USA > Massachusetts > Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 117
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*This last item is challenged by Robert C. Win- throp.
13. Susannah, born December 10, 1552; died August 9, 1604; married D. Cottie (Dr. John Cotta?), and had children. The widow of the father Adam Winthrop married William Mild- may. She died May 13, 1565.
(II) Adam (2) Winthrop, son of Adam (I), born in London, August 10, 1548; died March 29, 1623 ; married (first), December 16, 1574, Alice Still, daughter of William, of Grantham, Lincolnshire ; she and her first born child died December 24, 1577, and he married (second), February 20, 1579, Anne, daughter of Henry Browne, of Edwardston ; her mother's name was Agnes. Adam Winthrop (3d) was a man of good education and high social stand- ing, lord and patron of the manor of Groton. Children by second wife : I. Anne, born Janu- ary 5, 1580-1; died January 20, 1580-1. 2. Anne, born January 16, 1585-6; died May 16, 1618; married, February 25, 1604-5, Thomas Fones. 3. John, born January 12, 1587; the governor of Massachusetts; see forward. 4. Jane, baptized June 17, 1592 ; married, January 5. 1612, Thomas Gostling. 5. Lucy, born Janu- ary 9, 1600-1 ; married, April 10, 1622, Eman- uel Downing.
(III) John Winthrop, governor of Massa- chusetts, son of Adam (2) Winthrop, born in Edwardston, a little village in Suffolk county, England, immediately adjoining Groton, Janu- ary 12, 1587; died in Boston, New England, March 26, 1649, nineteen years after his em- barkation on March 22, 1629-30, in that harbor. For details regarding his early life the reader is referred to the admirable work on that sub- ject by his descendant, Hon. Robert C. Win- throp, already named, and to the various stand- ard histories of Massachusetts and New Eng- land for the latter part. He married (first), April 16, 1605, Mary, born January 1, 1583, died June 26, 1615, daughter and sole heir of John Forth, Esq., of Great Stambridge, in the county of Essex, and Thomasine, only child of Hilles, in the county of Essex. Her own immediate family was a wealthy one. Sixteen children: 1. John, the eldest, born in Groton, England, February 12, 1606; died in Boston, April 5, 1676; known to history as John Winthrop, the governor of Connecticut. 2. Henry, born (baptized January 20) 1607; drowned at Salem, Massachusetts, July 2, 1630, aged twenty-two years, the next day after his landing in America. (See his father's journal). He was somewhat adventurous, had been in the Barbadoes; was married, April 25, 1629, to his cousin Elizabeth Fones; had daughter Martha, baptized at Groton, England, May 9,
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1630. He was left behind in his father's first voyage, but arrived safely on a later one. He was drowned in a small creek. His widow came to New England afterwards and married Robert Feake. 3. Forth, born December 30. 1609; died (buried at Groton, England, No- vember 23) 1630; was educated in the univer- sities, and was betrothed to Ursula Sherman. 4. and 5. Daughters, named Anne, baptized 1614-15, who died in their earliest infancy. 6. Mary, eldest of the first three daughters, came to America, and married, about 1632, Rev. Samuel Dudley, son of Governor Thomas Dudley, and died April 12, 1643, having had four children, two of whom survived her. Governor Winthrop married ( second), Decem- ber 6, 1615, Thomasine Clopton, died Decem- ber 8, 1616, daughter of William Clopton, Esq. Child: 7. Daughter, born November, 1616; died 1616, two days old. Governor Winthrop married (third), April 29, 1618, Margaret Tyndal, died in Boston, June 14, 1647, daughter of Sir John Tyndal, knight. Her mother was Anne Egerton, widow of William Deane, Esq. Children: 8. Stephen, born March 24, 1618; came with his father to America ; was recorder of Boston; member of Parliament for Scot- land under Cromwell, and colonel of a regi- ment in the civil wars of England ; was married and left posterity. 9. Adam, born April 7, 1620; see forward. 10. Deane, baptized March 23, 1622; died at Pullen Point (now Winthrop), March 16, 1704; married (first) Sarah, daugh- ter of Jose Glover, and left a widow Martha and children. 11. Nathaniel, baptized Febru- ary 20, 1625; probably died young. 12. Sam- uel, baptized August 26, 1627 ; married in Hol- land; had estate in Antigua, where he held the office of deputy governor, and died there about 1677. 13. Anne, baptized April 29, 1630; died on her passage with her mother to New Eng- land, when aged about a year and a half. 14. William, born at Boston, August 14, 1632; probably died soon. 15. Sarah, baptized June 20, 1634, probably died soon. Governor Winthrop married ( fourth ), December 4, 1647, Martha, daughter of Captain William Rainsborough, and widow of Captain Thomas Coytmore, of Charlestown, and sister of Increase Nowell. After the death of Winthrop she married. March 16, 1652, John Coggan. Child by Win- throp: 16. Joshua, born December 12, 1648; died January 11, 1651.
(IV) Adam (3) Winthrop, son of John, born in Groton, England, April 7, 1620 ; died in Boston, suddenly it is inferred, August 24, 1652, thirty-two years and four months old;
came to New England in 1631. Adam's Chair, a rock in Waltham, Massachusetts, was named for him (1631) ; married (first), about 1642, Elizabeth, died September, 1648, daughter of Joss or Jose Glover ; married (second) Eliza- beth, daughter of Thomas Hawkins. Children : I. Adam, born October 15, 1647; see forward. He was his parents' only child in 1652, and the only one, unless there was a daughter Mary, who died near the same time with her mother, September, 1648. The widow of Adam (4) . married, May 3, 1654, John Richards ; no chil- dren by either husband.
(V) Adam (4) Winthrop, son of Adam (3), born in Boston, October 15, 1647 ; died August 3. 1700, aged fifty-two; will dated July 29, proved September 5, 1700. He was graduated at Harvard College, 1668 (Sibley's "Grad- uates," II., 247) ; was for some time a merchant at Bristol, England, and married there, Mary, daughter of Colonel Luttrell, and there his chil- dren were born, one of whom was Adam, see beyond. His daughter Mary married March 9, 1703, John Ballentine. The father was an orphan, about five years old in 1652. He re- turned with his family to Boston in 1679. He was captain of a military company in Boston in 1689 ; representative, 1689-1692 ; named as one of the governor's council, but left out in the first popular election, May, 1693. No time of marriage or births of his children or baptism of them is found here, as his marriage was in England, and there the children were born. Mary, his widow, married, March 13, 1706, as the third wife of Joseph Lynde, of Charles- town. Her death occurred October 30, 1715.
(VI) Adam (5) Winthrop, son of Adam (4), graduated Harvard College, 1694, and died October 2, 1743; married Anna
He was of the council of the province. Chil- dren: I. Adam, born August 12, 1706; died December 12, 1744; Harvard College, 1724; merchant of Boston, and lived in Brattle street. He was also clerk of the judicial courts. Mar- ried Mary, daughter of Hugh Hall, Esq., of Boston. 2. John, Harvard College, 1732; see beyond.
(\'11) John (2) Winthrop, son of Adam (5), born in Boston, December 19, 1714; died in Cambridge, May 3, 1779; married (first) Rebecca -, died August 22, 1753. aged twenty-nine, daughter of James Townsend, of Boston ; married (second ), published March 25, 1756, Hannah, died May 6, 1790, widow of - Tolman, of Boston, and daughter of Thomas and Sarah Fayerweather. Children : 1. John, born September 17, 1747 ; graduated
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Go: wmthop
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Harvard College, 1765, lived in Boston, a mer- chant ; married Sarah Phillips, and died in 1800, leaving posterity-John, Harvard Col- lege, 1796, and Adam, Harvard College, 1800. 2. Adam, born November 27, 1748, died Feb- ruary II, 1774, aged twenty-five, graduated Harvard College, 1767; left home contrary to the desire of his father, became a shipmaster in Governor Hancock's employment, and in the Downs was knocked overboard and lost. He "was unfortunately knocked overboard by the boom of his vessel on his passage from hence to London, and was drowned," February II, 1774 (Boston News Letter). 3. Samuel, born July 20, 1750, died July 28, 1751. 4. James. "a man of much curious erudition," born March 28, 1752, graduated Harvard College 1769, LL. D. : Allegheny College 1817 ; postmaster 1775 (i. c. with headquarters at Cambridge, Boston being invested by the American troops ) ; regis- ter of probate from September 6, 1775, until 1817 : for several years judge of court of com- mon pleas : librarian of Harvard College, 1772- 1787 ; one of the founders of the Massachusetts Historical Society ; resided in Cambridge, and (lied unmarried, September 26, 1821. A char- acteristic letter written him in 1775 is published by Paige, "History Cambridge." p. 700, note 5. William, "the last survivor," born April 19. 1753. graduate Harvard College 1770; town clerk 1782-1788: selectman ten years between 1786 and 1802; senator in 1799: a gentleman farmer, residing in Cambridge, and died un- married, February 5, 1825. The father of this intelligent family was a man of great distinc- tion in his day. He was graduated at Harvard College in 1738, appointed Hollis professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in 1738. He was in 1771, as already stated elsewhere in this work, the preceptor of Count Rumford and Colonel Loammi Baldwin, of Woburn. He was elected Hollis professor of mathematics and natural and experimental philosophy Au- gust 30, 1738. He was then a resident of Bos- ton, and his inauguration with appropriate cere- monies occurred January 2, 1738-9. He de- clined the office of president of the college in 1769. Ilis age and "bodily infirmities" were urged as objections against him. It was a time when the office went begging. The choice was made of Samuel Locke, a clergyman of a small parish about twenty miles from Cambridge, against whom was made the still greater objec- tion of "a want of knowledge of the world, having lived in retirement, and perhaps not a general acquaintance with books." In 1774, after the resignation of Locke, Winthrop was
again chosen president and declined. President Quincy* says of him, "The literary and scien- tific attainments of John Winthrop acquired celebrity in his own country and in Europe, and entitled him to be regarded as one of the bright- est ornaments of Harvard College. The
zeal, activity and talent with which he applied himself to the advancements of the sciences justified the expectations which his early prom- ise raised." As a lecturer he was skillful and attractive, and during forty years he fulfilled the duties of the professor's chair to universal acceptance." His labors were both practical and scientific. He transmitted in December, 1740, to the Royal Society of London, "obser- vations of the transit of Mercury over the Sun."
These observations were published both in London and honorably noticed in Paris. He gave a lecture on the earthquake of November 18, 1755. in which he deliberately set out to calm the apprehensions which the supersti- tions of the age had excited, with actual fear, throughout the territory of New England, where the quake had been experienced. He explained his theory of the phenomenon of earthquake with originality, research, and in- tellectual power, and advanced the consolatory fact that though earthquakes had occasionally
occurred in New England from its first settle- ment by the English, not a single life had ever been lost nor any great damage been done by them. Ile supported the theories of Benjamin Franklin concerning lightning, and protection from it by the use of "iron points." Even in this he met with opposition, even from the ignorance of natural laws on the part of clergy- men and the superstitions of that age. One thought, and published the fact, that the "iron points" on the buildings in New England drew the lightning from the clouds and caused the earthquake of 1755. Professor Winthrop, in reply, proceeded to show that earthquakes could not be accounted for in that way. As late as 1770 there were religious people who were op- posed to lightning rods (in intelligent New England !) on the ground that "thunder and lightning" were tokens of Divine displeasure, and that it was impious to prevent them from doing their "full execution." Professor Win- throp again appeared in their defense with a publication which showed that "Divine Provi- dence" governed the world by "stated general laws," and showed in conclusion that it was as much "our duty to secure ourselves against the . effects of lightning, as from those of rain, snow or wind, by the means God has put into our
*"History of Harvard University," 11. 217.
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hands." On the appearance of a remarkable comet in 1759, he again came to the front with lectures in which he explained the true nature and motions of comets, according to the latest discoveries of the times.
He transmitted to the Royal Society accounts of whirlwinds and other natural phenomena which he observed in this section. And so it was in many other scientific observations, tran- sits of Venus and others. of which the record. however creditable to him, is too long to men- tion in the present work. It is said that his active, vigorous and comprehensive mind em- braced within its sphere various and extensive knowledge. and that he was better entitled to the character of a universal scholar, than any individual of his time, in this country. He was well versed in ancient and modern languages, and President Quincy concludes that he was one of the greatest mathematicians and philos- ophers America had then produced.
He was chosen a member of the council of the province in 1773. but negatived by a royal mandate. In 1774 he was a delegate to the provincial congress. In 1775 he was restored to the seat in the council, and also appointed judge of probate. The latter office he held until his death, May 3. 1779. at the age of sixty-five.
(Ancestry by Arthur G. Loring).
Thomas Brooks, of Concord, BROOKS Massachusetts, died there May 21, 1667 : his wife Grace, whose surname is unknown, died May 12, 1664. He first settled in Watertown, as early as 1636, and removed very soon to Concord, where he was constable in 1638; representative 1642- 1644. 1654. 1659-1662. He is called captain, and if so, probably of the military company at Concord. In 1660, with his son-in-law. Cap- tain Timothy Wheeler, he purchased of Ed- ward Collins four hundred acres of land in Medford, it being a portion of the Cradock farm. Children: 1. Joshua, married October 17. 1653. Hannah Mason, of Watertown. 2. Caleb. see forward. 3. Gershom, married March 12. 1667, Hannah Eckles, of Cambridge. 4. Mary. married Captain Timothy Wheeler. of Concord; she died his widow, October 4. 1693.
( II) Caleb Brooks, son of Captain Thomas Brooks, died at Medford, July 29, 1696, aged sixty-four years ; married first, April 10, 1660, Susanna Atkinson, born April 28, 1641, daugh- ter of Thomas Atkinson, of Concord; she died at Concord, January 19, 1669, and he married ( second ) her sister, Hannah Atkinson,
born March 5. 1643, died at Medford, March 10, 1709. He moved from Concord to Med- ford in 1680, and occupied most of the land purchased by his father. Children by his first wife: 1. Susan, born December 27, 1661, died at Medford, December 23, 1686. 2. Mary, born November 18, 1663, died young. 3. Mary, born April 3. 1666; married, April 19, 1688, Nathaniel Ball, of Concord. 4. Rebecca. born November 9, 1667. 5. Sarah, born December 16. 1668; married, October 18, 1705, Philip Russell, of Cambridge. Children by second wife: 6. Ebenezer, born February 24, 1670-1 ; see forward. 7. Samuel, born September I, 1672; married Sarah Boylston, of Brookline.
(III) Captain Ebenezer Brooks, son of Caleb Brooks, born at Concord, February 24, 1670-1 ; died at Medford, February II, 1742-3, in seventy-third year (gravestone ) ; married, 1693, Abigail Boylston, daughter of Dr. Thomas and Mary (Gardner) Boylston, of Brookline ; she died May 23, 1756, in eighty-second year ( gravestone ). He inherited his father's house and homestead. Children: 1. Caleb, born July 8, 1694 : see forward. 2. Ebenezer, born March 23, 1697-8; married, June 20, 1737, Hannah Gibson, of Boston. 3. Abigail, born October 6, 1699: married October 27, 1720, Thomas Oakes, of Medford. 4. Hannah, born April 15. 1701 ; married ( intention dated November 8, 1721 ) Nathaniel Cheever, of Boston. 5. Mary, born January 19, 1703-4, died Septem- ber 3. 1704. 6. Thomas, born April 28, 1705, died November 14, 1784, aged eighty years. 7. Rebecca, born July 24. 1706 ; married, Decem- ber 2, 1725, Samuel Pratt, of Boston. 8. Sam- uel, born February 8, 1709-10: married, April 2, 1747, Abigail Hastings, of Waltham.
(IV) Captain Caleb (2) Brooks, son of Cap- tain Ebenezer Brooks, born at Medford. July 8, 1694, died there November 21, 1766, seventy- third year ( gravestone ) : married first, March 30, 1730-1, Mary Winn, born July 3. 1711, died January 1, 1745, aged thirty-four years and six months ( gravestone ), daughter of Increase and Mary Winn, of Woburn ; married second, March 1. 1749-50, Ruth Albree, born May 17, 1718. died May 6. 1793, aged seventy-four years (gravestone ), daughter of John and Eliz- abeth ( Green) Albree, of Medford. He occu- pied the estate now in Winchester known as the Le Bosquet place, at present Symmes Corner, at that time within the limits of Med- ford. This estate was purchased in 1715 by his father, Captain Ebenezer Brooks, of Will- iam Symmes. and after his death passed to his son. Captain Caleb Brooks, and at his death
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to his son, Ebenezer Brooks, whose daughter Mary married Captain John Le Bosquet, who bought out other heirs and died in April, 1844. Mrs. Le Bosquet had all of his personal prop- erty and the use of his real estate during her life-time. She died in September, 1847, and was succeeded by Captain Lebbeus Leach, whose wife was one of the heirs. He sold to Hon. Frederick O. Prince, who conveyed the house and a part of the land to Marshall Symmes in 1865. In 1881 Mr. Symmes re- moved the old house to the rear of his barn, and built a new house on the site of the old one. Children by first wife Mary. ( Winn) : I. Mary, born at Charlestown, December 20, 1731 ; married April 4, 1752, Daniel Pratt, of, Chelsea. 2. Abigail, born July 17, 1733 ; married, No- vember 24. 1757. Joseph Hall, of Medford. 3. Ebenezer, born April 22, 1735; married, De- cember 28, 1758, Susanna Thompson, of Med- ford. 4. Caleb, baptized at Medford, Septem- ber 5. 1736, died young. 5. Caleb, baptized October 5, 1737, died young. 6. Rebecca, bap- tized July 1, 1739 ; married, November 6, 1766, Samuel Hall, of Medford. 7. Ruth, baptized August 2, 1741 ; married, November 20, 1760, Joseph Seccomb, of Medford. 8. Sarah, bap- tized November 28. 1742; married John Le Bosquet. 9. Caleb, baptized September 9, 1744 ; married, January 1, 1767, Mary Kidder, of Medford. 10. Increase, baptized December 22, 1745. Children by second wife, Ruth ( Albree ) : II. Theodore, baptized January 5, 1751. 12. John, baptized May 4, 1752 ; see forward. 13. Joseph, baptized February 24. 1754, died May 11, 1756. 14. Elizabeth, born June 20. 1757; married. December 31, 1776. Rev. Jacob Bur- nap, of Merrimack, New Hampshire. 15. Han- nah, born February 12, 1760; married, Octo- ber 21, 1794. Francis Burns, of Medford.
(\') Governor John Brooks, son of Captain Caleb (2) Brooks, born at Medford, baptized there May 4, 1752: died at Medford, March I. 1825. aged seventy-three years, married Lucy Smith, died at Medford, September 26, 1791, aged thirty-eight years. Children: 1. Lucy, born at Reading, June 16, 1775: married at Med ford, October 2, 1803, George O'Kill Stuart. of Kingston, Canada : had a son George O'Kill Stuart, who was a mayor of Quebec, Canada. 2. A child, died at Medford, October. 1778. 3. Alexander Scammell, born at Medford, Octo- ber 19. 1781, killed by a steamboat explosion at St. John's bar coast of Florida, December 19, 1836: married, May 28, 1817. Sarah Turner, of Boston : he obtained a commission in the army, first lieutenant of artillery, 1808; cap-
tain in third artillery, 1812; brevet major for gallantry at Plattsburg, 1814; major third artil- lery, 1832; lieutenant-colonel fourth artillery, 1835. ( For a further account see Brooks's "History of Medford," pp. 198-200) ; children : I. Lucy, born at Medford, March 25, 1818; married, May 30. 1843, Hon. Edward L. Keyes, of Dedham. 2. John, born June 18, 1820, who died a passed midshipman, United States navy. June 4, 1843. 4. John, born May 20, 1784, killed at battle of Lake Erie, September 13, 1813 : he graduated at Harvard College, 1805; studied medicine with his father, and after- wards entered the navy as lieutenant of marines ; he was unmarried. 5. A child, died March 24. 1786.
(By William R. Cutter.)
Governor John Brooks, the most BROOKS distinguished citizen in Medford of his own time, was born in that town in May, 1752. It is said by his con- temporaries that the mother of the future gen- eral and governor was a woman of superior character. His father was a respectable farmer, and esteemed by his neighbors. It was, how- ever, to his mother that he was indebted for the influence which encouraged him to make a rise in life, and through her family physician. Dr. Simon Tufts, she was encouraged to give him as good an education as circumstances would allow.
He was placed at the town school, where he was taught the rudiments of science and the Latin and Greek languages. Dr. Tufts took him into his family at the age of fourteen to educate for his profession. He continued with Dr. Tufts until he was twenty-one years old. The doctor then advised him to begin the prac- tice of medicine in the adjoining town of Read- ing, and recommended him to the people as well qualified for the trust. He accordingly settled there, was soon married, and his prospects were fair for a respectable establishment in his pro- fession. But the revolutionary war broke upon the scene, and matters military engaged the attention of all the people, physicians included. In his teens he had begun to display a talent and fondness for military drill and his hours of relaxation were given to that exercise. His village mates were formed into a company com- manded by himself. He was popular, and Dr. Tufts' yard became for the time a miniature training field. At Reading he was placed in command of a company of minute-men, the best soldiers in the militia, and soon was ad- vanced to the position of major in a new regi-
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GOVERNOR JOHN BROOKS.
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ment. He displayed rare abilities as a discipli- narian, and was thought by all who were con- nected with him in military duty to be the most competent to take the lead. At first he declined, owing to the increasing and pressing duties of his profession, but the affair of the 19th of April, 1775, happening in his immediate neigh- borhood, made a speedy decision necessary, and he quickly assumed the duties of an office which he was well qualified to sustain. He ordered out his company with promptness, and directed them to proceed on the route to Con- cord ; and having made such provision for the medical relief of the sick under his care as the time would permit. he joined his corps with all possible speed. Having arrived in the vicinity of Concord, he met the British on their retreat (near Merriam's Corner ), and made such a disposition of his men as to secure them from injury, and enable them to annoy the enemy with destructive volleys as they passed a nar- row defile (in the present town of Lincoln). He then hung on their rear and flanks in con- junction with other troops until they arrived at Charlestown. His contemporaries bore testi- mony to the fact that on this occasion, so im- portant at the beginning of the war, he dis- played the cool and determined bravery of a veteran. His military talents and calm cour- age were remarkable in a young man only twenty-three years of age who had never seen a battle. Dr. Dixwell, who knew him well, states that it was noticed by those who had the direction of public affairs, and he soon after received the commission of a major in the Con- tinental army,-the regular army of the revolu- tion.
The contemporaries of Governor Brooks furnish from their writings the following facts regarding the record of his life. He said that the most fatiguing day he even spent was the 19th of April. 1775. History. informs us that the force under his command arrived on the field at a most opportune moment. A good officer in command on the American side was needed. The impact between the two opposing bodies of well-armed troops was of the utmost consequence to either, and both Briton and American met on terms of equality for the first time on that memorable day. Parker's men at Lexington had fed, with fatal losses, before the fire of a superior body. Buttrick's men at the North Bridge, at a later hour, did not follow up their trifling victory. At a much later hour when the British main body had begun their retreat. Brooks, with the body of minute-men under his command, suddenly arrived on the
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