USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Historic homes and places and genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Volume III > Part 15
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he was less successful. Falling in with a Brit- ish vessel of equal or superior force and rely- ing on the boasted bravery of a newly shipped crew, he gave battle. Immediately upon the attack, a portion of his men proved by their conduct that his confidence in their bravery had been misplaced ; and after a short but sharp engagement, in which he was wounded, he was compelled to surrender, and was carried to Halifax. His brothers Thomas and Benjamin who were in the crew were killed, and his brother-in-law, Benjamin Ives, was wounded. Captain Giles had to have his leg amputated twice in one day, after reaching Halifax, once below, then above the knee. The operation was performed by Dr. Jeffries, of Halifax, later of Boston, and the surgeon of the priva- teer, Dr. Elisha Whitney, of Beverly. He lived thirty years afterward, and continued to follow the sea, having a wooden leg. He was master and owner of a brig which he had built and later altered into a ship called the "Harriet," the name of his daughter mentioned below, and it was employed in the Liverpool trade. He had a large property, but died abroad and in some way his heirs were defrauded of the greater part of it. He resided in Bev- erly and was actively interested in politics. He adopted a young man of foreign birth, who afterwards bore the name of Mark Giles; re- siding in Beverly; married Judith Haskell and had a son Eleazer, born January 10, 1826, who was second lieutenant of the Beverly Light Infantry, Company E, Eighth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers, in 1861. Captain Giles died in Liverpool in 1809. Children: I. Ebenezer, born April 15, 1769, married Han- nah Woodbury, of Beverly ; died without issue at Prospect, Maine, about 1842. 2. Eleazer Bishop, March 16, 1771, died young. 3. Eliz- abeth, April 27, 1773, married James Wright, a native of Scotland; a baker in Salem; died July, 1825; she died at a very advanced age. 4. Eleazer, January 23, 1775, died young. 5. Eleazer, February 23, 1777, died May 21, 1779. 6. Benjamin, February 23, 1779, married Nancy Williams, of Beverly. 7. Sarah, Jan- uary 9, 1781, married, October 2, 1798, John Lemon, a native of Ireland, cabinet-maker of Andover, Massachusetts, and Malden; she died in Andover, September 18, 1853; had eleven children. 8. Harriet, January 29, 1784,. mentioned below. 9. Eleazer, January 3, 1786, died about 1830, at father's house. IO. Amelia, July 9, 1788, married John Brown, of Ossipee, New Hampshire; lived in Boston; had seven children.
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(VII) Harriet Giles, daughter of Captain Eleazer Giles (6), was born in Beverly, January 29, 1784. Married, in Charlestown, Massachu- setts, January, 1822, Captain Benjamin Rus- sell, a ship-master of Salem. She died about 1836. Children : I. Thomas, born August 7, 1823, died about 1901. 2. Harriet Elizabeth, February 8, 1826, died May 20, 1905; married Henry Amerige, of Boston. (See Amerige sketch).
JACKSON Edward Jackson, the immi- grant ancestor, was born in London, England, in 1604, and baptized February 3, 1604, in the parish of Stepney, son of Christopher Jackson. He pur- chased land in Cambridge Village of Samuel Holley in 1643. He was admitted a freeman in May, 1645. In 1646 he purchased a farm in Cambridge Village of five hundred acres of Governor Bradstreet for one hundred and forty pounds, and this was long known as the Mayhew farm, Bradstreet having bought it from Thomas Mayhew, of Watertown, in 1636, with all the buildings thereon, for six cows. This five hundred acre farm commenced near what is now the division line between Newton and Boston ( formerly Brighton), and extended westward, including what is now Newtonville, and covering the site where Judge Fuller's mansion house once stood. The site where General Michael Jackson's mansion house stood was near the centre of the May- hew farm; and a few rods nearer the brook stood the old dwelling house conveyed with the farm in Mayhew's deed to Bradstreet. The house was built, of course, before 1638 and it is therefore highly probably that it was the first dwelling house built in Newton. The cellar hole, according to Jackson's "History of Newton," was still visible at the time the book was written, a few rods from the brook, and almost filled up. In laying out the old high- way in 1708 (long since discontinued) which passed by the house, the description is, "cross- ing the brook near where the old house stood." The house which was erected before 1638 was gone before 1708. At the time of Edward's death in 1681 his dwelling house was about three-quarters of a mile easterly, near the line of Brighton, about twenty rods northerly from the road to Roxbury. It is described in the inventory of his estate as a spacious mansion with a hall designed no doubt for religious meetings. He was chosen a deputy to the general court from Cambridge in 1647, and iii-11
continued in that office for seventeen years, and was honored with many other public offices ; selectman of Cambridge in 1665 ; chair- man of a committee with Edward Oakes and Lieutenant Governor Danforth, appointed 1653, by the town of Cambridge, to lay out all necessary highways in Cambridge on the south side of the Charles river ; chairman of a com- mittee with John Jackson, Richard Park and Samuel Hyde "to lay out and settle Highways, as need shall require in Cambridge Village ;" one of the commissioners to end small causes in Cambridge for several years. He was con- stantly present with Rev. John Eliot at his lectures to the Indians at Nonantum, to take notes of the questions of the Indians and of the answers of Mr. Eliot. He was one of the proprietors of Cambridge, and in the division of the common lands there in 1662 he received four acres, and in 1664 he had thirty acres. He was also a large proprietor in Billerica lands, and in the division of 1652 he had four hundred acres which by his will he gave to Harvard College, together with other bequests. He was the author and first signer of a peti- tion to the general court in 1678, praying that Cambridge Village might be set off from Cam- bridge and made an independent town. The petition was granted in 1679, notwithstanding the powerful opposition of Cambridge, which in its bitter remonstrance bears strong and honorable testimony of Edward Jackson. After saying many hard words about the pe- titioners, it adds: "We would not be under- stood to include every particular person, for we acknowledge that Mr. Jackson brought a good estate to the town, as some others did, and hath not been wanting to the ministry, or any good work among us, and therefore we would not reflect upon him in the least." Cap- tain Edward Johnson's "History of New Eng- land" contains a short notice of the characters of many of the leading men of his time, among whom he classes Edward Jackson, saying : "He could not endure to see the truths of Christ trampled under foot by the erroneous party."
He died June 17, 1681, aged seventy-nine years and five months (gravestone). His in- ventory showed that he owned more than six- teen hundred acres of land, and the value of his estate was 2,477 pounds 19 shillings six- pence, and included two slaves valued at five pounds each. He was probably the first slave- holder of the town. He divided his lands among his children in his life, erecting the ne- cessary bounds. It is a remarkable fact in
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relation to Edward and his brother John, that while Edward had but three sons and John five, there are multitudes of descendants of Edward and extremely few of John. Forty-four des- cendents of Edward were in the revolution from Newton, and not one of John's descend- ants. It is said that his son Sebas (or Sea- born) was born on the passage to this country. If so, the mother, Frances, died on the voyage or soon afterward. Jackson married second, in March, 1649, Elizabeth Newgate, daughter of John Newgate, and widow of Rev. John Oliver, who graduated at Harvard in 1645, and was first minister of Rumney Marsh, or Chelsea. Children of Edward and Frances Jackson : I. Israel, baptized March 9, 1633, died in infancy. 2. Margaret, baptized Janu- ary I, 1633. 3. Hannah, born 1634, baptized May I, 1634. 4. Rebecca, baptized October 12, 1636. 5. Caleb, born 1638, baptized Oc- tober 10, 1638. 6. Joseph, baptized September 13, 1639. 7. Frances, died in Cambridge in 1648. 8. Jonathan. 9. Sebas, mentioned be- low. Children of second wife: 10. Sarah, born January 5, 1650. II. Edward, born De- cember 15, 1652. 12. Lydia, born 1656. 13. Elizabeth, born April 28, 1658. 14. Ruth, born January 15, 1664. These children inter- married with the Fuller, Prentice, Ward, Ho- bart and Bond families.
(II) Sebas Jackson, son of Edward Jack- son (I), was born about 1643, on the voyage, according to tradition. At his father's death he received the farm set apart for him during his father's life, with dwelling house and one hundred and fifty acres of land ; also two gild- ed silver spoons. The house was eighteen by twenty-two feet, two stories in height, and stood on the same spot occupied in later years by the mansion of William Jackson. The old house was built in 1670, enlarged in 1690 to thirty-nine feet in length, and demolished in 1809. He died December 6, 1690, less than fifty years of age, and none of his children were of age. He left all his estate to his wife for her maintenance and bringing up the chil- dren ; afterward to be divided among the chil- dren. His inventory amounted to about six hundred pounds. Seventeen years after his death the property was divided by agreement of the heirs. He married Sarah Baker, April 19, 1671, daughter of Thomas Baker. Children, born in Newton: I. Edward, born September 12, 1672. 2. Sebas, born March 12, 1673, died young. 3. John, born March 1, 1675. 4. Sarah, born November 8, 1680. 5. Elizabeth, born March 2, 1683. 6. John, born March 15,
I685. 7. Jonathan, born September 10, 1686; lost at sea in 1714. 8. Mary, born December 27, 1687. 9. Joseph, born March 6, 1690; mentioned below.
(III) Joseph Jackson, son of Sebas Jack- son (2), was born in Newton, Massachusetts, March 6, 1690; married Patience, daughter of Samuel Hyde, the grandson of Deacon Samuel Hyde, November 28, 1717. She died October 25, 1775, aged eighty-four. He died June 28, 1768, aged seventy-eight. He left a will, but on petition of all the heirs it was set aside, be- cause, after he made his will, he sold most of his real estate. The estate was settled by agreement, the widow to have the real estate during her life, after which it was to go to the son Timothy. Joseph and his brother Edward had a long and expensive lawsuit over the settlement of the estate of their brother Jon- athan, who was lost at sea, and Joseph was at the court house so much that he acquired con- siderable knowledge of law, was called a quack lawyer, and was often consulted by his friends and neighbors. But this experience cost him most of his property. He was a clothier, wor- sted comber, and farmer also, a good penman, and well informed for his day. He was fam- ous for raising honey bees, and sweetened his minister and neighbors with large donations of honey. Parson Cotton came annually for his pot of honey. Jackson had much company in honey time, and treated his guests with bread, spread with butter and honey, and with "matheiglin" (sic) and cider to wash it down. He was so lame during his last years as to be unable to walk, but could use his arms with much vigor, and he used to sit in an arm chair especially constructed for him, to cut wood, and even to plant, hoe and weed his garden. The chair has been preserved by his descend- ants. Concerning this chair, Mrs. Marian Gil- bert, a descendant of the fifth generation, wife of Rev. Lyman Gilbert, wrote a most charm- ing poem, a portion of which is in Jackson's "History of Newton," from which the mater- ial for this sketch has been gathered largely. Children, born at Newton : I. Lydia, born September 20, 1718. 2. Timothy, born April 20, 1726; mentioned below. 3. Joseph, born August 2, 1729. 4. Patience, born April 21, 1734; married April, 1762, Thaddeus Spring and settled in Weston.
(IV) Lieutenant Timothy Jackson, son of Joseph Jackson (3), was born in Newton, April 20, 1726; married February 20, 1752, Sarah Smith, of Cambridge. He lived in the old mansion in the eastern half. He was a
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soldier of the French and Indian war, and dur- ing his absence his wife conducted the farm. He died June 18, 1774, of consumption, in- testate and insolvent, but his widow Sarah managed to pay off the debts from her own property. She was a woman of great courage and perseverance. She died November 27, I797, aged eighty-one. Children: I. Lucy, born January 22, 1753, married Moses South- er. 2. Sarah, born November 9, 1754, died unmarried. 3. Timothy, born August 3, 1756; mentioned below. 4. Mary, born January 22, 1760, married Caleb Gardner, of Brookline. 5. Abigail, born June 10, 1763; died unmar- ried, December 5, 1851.
(V) Major Timothy Jackson, son of Lieu- tenant Timothy Jackson (4), was born August 3, 1756, at Newton. He inherited a part of the original homestead in Newton, and dwelt un- der the same roof that had sheltered his an- cestors for several generations. This house was finally torn down in the spring of 1809. He was athletic and robust in physique, and had an active and vigorous mind. He had the usual common school education of his day.
At the age of fifteen he joined one of the Newton militia companies, and at the age of eighteen belonged to an independent company of minutemen in Newton, raised in January, 1775, in accordance with the plans of the Whig leaders, and when the company responded to the Lexington Alarm he was corporal. He heard the signal guns in early morning an- nouncing that the British troops were in mo- tion, and at break of day went to the captain's house and received orders to warn the com- pany to meet on the parade grounds forthwith, and before eight o'clock the company was marching toward Lexington to join their reg- iment at Watertown. Thence the regiment proceeded to the scene of hostilities, and at Concord encountered Lord Percy's reserves, and harassed the retreating British on the flank and rear until nightfall, when at Lech- mere Point the red-coats embarked in their boats and passed out of reach of the Ameri- cans. This company of minutemen publicly received the thanks of General Warren for their zeal and bravery throughout the day.
Soon after the battle of Bunker Hill a com- pany was raised to serve eight months, mostly of Newton men, commanded by Captain Nath- an Fuller, of Newton, and joined the Conti- nential army under Washington, at Cambridge. During the last four months of this term he joined the company, and was appointed order- ly sergeant by Captain Fuller. In September,
1776, he entered the service again on a priva- teer fitted out at Salem, sailing on a cruise the nineteenth of that month. Ten days later she was captured by the British frigate "Perseus," after a running fight, in which Jackson was wounded in the neck by a musket ball. The prisoners were taken to New York city and "confined in one of those floating hells called prison ships." After six months torture in that loathsome place he was impressed into the British naval service, and placed on board a large Indiaman, pierced for thirty-six guns, as a convoy to a fleet of transports to England. Of the thirty-six men composing the crew of this ship, ten were impressed Americans. After a rough and boisterous voyage of eighty days they arrived in London. Next he was assigned to a Spanish-built guardship of one hundred and twenty guns in the Thames, and transferred thence to the frigate "Experi- ment," bound for Lisbon. On his return from Lisbon he was put on board Lord Howe's flagship, and sailed with the fleet to the West Indies. While on that station he was trans- ferred to the frigate "Grasshopper." After the cruel treatment he had received on board these British war vessels he determined to stand it no longer, and while the "Grasshop- per" lay at anchor in the harbor of Antigua, about half a mile from shore, he took advan- tage of a severe shower which had driven the sentinel below, to pass over the stern of the ship at midnight, unobserved, and sat upon the chains until the storm abated, when he swam ashore. He was quite exhausted by his half hour of swimming. He walked to St. Johns, and shipped as a sailor on an English sloop, Captain Clark, who traded among the English Islands, but was bound eventually for New York. He changed his voyage, however, and sailed for Cork, Ireland, and Jackson left the ship at St. Kitts, where he succeeded in en- gaging passage to North Carolina in a pilot boat, and thence shipped in a vessel bound for Boston. But on this voyage he was again cap- tured by the British and carried into New York. While the vessel was furling sails and hauling alongside the wharf, he made his es- cape unobserved, traveled by land two days and nights, and had nearly reached the Ameri- can lines when he was captured by an advance guard of Hessian troops and carried back to prison in New York, in January, 1778. He was kept in his loathsome jail for six months, and his sufferings were appalling. Smallpox raged, and scarcely a day passed that he did not see some American soldier writhing in the
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agony of death from this disease. Soon after the battle of Monmouth he was exchanged, and in July, 1778, returned to the American army in a state of destitution, then two hun- dred miles from home, and without a penny. Fortunately he met a townsman, Daniel Jack- son, then a sergeant in Captain Bryant's com- pany of artillery, who lent him money for the journey home, where he arrived in the autumn of 1778, after an absence of one year and ten months. After a few months visit to the army at Rhode Island in the spring of 1779, he took the homestead at Newton, and settled down as a farmer, at the age of twenty-three.
At the annual town meeting in March, 1780, he was elected on the school committee, and on a committee to raise men for the Conti- nental army. From that time until his last sick- ness in 18II he was continually serving town and state offices; was adjutant and brigade major in the militia ; kept the public school in the north district two winter terms; was dep- uty sheriff of Middlesex county from 1791 to 1801, ten years ; selectman many years ; mod- erator of nearly all the town meetings from 1795 to 1810 inclusive, and representative to the general court fifteen years in succession from 1797. He died November 22, 1814, after an illness of three years. He was a man of sound judgment, sterling integrity, and digni- fied bearing ; he naturally took a leading part in public affairs, being for many years the foremost citizen of the town. He married, November 28, 1782, Sarah Winchester, daugh- ter of Stephen Winchster. Children, born in Newton: I. William, born September 2, 1783. 2. Lucretia, born August 16, 1785, died De- cember 28, 1812; married Enoch Wiswall. 3. Stephen W., born March 19, 1787. 4. Francis, born March 7, 1789. 5. George, born April 22, 1792. 6. Edmund, born January 9, 1795; mentioned below.
(VI) Edmund Jackson, son of Major Tim- othy Jackson (5), was born in Newton, Jan- uary 9, 1795. He was educated there in the public schools. He engaged in the manufac- ture of candles and soap when a young man, established a flourishing business and acquired a competence. He became intensely interest- ed in the anti-slavery movement, and after he retired from business, when he was about fifty years of age, he gave all his time to that cause, devoting practically all of the remainder of his life in his efforts to free the slaves in this country. He became very prominent in the movement, and was a friend of the Garrisons, Phillips and other leaders. He was originally
a Whig in politics, and was a faithful and ear- nest member of the Unitarian church. Mr. Jackson was the founder of the Newton Pub- lic Library, and was its superintendent for many years, and until the city took it as a municipal department.
He married, January, 1827, Mary Harriet Hewes, born in Boston, December 5, 1803. Children, born in Boston : I. Charles H., born December 17, 1827; died 1828. 2. Har- riet W., born December 3, 1828; married The- odore A. Simmons, and had one daughter. 3. Edmund, born May 26, 1830; married Anna Woodward; no children. 4. Henry, born September 5, 1831 ; died 1832. 5. Ellen, born June 30, 1833; married Eben Tarbell; had five children. 6. Sarah, born September 25, 1835, died in infancy. 7. Mary F., born April 4, 1837, died 1842. 8. Charles, born August 24, 1839, died 1842. 9. Frederick, born May 9, 1841, deceased ; married Harriet Allen, had three children. He enlisted in 1862 in the Forty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry, in Com- pany D. 10. Anna Louisa, born February 12, 1844; resides at home. II. Lewis, born September 27, 1847 ; died in infancy.
The immigrant ancestor of Ir- WRIGHT win Orlay Wright, of Med- ford, was Walter Wright, of Andover, Massachusetts. He seems to have come from England as early as 1663 or 1664. The town records of Andover state that Wal- ter Wright was on a coroner's jury April 21, 1664, that "sat on ye body of Peter Allyn who was drowned in ye Shawshine River about a myle from ye town of Andover." He was a weaver and twenty-two years of age at that time. In 1673 Walter Wright and Edward Whittington, weavers, were granted land "for the encouragement of erecting a fulling mill." May 4, 1696, the town voted that "ten men hereafter named shall have the liberty of mak- ing a ware for ye catching of fish in Merri- mack River-on the following conditions, viz : to sell to ye inhabitants of this town at any price not exceeding twelve pence ye score and ye inhabitants of this town to be supplied be- fore strangers." Walter Wright, Sr., was one of the ten. He died October 20, 1712, at the age of seventy. By his will which was signed January 31, 17II-12, and probated November 3, 1712, it appears he was a farmer as well as weaver, as he disposed of considerable real es- tate and cattle and sheep. February 26, 1667, he married Susannah Johnson, daughter of
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Stephen and Elizabeth Johnson, of Andover. She died June 3, 1684, and he married Eliza- beth Sadis, at Andover. She died October 31, 1713, aged about seventy-one. Children, all born in Andover: I. Walter, born February 25, 1668, married Experience Hiller, May 23, I703. 2. Christopher, born November 27, 1671, died January 16, 1673. 3. Mary, born January 22, 1673, died March 22, 1673. 4. John, born February 10, 1676, married Mercy Wardwell, August 31, 1697, died February 16, 1754. 5. Thomas, born March 4, 1678. 6. Elizabeth, born July 20, 1685. 7 Dorothy, born July 23, 1688, married William Wardwell, November 25, 1706. 8. Joseph, born October 28, 1693, married Sarah Chandler, January 12, 1712. 9. Sarah, born March 20, 1696. 10. Abigail, born January 31, 1699. II. Benja- min, born about 1700, married Mary Bennett, of Gloucester. The will mentions another daughter, but no name is given. The above eleven children are all there are on record.
(II) Joseph Wright, born in 1693, married Sarah Chandler, of Andover, January 12, 1712. She died March 15, 1737, aged forty- four, in Woodstock, Connecticut. He received from his father ye house and land which he bought of Joseph Marble on ye west side of Shawshine River, and a pair of oxen and plow irons and hoops for cart wheels, and a young horse colt and a draft chain and an axle when he reached the age of twenty-one years. In 1722 he sold his Andover property and moved to Woodstock, Connecticut, like some of his neighbors. May 5, 1722, he bought of Samuel Lilley, of Woodstock, a house and forty acres of land for foo, and moved there the same month. He afterwards bought three other lots in that town, where he spent the remainder of his life. He was a farmer. According to the town records of Woodstock "in the night of March 15, 1737, the house of Captain Joseph Wright was destroyed by fire, and in it his wife Sarah, son Abid, and a man servant named John Page, aged thirty." The same year he married for second wife Elizabeth
She died December 28, 1846. He died in 1747. Children : I. Joseph, born November 13, 1713. 2. Sarah, born August 4, 1715, at Andover, married Edmund Chamberlain, June 1, 1733. 3. Hannah, born June 20, 1717, at Andover, married Bentley Peters, January 8, 1734. 4. Elizabeth, born February 13, 1719, at And- over, married John Carpenter, November 23, 1738. 5. Hepsibah, born October 14, 1720, at Andover, married Enos Bartholomew Woodstock. 6. Mary, born August 5, 1722,
at Woodstock, married Joshua ---- , Febru- ary II, 174I, of Malden, Massachusetts. 7. John, born April 20, 1724, died January 13, 1733. 8. Abiel, born March II, 1726, died March 15, 1737. 9. Abigail, born February 15, 1728, at Woodstock. 10. Dorothy, born April 3, 1730, at Woodstock, married Pennel Bacon. II. Dorcas, born March 12, 1732, at Woodstock, married Thomas Jewell. 12. John, born June 29, 1734, died October 22, 1734.
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