USA > Massachusetts > Nantucket County > Nantucket > Early settlers of Nantucket, their associates and descendants > Part 4
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1690, Stephen Greenleaf, with nine others, was wrecked and drowned off Cape Breton.
A military spirit appears to have been transmitted to the third generation, the following story having been told of Stephen Greenleaf, Jr .:
March 5, 1696, Captain Greenleaf petitions the Gen- eral Court for compensation for repulsing an Indian raid, in which he was wounded in his side and wrist.
49
Stephen Greenleaf.
His petition was read and forty pounds voted to be paid him out of the treasury of the province.
The house attacked by the Indians was John Brown's, and the following is the family tradition re- specting it:
" The Indians had secreted themselves for sometime near the house, waiting for the absence of the male members of the family, who about three o'clock de- parted with a load of turnips. The Indians then rushed from their concealment, tomahawked a girl who was standing at the front door; another girl who had con- cealed herself as long as the Indians remained, imme- diately after their departure gave the alarm."
The coat which Captain Greenleaf wore in his pur- suit of the Indians is still preserved by his descendants, together with the bullet which was extracted from his wound.
NOTE .- State Street in Newbury (now Newburyport) was for- merly Greenleaf's Lane.
CHAPTER VII.
CHRISTOPHER HUSSEY.
CHRISTOPHER HUSSEY was baptized in Dorking, Sur- rey, England, and was son of John Hussey and Mary Wood.
This has been a tradition in the family, and is con- firmed by the following extract from a letter written in 1880 by a New Bedford member of the Hussey fam- ily:
" I forgot to tell you about my visit to Dorking, where I went before leaving England. It is twenty- six miles from London, but took me an hour and a half by rail, but through a lovely country.
" It is a beautiful old town. They say the country about there is considered among the most picturesque in England.
" I went to the parish clerk; he had gone out, and his sister thought perhaps the vicar might know the book. So I went there and was shown into his study, a lovely old house and a very pretty room in summer, but a fire-place too small to half warm it.
" The vicar was a wonderfully handsome and gentle- manly person, who offered to do all he could for me, but said the clerk had the book. I at last found him, and we looked over it together.
" As I knew the exact date of Christopher's birth, it did not take long, although the writing was the same
51
Christopher IIussey.
queer German text hand we saw at Hampton, which seemed to be the style then; but, strange to say, the book itself looked a hundred years younger than that, it had been kept so much more carefully, and was of parchment.
" We found Christopher, son of John Hussey, was baptized 18th of February, 1599, and, looking back a few years, found John Hussey and Marie (Moor or Wood) (I could not make out which) were married De- eember 5th, 1593. Then John, son of John, baptized April 29th, 1594, and died November 8th, 1597. There is no other mention of any one of the name of Hussey that we could find in the book, and no person of that name is living there or has been known to live there. The vicar told me it was a Berkshire name, and John Hussey probably came there from some other place; and, as there seem to have been no other chil- dren that lived, no one of the name remains there. . . . All the English say it is not at all a common name; an ' old family '-but what family is not old ?"
NOTE .- John Evelyn makes several interesting entries in his diary concerning the Hussey family, and, although his allusions to them are thirty-eight years after Christopher Hussey came to America, the fact that the shire named by Evelyn is the same in which John Hussey's family lived is significant.
September 17, 1670, Evelyn says: "To visit Mr. Hussey, who, being near Wotton, lives in a sweet valley, deliciously watered."
Again, 30th of August, 16SI: "From Wotton I went to see Mr. Hussey (at Sutton in Shere), who has a very pretty seat, well watered, near my brother's.
" He is the neatest husband for curiously ordering his domestic and field accommodations, and what pertains to husbandry, that I have ever seen, as to his granaries, tackling tools, and utensils, ploughs, carts, stables, wood piles, wood house, even to hen roosts and hog troughs.
52
Early Settlers of Nantucket.
When a young man Christopher Hussey spent some time in Holland, where he solicited in marriage The- odate, daughter of Rev. Stephen Bachelor, who gave his consent to their union on condition that they would come to America with him; this condition was complied with, and they arrived in Boston in 1632 on the ship William and Francis or William Francis.
The fact that his eldest son Stephen Hussey was born in Lynn, and was the first child christened by Stephen Bachelor after the founding of the church, indicates that Christopher lived in Lynn with his father-in-law.
He was an early settler of the town of Newbury, and in 1636 was "chosen by papers " as one of the "seven men," as they were first called, then " townesmen," then "townesmen select," and finally " select men " as at present.
" They were fully empowered of themselves to do what the town had power to do, the reason whereof was the town judged it inconvenient and burdensome to be called together upon every occasion."
In 1638 he, with his father-in-law, Rev. Stephen
" Methought I saw old Cato or Varro in him, all substantial, all in exact order."
June 10th, 1685: " Mr. Hussey,* a young gentleman who made love to my late dear child, but whom she could not bring her- self to answer in affection, died of the same cruel disease,; for which I am extremely sorry, because he never enjoyed himself after my daughter's decease, nor was I averse to the match, could she have overcome her disinclination."
February, 1695: "Our neighbor, Mr. Hussey, married a daugh- ter of my cousin, George Evelyn, of Nutfield."
* Son of Peter Hussey, of Sutton in Shere, Surrey.
+ Small-pox.
53
Christopher Hussey.
Bachelor, and others, settled the town of Hampton, New Hampshire, and in 1639 he was made Justice of the Peace, which office he held several years; he was also town clerk and one of the first deacons of the church.
In 1659 he became one of the purchasers of Nan- tucket; subsequently he was a sea-captain.
Orders were received from the king, September 18, 1679, "to erect New Hampshire into a separate gov- ernment," under jurisdiction of a president and council to be appointed by himself; John Cutts was appointed president and Christopher Hussey, of Hampton, one of six councillors.
There are several theories concerning the death of Christopher Hussey. The fact that he followed the sea may have given rise to a belief that he was drowned at sea or eaten by cannibals. Joshua Coffin, however, says that he died at Hampton, New Hampshire, March 6, 1686, and Austin, in " One Hundred and Sixty Al- lied Families," states that " Town records of Hampton declare he was buried there March 8, 1686."
Ile had two sons and three daughters:
Stephen, married Martha Bunker.
John, married Rebecca Perkins.
Hulda, married John Smith and lived to be ninety- seven years old.
Mary.
Theodata.
His eldest son, Stephen, came to Nantucket and mar- ried Martha Bunker, October 8, 1676. He had lived at Barbadoes, had considerable property, and was a Friend before a Society was formed upon the island.
54
Early Settlers of Nantucket.
He was at one time representative to the General Court.
He died February 2, 1718, in his eighty-eighth year, and was buried in Friends' first burial ground at Nan- tucket. His children were Puella, Abigail, Sylvanus, Bachiller, Daniel, George, and Theodata.
John Hussey, second son of Christopher Hussey, was appointed member of Assembly before he removed from Hampton, New Hampshire, to Delaware in 1688, but, being unwilling to take oath, did not serve.
After his removal to Delaware he was appointed inember of the Pennsylvania Assembly to represent New Castle County, at that time one of the "three lower counties of Penn," and as Pennsylvania Quakers were permitted to enter office without oath, he was duly enrolled in 1696 .*
REV. STEPHEN BACHELOR + was born in England in 1561. He was well educated and had received orders in the Established Church, but was not in sympathy with its rites and institutions. His unwillingness to conform to its requirements had resulted in his being deprived of his ecclesiastical commissions.
He spent a few years in Holland, but returned to London. In some records we read that " his eldest daughter had emigrated to America and had settled in the new town of Saugus, now Lynn." Here came also Stephen Bachelor on June 5, 1632, and here he es- tablished the first Episcopal Church of Lynn, accord-
* Pennsylvania Archives, vol. ix., p. 673.
# The name is variously spelled in the old records, and not less variously at the present time by his descendants.
55
Christopher Hussey.
ing to his own ideas. Differences occurred from time to time, but finally, when a council of ministers was called, it was decided that, "although the church had not been properly instituted, yet the mutual exercise of their religious duties had supplied the defeet."
Ilis removal from Lynn was desired by those who dif- fered with him, but where in that day did not religious difference lead to enmity ?
On May 6, 1635, he was admitted a freeman and re- moved first to Ipswich, where he received a grant of fifty acres of land and proposed to locate; but he soon left Ipswich, and, with some friends, John Wing and others, went to Mattacheese, on Barnstable Bay, now Yarmouth, with a view to establishing a colony there. This enterprise proved impracticable, and he went next to Newbury, and on the 6th of July, 1638, received a grant of land from the town.
On the 6th of September the General Court gave him permission to settle a town at Hampton, a few miles from Newburyport, in New Hampshire.
In 1639 the town of Ipswich offered him sixty acres of upland if he would reside with them. This he de- elined.
On the 5th of July he sold his house and lands in Newbury, and, removing to Hampton, settled the town and established a church, of which he became pastor.
In 1640 Hampton granted him 300 acres of land, and he gave them " a bell for their meeting-house."
In 1647 he was at Portsmouth, where he remained three vears.
At the age of eighty nine he married unfortunately,
56
Early Settlers of Nantucket.
and lived with this third wife a year only. In 1651 he returned to England and there died in his one hun- dredth year at Hackney, near London.
Freeman says of him: " From all that we gather out of much that was written of him by his contemporaries, we infer that he was learned, and in the judgment of charity a good man, but that his whole life was singu- larly complicated with incidents of trial."
Rev. Conway Phelps Wing, one of his descendants, from whose account of him much of the above has been gleaned, says: " In estimating his character we must take into consideration the peculiar spirit and agitations of the times, when the boldest innovations in opinion and practice were received on the one side with favor, and on the other, and especially on the side of the rul- ing powers, with intolerance and misrepresentation."
Mr. Prince says: " Mr. B. was a man of fame in his day, a gentleman of learning and ingenuity, and wrote a fine and curious hand."
His signature and seal appended to letters may be seen in Massachusetts Historical Collection, Vol. VII., fourth series.
His children were:
Deborah Bachelor, married John Wing.
Theodata Bachelor, married Christopher Hussey.
Bachelor, married - Sanborn.
Nathaniel Bachelor, married, 1656, (1) Deborah Smith; (2) Mary Wyman, of Woburn; (3) Elizabeth -, and had seventeen children.
Francis Bachelor - who remained in London.
Stephen Bachelor
57
Christopher Hussey.
HIenry Bachelor, who had a son Henry, who lived in Lynn.
Edwin L. Sanborn, LL.D., in his " History of New Hampshire," page 53, says: "The first churches were formed at Hampton and Exeter. Hampton claimes precedence in time. . . . The first pastor of this first- born church of the new State, and the father of the town, was Rev. Stephen Batchelder, an ancestor on the mother's side of Daniel Webster."
" Susanna Batchelder, one of the descendants of Stephen's son Nathaniel, married, July 20th, 1738, Eb- enezer Webster (born at Hampton October 10th, 1714), the grandfather of Daniel Webster." Lewis and New- hall's " History of Lynn," page 141, N. E.
Through Governor Winthrop's records, which come down to 1649, we learn that among the party which came with Rev. Stephen Bachelor in the William Fran- cis were John Wing and his wife Deborah (Bachelor) Wing, and Edward Dillingham.
" JOHN WING was the original projenitor of nearly all who now bear the family name in America, so far as they are known to us." *
He not only settled at Saugus with Stephen Bache- lor, but left it with him and went to Mattacheese, and though it was not a successful enterprise, he thereby be- came acquainted with the region afterwards called Cape Cod.
It could not have been fertility of soil or attractive country that afterwards induced John Wing and others
* Rev. Conway Phelps Wing's "John Wing, of Sandwich, and His Descendants."
58
Early Settlers of Nantucket.
to settle in a loeality which without the people who later gave it attraction must have seemed inhospitable indeed. It was within the jurisdiction of the Plymouth colony, and the Indians in the vicinity were friendly to the English.
In the year 1637 Mr. Edward Freeman * and nine others who had lived in Saugus formed an association " to erect a plantation or town within the precincts of his Majestys General Court at Plymouth." The point selected was near the neck of land between Barnstable and Buzzard's Bay.
On the third day of April, 1637, a patent was grant- ed the original association, giving it the right to form a town. Among the original " Ten Men of Saugus " ap- pear the names of Edward Freeman and Edward Dil- lingham, and as the forty-fifth in the list of their as- sociates, that of John Wing.
Nearly all were accompanied by their families, and strict rules, civil and religious, were laid down for their government.
In 1638 the General Court deputized Mr. Alden and Miles Standish " accurately to define the limits of each man's allotment of land with all convenient speed."
In 1639 an act of incorporation was granted, and the Indian name of Shawme became Sandwich.
Here Jolin Wing and his descendants after him have lived until the present time.
John Wing was a quiet man, chiefly interested in his family and his lands, but his name may be found on court records as qualified for public business.
* Freeman's History of Cape Cod, vol. ii., pp. 15, 17.
59
Christopher Hussey.
From John Wing's son Daniel are descended those who by marriage were associated either with Nantucket or with the progenitors of Nantucket settlers.
In Bowden's " History of the Society of Friends in America " we learn that two English Friends named " Christopher Holden and John Copeland came to Sandwich on the 20th of Sixth month, 1657, and had a number of meetings."
In 1658 eighteen families in Sandwich recorded their names in one of the documents of the Society of Friends. The Sandwich Monthly Meeting was the first established in America, and its records extend back to 1672, and the Quarterly Meeting, held for many years alternately at New Bedford and Nantucket, was known as the " Sandwich Quarterly Meeting of Friends," hav- ing been an outcome of that organization.
The larger number of Friends at both New Bedford and Nantucket was a reasonable cause for changing the place of meeting.
CHAPTER VIII.
OTHER PROPRIETORS.
RECORDED details of the remaining proprietors are very brief; concerning some there appears to be little record excepting of their proprietorship.
ROBERT PIKE was one of the original settlers of Salis- bury, Massachusetts, and shared the interest of Christo- pher Hussey as a proprietor of Nantucket. He con- tinued his relations with the settlers of the island until his death, which occurred about forty years after the purchase. As has already been stated, he was the warın friend of Thomas Macy.
In 1637, on the 17th of May, in order to prevent the reelection of Sir Harry Vane as governor, and to strengthen the friends of Winthrop, ten men, among them Robert Pike and Thomas Coleman, went from Newbury to Cambridge on foot (forty miles) and quali- fied themselves to vote by taking the freeman's oath. Winthrop was chosen governor. (N. E. Hist. and Gen. Reg.)
Robert Pike was representative to the General Court in 1648-49 and 1658-59; captain and major in 1670; an assistant in 1682; and a member of the Council of Safety in 1689.
NOTE .- Davis's History of Bucks County says the Pike family of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, is said to descend from Robert Pike, of Massachusetts.
61
Other Proprietors.
THOMAS COLEMAN must have removed to Nantucket prior to 1673, as on "October 20" of that year he is recorded as " drawn on the jury " there. From a news- paper clipping whose related facts have been deduced from a memorandum book of Nathaniel Coleman, great- great-great grandson of Thomas Coleman, we learn that Thomas arrived in Boston "June 3, 1635," came to Nantucket in 1680, and died in 1682.
Joshua Coffin, in his History of Newbury (p. 15), names Thomas Coleman among settlers of Newbury in 1635, and (p. 29) in a list of settlers of Hampton, with Stephen Bachelor, Christopher Hussey and others in 1639.
Although these records do not agree, even in facts given by the same authority, each may be entirely cor- rect, as the settlers of Nantucket appear in several in- stances to have gone back and forth before their final settlement, and it is probable that this was the case in other localities.
From the same history (p. 298) we learn the follow- ing:
Thomas Coleman's first wife Susanna died November 17th, 1650, and in that year he removed to Hampton. He married Mary, widow of Edmund Johnson, July 11th, 1651; his second wife died in Hampton, Jan. 30th, 1663. He married a third time Margery - (Ashbourne, say some authorities).
Children of Thomas Coleman were:
Benjamin Coleman, born May 1st, 1640. Joseph Coleman, born December 2d, 1642. Isaac Coleman, born February 20th, 1647. (From above dates, children of first wife.)
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Early Settlers of Nantucket.
Joanna Coleman.
Tobias Coleman, who was son of the third wife.
NATHANIEL COLEMAN was the only son of Barnabas Coleman and his first wife Elizabeth (Barnard).
Barnabas was son of John 3d, who was son of John 2d, who was son of John 1st, who was son of Thomas Coleman and Susanna -
Nathaniel Coleman was Register of Deeds for Nan- tucket from the "3d of August, 1785, till the 20th of January, 1804."
He modestly enters in his memoranda the following record of his re-election: After stating that the number of votes cast was " 373 " " April 18, 1791," he says: " N. C. got 206; W. Folger got 70; S. Starbuck got 7."
His father, Barnabas Coleman, married as second wife Rachel Hussey, daughter of Sylvanus, who was son of Stephen, who was son of Christopher Hussey, and another entry among the memoranda of the above- named reads as follows: "Barnabas Coleman and Rachel his wife, the number of their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren in 1796-chil- dren 13 grand children 113 great grand children 85."
THOMAS BARNARD, who settled in America about 1650, was one of the purchasers of Nantucket in 1659, and transferred one-half of his interest to his brother, Robert Barnard.
In Hoyt's " The Old Families of Salisbury and Ames- bury," page 13, among signatures to " Articles of Agreement Between the Inhabitants of the Old Town
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Other Proprietors.
and those of the New Town," May 1, 1654, we find Thomas Barnard, Phillip Challis, Thomas Macy, John Severance and others. Page 14, under " Divi- sions of Land, 1654," Thomas Barnard, Phillip Challis, Thomas Macy and others, and among " Amesbury Com- moners " in 1667-S, Thomas Barnard, Sr. and Jr., and Lt. Phillip Challis.
Pages 20 and 21: " Jnº Barnard and Tho: Barnard " are named among citizens taking " Oath of Allegiance, Eamsbery," December 20, 1677.
Thomas Barnard is named as one of the " Brethren of Ye Church." Page 49, Thomas Barnard, or Bar- nett, of Salisbury # and Amesbury, " planter or hus- bandman," born about 1612 (probably a brother of Robert), received land in the first division, 1640 and 1643, was one of the first settlers of Amesbury, re- ceived land there at various times, and a "township " for one of his sons in 1660.
His name appears in nearly all the early lists down to 1672. He married Helen or Eleanor -.
The only explanation for the statement in an old record that Thomas Barnard " died abroad " lies in the fact that among old-fashioned people of Nantucket go-
* Hoyt says: " The plantation was first named Colchester, Sep- tember 4, 1839, changed to Salisbury October 7, 1640."
NOTE .- Hoyt, in "The Old Families of Salisbury and Ames- bury," page 18, says: " As early as 1642 the town of Salisbury or- dered that thirty familes should remove to the west side of the Powow River (Amesbury) before 1645. Salisbury seems to have had about twice as many inhabitants as Amesbury soon after the formal separation. On Amesbury Records we find, dated March 19, 1654-5, in a list of the " present inhabitanee and com- enors heare in the new towne," Thomas Barnard and others.
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Early Settlers of Nantucket.
ing out to an afternoon tea was "going abroad." Usu- ally anywhere away from the island was " off " or " off island." This particular recorder certainly meant "off island " when he wrote " Thomas died abroad," - as the records of Salisbury say he was killed by Indians about 1677.
His widow, Eleanor Barnard, administered on his estate. When it was settled, in 1679, there were nine children. (It is believed that some of these were ehil- dren-in-law.)
In a list of inhabitants applying for " Amesbury Meeting House seats," July, 1667, is found the name of " Goodwife Barnard."
Eleanor Barnard, widow of Thomas, married, July 19th, 1681, George Little, of Newbury. She died No- vember 27th, 1694.
ROBERT BARNARD, " husbandman," of Salisbury and Andover, removed to Nantucket in 1663, and died there in 1682. He married Joanna Harvey,* who died in 1705. He had a son, John Barnard, born 1642, who married Bethiah Folger, daughter of Peter Folger, and a daughter, Mary Barnard, who married her cousin, Nathaniel Barnard, son of Thomas and Eleanor Barnard.
Hoyt says: " Letters of administration on the estate of Robert Barnard, Senior, late of Andover, Yoeman, who died intestate, were granted to his grandson, Rob- ert Barnard, February 1st, 1714-15. Stephen Barnard, son of the elder Robert Barnard, signed a statement
* Some authorities say daughter of
- Harvey, of Plymouth Colony.
-
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Other Proprietors.
that he was incapable of acting by reason of age, and asking that his son Robert be appointed. James Bridges and Stephen Barnard were witnesses."
This administration was more than thirty years after the death of the intestate, and as a lawsuit with the State is mentioned in connection with the appointment of the administrator, it is probable that it was due to some claim made in behalf of the State.
Nathaniel Barnard, in his will, refers to " my father- in-law Robert Barnard," which leaves no doubt of the fact that Mary Barnard, daughter of Robert, was at one time his wife.
As he names no wife in said will it is a natural con- clusion that he outlived her.
RICHARD SWAIN (Rowley, 1639) came to America in the Truelove 1635, aged thirty-four, settled at Hamp- ton, and married, in 1658, Jane Godfrey Bunker, widow of George Bunker, of Ipswich. They removed to Nan- tucket. While living at Hampton he was " Selectman and Commissioner for Small Causes." In 1639 he had liberty to " settle small claims."
The children of Richard Swain were:
Francis, who married Martha -.
William, of Hampton, N. II., who married Pru- dence Marston.
NOTE .- Nathaniel Barnard, son of Thomas, is by some said to have married Mary, daughter of John Lugg, but Savage says, vol. i., page 120: "High Nantucket authority claims that he came from England in 1650 with his uncle, Robert Barnard, whose daughter Mary he married." It is not impossible that he had two wives. Mary Barnard appears, from Nantucket records, to have been the mother of his children.
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Early Settlers of Nantucket.
Dorothy, who married, first, Thomas Abbott; second, Edward Chapman.
Elizabeth, who married Nathaniel Weare.
John, who married Mary Wier or Weare .*
Richard Swain and his wife Jane (Godfrey) (Bun- ker) Swain had one son, Richard, who removed to New Jersey. Richard Swain, Sr., died in 1682.
JOHN SWAIN (the proprietor), son of Richard Swain, Sr., has left a record in his house, known as the oldest house on the island, which is still standing, although much out of repair. John Swain's wife, Mary Wier or Weare, was daughter of Nathaniel Weare (Savage, Vol. IV., p. 234). John Swain died in 1717. This family were members of the Society of Friends at a very early date.
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