Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume III, Part 40

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 986

USA > Massachusetts > Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume III > Part 40

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(The Williams Line).

The immigrant ancestor of the principal subjects of the following sketch was the pro- genitor of a race unusually prolific of divines, civilians and warriors of the name who have honored the country of their birth. The num- ber and high scharacter and strong influence of the ministers of the gospel of this family is remarkable. Among the distinguished men of the family have been the founder of Will- iams College, a bishop of the diocese of Con- necticut, a president of Yale College, chief justice, and many other learned and useful men.

(I) Robert Williams appears by name among the early members of the church in Roxbury,

Massachusetts, where he became a freeman, May 2, 1638. The place of his birth and early life was for a long time a matter of conjecture ; but in 1893, two hundred years after his death, there was found in Norwich, England, an indenture of apprenticeship of Nicholas, son of the late Stephen Williams, of Yarmouth, cordwainer (shoemaker), to Robert Williams, and another record stating that Robert was in 1635 warden of the guild of cordwainers and sealer of leather for the city of Norwich. Later was found in the register of the church of St. Nicholas at Great Yarmouth, a record of the marriage of Stephen Williams and Mar- garet Cooke, September 22, 1605. Also bap- tisms of the following named children : Robert, December 11, 1608; Nicholas, August 11, 1616; John, February 2, 1618; Frances, June 10, 1621. There was an elder sister, Ann ; Robert was born in July, 1607; was baptized when eighteen months old in December, 1608; was married to Elizabeth Stalham probably before 1630, and had four children, two sons and two daughters, born to him in England, all of whom accompanied him to America. In 1905 it was discovered that Elizabeth Stalham was baptized in 1595, which shows that she was nearly thirteen years older than her husband. "She was of a good family and had been deli- cately reared and when her husband desired to come to America, though a truly religious woman, she dreaded the undertaking and shrunk from the hardships to be encountered. While the subject was still under consideration she had a dream forshadowing that if she went to America she would become the mother of a long line of worthy ministers of the gospel. The dream so impressed her that she cheer- fully rose up and began to prepare to leave her home and kindred for the new and distant land." The dream was fulfilled, but not in the mother's day, for she died October 24, 1674, leavine no son in the christian ministry. Nine years afterward, her grandsons, John and William Williams, cousins, graduated from Harvard College, two of a class of three and the day of fulfillment began. Robert Williams was much interested in education and made liberal arrangements to assist the free schools, was a subscriber to and for many years a trustee of the funds raised for their benefit, and was one of the most influential men in the town affairs. He disposed of his property by a will, which is still extant. The children of John and Elizabeth, so far as known, were: Samuel, Mary, a daughter. John, Isaac, Stephen and Thomas.

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(II) Captain Isaac, supposed to have been the third son of Robert and Elizabeth (Stal- ham) Williams, was born in Roxbury, Septem- ber I, 1638, died February II, 1809. "He settled in Newtown, which then included Cam- bridge. He represented the town in the Gen- eral Court five or six years, and it is said that he commanded a troop of horse." He is referred to by his own son, Rev. William Will- iams, as well as by Mrs. Pitkin and others as Captain Williams. He married ( first) Martha Park, daughter of Deacon William Park, of Roxbury, and sister of the wife of his brother Samuel. Deacon Park was a man of property and note in the town and represented it in the legislature for many years. He died May 10 or II, 1685, at the age of seventy-nine. Martha died in October, 1674, and Captain Williams married (second) Judith Cooper. The chil- dren of first wife were: Isaac, Martha, Will- iam, John, Eleazer, Thomas and Hannah. The children of second wife were: Peter, Sarah and Ephraim.

(III) Rev. William, second son of Captain Isaac and Martha (Park) Williams, was born in Newton, February 2, 1665, died August 29, 1741. He graduated from Harvard College in 1683, entered the ministry, and was settled over the church in Hatfield in 1685, before he was twenty-one years old. "There he con- tinned laboring with great zeal and exerting a wide influence till death put a period to both his ministry and his life." Rcv. Jonathan Edwards preached his funeral sermon, in which he describes him as a christian scholar and minister more fully than any writing fur- nished by his contemporarics is known to have done. Dr. Charles Chauncey, in a letter to President Stiles, comparing him with Rev. Solomon Stoddard, of Northampton, writes : "Mr. Williams of Hatfield, his son-in-law, I believe to have been the greater man, and I am ready to think greater than any of his own sons, though they were all men of more than common understanding." The following inscription is on the tablet crccted to his mem- ory in the cemetery in Hatfield: "The tomb of the Rev. William Williams, the evangelical pastor of Hatfield, who died 29 August, 1741, in the 76th year of his age and the 56th of his ministry" "My flesh shall rest in hope, for Jesus said I am the resurrection and the life." Mr. Williams married ( first ) Elizabeth, daugh- ter of Rev. Seaborn Cotton, of Hampton, New Hampshire, son of the celebrated Rev. John Cotton, of Boston. She died May 7, 1698, and he married (second)' August 9, 1699,

Christian Stoddard, third daughter of Rev. Solomon Stoddard, of Northampton. She died April 23, 1764, aged eighty-seven. The chil- dren by wife Elizabeth were: William (died young), William, Martha, Elisha and John. Those by wife Christian were : Solomon, Elizabeth, Israel and Dorothy.

(IV) Rev. Dr. Solomon, son of Rev. Will- iam and Christian (Stoddard) Williams, was born January 4, 1701, at Hatfield, died Febru- ary 28, 1776, in Lebanon, Connecticut. He graduated at Harvard College in 1719, and was ordained pastor of the church in Lebanon, Connecticut, December 5, 1722. Sprague says: "Dr. Williams undoubtedly held a place among the most prominent of the New Eng- land clergy. His influence was felt among the churches not only in Connecticut, but through- out New England, and his services were very often called for on important public occasions. He had an extensive correspondence in Europe and America, and among his correspondents abroad he numbered one or more of the Erskines and the celebrated Maclaurin, author of the well known sermon 'Glorying in the Cross.'" Dr. Williams was a fellow of Yale College from 1749 to 1769, and received the degree of D. D. from that institution in 1773. He was the pastor of a patriotic, spirited, self- sacrificing people. How much this may have been owing to his own influence cannot now be known with certainty. Trumbull, the only colonial governor who supported the American cause-the wise and efficient friend and coun- selor of Washington, on whom he depended in the most trying emergencies-had studied theology with Dr. Williams after leaving col- lege, and was his neighbor and parishioner as long as the good pastor lived. Certain it is that they were in full accord in their spirit of resistance to British oppression, and that the voice and pen of Solomon Williams and his son William did much to inspire the people, abroad as well as at home, with ardor and courage for the strife. Dr. Williams shone in the sacred desk with peculiar lustre. His whole deportment was such as greatly recom- mended the ministerial character-grave, devout, solemn, affectionate and animating. In prayer he was copious, fervent, unaffected, devout, spiritual ; endowed with, an amiable talent of adapting himself to every varying occasion, and omitting nothing which was perti- nent, yet always concise, never tedious. But the art, the talent of preaching, was all his own1. He was truly a primitive apostolic Chris- tian divine and preacher. In his family he

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was an example of conjugal tenderness and parental affection ; remarkable for the care and pains which he took to give the best education to his children in every regard. Dr. Williams married, January 22, 1723, about the time of his settlement in Lebanon, Mary, daughter of Hon. Samuel and Joanna (Cooke) Porter, of Hadley, who was born November 4, 1703, and died September 30, 1787. The house in which he lived and in which his children were born, a good sample of an old New England colonial house, remained in the hands of his descend- ants for a hundred years or more, and is still standing in good preservation in old Lebanon, not far from the house in which his distin- guished son William lived. The children of this marriage were: Solomon (died young), Solomon, Eliphalet, Ezekiel, William, Mary, Christian, Moses, Samuel and Eunice.

(V) Ezekiel, son of Rev. Solomon and Mary (Porter) Williams, was born in Leb- anon, Connecticut, May 4, 1729, died in Wethersfield, February 12, 1818. Of the five sons of his father who lived to maturity he was the only one who did not receive a col- lege education. He was of a very ardent, active temperament, and probably preferred business to study. December 12, 1752, land in Wethers- field was conveyed to Elisha Williams Jr., and Ezekiel Williams, both of Wethersfield. From this it is inferred that Ezekiel Williams settled at an early age in Wethersfield and engaged in active business. In 1759 he bought the land upon which he soon after built the large house now standing at the head of Broad street, in which his children were born and reared. He was appointed sheriff for the county of Hart- ford, then an office of more honor than now. His character and official service have been written of as follows: "During the time that tried men's souls, he was warm and active in the cause of his country. Silas Deane sneer- ingly calls his ardor 'boiling zeal.' During most of the time of the Revolutionary War, he was commissary of prisoners for the State of Connecticut, and his voluminous corre- spondence with the venerable Boudinot, com- missary general, shows that the duties were arduous. In adition to this he held the office of sheriff of the county of Hartford, which he resigned in the year 1789, after twenty- two years of service." It is further stated : "He was appointed by the General Assembly captain of the first company of the Sixth Regiment of Connecticut Militia in May, 1761. The same authority also appointed him sheriff of Hartford county in 1767. He was (with

Mr. Pitkin, Thomas Seymour, and Oliver Ellsworth) on the Committee of the Pay Table from April, 1775, to the end of the Revolutionary War accounts of the colony and state. In May, 1775, he with ten others were constituted a commission to take charge of the prisoners of war of Connecticut. In May, 1777, upon the request of Congress, the Gen- eral Assembly appointed him commissary of prisoners. He was thereafter called deputy commissary general and usually titled colonel." He was many years, from 1774 until his death in 1818, deacon of the Church of Christ in Wethersfield. His official duties were dis- charged with great promptitude and fidelity. He was uncompromising in his principles, active in the cause of Christ, and devoted to the welfare of his fellowmen. His hand was ever open to the calls of the poor and destitute, and his heart devised liberal things for the benevolent operations of the day. He was a tender and loving husband, and an affectionate, anxious father. His solicitude for his children, especially for his sons, led him to secure for them the best teachers at home, and to place them under eminent instructors abroad. Ezekiel Williams married, November 6, 1760, Pru- dence Stoddard, his second cousin, daughter of Colonel John Stoddard, of Northamp- ton, Massachusetts. She was born March 28, 1734, died July 1, 1822. Her temperament was just the reverse of that of her husband, and though his profuse hospitality often inter- fered with her domestic arrangements, it is believed that it never disturbed her equanimity or disposed her to check his kindly impulse. Their children were: Emily, John, Harriet, Ezekiel, Prudence, Mary, Esther, Solomon Stoddard, Christian, Thomas Scott, and Samuel Porter.

(VI) Prudence, third daughter of Sheriff Ezekiel and Prudence (Stoddard) Williams, was born in Wethersfield, Connecticut, Octo- ber 2, 1767, died March 24, 1853, in Spring- field, Massachusetts. She married, May 12, 1790, Rev. Bezaliel Howard, D. D. (see Howard V). A sketch of her says: "She was a most gentle being, of very calm exterior and almost unfit to cope with the harsher world without." Rev. Dr. Spragie, a near neighbor and friend, said: "Mrs. Howard was a highly intellectual and benevolent lady." In her youth she was a person of great beauty.

(The Dwight Line).

The Dwight family have been very widely noted for their love of liberty, their belief in

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progress, and their readiness to adopt pro- gressive ideas looking to the continued advance- ment of humanity and civilization. Many of the men of this family are remarkable for their natural executive ability under whatsoever conditions may confront them, whether in material concerns or matters affecting the higher interests of the community.

(I) John Dwight, who is believed to be the ancestor of nearly all of the name in New England, came with his wife Hannah and a daughter Hannah and two sons, Timothy and John, from Dedham, England, to America, in the latter part of 1634, or the beginning of the year 1635. The Dedham records, which began September 1, 1635, on the day when the first town meeting was held, show that twelve per- sons assembled together at that time, of whom John Dwight was one. The record of the set- tlement in brief is as follows : In the year 1635, the general court then sitting at Newtown, granted a tract of land south of the Charles river to twelve men. The next year, nineteen persons including the first twelve petitioned the general court then at Boston for an addi- tional grant of all the lands south of Charles river and above the falls, not before granted, and for a tract five miles square, on the north side of Charles river, for the purpose of mak- ing a settlement. The petition was granted, and included the present towns of Dedham, Medfield, Wrentham, Needham, Billingham, Walpole, Franklin, Dover, Natick, and a part of Sherburne. The original nineteen grantees, of whom John Dwight was one, were the sole owners of these large tracts of land, until they admitted new associates, which they did, at first, without demanding any compensation. There is a tradition in the family that John Dwight was a woolcomber, or at least the son of a woolcomber. He brought with him to New England it is said a valuable estate, and was a wealthy farmer of Dedham, and eminently useful as a citizen and Christian in that town. In Winthrop's Journal it is stated that John Dwight and others conveyed the first water mill to Dedham, in September, 1635. John Dwight, besides his homestead, owned thirty acres of dividend land in Watertown, and was grantee in the great dividends, and in the Beaver Brook Plowlands, both of which he sold to David Fiske. In "the first great divi- dent" of land, bounded on the south by Beaver Brook Plowlands, his lot was No. 21 (among 31) and his number of acres thirty. The first free school supported by a town tax, that was ever thought of in America, was established at

Dedham in 1644. Three of the forty-one per- sons that were assembled on February 1, 1644- 45, in Dedham, in town meeting, and voted such a measure, which was far in advance of their day, were Ralph Wheelock, John Dwight and Richard Everett, ancestors respectively of three subsequent college presidents of their own names: Dr. Wheelock, of Dartmouth, President Dwight, of Yale; and Edward Everett, of Harvard. Of the committee of five feoffees (or trustees) to whom the management of the school was com- mitted, two were John Dwight and Michael Powell. That John Dwight was the sec- ond man of wealth in Dedham is evident from his being second on the assessment roll for taxes. He was admitted freeman May 2, 1638. In 1636 he signed the constitution or covenant of Dedham. He is described in the town records as "having been publicly useful," and "a great peacemaker." He was selectman for sixteen years, 1639-55. He was one of the founders of the Church of Christ, which was formed in Dedham in 1638. His wife Hannah died September 5, 1656, and he mar- ried (second) Mrs. Elizabeth Ripley, widow of William Ripley, and previously of Thomas Thaxter, January 20, 1658. She died without issue July 17, 1660. The children of John and Hannah Dwight were : Hannah, Timothy, John, Mary and Sarah.

(II) Captain Timothy, eldest son of John and Hannah Dwight, was born in England in 1629, died in Dedham, Massachusetts, Janu- ary 31, 1718. He came to this country with his father's family in 1634-35, at the age of five. He was admitted freeman 1655. He was cor- net of a troop in his younger years, and after- wards a captain of foot. He went out ten times against Indians-nine of whom he killed or took prisoners-such was the constant guer- rilla warfare that they kept up aginst the town. The land granted to the first settlers of Ded- ham was subject to the Indian title, which they were bound by law of the colony to extinguish by equitable contract. In 1660 two agents were appointed to treat with the Sagamores who owned Wollomonopoag ( now Wrentham), who were Richard Ellis and Timothy Dwight. They reported in 1662 that they had made a treaty with King Philip for lands six miles square, and exhibited his deed thereof under his hand and seal. After six days the town ratified the deed, and assuned their common rights, to the amount of twenty-four pounds, ten shillings, as the stipulated price to King Philip for his deed. In November, 1669,

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Philip, (Sagamore) of Mt. Hope, offered a treaty for his lands not yet purchased. The selectmen appointed accordingly Timothy Dwight and four others to repair to him on the morrow, with authority to treat with him for his remaining right thereabouts "provided that he can show that he has any, and provided that he will secure the town against future claims of other Sachems." In 1681 it was voted that all deeds and other writings relat- ing to the town rights should be collected for the purpose of being more carefully preserved. After the vote had been duly published, Cap- tain Fisher and Captain Timothy Dwight brought to the selectmen seven Indian deeds. These writings were ordered to be deposited in a box kept by Deacon Aldis, but they were not recorded, and are not now to be found. Timothy Dwight was for ten years town clerk, selectman for twenty-five years (1664-89), and a representative of the town in the general court (1691-92), before the new charter, and perhaps later. It is recorded of him that "he inherited the estate and virtues of his father, and added to both." He is thus described in the church records : ".Timothy Dwight, Esq., a gentleman truly serious and godly, one of an excellent spirit, peaceable, generous, charitable, and a great promoter of the true interests of the church and town." Rev. Samuel Dexter, pastor of the First Church in Dedham for thirty years, says, in "A Century Discourse," preached November 23, 1738: "I shall only add that beside those in the ministry this church and town have been favored with very valuable and worthy men in the magistry, and others in a more private sphere. A Lusher, a Fisher, and a Dwight have been among our men of renown." Worthington says of him, in his History of Dedham: "He was admitted into the church in 1652. He was the town recorder, selectman, and an agent in much town business during the lives of Lusher and Fisher. He was also, after their decease, a deputy to the general court. He was a faith- ful and upright man, and greatly esteemed for his personal merit and for his public services." "John Dwight and Captain Timothy Dwight are, from their active participation in the first crystallizing processes of civil society upon our shores, historic characters in the family, and should be so remembered in it rather than in their own separate individuality," writes Ben- jamin W. Dwight in his "History of the Descendants of John Dwight." In 1707 Tim- othy Dwight conveyed by deed of gift several tracts of land to his son Michael and his other

sons. On May 12, 1710, he settled his estate and gave his property to his sons. He was buried in the cemetery at Dedham. Captain Timothy Dwight married (first) November II, 1651, Sarah Sibley, (as named in her father's will). In the town records she is called Sarah Perham. She was probably a widow, bearing the latter name, at the time of her marriage. She died in childbrith, May 29, 1652. He married (second) May 3, 1653, Sarah Powell, daughter of Michael Powell. Michael Powell was a representative from Dedham to the gen- eral court in 1641-48. He afterward removed to Boston and taught without ordination in the second church of Boston, previously to the settlement of the first minister, Increase Mather. Sarah died June 27, 1664, and Timo- thy married (third) January 9, 1665, Anna Flynt, daughter of Rev. Henry Flynt, of Braintree (now Quincy), and Margery (Hoar) Flynt. She was born September II, 1643, died January 29, 1686. He married (fourth) January 7, 1687, Mary Edwind, widow, of Reading. She died without issue August 30, 1688. He married (fifth) July 31, 1690, Esther Fisher, daughter of Hon. Daniel Fisher. She died January 30, 1691. He mar- ried (sixth) February 1, 1692, Bethiah Moss. She died February 6, 1718, without issue. The tradition is repeated and positive in different family lines that he and his sixth wife were buried together on the same day in the family vault. Captain Dwight had fourteen children. Those by Sarah Powell, second wife, were: Timothy, Sarah (died young), John, Sarah (died young) ; by Anna Flynt, third wife : Josiah (died young), Nathaniel, Samuel (died young), Josiah, Seth, Anna (died young), Henry Michael, Daniel, and Jabez (died young).

(III) Captain Henry, son of Captain Timo- thy and Anna (Flynt) Dwight, was born in Dedham, December 19, 1676, died in Hatfield, March 26, 1732. Nathaniel Dwight, of North- ampton, and Henry Dwight, of Hatfield, brothers, were induced to remove from their paternal home at Dedham to Western Massa- chusetts, in the following way: "The General Court had given to the town of Dedham eight thousand acres of land, to be located anywhere within the jurisdiction of the court, in exchange for two thousand acres granted by that town to the Natick Indians, converted under John Eliot. Lieutenant Fisher and John Fairbanks were appointed commissioners to examine the country and locate the claim. This they did, and selected Deerfield as the spot, and employed

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Major John Pynchon of Springfield to pur- chase the lands of the Petumtuck tribe of Indians, taking him in, with some others also, as joint proprietors with them in the pur- chase. He paid the Indians some £94 and a half as purchase money, which had been raised for the purpose by the people of Dedham." Thus it was that the lowlands of the Con- necticut in Western Massachusetts became early known as Dedham, and thus that the course of the two chief progenitors of the Dwight family in the third generation became determined thitherward. Captain Henry Dwight was active in the subsequent purchase of the territory, comprising the towns of Great Barrington, Sheffield, Egremont, Alford, etc., in what is now Berkshire county. A copy of the original deed of purchase and sale may be found in the records as given by Cankepot, Poueyote, Partarwake, Naurnauquin, and other Indians. "All of Housatonack, for four hundred and sixty pounds, three barrels of cider and thirty quarts of rum, to Colonel John Stoddard, Captain Henry Dwight, and Captain Luke Hitchcock, committee appointed by the General Court to purchase a certain tract of land lying upon Housatonack river." Henry Dwight bought one thousand two hundred acres of this land in June, 1722, for £180. In 1726 Henry Dwight and John Pynchon, of Springfield, and John Ashley, of Westfield, were appointed, by the general court, commis- sioners under "the Act prepared for issuing £100.000 in bills of credit" for government purposes. From records at Northampton it appears that Captain Dwight had a negro slave, Humphrey, for whom he paid £60, and a slave woman, Rose, for whom he paid a like sum. Captain Dwight was a man of wealth, and always a farmer. He was also a trader at Hatfield. At different times in his earlier history he is designated as "clothier" and "shopkeeper." None but men of means and enterprise could be traders in those days ; and none but the best men in the community, "gentlemen" in the technical sense that the word then had, and deacons were licensed "to be innholders, taveners and common victuallers, and to retail strong drink." Captain Henry Dwight was thus licensed in 1728, as Colonel Samuel Partridge before him, who was one of the great men of Western Massachusetts, and chief justice of the court of common pleas for Hampshire county for thirty years. The communion service now used by the Congre- gational church at Hatfield is said to have been given to it by Captain Henry Dwight nearly

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Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume III, Part 40

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848- Publication date: 1910 Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company Number of Pages: 986

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 986