USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Middleborough > History of the town of Middleboro, Massachusetts > Part 6
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He moved from Plymouth to Middleboro a little before 1670, and soon after became a proprietor of the land in the Twenty- six Men's, the Sixteen Shilling, the Little Lotmen's, and the Five Men's Purchases. In 1670 he was the first representa- tive to the General Court from the town, and held that office until his death, October 3, 1673.
He married, in the year 1648, Lettice -. 4 She after- wards became the second wife of Andrew Ring, and died Feb- ruary 22, 1691. Soon after he moved from Plymouth to Middle- boro, he built a house near the river, the site of which is still pointed out, and aside from the large amount of real estate in the vicinity of his house, he held a tract of land of about fifty acres not far from the house of the late Dr. Sturtevant.
1 Gen. Register, 51, p. 192.
2 Morton Memoranda, p. 17.
3 Ibid. p. 25.
4 She may have been Lettice Hanford, widow of Edward Foster of Scituate. Ibid. p. 26.
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EARLY SETTLERS BEFORE KING PHILIP'S WAR
1670]
The inventory of his estate was taken in 1673 by George Vaughan and two other residents of the town. He was a man much esteemed for his intelligence and good judgment, and left numerous descendants prominent in the various walks of life, among whom was the Hon. Marcus Morton, a judge of the Supreme Court and governor of the commonwealth, and his son, Marcus Morton, Jr., chief justice of the Supreme Court.
Volume viii, Plymouth Colony Records, page 35, speaks of him as follows : -
" John Morton, Senir. of Middleberry, died on the third of October, 1673 ; hee was a godly man, and was much lamented by sundry of the inhabitants of that place. It pleased God, not- withstanding, to put a period to his life, after a longe sicknes and sometimes som . hopes of recouery."
Lot 8 in the Sixteen Shilling Purchase was assigned to his wife, Lettice Morton, in the original apportionment of this purchase in 1675.
JOHN MORTON, JR., the oldest son of his father, was born at Plymouth, December 21, 1650, and with his father probably moved to Middleboro not far from the year 1670. He was remarkably well edu- John morton cated for a man of the period, and it is said kept the first public school in America at Plymouth, in 1671, for the education of "children and youth."1 He lived with his father in the house near the river which was proba- bly burned during the Indian War, and was in the fort, one of the Commandant's Council. There is a tradition that he saw the Indians coming one evening, and fearing to remain in the house, he took a pail as if to get some water, but passed the well and did not stop until he found shelter in the fort.
Soon after the return of the settlers to Middleboro he built the southeastern part of what was known as the old Morton house, additions to which were made at different times by his descendants until it assumed the size which was well remem- bered by many of the people of the town.
1 Eddy Memoranda.
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MIDDLEBORO
[1670
At the time of his removal from Plymouth he was a mem- ber of the church there, and never removed his membership, although in full sympathy with the church in Middleboro. He died in Middleboro in 1717.
JOHN NELSON, a son of William Nelson, was born in 1647.
He, with Samuel Wood, was appointed to administer the estate of Henry Wood, October 29, 1670. By an order dated 1671, with Lieutenant Peregrine White, he laid out one thou- sand acres of land near the old Indian way, where the Nemas- ket River runs into Titicut. He was a constable and surveyor of highways in 1669, and laid out land near the old Indian way at Titicut in 1673 ; he was one of the Grand Inquest in 1675, an owner in the Sixteen Shilling Purchase, constable in 1684, and was one of the selectmen in 1681, 1682, 1683, 1685, and 1686. He was appointed guardian of Isaac Fuller in 1695. He probably lived with his father, William Nelson, until the house was burned by the Indians, but after the town was re- settled he returned, and built a house which he occupied until about the year 1687, when he sold the farm to Deacon John Bennett and moved to Lakeville. His first wife, Sarah Wood, daughter of Henry Wood, he married November 28, 1667, and after her death he married Lydia Bartlett, the widow of James Barnaby.2 His third wife was Patience Morton, daugh- ter of Ephraim Morton.
WILLIAM NELSON, SR. Several authorities state that Wil- liam Nelson was a passenger in the Fortune and landed at Plymouth in 1621, but his name does not appear in the list of passengers. He was probably among the first settlers in the town, although it is impossible to state when he first came from Plymouth, or how long he lived in Middleboro. He was married October 27, 1640, to Martha Ford, the first girl born in Plymouth. His name appears in 1643 on the list of those able to bear arms in Plymouth, and he was there admitted as
1 Plymouth Colony Records, vol. v, pp. 18-50, 140, etc.
2 Savage, vol. iii, p. 267, and Plymouth Colony Records, vol. v, p. 247.
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a freeman in the year 1658 and took the oath of fidelity the next year, and in 1670 he was a freeman of Middleboro. He was one of the original purchasers in the Twenty-six Men's and Purchade Purchases, and an owner in these purchases at the breaking out of King Philip's War. His name is among those in the fort at that time, and in the list of proprietors of Middleboro of June 26, 1677, his name appears as William Nelson, Sr. In the plan showing the allotment of lands to the purchasers in the Twenty-six Men's Purchase, the house of William Nelson is on lot 18, and the only one shown on that plan.
In 1672 he, with Lieutenant Peregrine White, was appointed by the court to lay out or divide certain meadows belonging to Pachague Neck, and the enlargement of upland on the Bridge- water side of the river. In 1669 he and John Tomson were appointed by the proprietors for running the line " between the Namassaketts land, called the Major's Purchase, and the towns of Marshfield, Duxburrow, and Bridgewater."
When he built the house occupied by his son John, he planned an orchard near by. His children, William Nelson, Jr., and John Nelson, were of age, and were both probably residents of the town at the breaking out of the war.
SAMUEL PRATT, one of the earliest of the settlers of Mid- dleboro, came from Scituate about the year 1659, and is men- tioned as one of the owners in the Twenty-six Men's Purchase who Samuel pratt were in the fort. At the breaking out of the war he "sojourned in Scituate," where he was "pressed" into the service in accordance with an order of court issued early in 1676. He was a member of Captain Michael Pierce's company of soldiers from Scituate, and was in one of the fiercest contests in this war, known as the Pawtucket fight, " where he, with his captain and nearly all his company who had been trepanned into an ambushment of the enemy, was killed on Sunday, March 26, 1676." 1 He married Mary
1 Descendants of Phineas Pratt, pp. 59, 60.
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Barker, who after his death married Francis Coombs, and later David Wood.1
He had a son Samuel, born November 15, 1670, who died about the year 1745. He is mentioned in Middleboro records, and was a wheelwright by trade. He had two daughters, Susanna Pratt, who married William Thomas of Middleboro, before 171I, often styled " gentleman," and Patience Pratt, who married Ebenezer Lincoln, in October, 1703.
The father of Samuel Pratt was Phineas Pratt, one of the company of about sixty who were sent to Massachusetts to found a colony by Thomas Weston, the London merchant. He sailed from England in the Sparrow, and after touching at several places on the coast, landed at Plymouth in May, 1622. In 1630 he married Mary Priest, and was classed among the old settlers. In 1648 he left Plymouth and moved to Charles- town,2 where he died April 19, 1680, at the age of eighty-seven years. He was the author of an interesting paper, known as the " Declaration of Affairs of the English People that First Inhabited in New England," which was printed by him in 1662, and published in the fourth volume of the Massachu- setts Historical Society, page 476.
ANDREW RING came to Plymouth in 1629, and upon the death of his mother was entrusted to the care of Dr. Samuel Fuller. He was admitted as a freeman in 1646, and was a man of influence in the colony. He was among the first settlers of
1 " His widow afterwards married a Woode, and fearing that her son Samuel might be compelled to serve as a soldier in the French and Indian War, wrote the following remonstrance : -
" These lines may give information that Samuel Pratt's Father, my first husband, was slain by the heathen in Captain Pierce's fight. He was pressed a Souldier when I sojourned att Sittuate, having then noe place of my own, and have brought him up with other small children, and I shall take it very unkindly, Iff he that is the only son of his father that was slain in the former warr should be compelled to go out againe, itt being contrary as I am informed to the law of England and this country, therefore I desire itt may not be.
(No date.) Soe petitions MARY WOODE
from Middlebury [Middleboro ]."
2 Descendants of Phineas Pratt, p. 38.
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Middleboro,1 and in King Philip's War his name appears as one who served from Middleboro. He was included among the Twenty-six Men's, Purchade, and Sixteen Shilling purchasers. He married first Deborah, daughter of Stephen Hopkins, in 1646, and in 1674 the widow of John Morton. He died in Middleboro in 1692, in his seventy-fifth year.
JOHN SHAW, whose name appears in Plymouth Colony Re- cords as John Shaw, the Elder, settled in Plymouth before 1627. He had bought into the Twenty-six Men's Purchase prior to the breaking out of the war, and was one of the inhab- itants of Middleboro in the fort at that time. He was a free- man of Plymouth in 1636-37, and in 1645 was one of the eight men who went out against the Narragansetts. He had sold his interest in the Twenty-six Men's Purchase before 1677 to Samuel Wood. He was one of the purchasers of Dartmouth in 1665, and one of the original owners of Bridgewater and of the Purchade Purchase. Mr. Savage, in his Genealogical Diction- ary, vol. iv, p. 34, says, "he became one of the first settlers in Middleboro in 1662." He brought a complaint against Ed- ward Dotey before the General Court at Plymouth in 1651. He died October 24, 1694, and his wife, Alice, died March 6, 1655.2
DAVID THOMAS and his wife came from Salem to Middle- boro soon after 1668, the date of his selling his land in Salem. They settled in Thomastown, where their descendants are David Thomas still living. He bought into the Twenty-six Men's Purchase, and was an original owner of the Eight Men's Purchase. He had several children, David, Joanna, William, Jeremiah, and Edward, the last born February 6, 1669, the first birth in the early records of the town.
DAVID THOMAS, JR., was probably born in 1649, as in the records of the First Church we find that he is spoken of in
1 Savage, vol. iii, p. 542.
American Ancestors of Alonzo and Sarah W. Kimball, p. 51.
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[1670
1710 as being "about sixty." He married Abigail, daughter of Henry Wood, between 16701 and 1675.
EPHRAIM TINKHAM. There is a tradition which has come down from the earliest settlers that Ephraim Tinkham and Henry Wood were the first settlers in town, the former having built a house a short distance from Henry Wood, about fifty rods north of the house now occupied by Lorenzo Wood on the other side of the road. He was a man of prominence in the colony, and was known as Sergeant Tinkham.
In 1634 he was a servant of Thomas Hatherly of Plym- outh, under an indenture ; on the 2d day of August, 1642, this indenture was transferred to John Winslow, when he received for his services thirty-five acres of land, and on the 22d day of April of the same year he had conveyed to him ten acres of upland by Thurston Clark. He married Mary Brown, a daugh- ter of Peter Brown, one of the passengers of the Mayflower, before October 27, 1647, and in that year he, with his wife, sold to Henry Tomson of Duxbury one third part of a lot of land, with the dwelling-house and buildings thereon, which belonged to Peter Brown.
He often served in the trial of cases, and in 1666 he laid out the bounds of land of Zachariah Eddy with Henry Wood, but the instruments assigning these bounds were signed by him with his mark. He was a freeman of Plymouth in 1670, in 1676 a member of the Grand Inquest, and in 1675 one of the selectmen of Middleboro. In 1674, with William Hoskins, he was appointed on a jury to try a murder case, and in 1668 he was a commissioner with William Crowe and Edward Gray to settle the bounds of the governor's land at Plaindealing. He died in Middleboro in 1683. His will bears date January 17, 1683, and was admitted to probate June 5, 1685.
His children 2 were Ephraim, born August 1, 1649 ; Eben- ezer, born September 3, 1651 ; Peter, born December 25, 1653 ; Hezekiah, born February 8, 1655 ; John, born June 7, 1658 ; Mary, born August 1, 1661, who married John Tomson, a son
1 Eddy Memoranda.
2 Eddy Note-Book.
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of Lieutenant Tomson ; John, born November 15, 1663; Isaac, born April 11, 1666.
EPHRAIM TINKHAM, JR., and EBENEZER TINKHAM were the eldest sons of Sergeant Ephraim Tinkham, and lived in Mid- dleboro in the house occupied by their father. Whether this house first occupied by them was rebuilt upon the same spot after the resettlement of the town is unknown. They were not married until after the return from Plymouth.
Ephraim Tinkham, Jr.,1 was born in 1649, and married Esther - after the resettlement of the town. He was a con- stable in 1681, and propounded as a freeman in 1682. He died October 13, 1714.
Children : John, born August 22, 1680; Ephraim, born October 7, 1682 ; Isaac, born June, 1685 ; Samuel, born March 19, 1687.
His brother, Ebenezer Tinkham, was born September 30, 1651, and married Elizabeth Liscom before 1679. He was one of the original members of the First Church, and one of its first deacons. He died April 8, 1718, aged seventy-three years ; 2 his wife died on the same day, and they were buried in the same grave.
Children : Ebenezer, born March 23, 1679; Jeremiah, born August 7, 1681 ; Peter, born April 20, 1683.3
JOHN TOMSON, the most prominent of the first settlers, was a carpenter, and lived on land which was afterwards set off to form a part of Halifax. He was of Dutch origin, and came to Plymouth, a lad of six 1675 years, in the month of May, 1622. He, Fotin Form son with Richard Church, built the first meet- ing-house in Plymouth in 1637. Before settling in Middleboro he had purchased land in Sandwich, where he lived for a few years. In common with many early settlers of the country,
1 Eddy Note-Book speaks of him as Ephraim of Middleboro.
2 History of the First Church of Middleboro, P. 53.
3 Eddy Memoranda.
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MIDDLEBORO
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he soon desired a larger area of land, and preferred to live in what, at that time, was considered a remote region ; he came to occupy a portion of the Twenty-six Men's Purchase, which was assigned to him, and was one of the purchasers of several tracts of land from the Indians, by order of the court at Plym- outh. In the expedition against the Narragansetts, August 15, 1645, he was one of the first company, and was away sixteen days. He was a man of great physical strength and unusual stature, being six feet, three inches in height. He married Mary, daughter of Francis Cook.
The log house which he built was situated about twenty rods west of what was then the Plymouth line. There he and his family resided until the house was burned by the Indians, at the breaking out of King Philip's War. This was probably the first house burned in the town. At the time of his settlement he was surrounded by the Indians, and suffered much from their stealing his cattle and the products of his farm. It is related that at one time his wife was cooking fish, when In- dians came in and, brandishing a knife over her, attempted to take some of the fish out of the kettle. She repelled them by a vigorous attack with a splinter broom, and such were her courage and bravery that she drove them from the house and they disappeared. When her husband returned, she told him of her adventure, and suspecting treachery among the sur- rounding Indians, they immediately left the house and retired to the garrison, eight miles distant. At another time a large number of Indian squaws came to the house and manifested unusual interest in her affairs, offering to assist her in gather- ing vegetables for the next day, and volunteering their services generally about the house. She kindly refused their offers of assistance, and on the return of her husband he remarked : " We must again pack up and go to the garrison," which they did.
Mr. Tomson was in constant peril for his life and property from the savages during these years. It is related that as a matter of protection he, with his nearest neighbor, Jabez Soule, who had settled in that part now included in the town of
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Plympton, induced an Indian to come to learn English ways of living and cultivating the soil. He lived and worked with Mr. Tomson and Mr. Soule alternately. They did everything they could to win the confidence and affection of this Indian, who was industrious, and apparently quick to learn the new ways of the settlers. After a little time, although he showed great fondness for them, they noticed that he would absent himself for several days. This looked suspicious, as frequent visits were made by chiefs and others from a distant part of the country, so it seemed more prudent to go to the garrison for the night, the men returning to cultivate the fields in the daytime. Soon after this the war broke out, and they saw but little of their Indian servant. After the close of the war, when asked by one of the neighbors why he never showed any hos- tility to his employers, Mr. Tomson and Mr. Soule, he replied that many times he had loaded his gun and raised it to fire upon them, but that he loved them so dearly, and they had done so much for him, that he never could make up his mind to shoot.
There is a tradition that one Sunday morning, as the family were about to start to Plymouth to attend church, they noticed a large number of Indians in the vicinity, who seemed to be in an angry mood, and whose bearing was quite different from usual. They continued, however, on their way, but on their return concluded it would be better to go to the garrison house, and after hastily burying their valuables in a secluded place, they left their home. It was none too soon, for they had not gone more than two miles when, looking back, they saw a bright blaze, and realized that their log house was in flames. As they were on their journey, they passed the house of George Danson and urged him to join them and seek shelter, but he refused, thinking there was no danger. The next morning, as they returned to their farm, they found everything destroyed and Mr. Danson killed. He was the first killed during King Philip's War. Mr. Tomson received a commission of lieutenant, and commanded a company of six- teen men, who were in the habit of marching in four columns
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MIDDLEBORO
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of four men each, and he was the command- ant of the fort and of military operations until the garrison retired to Plymouth and the house was burned by the Indians.
In 1677, after the General Court had granted permission to the colonists to resettle Middle- boro, he rebuilt, on the old site, a garrison house, filled in between the posts and beams with brick and mortar ; it had several small windows like portholes in the walls for de- fence from any attack, but as a matter of fact, after the close of the war there was no hostility. This house stood until the year 1838, when it was taken down. It had been occupied by five generations of the descend- ants of its illustrious builder. Before the Indian War, and until religious services were held in Middleboro, Mr. Tomson's family at- tended church at Plymouth, a distance of more than twelve miles, starting very early every Sabbath morning and returning late at night. At one time in the winter the family were obliged to start before sunrise. As they were proceeding on their journey, near the swamp not far from the house of the late Isaac Sturtevant, they heard the barking of a pack of wolves, and sought refuge upon a high rock on the side of the road. There they remained until after sunrise, when the wolves retired A HALBERD OF THE TIME and they proceeded on their Sabbath day's journey in safety. Mr. Tomson held many important offices in the town and colony during his lifetime. The following epitaph is on his tombstone : -
IN MEMORY OF LIEUT. JOHN THOMSON, WHO DIED JUNE 16TH, YE 1696, IN YE 80 YEAR OF HIS AGE.
This is a debt to nature due ; Which I have paid and so must you.
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EARLY SETTLERS BEFORE KING PHILIP'S WAR
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Mary, his wife, died March 21, 1714, in the eighty-eighth year of her age, and was buried with her husband.
He left numerous descendants, who have lived at Middleboro, Halifax, and adjoining towns. The first two generations and sometimes the third spelled the name Tomson or Tompson ; the fourth and fifth spelled it Thompson.
JOHN TOMSON, JR., was born November 24, 1648, and mar- ried Mary Tinkham, a daughter of Ephraim Tinkham. He was propounded as freeman in 1682. He was a carpenter by trade, and in the early part John forufon of his married life lived with his father, Lieutenant John Tomson. He, with his wife and father's family, went into the fort at the time of the attack upon the town by the Indians, and upon the resettlement of the town, he returned and probably lived not far from his father. He was one of the builders of the church in Plymouth.
He inherited much of the land that belonged to his father, and died November 25, 1725, in his seventy-seventh year. His wife died in 1731, in her seventy-sixth year.
GEORGE VAUGHAN was a resident of Scituate in 1653, and was among the first settlers of Middleboro. He married Eliz- abeth Henchman (or Hincksman), who died front. June 24, 1693, aged sixty-two. At the Gen- eral Court of Plymouth, on the 5th of June, 1658, a suit was brought against him by John Sutton for detaining his prop- erty, wherein the jury found for the plaintiff and costs, which amounted to one pound, ten shillings, and six pence. He was then living in Marshfield, and, on the Ist of June, he seems to have been fined ten shillings for not attending public wor- ship on the Lord's Day.
He was a resident of Middleboro in 1663, and, for some cause which does not appear, was fined by the court ten shillings. On the Ist of March, 1663, he brought a suit against William
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MIDDLEBORO
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Shurtliff for molesting and taking away an animal for the debt of one Charles Hopkins of Boston. The jury found for the plaintiff, with the charges of court to be paid by the defendant.
June 1, 1669, William Crow and George Vaughan, with John Tomson and William Nelson, were appointed commissioners to lay the line between the "Namasket Men's Land," called the Major's Purchase, and the towns of Marshfield, Duxbury, and Bridgewater. He was the first person granted a license to keep an ordinary for the entertainment of strangers in Middleboro by the General Court in 1669. On the 5th of July, 1670, the General Court conferred twelve acres of land in the Major's Purchase on the south side of Nemasket River, which had not been recorded, and which was ordered at that time to be re- corded. In 1671 he and John Morton were appointed by the Court of Commissioners to view damages done to the Indians by the horses and hogs of the English. He was constable of the town in 1675, and at that time bought part of the land in the Twenty-six Men's Purchase, and he was in the garrison at the time of the breaking out of the war.
His daughter married Isaac Howland. He died October 20, 1694, aged seventy-three.1 His will, dated June 30, 1694, was proved November 10, 1694, and the inventory was taken by Samuel Wood and John Bennett. His property amounted to forty-three pounds, eight shillings, and four pence.
He and most of his descendants for several generations resided in that part of the town known as Wappanucket.
JOSEPH VAUGHAN, son of George. Vaughan, was one of the selectmen of Middleboro ; he was first elected to that office in Joseph vaughan 1689, and continued to serve for twenty-five years. At one time he commanded a guard, which embraced all the local militia of the town. He was ensign in 1706, and lieutenant in 1712.
He lived in the house 2 owned at one time by Captain Na-
1 Eddy Memoranda.
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