Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume I, Part 22

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 924

USA > Massachusetts > Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 22

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

(The Phinney Line).

John Phinney, immigrant ancestor, was born in England. He came to Plymouth in New England in 1638. In the early records his name is spelled Finney, Fenney, Fennye and Phinney. He was one of the proprietors of the town of Plymouth, December 2, 1639, and was admitted a freeman, August 20, 1644. He removed to Barnstable, where his descendants have been prominent to the present time. His wife Christian died September 9, 1649, and he married (second) at Barnstable, July 9 or June 10, 1650, Abigail Coggin (or Cogan), widow of Henry Coggin. She was buried May

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7, 1653. He received a letter, dated at Burd- port (Bridport), England, April 10, 1654, from his father-in-law, Thomas Bishop, asking him to send to him Abigail Coggin, his grandchild, to Weymouth to his daughter Mrs. Sarah Lydds in Milcomb and requesting him to care for the other grandchildren, Thomas and Henry Coggin. Henry Coggin was a wealthy merchant and "adventurer" (promoter). Mr. Phinney married (third) June 26, 1654, Eliza- beth Bayley, of Branstable. He was constable at Barnstable. He became interested in that fertile region about Mount Hope and thither he removed in his later years. 'Mother Phinney," doubtless his mother, died at Plymouth, April 22, 1650, aged upwards of eighty. His brother Robert settled also at Plymouth, where he was a town officer and deacon; married, September 1, 1641, Phebe Ripley ; died January 7, 1687-88, aged eighty, and in his will bequeathed to the children of his brother John and others, having no sur- viving children. Child of first wife: 1. John, born at Plymouth, December 24, 1638, men- tioned below. Children of third wife: 2. Jonathan, August 14, 1655. 3. Robert, August 13, 1656, lost his life in Governor Phipps expe- dition in 1690. 4. Hannah, September 2, 1657, married Ephraim Morton. 5. Elizabeth, March 15, 1659. 6. Josiah, January II, 1661, mar- ried, January 19, 1688, Elizabeth Warren. 7. Jeremiah, August 15, 1662. 8. Joshua, Decem- ber, 1665.

(II) John (2), son of John (1) Phinney, was born in Plymouth, December 24, 1638, and was baptized in Barnstable, July 31, 1653. He married, at Barnstable, August 10, 1664, Mary Rogers. Children, born at Barnstable: I. John, May 5, 1665. 2. Melatiah, October, 1666, died 1667. 3. Joseph, January 28, 1668. 4. Thomas, January, 1672. 5. Ebenezer, Feb- ruary 8, 1674. 6. Samuel, November 4, 1676. 7. Mary, September 3, 1678. 8. Mercy, July 10, 1679. 9. Reliance, August 27, 1681. IO. Benjamin, June 18, 1682, mentioned below. II. Jonathan, July 30, 1684. 12. Hannah, March 28, 1687, died young. 13. Elizabeth, baptized May 10, 1691.

(III) Benjamin, son of John (2) Phinney, was born at Barnstable, June 18, 1682. He married Martha Crocker. Children, born at Barnstable: I. Temperance, born 1710. 2. Melatiah, 1712. 3. Barnabas, 1715. 4. Silas, 1718. 5. Zaccheus, 1720, mentioned below. 6. Seth, 1723.

(IV) Zaccheus, son of Benjamin Phinney, was born at Barnstable in 1720. He married

Susanna Davis. Children, born at Barnstable : I. Benjamin, 1744, died 1843; father of Dr. Elias Phinney who settled in Lexington, Mass- achusetts, noted agriculturist and author, clerk of courts in Middlesex county. 2. Timothy, 1746, mentioned below. 3. Barnabas, 1748. (V) Deacon Timothy, son of Zaccheus Phinney, was born in Barnstable in 1746. Dur- ing his long life, extending beyond fourscore years and ten, Deacon Phinney was prominent in civil and church affairs. He held for a time the office of high sheriff of Barnstable county and was deputy sheriff many years. He was state senator in 1811. He built the house · lately owned by the heirs of Ebenezer Bacon. George Phinney, his grandson, wrote: "His grave and dignified bearing is still among the recollections of some now living, whose memories yet retain the picture of the high pulpit with its sounding board, the church official seated below facing the audience, and the square pews, while they still hear in imagi- nation the bang of the hinge-swinging wooden seats, raised for the convenience of a standing position during prayer. To him was given length of days and, the respect of his towns- men, which he held to the close of life." He married Temperance Hinckley, a descendant of Thomas Hinckley, of Barnstable, for years governor of Plymouth colony and subsequently elevated to the same office after the annexation of Plymouth to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He was a soldier in the revolution, first lieu- tenant in Captain Ebenezer Lothrop's com- pany, commissioned April 21, 1776, later under Colonel Nathaniel Freeman. This was an artillery company ( Matrosses). Children, born at Barnstable : I. Timothy, June 13, 1784. mentioned below. 2. Nancy, married Deacon John Munroe; she died in 1881 in her eighty-eighth year.

(VI) Timothy (2), son of Deacon Timo- thy (1) Phinney, was born at Barnstable, June 13, 1784, died September 28, 1883, lacking but a few months of a century. He was buried in the burying ground just west of the church on Meeting-house hill in his native town. He lived in Barnstable all his life, a farmer. He married Olive Gorham Bourne, of Barnstable, daughter of Melatiah and Olive (Gorham) Bourne, granddaughter of Melatiah and Mary (Bayard) Bourne. The family has preserved a certificate signed by John Hancock and six other selectmen of Boston testifying that Melatiah Bourne Sr. "is a gentleman of char- acter and. has lived in this town from his youth and is esteemed for his attachment to

i-5

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the civil and religious liberties of his country." The town of Bourne is named for a prominent member of the Bourne family. Children of Timothy and Olive Gorham ( Bourne) Phin- ney : 1. Sylvanus B., born October 27, 1808, mentioned below. 2. Mary Bourne, married Josiah Walcott, of Roxbury, Massachusetts. 3. George, editor of the Waltham Free-Press, Waltham, Massachusetts. 4. T. Warren, set- tled in Bolinas, California.

(VII) Major Sylvanus Bourne, son of Timothy (2) Phinney, was born in Barnstable, October 27, 1808, in the building later occu- pied by the Sturgis library. He died at the age of ninety-two. Before the close of the war of 1812 he was a passenger with his father on board a packet sloop commanded by Cap- tain Howes, plying between Barnstable and Boston in 1814, when the packet was fired upon by the British frigate "Nymph" in Mass- achusetts Bay, captured and burned with all the cargo. He was taken prisoner with the others and confined for some time. He re- ceived his education in the common schools of his native town, and at an early age served an apprenticeship in the printing office of Hon. Nathan Hale, publishers of the Boston Adver- tiser. Rev. Dr. Edward Everett Hale, son of Nathan, wrote an interesting letter for publi- cation in a brief biography of Major Phinney published on the occasion of his eightieth birthday. In this letter he has the kindest words to say of his father's apprentice who had continued his life-long friend. "Indeed" he says "my first association with a world larger than the nursery is connected with "Syl- vanus," as we used to call you in those days ; and from that hour to this, the name Sylvanus, and, strange to say, the name Sylvester, has always been a pleasant name. I owe it to you, that I have always tried to make out the popes of the name of Sylvester a better series of popes than the general series which surrounded them. If any of them take any comfort from my good opinion, they owe it to you. *

In after-days, our home associations with Barnstable were all connected with yourself. I dare say you have forgotten, but I have not, that you and Mrs. Phinney interested your- selves in the ladies' movement for the com- pletion of Bunker Hill Monument, which began, I think, about the year 1835. But, indeed, my dear Major Phinney, you know perfectly well, though you will be too modest to say so, that you have interested yourself in every good thing which has been done in the

Old Colony from the time when the English took you prisoner down to this present day."

On completion of his apprenticeship, Major Phinney took charge of the Barnstable Journal, the first number of which was published by N. S. Simpkins, October 10, 1828, and con- tinned in this position until June, 1830, when he established the Barnstable Patriot. While foreman of the Journal printing office he printed from stereotype plates two large edi- tions of the English Reader. The first num- ber of the Patriot was dated June 26, 1830, and he continued its editor and proprietor for nearly forty years. His valedictory was pub- lished January 26, 1869. The history of that forty years was written in the Barnstable Patriot. He planned an independent newspaper devoted to the interests of Cape Cod and open for the free discussion of religion, politics and other public questions. "Though obliged to contend against weighty and angry odds, we made steady headway from the first; and increasing confidence in ourself was warranted by the public good-will which gathered to our. aid, and cheered us on to what years ago, we counted as absolute success. But the vicissi- tudes of such a career ! How great and how varied ! How gratifying and joyous, how sad-oh, sometimes how sad-even amidst suc- cess, is the forty years' life of an editor and publisher in its current passing! How inde- scribable the retrospect from its close! But the friendships we have made and enjoyed through our regular calling, they have been and remain a host, thank God! The oppo- nents political, with whom we have exchanged the common, and sometimes uncommon severi- ties of our profession, we believe, with very few, and those insignificant, exceptions, have left nothing rankling to disturb their good-will towards us. *

* "The second-hand press and old font of type with which we published the first Patriot, loaned us by our old master, the Hon. Nathan Hale of blessed memory, were brought to us by packet from Boston ; and our paper to print upon, the first winter, was transported therefrom upon stagecoachi top. * * And may we not claim that in the enlightenment of the public sentiment, the diffusion of liberal ideas, the softening of religious asperities, and the inculcation of Democratic principles in the county, the Patriot has been pre-eminently a pioneer and co-worker? In the cause of our country, in contest with her foreign foe or later, in that for her own unity and integrity, the Patriot

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was ever true to its name and its professions. And to the Democratic principles of govern- ment it has given constant support with all the efficiency it could command." Even to the present time the Patriot has continued the leading newspaper of Cape Cod and one of the best weeklies of the state.

Major Phinney began his military career early in life, and when he was but twenty-two years old was commissioned major of the First Regiment of Massachusetts militia. He took part in the regimental reviews of 1832 and 1833. During the civil war he supported the government heartily. He was appointed by Governor John A. Andrew a member of the committee of One Hundred and presented the Sandwich Guards, Company D, Third Regi- ment, Massachusetts Battalion, with a costly flag upon which was inscribed : "Our flag floats to-day not for party but for country." On visiting that regiment at Fortress Monroe in March, 1862, Major Phinney was present at the memorable battle between the "Monitor" and "Merrimac." He cast his first vote for Andrew Jackson and remained a Democrat throughout his long life. He represented the town of Chatham in the constitutional conven- tion of 1853; was Democratic candidate for congress and councillor of the first district. He represented the first district in the Demo- cratic National conventions of 1844-53-57. He was elected councillor by the state senate to fill a vacancy. When he was candidate for councillor in 1882 he polled 9,922 votes, the largest Democratic vote ever before cast in that district. He was appointed collector of customs for the Barnstable district by Presi- dent Polk and held office through the adminis- trations of Polk, Pierce, Buchanan and John- son. During that time he disbursed for the government hundreds of thousands of dollars to the fishermen of Cape Cod under the Cod Fishing Bounty act of 1819 and was instru- mental in procuring from Congress an appro- priation of $30,000 for building the custom house and postoffice at Barnstable. He raised by subscription a sufficient amount of money for purchasing the grounds and building the Agricultural Hall, while president of the Barn- stable County Agricultural Society, in which he was always greatly interested. He repre- sented the society for twelve years in the state board of agriculture. For many years he held the office of vice-president of the New Eng- land Society. He was a pioneer in cranberry culture, the leading agricultural product of the Cape to-day. And he began the planting of

pine trees to make use of the sandy and uncul- tivated lands of that section, furnishing an example that has been followed by many enter- prising farmers and land-owners.

He was for seventeen years president and for twenty-five years a director of the Hyannis National and Yarmouth banks. He was secre- tary for many years of the Barnstable Savings Institution in the days of its prosperity, and in 1870 was elected president of the Hyannis Savings Bank. He was prominent in the Unitarian church and for more than a score of years president of the Cape Cod Unitarian Conference. He was active in charity and good works to the extent of his means. In 1883 he was appointed by Governor Benja- min F. Butler on the state board of health, lunacy and charity. He was in 1875 elected a trustee of Humboldt College (Iowa). The esteem in which he was held by those closely associated with him in office and business is shown by the presentation of a valuable silver service in 1861 when he retired as collector, and the occasion was taken by the speakers and afterward by the press to commend his able, efficient and satisfactory administration of his office. He was clerk of the Cape Cod Central railroad from its organization to the time of its consolidation with the Old Colony railroad in 1872, when he presided at a notable meeting of directors and leading citizens at Masonic Hall, Hyannis, at which a testimonial was presented to the retiring superintendent, Ephraim N. Winslow. Again, upon the re- tirement of Hon. Nymphas Marston as judge of probate, Major Phinney presided at a pre- sentation of a similar testimonial. In 1862 he was chosen at a citizens' meeting of the town of Provincetown to represent its interests at a hearing in Washington on the fishery treaty then under consideration.

Major Sylvanus B. Phinney married (first) in 1832, Eliza Cordelia Hildreth, daughter of Colonel Jonathan Hildreth, of Concord, Mass- achusetts. She died July, 1865, and he mar- ried (second) in October, 1866, Lucia Green, of Barnstable, youngest daughter of Hon. Isaiah L. Green, of Barnstable, who repre- sented the Barnstable district in congress and voted for the war of 1812. Children of first wife, born at Barnstable: I. Theodore, men- tioned below. 2. Robert, married Sarah Clough. 3. Gorham, married Ellen Jane Oakes Pratt, whose father was the largest iron manufac- turer in Boston ; they reside at Allston in Bos- ton ; children : Harry, Leslie, Nellie, married Dr. Taylor and has two children. 4. Cordelia.

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(VIII) Theodore, son of Major Sylvanus Bourne Phinney, was born in Barnstable. He was educated in the public schools of Barn- stable; was engaged with his father on the Patriot from 1860 to 1868; then went to Chicago where for one year he was engaged in the auction and commission business ; then went to Wheeling and was engaged in the iron manufacturing business until 1892; then went to Boston and was engaged in the brokerage business until 1906; now (1909) a traveling salesman. He is a member of Barnstable Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, a Uni- tarian in religion and a Republican in politics. He married, June, 1873, Helen F. Hobbs, born at Wheeling, West Virginia, April 14, 1852, daughter of John Henry and Mary A. (Leech) Hobbs (see Hobbs family). Mrs. Phin- ney is a graduate of Mt. De Chantal Con- vent, Wheeling, class of 1870. They reside at 79 Maple street, Malden. They have one child, Mary, born at Wheeling, May 30, 1881, educated in private schools; married J. Elliot Knowlton, born at Malden, graduate of Malden high school, class of 1893; in September, 1893, entered First National Bank at Malden, and in February, 1908, was advanced to receiving teller, having served from 1898 to 1908 as bookkeeper ; he served as treasurer of Trin- itarian Congregational Society, which society is over two hundred and sixty years old, and is serving on several important committees in the church ; he is a member of the Amphion Musical Club of Melrose and of the Kern- wood Club. During his spare moments he studied law, was admitted to the bar, August 21, 1898, and is now practicing law. Mr. and Mrs. Knowlton has one child, Warren Put- nam, born at Malden, May 4, 1908.

WELLS The carly records of the New England colonies contain men- tion of many persons of this name, who were settled at Boston, Lynn, Hat- field, Haddam, Ipswich, New London and

Hartford. From the carly progenitors descended a manly race who made records in the revolution. Nine who spelled their names Welles were patriot soldiers in the revolution in Massachusetts regiments, and one hundred and sixty whose name is spelled Wells. In the Connecticut organizations were five of the Welles branch and forty-seven of the Wells branch of the family. Other spelling of the name in revolutionary records are: Wailles, Wails, Wealls, Weels, Well, Walles, Wels, Wills and Wolle. Prominent among the men

of this name ( Welles) was Governor Thomas of this sketch, Gideon, once secretary of the navy, and Edward R., an American bishop. Among those who use the simpler spelling of the name (Wells) are Henry T., a painter ; H. G., a novelist ; and Sir Thomas A., Baronet, a surgeon of note, all of England. In Amer- ica Horace and John D., men of rank in med- icine.

(I) Governor Thomas Welles. Of this prominent colonist of Connecticut, Savage says: "It is quite uncertain when he came from England, though . satisfactorily known that he brought three sons and three daugh- ters; equally certain is the name of his wife, though we can hardly doubt whether he brought one ; and, stranger still, is the uncer- tainty of his prior residence in Massachusetts. He had good proportion of the patents from Swampscott and Dover, which he sold, August, 1648, to Christopher Lawson. We may then safely conclude that a person of his education and good estate had not come over the water before 1636, and that he staid so short a time at Boston, or Cambridge, as to leave no trace of himself at either, and he was established at Hartford before Governor Haynes left Cam- bridge. There is, indeed, a very precise tradi- tion of his coming with his father Nathaniel, in the fleet with Higginson, 1629, to Salem; but that is merely ridiculous." He is said to have been born at Essex, England, 1598. "He came to Boston, or vicinity, probably about 1636; then, perhaps to Saybrook, Connecticut, thence 1637 or earlier to Hartford, thence 1643 to Wethersfield," says Henry R. Stiles, in his excellent "History of Ancient Wethers- field, Connecticut," upon whom we have relied for much that is found in this sketch. Con- tinuing he says: "His name first appears in the Connecticut Colonial Records, as a mem- ber of that Court of Magistrates held at Hart- ford 28 March, 1636-7, which declared war against the Pequots ; and he was a magistrate from that time till his death. He was a mem- ber of the Court which issued the Funda- mental Orders, or Constitution, of 1639, the copy of which in the original manuscript volume of the Colonial Records, is in his handwriting. He was an original proprietor at Hartford-where his houselot was on the east side of the street now known as Governor street ; he was appointed treasurer of the col- ony 11 April, 1639, held the office two years and was re-appointed 17 May, 1649, and held it three years; from 1646 to 1649 he was secretary of the colony ; deputy governor 1654-

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6-7-9, acting governor in 1654. during Gov- ernor Hopkins' and also during Governor Winthrop's abesences in England; and gov- ernor in 1655 and 1658. He was frequently associated on important committees and in public affairs with Haynes, Ludlow, Mason and the other foremost men of the colony ; rendered conspicuous services also, as a com- missioner 1649-1659, of the United Colonies, in effecting the union of the Connecticut and New Haven colonies, in 1643, for mutual pro- tection and benefit." At the last meeting of this body, at Hartford, 1659, Mr. Welles was requested "For the encouragement of the Indians at Wethersfield that attend Mr. Pier- son and refrain from Pawauging (pow-wow- ing) and from labor on the Lord's day. Mr. Usher was ordered to deliver to Mr. Welles, Deputy Governor of Connecticut, six yards of trading cloth to be distributed to the principal Indians amongst them." In every detail of his public service he was distinguished for his uniform attention to his duties and the public interest. On the Hartford town records his name early appears; in 1639-40, among the inhabitants who had rights in the undivided lands, was frequently on town committees for the division of lands and determining the pro- portions and bounds of the same; the settle- ment by boundary differences, and the division among the Hartford people of the lands east of the Great river. About 1643 or 1645 he removed to Wethersfield and bought Mr. John Plum's eighteen acre homestead. Later he bought the Swayne homestead (latterly occu- pied by General L. R. Welles) and which he gave to his grandson, Captain Robert Welles. He also bought, 1655, from Robert Foote, the James Boosey homestead; but he resided on the Plum homestead. Thomas Welles died January 14, 1660. Governor Winthrop refers in a letter to Mr. Welles as "being very well at supper and dead before midnight." His remains now rest at Hartford. His will dated November 7, 1659, was probated April II, 1660. The inventory amounted to £1069 and two pence, and included books, English and Latin. Governor Welles married (first) in England, but nothing is known of the wife. He married (second) about 1646, Elizabeth Deming, widow of Nathaniel- Foote, also first settler of Wethersfield. She died July 28, 1683, aged about eighty-eight years. The children, all by first marriage were: Anne, John, Robert, Thomas, Samuel, Sarah, Mary and Joseph.

(II) John, eldest son of Governor Thomas

Welles, was born about 1621, died at Strat- ford, Connecticut, August 7, 1659. He re- moved to Stratford in 1647, where he was admitted a freeman at the general court of elections, April 10, 1645 (O. S.). He was a deputy to the general court, May 15, 1656, and the court of October 2, 1656; also at those held May 21, and October 1, 1657. At court of March II, 1658, he was among those nomi- nated "to be prepounded at the next General Court for choice to be magistrates in this juris- diction," and at the said court he was so elected, his father at the same time being chosen governor. In October, 1658, he was one of those persons appointed by the court to assist in the work of the probate court of Fair- field. He was also a magistrate in the general court of March 9, 1659, and was re-elected in May, 1659. His will, dated August 7, 1659, was proved October 19, 1659. He married, in Stratford, 1647, Elizabeth Bourne, who mar- ried (second) March, 1663, John Wilcoxson, of Stratford. The children of John and Eliz- abeth were: John, Thomas and Robert (twins), Temperance, Samuel and Sarah.

(III) Captain Robert, son of John and Eliz- abeth (Bourne) Welles, was born in 1651 in Stratford, died in Wethersfield, June 22, 1714. He was taken by his grandfather, the governor, to Wethersfield, when young, and there he was educated and became the heir to his grand- father. He quarrelled with his step-grand- mother, and in 1676 it was ordered by the court that whereas he "both dammyfied her Barne, by parting with the other part of the Barne that did adjoin to itt," he should repair it, and "Make up yhe annuity of £12 per annum," which by his grandfather's will he was to pay her. He was made a freeman October, 1681 ; was chosen captain of the train band, September, 1689; was deputy for Wethersfield to the general court, 1690- 91-92-93-94-97-98-99-1700-01-04-05. He was appointed commissioner for Wethersfield 1692- 93-94: appointed justice of the peace, May, 1702-04-05-06; served as member of the coun- cil, 1697-98; was deputy to the general court, 1708 to 1714, inclusive ; was appointed justice of the peace and of the quorum, 1707 to 1711, and 1714; was one of the patentees to whom the patent of Wethersfield was granted Feb- ruary 17, 1686; and when, in June, 1704, in consequence of threatened Indian hostilities, six houses were ordered to be fortified in Wethersfield, his residence was one of the number. Captain Robert Welles was a man of large estate and much prominence. The

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Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume I, Part 22

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848- Publication date: 1910 Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company Number of Pages: 924

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 924