, " etc. The purpose of the paper, writes Caleb Moody, was to give notice to the people of the danger they were in being under the sad circumstances of an arbitrary government, Sir Edmund Andros having about one thou- sand of our soldiers, as I was informed, prest out of the Massachusetts Colony and carried eastward under pre- tence of destroying our enemy Indians (although not one Indian kUled by them that I heard of at that time.) Both Caleb Moody and Joseph Bailey, who gave him the paper, were summoned to Court, 496 CERTAIN COMEOVERERS Joseph being held and Caleb allowed to go. Later in the year, however, Caleb was arrested on a justice's warrant and, as he writes, "they com- mitted me to Salem prison (though I proffered them bayles) but I was to be safely kept to answer what should be charged against me upon the King's account for publishing a scandalous and seditious lybell." He was kept in prison five weeks awaiting trial. In his narrative he says: "Afterwards there came news of ye happy arrival and good success of ye Prince of Orange, now King of England, and then, by petitioning, I got bayle. ' ' He made a claim January, 1689, for £40 damages for false imprisonment. Whether he collected his damages, or whether he was ever tried on the charge of sedition, I know not. He died August 25, 1698. Caleb Moody's oldest son Caleb, from whom you descend, is designated usually as "Deacon Moody," although he is sometimes given the title of "Lieutenant." He was born in 1666 and died in 1741. He was prominent iu the affairs of Newbury, holding various town offices. Jn 1690 he married Ruth Morse, a daughter of Benjamia Morse and Ruth Sawyer. Benjamin Morse was a son of Anthony Morse, the comeoverer, and his wife, Ruth Sawyer, was a daughter of William Sawyer and his wife Ruth. William Sawyer was in Salem in 1643 and afterwards in Wenham. He came to Newbury about 1645 and settled on Saw- yer's Hill, in West Newbury. He took an active part in the town's affairs. When he subscribed to the oath of allegiance in 1678 he said he was WILLIAM MOODY 497 sixty-five years old and was consequently born in the old country in 1613. Judith Moody, the daughter of Deacon Caleb Moody and Euth Morse, born in 1691, married Anthony Morse, her cousin, in 1710, and was a great grandmother of Judith Morse, the mother of Sarah Morse Smith. Caleb Moody, Senior, and his wife, Judith Brad- bury, had many children. One was Samuel, a somewhat famous divine and ancestor of a long list of New England clergymen, one of whom, a whimsical character, was for many years the Master of Dummer Academy. Another son, Joshua, was also the progenitor of numerous min- isters- Another son, William, married Mehitable, a daughter of Henry Sewall, and is the "Brother Moody" so often mentioned in Judge Sewall 's diary. A daughter Judith, bom in 1669, died in 1679. Another daughter Judith, born February 2, 1682-3, caused me much trouble in the prepara- tion of these notes. She has been accepted by various genealogists as the Judith Moody who married Anthony Morse, in which case she would be your ancestress and as such, indeed, I consid- ered her until the discovery that she married John Toppan, a son of Jacob Toppan, and nephew of Judge Sewall, which disqualified her. Your Judith, bom in 1691, and named for her grand- mother, Judith Bradbury, and her great grand- mother, Judith Perkins, was the niece of the Judith who was bom in 1682-^, although there was only nine years' difference in the dates of their births. Chapteb vni JAMES ORDWAY Came over prior to 1648 James Ordway 1620 — 1704+ (Ann Emery) John Ordway 1658 — 1717 (Mary Godfrey) James Ordway 1687 — (Judith Bailey) Sarah Ordway 1715 — 1815 (Caleb Morse) James Ordway Morse 1733 — 1762 (Judith Carr) Judith Morse 1758 — 1817 (Nathaniel Smith) Sarah Morse Smith 1780 — 1869 (Aaron Davis) Serena Davis 1808 — 1896 (George Tappan) Sarah Davis Tappan 1831 — 1893 (William W. Crapo) Stanford T. Crapo 1865 — (Emma Morley) William Wallace Crapo 1895 — JAMBS ORDWAY James Ordway was of Welsh extraction. In what year he came over I have been unable to discover. He was born about 1620. He was in Newbury at an early date, having become well established there before November 23, 1648, when he married Ann Emery, a daughter of John Emery, the first. He took no part in civic affairs, and his name seldom appears in the town records save as attending town meeting occasionally. He was, perhaps, of a quiet peaceable disposition, dis- iaclined for controversy of any kind. This is indi- cated by the fact that he was among the first to obey the royal mandate to take the oath of allegiance in 1668, which was so stubbornly con- tested by many of your Newbury ancestors, and then, again, to be doubly sure that he was in the royal grace he took the oath again in 1678, on which later occasion he gave his age as "about sixty. ' ' Almost the only detail of his life which I have uncovered was a scrape in which he figured in June, 1662. On that date he, with Peter Godfrey, another of your forebears, and some others were before the bar of the Court, under indictment, be- cause they had wrongfully occupied seats in the meeting-house at service which had not been duly 502 CERTAIN COMBOVERERS assigned to them by the Selectmen of the town. The records of the Court, now at Salem, preserve their signed acknowledgment that they pleaded guilty to their wrong doing and solemnly agreed * ' that we will keep our own seats and not disturb any man in their seats any more." The distribution of seats in the meeting-house must have been a delicate duty of the Selectmen. There was always much dissatisfaction and jeal- ousy among those who were told to go way back and sit down. In 1669, for instance, it appears from the Court records that there was much indig- nation on the part of certain good people at the way in which the Selectmen of Newbury had seen fit to seat them in the meeting-house. The in- surgents took matters into their own hands, and made a redistribution according to their own ideas which they proceeded to put into operation vi et armis. Peter Toppan, the oldest son of Abraham Toppan, who was notoriously cantankerous and who afterward had a protracted litigation with his brother, your ancestor Jacob, was at this time fined heavily by the court for "setting in a seat belonging to others." It would seem that the meetings for divine worship in those early days were not always con- ducted with that decorum which one has since been taught to deem seemly. I have found numer- ous references to distinctly disorderly and tumult- uous scenes "at meeting." One rather wonders, for instance, what caused the Court at Hampton in 1661 to order that any person who discharged a gun in the nleeting-house should forfeit five JAMES ORDWAY 503 shillings for every such offence, and moreover prohibited, under penalty, any person from riding or leading a horse into the meeting-house. There is an interesting account of the trouble in 1677 about seats in the Newbury meeting-house. The Selectmen granted formal permission to several young women to "build a new seat in the south corner of the woman's gallery." For some rea- son this seems to have aroused the indignation of certain young men, among whom, without doubt, were some of your progenitors. Do you suppose that the young women actually had the self-denial to place themselves where the young men could not flirt with them during service? There surely must have been some grave cause of resentment, because the young men broke into the meeting-house on a week day and demolished the new seat. For this crime they were indicted and tried at the County Court at Salem, and each was condemned to be severely whipped and pay a fine of ten pounds. The record of the testimony is most amusing. It is evident that the young men, for some inexplicable reason, had the sym- pathy of a large part of the community. A strange story in connection with the Newbury meeting-house is disclosed on the records of the Court at Salem. "May 5th 1663. Lydia Ward- well on her presentment for coming naked into Newbury meeting-house. The sentence of the court is that she shall be severely whipped and pay the costs and fees to the Marshal of Hampton for bringing her. Costs 10s. fees 28, 6d." There has been preserved also an unofficial account of 504 CERTAIN COMBOVBRBRS this remarkable occurrence written by a sympa- thizer of the lady. It seems that she had formerly been connected with the Newbury church but had removed to Hampton without asking for her dis- charge papers, being indignant at the way the church had treated her husband. Being a young and tender chaste woman, seeing the wickedness of your priests and rulers to her husband, was not at all offended with the truth, but as your wick- edness abounded, so she withdrew and separated from your church at Newbury, of which she was some time a member ; and being given up to the leading of the Lord, after she had often been sent for to come thither to give reason for such separation, it being at length upon her in the consideration of their miserable condition, who were thus blinded with ignorance and persecution, to go to them, and as a sign to them she went in (though it was exceeding hard to her modest and shamefaced dis- position) naked amongst them, which put them in such a rage, instead of consideration, they laid hands on her, and to the next court at Ipswich had her, where without law they condemned her to be tied to the fence post of the tavern where they sat, and there sorely lashed her with twenty or thirty cruel stripes. And this is the discipline of the Church of Newbury in New England, and this their religion, and their usage of the handmaiden of the Lord! James Ordway was still alive in 1704, an old man over eighty years old. His wife, Ann, had died in 1687. Their son, John Ordway, your an- cestor, who was born in 1658, was just twenty when, under his father's advice, doubtless, he took the oath of allegiance. He did not, however, inherit the non-combative qualities of his father, and yet, save that he is sometimes designated as "Sergeant" Ordway, which indicates military ser- vice, the scope of his activities so far as the JAMBS ORDWAY 505 records disclose, was confined to the affairs of the church. From 1685 to 1712 there was a bitter feud between two parties at "West Newbury about the location of a meeting-house. It resulted final- ly in two meeting-houses, one "in the plains," and the other on Pipe Stave Hill. John Ordway and Caleb Moody were both prominent in this con- troversy, both being of the Pipe Stave Hill con- tingent. The General Court at Boston was applied to by both parties on several occasions, and the civil Courts were involved. The Pipe Stave HUlers deliberately disregarded the order of the General Court, and John Ordway with others was solemnly enjoined from proceeding with the meet- ing-house in defiance of the Court. None the less, the work on the meeting-house proceeded, and before John Ordway 's death, in 1717, it was finally recognized as a regular precinct, much to the indignation of those who worshipped in the Plains. There is on file in the State House at Boston a statement of certain phases of this con- troversy written by John Ordway which shows that he had a concise and peppery style. John Ordway in 1681 married Mary Godfrey, the daughter of Peter Godfrey and Mary Brown. Concerning Peter Godfrey I have been unable to ascertain any facts. In 1678 he took the oath of allegiance, stating that he was then forty-eight years old. He was probably the son of John God- frey, who came over in the Mary and John 1634. He died in 1697. In 1656 he married Mary Brown, who had the disputed distinction of being the first child of English parents born in Newbury 506 CERTAIN COMEOVERERS in 1635. She was tlie daughter of Thomas Brown and his wife Mary. Thomas Brown was a weaver of Malford ia England. Malford is between Malmsbury and Chippenham, County Wilts. In Malford he worked for Thomas Antram. When he was twenty-eight he came over with his wife on the ship James. They sailed from Southamp- ton April 3, 1635, and arrived in Boston June 3. He went at once to Newbury and settled on a farm in the vicinity of Turkey Hill. On May 22, 1639, he was admitted to the rights of a free- man of the Colony. He acted as the agent of Stephen Dummer, another ancestor of yours who went back to England, in regard to Mr. Dummer 's lands at Turkey Hill and the "Birchen Meadow." In 1645 he was granted a house lot in the New Town near Cross Street. He died in 1687. James Ordway, who was born ia 1687, the son of John Ordway and Mary Godfrey, was a great great grandfather of Sarah Morse Smith. Chapteb IX JOHN EMEEY Came over 1635 James John Bmeet 1598 — 1683 (Mary ) John Emery 1628 — 1693 (Mary Webster) Sabah Emery 1660 — 1694 (Isaac Bailey) Joshua Bailey 1685 — 1760 (Sarah Coffin) Sarah Bailey 1721 — 1811 (Edward Toppan) ) Abnee Toppan 1764 — 1836 (Elizabeth Stanford) George Tappan 1807 — 1857 (Serena Davis) Sarah Davis Tappan 1831 — 1893 ("William "W. Crapo) Stanford T. Crapo 1865 — (Emma Morley) William Wallace Crapo 1895 — John Emeey 1598 — 1683 (Mary ) Ann Embet 1631 — 1687 (James Ordway) John Ordway 1658 — 1717 (Mary Godfrey) James Oedway 1687 — (Judith Bailey) Saeah Oedway 1715 — 1815 (Caleb Morse) James Oedway Moese 1733 — 1762 (Judith Carr) Judith Moese 1758 — 1817 (Nathaniel Smith) Saeah Moese Smith 1780 — 1869 (Aaron Davis) Seeena Dlvis 1808 — 1896 (George Tappan) Saeah Davis Tappan 1831 — 1893 (William W- Crapo) Stanpoed T. Ceapo 1865 — (Emma Morley) William Wallace Ckapo 1895 — John Emekt 1598 — 1683 (Mary ) John Emery 1628 — 1693 (Mary "Webster) Sarah Emery 1660 — 1694 (Isaac Bailey) Judith Bailey 1690 — 1775 (James Ordway) Sarah Ordway 1715 — 1815 (Caleb Morse) James Ordway Morse 1733 — 1762 (Judith Carr) Judith Morse 1758 — 1817 (Nathaniel Smith) Sarah Morse Smith 1780 — 1869 (Aaron Davis) Serena Davis 1808 — 1896 (George Tappan) Sarah Davis Tappan 1831 — 1893 (William W. Crape) Stanford T. Crapo 1865 — (Emma Morley) William Wallace Crapo 1895 — John Emeet 1598 — 1683 (Mary ) Eleanok Emery — 1700 (John Bailey) Isaac Bailey 1654 — 1740 (Sarah Emery) Judith Bailey 1690 — 1775 (James Ordway) Saeah Ordway 1715 — 1815 (Caleb Morse) James Ordway Morse 1733 — 1762 (Judith Carr) Judith Morse 1758 — 1817 (Nathaniel Smith) Sarah Morse Smith 1780 — 1869 (Aaron Davis) Serena Davis 1808 — 1896 (George Tappan) Sarah Davis Tappan 1831 — 1893 (William W. Crapo) Stanford T. Crapo 1865 — (Emma Morley) "William •Wallace Crapo 1895 — John Emery 1598 — 1683 (Mary ) Eleanor Emery — 1700 (John Bailey) Isaac Bailey 1654 — 1740 (Sarah Emery) Joshua Bailey 1685 — 1760 (Sarah Coffin) Sarah Bailey 1721 — 1811 (Edward Toppan) Abner Toppan 1764 — 1836 (Elizabeth Stanford) George Tappan 1807 — 1857 (Serena Davis) Sarah Davis Tappan 1831 — 1893 ("William W. Crapo) Stanford T. Crapo 1865 — (Emma Morley) William Wallace Crapo 1895 • — JOHN EMERY As you will perceive, you are several times an Emery. John Emery was an interesting char- acter. He was a carpenter by trade and was born ia Eomsey in 1598. The surname Emery, or Amery, or D 'Emery, is one of ancient origin in England. Gilbert D 'Amery, a Norman Knight of Tours, was with William the Conqueror in 1066 at the battle of Hastings. It may be that from him sprung the numerous families of Amery and Emery. But of John Emery's antecedents I know little. He was the son of John and Agnes Emery, and with his brother Anthony and several others of your ancestors sailed from Southampton April 3, 1635, in the ship James and landed in Boston June 3, 1635. With John was his wife, Mary, whose surname I know not, and his son John, your ancestor, who was born at Eomsey about 1628, and a daughter Ann born in 1631, from whom also are you descended. Perhaps with them also was Eleanor Emery, who married John Bailey. Coffin, in his history, and Mrs. Emery in her EecoUec- tions, state that Eleanor was a sister of John Emery, Senior. Hoyt, however, states that she was a sister of John Emery, Junior. I have adopted the latter view as more nearly comport- ing with the probable dates of her marriage and death. 514 CERTAIN COMEOVBRERS John Emery settled at Newbury soon after landing in this country. He was given a grant of land on the southerly side of the main road lead- ing to what is now the bridge over Parker River, a short distatice above the Lower Green of Old- town. He soon became one of the leading spirits of the young community. It is certainly char- acteristic that the first record I find of him is that on December 22, 1637, he was fined twenty shill- ings for inclosing ground not laid out or owned by the town, contrary to the town's order. He undoubtedly considered that he had a right to enclose that particular piece of ground, and such being the case the town's order would not have feazed him in the least. In February, 1638, the Selectmen determined that "John Emery shall make a sufficient Pound for the use of the Towne, two rod and a halfe square by the last of the present month if he cann." Either he couldn't or he wouldn't, since in the following April Eichard Brown, the Con- stable, was ordered to do it. In 1641 he was ad- mitted as a freeman. In 1642 he was one of a committee to make a valuation in reference to the removal of the inhabitants to "the new towne." In 1645 he was assigned a lot in the new towne "joyning Cross Street," which, how- ever, apparently he never occupied. On December 18, 1645, a committee of seven was appointed by the town at a public meeting "for to procure a water mill for to be built and set* up in said towne of Newbury to grind theyr corne," and John Emery and Samuel ScuUard JOHN EMERY 515 were given twenty pounds in merchantable pay and ten acres of upland and six acres of meadow, free of all rates for the first seven years, "they on their part agreeing to sett up said mill ready for the towns use to grind the town's grists, at or before the twenty ninth of September, 1646." The mill appears to have been built at "the little River" and operated by John Emery, whose son John followed him as miller on the Artichoke. John Emery was a self-assertive man, and as he was often in scrapes from which he was obliged to extricate himself, the town evidently considered him a good person to answer at the Court at Ipswich in the spring of 1654 in behalf of the town for failure to make and care for a road to Andover. On May 26, 1658, the General Court at •Boston ordered John Emery and others to appear at the next October Court. On October 19, 1658, the General Court "having heard the case relat- ing to the military company petition of Newbury preferred by John Emery, Senior, who with his sonnes John Emery, Junr., John Webster and Solomon Keyes, have been so busy and forward to disturb the peace .... judge it meete to order that the said John Emery, Senior, John Emery, Junior, John Webster, and Solomon Keyes be severally admonished to beware of like sinful practizes for time to come which this Court will not beare; and that they pay the several chardges of their neighbors at the last Court and this in coming." Among the neighbors who had been obliged to travel to Boston to testify as to the cantankerous conduct of John Emery was 516 CERTAIN COMEOVERERS your many times great grandfather, Nicholas Noyes. John Emery was always in trouble. Indeed he seemed to rather like it. In the early part of 1663 he was presented to the Court at Ipswich ' ' on suspicion of breaking ye law in entertainging Mr. Greenleaf , a stranger, not having a legal resi- dence in the town of Newbury, for f oure months. ' ' To entertain a "stranger" it seems was a crime. Indeed the laws to protect a community from out- side influence were as ironclad as the rules of a modern Labor Union. Greenleaf was a physician and as such useful in the community, but to the goodly people of Newbury he seemed shockingly unusual. Indeed his subsequent career was a stormy one and may to some degree have justified the desire of the community to exclude him. Yet it was rather rough on John Emery to be fined by the Court four pounds and costs amounting to ten shillings for entertaining this stranger. It was a heavy fine for those days. The Selectmen of the town, and many of Emery's friends, among whom were at least four of your ancestors, Abra- ham Toppan, James Ordway, John Knight and John Bailey, petitioned the General Court at Boston in deliciously quaint phraseology for the remission of the fine. Endorsed on this petition is the following: "The Mag^^ have considered the grounds of this Pet" & consent not to any revision of the Com. Court 's sentence. Tho. Dan- forth Jr. E. E. S." A further endorsement is to this etfect: "Consented to by the Deputies pro- vided they may have ye ten shillings agayne. JOHN EMERY 517 William Torrey, Clerk." The last endorsement is "The Magists Consentyes. Edw. Eawson, Secry." So, after all, this scrape cost John Emery only ten shillings. During the same year John Emery became in- volved in a much more heinous crime — that of entertaining Quakers. He seems to have been hospitably inclined. One of the witnesses who testified in this case said that he even "took the strangers by the hand and bade them welcome." I do not suppose that John Emery had any especial leaning to Quakerism, but he was of an independent nature and he did not propose to have his freedom of action curtailed by the absurd regulations of a narrow minded coromunity. In- deed, on several occasions he took pains to assert his right to entertain in his own house whom he chose, and insisted on ' ' the lawfulness of it. ' ' He even went so far as to invite his neighbors to come to his house to listen to two Quaker women preach. This naturally created a tremendous scandal, and was made a subject of presentment to the County Court. The records do not disclose the disposition of the case, but it is likely that on this occasion John did not get off for a mere ten shillings, since the offence was clearly very seri- ous. As might be expected, John Emery appears prominently in the case of Lieutenant Robert Pike, who refused to recognize the authority of the General Court to deprive him and his neigh- bors of the right of petition. It is, indeed, rather difficult to understand why in 1678 he took the 518 CERTAIN COMEOVBRBRS oath of allegiance about wMch so many of his neighbors were very stubborn. Probably he wanted to take it, and that 's why he took it. Five years after, in November, 1683, he died. I have no knowledge of the maiden name of Mary, the wife of John Emery, who was, of course, your ances- tress. She came with him from England, and lived to see her son John grow up. After her death John, Senior, married Mary Shatswell, the widow of John Webster of Ipswich, whose daughter was the wife of his son John. John Emery, Junior, was active in the town's affairs. He was an "Ensign" of the military company, and served as Constable, as Selectman, and in various capacities. On April 10, 1644, "four-score akers of upland joining the Merri- mack River on the north, and running from the mouth of Artichoke River unto a marked tree" was laid out to him. In 1679 more land by the Artichoke was granted to him "provided he build and maintain a corn mill to grind the town's corn." This mill stUl grinds the town's corn. John Emery (second) died in 1693. He had married Mary Webster October 2, 1648, by whom he had several children, among them a daughter, Sarah, born February 26, 1660-1, who married Isaac Bailey June 13, 1683, from whom you de- scend. Mary Webster was the daughter of John Web- ster, who was in Ipswich in 1634. He had land granted htm in 1637, and in 1640 he is called "the Old Clerk of the Bonds. ' ' In 1643 he was elected a "commoner." The year before he had been JOHN EMERY 519 fined thirty shillings for "felling and converting certain trees in common." In 1644 the fine had not been paid, and he asserted an offset. He married Mary Shatswell, a sister of John Shats- well. John Shatswell was one of the earliest settlers of Ipswich. He did not begin his career very well, since in September, 1633, he was fined eleven shillings "for distempering himself with drink at Agawam." As he was afterwards a "deacon" of the first church, and often a Select- man, and accimmlated a considerable property, he doubtless reformed. In his will, dated Feb- ruary 11, 1646, he bequeaths to "Sister Webster about seven yards of stuff to make her a sute. ' ' The third John Emery, from whom you do not descend, apparently inherited some of his grand- father's cantankerous disposition. In 1694 he was "bound over and admonished for opposing his ordaiaed minister, Mr. John Richardson." Under date of May 19, 1704, Judge Sewall writes : "Lodge at Bro. Tapings . . . after dinner the aged Ordway" (James Ordway, born 1620) "comes to see me; complains bitterly of his cousin John Emery's carriage to his wife which makes her leave him and go to her sister Bayley. ' ' In what way the "aged Ordway," (who, by the way, had rowed Judge Sewall ashore in his canoe when as a boy he first came to Parker's Eiver), was a cousin of this younger Emery I have not investigated, but Judith, the daughter of a "sister Bayley," married the "aged Ordway 's" grand- son, James Ordway, from whom you descend.