1693 Massachusetts Bay AMERICAN Manuscript COLONIAL Plymouth MA Mayflower SOULE
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1693 Massachusetts Bay AMERICAN Manuscript COLONIAL Plymouth MA Mayflower SOULE:
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[ 1693 AMERICAN MANUSCRIPT DOCUMENT; DUXBURY, MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY; PLYMOUTH COUNTY; MAYFLOWER GENEALOGY {Soule}]. Original and extremely rare 17th century American deed, penned in 1693, written and signed by the eldest son of Mayflower passenger George Soule, John Soule! 100% guaranteed original and not a later copy!
This 17th Century American document is a rarely seen commodity on the open market. This SCARCE American 17th century deed records the sale of 4.25 acres of land in \"the town of Duxbury in the county of Plimouth in New England in America\" from John Soul [Soule] to Nathaniel [sic] Southworth. The document is signed, sealed, and witnessed, dated December 20, 1693. Soule was the son of the famed Mayflower passenger and compact signer George Soule, who perished only a decade before this document was penned. John was his executor and to whom was given nearly all of George Soule’s estate in Duxbury, which is referenced here. The witnesses are Josiah Edson and John Lenerd [Leonard], also names found among important inhabitants. Edson was a veteran of the King Philips War, and Leonard was a prominent and intelligent man with large land holdings.Written in an easily read American hand, with an intact partial wax seal at the foot. Piece remains in great shape for age; large folio with original folds, measuring roughly 12\" x 14.5\". Penned in period ink on hand laid Colonial paper with beautiful flourished and early American-English penmanship, with some archival tape repairs to the verso. Wax seal also intact. The ink remains bold and completely legible. Some edgewear. Pics taken with and without flash, document is not yellowed. Please see a detailed genealogy below. It truly is fascinating. A rare and important piece of American history. Good luck!
PROVENANCE
John Soule
Birth:1632
Plymouth
Plymouth County
Massachusetts, USADeath:Nov. 14, 1707
Duxbury
Plymouth County
Massachusetts, USA
Son: to George Soule (Mayflower)
Husband to Esther (Nash) Sampson married abt 1678 Duxbury
1st wife Rebecca Simmons b. 1635 d. 1675
Father: to Josiah Soule b. July 31, 1679 d. June 25, 1764
Duxbury, Ma.Family links:
Parents:
George Soule (1597 - 1680)
Mary Beckett Soule (____ - 1672)Spouses:
Esther Nash Soule (1640 - 1735)
Rebecca Simmons Soule (1635 - 1678)*Children:
Rebecca Soule Weston (1656 - 1732)*
James Soule (1659 - 1744)*
Sarah Soule Wright (1659 - 1693)*
Rachel Soule Cobb (1662 - 1727)*
Benjamin Soule (1665 - 1729)*
Moses Soule (1669 - 1748)*
John Soule (1674 - 1743)*
Joseph Soule (1679 - 1763)*
Josiah Soule (1679 - 1764)*
Joshua Soule (1681 - 1767)*Siblings:
Benjamen Soule (1630 - 1676)*
John Soule (1632 - 1707)
Nathaniel Soule (1637 - 1699)*
George Soule (1639 - 1704)*
Susannah Soule West (1644 - 1685)*
Mary Soule Peterson (1644 - 1720)*
Elizabeth Soule Walker (1645 - 1704)*
Patience Soule Haskell (1646 - 1706)**Calculated relationship
Burial:
Myles Standish Burying Ground
Duxbury
Plymouth County
Massachusetts, USA
John Soule (1), eldest son of George (1) and Mary (Beckett) Soule, was born in Plymouth, Mass., about 1623. The author will follow the reasoning of the late Rev. Francis A. Soule, a man who had access to all of the known original records and had spent several years in a study of the subject. By some writers Zachariah was made the eldest son of the Pilgrim and John the fifth child. If this be correct, then the first four children were all daughters and the last four sons, which is not at all probable. And if this theory is true the father must have been married as early as 1622-3. As George Soule stated in his will that John was his oldest son, we shall allow his name to stand in that position. If Zachariah had been the oldest and born before 1627, then it must have been four or five years earlier to make John the fifth child.
We admit that all of these dates were conjectural and any conclusion can only be but approximate.
The statement of George Soule in his will made Aug. 11, 1677, and found in Duxbury Jan. 23, 1679, probably soon after his death, reads as follows: \"My eldest son who hath in my extreme old age and weakness ben tender and careful of mee and very helpful to mee and likely to be, while it shall please God to continue my life heer; therefore I give and bequeath unto my said son John Soule all the remainder of my housing whatsoever.\"
John Soule was twice married but did not marry Esther Delano as has been repeatedly published, on the authority that she was the only woman in the colony at that time who could have been his wife. The first wife of John Soule was REBECCA SIMMONS, daughter of Moses and Sarah Simmons. She died and he married second, in 1678, ESTHER NASH, daughter of Lieut. Samuel Nash, born March 6, 1638, the widow of Samuel Sampson, and the following has been found as corroborative evidence: \"She is toward marriage with John Soule, and the said Soule and the now widow are willing that the estate be reserved for the future good of the children.\" These children were her two sons, Samuel and Ichabod Sampson. Probably Elizabeth \"Dillino\" and Mary Howland were her daughters, as they were mentioned in the will of Samuel Nash as his \"granddaughters.\" Thomas Dillino and John Soule, called his \"Good Friends,\" were the overseers of his will. This Samuel Sampson was killed in King Philip\'s war, and a record in the colony shows that in 1678 his widow, Esther Sampson, was married to John Soule, thus proving positively that the wife of John Soule--his second wife--was Esther (Nash) Sampson and not Esther de la Noye. This record of somewhat recent discovery has disproved the long distributed statement concerning the wife of John Soule, the eldest son of the Pilgrim, and shows the danger of \"jumping at conclusions\" without basing such assumptions upon authentic records.
This John Soule died (???), 1707, aged 75 years. She died Sept. 12, 1733, aged 95 years. Their gravestones are standing in the old Duxbury cemetery, leaning and weather-beaten.
John Soule became a Freeman in 1653 and sometime during the same year he was involved in a quarrel with Kenelm Winslow for \"speaking falsely and of scandalizing his daughter in carrying divers falce reports betwixt Josiah Standish and her.\" After various devices for delay, he was fined on the 8th June o10 and costs, in a suit of defamation for o200. During the excitement against the Quakers John Soule was fined for his interference upon their religious services 2d Oct., 1660. He was survcyor of highways in 1672; Grand-juryman, 1675-6-7-8 and 1683-4; arbitrator between Marshfield and Duxbury, 1698, involving land disputes; also a witness to the Indian deed of Bridgewater, dated 23d Dec., 1686; joined in a remonstrance, 1687, against increasing the salary of Rev. Ichabod Wiswell. He was also administrator of the estate of Samuel Chandler, 1683, and chosen guardian; and the same year was chosen guardian for John Simmons and Samuel Sampson, minors. He must have held the respect and confidence of his fellow-citizens in the maturity of his life.
His sons received their portion of his estate during his life-time; the daughters, on petition Mar. 5, 1707-8, were rewarded in an equal division of five lots of land, situated in Middleboro, which were appraised o17-5-0. His personal property was valued at o24-12-12. Among the items mentioned in the settlement of his estate was a library. a rare possession at that time. See account as given by the author under George Soule, his father. This was evidently the collection of \"books\" mentioned in the will of his father. There were ten children in this family; all but Joshua by his first wife. See third generation.
In the records of the settlement of the estate of John Soule, it was stated that he gave his sons their portion of his property during his lifetime, but the names were not recorded. By a careful examination of the Registry of Probate and the Registry of Deeds these names were discovered; and we subjoin sufficient abstracts to prove their names. As represented in a Family Record seen by the author these names were: Aaron, Benjamin, James, John, Joseph, Joshua, Josiah, Moses and Zachariah; the latter dying March 16, 1690-1.
George Soule (Mayflower passenger) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor by William Halsall (1882)
George Soule (c. 1594/5). He died between September 20, 1677 and January 20, 1679/80 in Duxbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony.[1] Soule was one of the indentured servants who traveled on the Mayflower in 1620 and established Plymouth Colony.[1] He was one of the signers of the Mayflower Compact.
Contents- 1 Early life
- 2 Mayflower
- 3 In Plymouth Colony
- 4 Family
- 5 George Soule will, death and burial
- 6 Notable descendants
- 7 External links
- 8 References
Nothing certain is known of his life in England other than that he came on the Mayflower being credited to the London contingent as an Edward Winslow manservant or apprentice, along with Elias Story and a little girl Ellen More, the latter two both died in the first winter.”[2][3][4]
George Soule was mentioned in Bradford’s recollections of the Winslow group: Mr. Edward Winslow; Elizabeth, his wife; and *2* men servants, called Georg Sowle and Elias Story; also a little girle was put to him, called Ellen, sister of Richard More.[5] He continues: Mr. Ed. Winslow his wife dyed the first winter; and he is maried with the widow of Mr. White, and hath *2* children living by her marigable besides sundry that are dead. One of his servants dyed, as also the little girle, soone after the ships arrival. But this man Georg Sowle, is still living and hath *8* children.[6]
Nothing for certain is known of George Soule\'s origins. For five years, noted Mayflower researcher and biographer Caleb Johnson managed a fairly intensive search for the English origins of George Soule. Mr. Johnson examined a number of likely ‘George Soules’ in various parts of England. And after all his research, Mr. Johnson believes the most promising candidate of all the ‘George Soules’ he reviewed to be that of the Mayflower passenger George Soule of Tingrith, Bedfordshire, baptized in February 1594/5.[7]
It is believed that George Soule was in London when he joined Winslow for the Mayflower voyage. Droitwich, in northern Worcestershire, the family home of the Winslows at that time, was a salt mining place connected in a business way with the Salters Company of London in trade. With that, it is believed the London association of Winslow and Soule was established.[8]
MayflowerSigning the Mayflower Compact 1620, a painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris 1899The Mayflower departed Plymouth, England on September 6/16, 1620. The small, 100-foot ship had 102 passengers and a crew of about 30-40 in extremely cramped conditions. By the second month out, the ship was being buffeted by strong westerly gales, causing the ship‘s timbers to be badly shaken with caulking failing to keep out sea water, and with passengers, even in their berths, lying wet and ill. This, combined with a lack of proper rations and unsanitary conditions for several months, attributed to what would be fatal for many, especially the majority of women and children. On the way there were two deaths, a crew member and a passenger, but the worst was yet to come after arriving at their destination when, in the space of several months, almost half the passengers perished in cold, harsh, unfamiliar New England winter.[9]
On November 9/19, 1620, after about 3 months at sea, including a month of delays in England, they spotted land, which was the Cape Cod Hook, now called Provincetown Harbor. After several days of trying to get south to their planned destination of the Colony of Virginia, strong winter seas forced them to return to the harbor at Cape Cod hook, where they anchored on November 11/21.[9]
On November 11, 1620, Soule signed the Mayflower Compact.[1]
In Plymouth ColonyIn 1623, the Division of Land at Plymouth provided one acre for George Soule between the property of “Frances” Cooke and “Mr. Isaak” Allerton.[2][10]
In 1626, George Soule married a woman by the name of Mary. It is known that the only Mary in Plymouth who was then unmarried was Mary Bucket (Buckett). In 1623, “Marie” Buckett, as a single woman, had received one acre of land.[2][11]
In 1626 George Soule was one of twenty-seven Purchasers involved with the colony joint-stock company which afterwards was turned over to the control of senior colony members. That group was called Undertakers, and were made up of such Pilgrim leaders as Bradford, Standish and Allerton initially, who were later joined by other leaders Winslow, Brewster, Howland, Alden, Prence and others from London who were former Merchant Adventurers. On the agreement, dated October 26, 1626, his name appears as “Georg Soule.”[12]
In the 1627 Division of Cattle, George and Mary Soule and their first son Zachariah (all with the recorded surname of “Sowle”) were listed with the Richard Warren family. They were allotted several animals that arrived on the ship Jacob, probably in 1625.[2][13]
Historic records indicate Soule became a freeman prior to 1632/33 (Johnson) or was on the 1633 list of freemen.[2][4]
In 1633/34 Soule (as “Sowle”) was taxed at the lowest rate which indicates that his estate was without much significance.[2][14]
Per Plymouth records, Soule’s life with his family appears to have been lived quietly in a Puritan home – obtaining some land holdings through the years which he would later provide for his large family. He was never involved in any criminal or civil court dispute and did participate in a number of public service situations, one being his volunteering to fight in the Pequot War in 1637, which was over before the Plymouth company could get organized.[4][15]
Land records note that in 1637 he was assigned \"a garden place…on Duxbury side, by Samuel Nash’s, to lie to his ground at Powder Point\".[15]
The 1638 land records note that “one acre of land is granted to George Soule at the watering place…and also a parcel of Stony Marsh at Powder Point, containing two acres.” The land at the “watering place” in south Plymouth was sold the next year, possibly as he was living in Duxbury at that time and did not need his property in south Plymouth. In 1640 he was granted a meadow at Green’s Harbor – now Marshfield. His land holdings included property in several towns, those being Namaskett, Middleboro and Dartmouth.[1][4][15]
First in 1642 and last in 1662, he was assigned to at least five grand and petty juries. He was deputy for Duxbury for several years.[1][4][15]
In the 1643 Able to Bear Arms (ATBA) List, George and his son Zachariah (listed as “Georg” and “Zachary”) appear with those bearing arms from Duxbury (written as “Duxbarrow”).[16]
In October 1645 the General Court granted to Duxbury inhabitants lands “about Saughtuckquett” and nominated “Captaine Miles Standish, Mr John Alden, George Soul…” and others for “equall devideing and laying forth of the said lands to their inhabitants.” The purpose of this committee was to divide property in the Duxbury area for its inhabitants. Soule was also on a similar committee in 1640.[15][17]
On October 20, 1646 Soule, with Anthony Thatcher, was chosen to be on a “committee to draw up an order concerning disorderly drinking (smoking) of Tobacco.” The law, as drawn up, provided strict limitations on where Tobacco could be smoked and what fines could be levied against lawbreakers.[15]
FamilyMarie/Mary Buckett, wife of George Soule. The mysterious young woman known to Plymouth Colony history as “Marie Buckett” arrived in Plymouth in July 1623 as a single woman passenger on the ship Anne. She may have been about age 18 (born c.1605) and quite unusually seems to have traveled alone and or if with someone, whom, no one has determined. To date, researchers have been stymied in their efforts to prove her ancestry, or from where she came, whether Holland or England.[18][19]
She first appears in Plymouth Colony records in the 1627 Division of Cattle with passengers of the Anne as “Marie Buckett” where she received one lot of her own “adioyning to Joseph Rogers” ..”on the other side of towne towards the eele-riuer.”[18][19]
There are indications in the land record that she was unaccompanied and not in the company of her parents.[20]
Author Caleb Johnson estimates she married George Soule about 1625 or 1626.[21]
In the 1627 Division of Cattle she is listed with her husband George and young son “Zakariah” as “ Mary Sowle.”[22]
Two hypotheses were recently published in The Mayflower Quarterly regarding the ancestry of ‘Marie Buckett”. Hypothesis No. 1 has her as Walloon coming from Leiden and Hypothesis No. 2 writes of research indicating a possibility of her being English:
Hypothesis No. 1:
In an article in the December 2012 issue of The Mayflower Quarterly, author Louise Walsh Throop writes that in Leiden records one name is phonetically quite similar to Buckett. Director of the American Mayflower Museum in Leiden Jeremy Bangs mentioned that a number of Mayflower passengers sold their Leiden properties in the summer of 1620, in particular a “Jan Allaert,” likely the Dutch version of the name “John Allerton” (brother of Isaac) who sold his house on July 15, 1620. One of the neighbors on the south side of his property was a Walloon family known as “the widow and heirs of Jan Bucque.” Author Throop states that it would appear that this Jan Bucquet was the grandfather of Marie/Mary Buckett/Bucquet.[23]
Author Throop also reports that recently a marriage record was found in Leiden for a Jan Bucquet, born Brugge (now Bruges in Flemish Belgium) and Marye de Roucheau, born Turquoyn by Ryssel (now Tourcoing in French Flanders), who were married in the Waalse (Walloon) Church, Leiden on Dec. 21, 1604. Witness for the groom was his father Jan Bucquet and for the bride, her mother Margriete Holbeecke. Sometime in 1605 it seems this marriage produced a daughter, Marie, who the author believed to be the young woman who later married George Soule. This birth year fits with Mary Buckett’s expected age of 21 at her marriage about 1626, and with her first child born before May 22, 1627.[23]
Huguenot immigrants were known for blending well into new Environment, thus the surname Bucquet is found in 1604, Bucque in 1620 and Buckett in 1623. In 1623 Mary Buckett was blending into her new English Environment in Plymouth Colony and must have felt she had something in common with George Sowle, who is believed to also have come from a Walloon family. His proposed father was born in Brussels, now capital of Belgium. George Soule signed his will “Gorge Sowle”, making a blend of the Dutch first name with the English-sounding surname. It is likely that before 1620 in the Dutch cities of Leiden and Haarlem he was known as “Joris Sol” or “Joris Jansz.”[23]
Hypothesis No.2:
Noted Mayflower author Caleb H. Johnson writes in The Mayflower Quarterly of December 2013 that the origin of Mary Buckett, wife of Mayflower passenger George Soule, has not been conclusively proven by his, or any previous research. What Johnson did find in England , through extensive research and a lengthy process of elimination was a Mary Beckett in the parish of Watford, Hertfordshire. Mary was born about 1605 and fit the right age to have been on the Anne in 1623. Also she was in a family using the name Nathaniel, which is found in her own children. Her mother had a Mayflower-sounding name – Alden. She and her husband George were grouped with the Warrens in the 1627 Division of Cattle, with Mrs. Warren coming from Hertfordshire, as did Mary Beckett. Mary’s home parish register of St. Mary’s, Watford, has a number of sixteenth-century Warren family entries of names which all appear in the Mayflower Warren family. Johnson considers the following to be among the most important information in considering Marie Buckett’s ancestry – Mary Beckett’s father died in 1619 when she was only about 14 years old. As a custom of the time, she and her siblings were likely apprenticed out to relatives, neighbors, acquaintances, etc. Her mother remained a widow until at least 1622 (listed in that year as “Widow Buckett) – further increasing the chance that her children would be sent to other families. Johnson concludes by stating that the following could have put Mary Beckett hypothetically on the ship Anne sailing to America in 1623: the right age, associated with families of Mayflower surnames, within a family using the name Nathaniel, and could have had the opportunity to be transferred to another family that would eventually sail to America on the ship Anne. Johnson notes after this time, Mary Beckett is not found again in Watford records, based on recent research.[24]
Children of George and Mary Soule:
- Zachariah was born by May 1627 and died in Duxbury before December 11, 1663. He married Margaret _____ by 1663, but had no recorded children.
- John was born about 1632 and died in Duxbury before November 14, 1707. He married:
- Nathaniel was born between 1634 and 1646 and died in Dartmouth before October 12, 1699. He married Rose Thorn by 1680 and had five children.
Nathaniel may have caused the most colony trouble of any of his siblings. On March 5, 1667/8, he made an appearance in Plymouth court to “answer for his abusing of Mr. John Holmes, teacher of the church of Christ at Duxbury, by many false, scandalous and opprobrious speeches.” He was sentenced to make a public apology for his actions, find sureties for future good behavior and to sit in the stocks, with the stock sentence remitted. His father George and brother John had to pay surety for Nathaniel’s good behavior with he being bound for monies and to pay a fine. Three years later, on June 5, 1671, he was fined for “telling several lies which tended greatly to the hurt of the Colony in reference to some particulars about the Indians.” And then on March 1, 1674/5 he was sentenced to be whipped for “lying with an Indian woman,” and had to pay a fine in the form of bushels of corn to the Indian woman towards the keeping of her child.[25]
- George was born about 1639 and died in Dartmouth before June 22, 1704. He married by 1671 Deborah _____ and had eight children. She died in Dartmouth about February 1709.
- Susanna was born about 1640 and died in Kingstowne, Rhode Island after 1684. She married Francis West by 1660 and had nine children.
- Mary was born about 1642 and died in Plymouth after 1720. She married John Peterson by 1665 and had nine children. He died between April 29, 1718 and March 26, 1720, probably in Plymouth.
- Elizabeth was born about 1644 and died after 1667. She married Francis Walker by July 23, 1668 and had one child. He died in probably Middleboro about 1701.[1]
- Patience was born about 1646 and died on March 11, 1705/6 in Middleboro. She married John Haskell in January 1666/7 in Middleboro and had eight children. He died on May 15, 1706 in Middleboro.
- Benjamin was born by about 1652 and died unmarried during King Philip\'s War on March 26, 1676.
Although George Soule became wealthy in Plymouth colony he still bound out at least one of his daughters to a John Winslow.[28]
George Soule\'s gravestone in Duxbury within the Myles Standish Burial Ground.George Soule will, death and burialGeorge Soule made his will on August 11, 1677 and mentions his eldest son John “my eldest son John Soule and his family hath in my extreme old age and weakness been tender and careful of me and very helpful to me.” John was his executor and to whom was given nearly all of Soule’s estate. But after he wrote his will, on September 12, 1677 he seemed to have second thoughts and made a codicil to the will to the effect that if John or any family member were to trouble his daughter Patience or her heirs, the will would be void. And if such happened, then Patience would then become the executor of his last will and testament with virtually all that he owned becoming hers. To put his youngest daughter to inherit his estate ahead of his eldest son would have been a major humiliation for John Soule. But John must have done well in his father’s eyes since after his father’s death, he did inherit the Duxbury estate. Twenty years later Patience and her husband sold the Middleboro estate they had received from her father.[27]
George Soule’s will was dated August 11, 1677, with a codicil dated September 20, 1677 and with the will proved in 1679. His will named his sons Nathaniel, George and John, and daughters Elizabeth, Patience, Susannah and Mary. His sons Zachariah and Benjamin had predeceased him.[4]
George Soule died about 1679 and was buried at Myles Standish Burial Ground in Duxbury, Massachusetts as his wife Mary died in 1676.[29]
It should be noted that per Stratton, the Soule family history compiled by Gideon T. Ridlon is not reliableNathaniel Southworth
Nathaniel SouthworthBorn before 1648 in Duxbury, Plymouth Co., Massachusetts Son of Constant Southworth and Elizabeth (Collier) Southworth Brother of Mercy (Southworth) Freeman, Priscilla (Southworth) Irish, Edward Southworth, Alice (Southworth) Church, Mary (Southworth) Alden, William Southworth and Elizabeth (Southworth) Gallup Husband of Desire (Gray) Southworth— married January 10, 1670 in Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA Father of Edward Southworth Sr, Ichabod Southworth, Nathaniel Southworth and Mary (Southworth) Bangs Died January 14, 1710 in Middleborough, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USANathaniel Southworth, son of Constant Southworth (2), was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, 1648. died in Middleboro, Massachusetts, January 14, 1710-11. He married. January 10. 1671-2, Desire Gray, born November 6, 1651, died at Plymouth, December 4, 1690, daughter of Edward and Mary (Winslpw) Gray. He lived at first in Plymouth, later in Middleboro. Massachusetts. He was surveyor of highways in Plymouth in 1673, constable there in 1668, selectman 1689, and 1691, and ensign 1694 and 1695. He owned land in Tiverton, Rhode Island. The children of Nathaniel and Desire (Gray) Southworth were: Constant, born August 12. 1674: Mary, April 3, 1676: Ichabod, March, 1678-9; Elizabeth, 1682; Nathaniel, May 18, 1684
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Josiah Edson (son of Samuel Edson and Susanna Orcutt) was born 1651 in Duxbury Plantation or Bridgewater, Plymouth Co, MA, and died 1734. He married Elizabeth Dean.More About Josiah Edson:
Military service: King Philip\'s War Veteran.Josiah EdsonBorn 1650 in Duxbury, Plymouth, Massachusetts Son of Samuel Edson and Susanna Orcutt Brother of Susanna Edson, Benjamin Edson, Sarah Edson, Elizabeth Edson, Joseph Edson, Samuel Edson, Mary (Edson) Byram, Joseph Edson and Bethiah Edson Husband of Elizabeth (Dean) Edson— married 1673 in Taunton, Bristol, Ma Husband of Elizabeth Hayward— married 1673 in Bridgewater, Plymouth, Massachusetts [children unknown] Died October 7, 1734 in Bridgewater, Plymouth Co, Massachusetts
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John LEONARD, b. Abt 1645, Duxbury, Plymouth, MA d. Bef 1 May 1691, Bridgewater, Plymouth, MA
JOHN LEONARD was born about 1645 in Duxbury, Massachusetts (now Plymouth County). He married about 1670, Sarah Chandler, supposed to be one of the “three sisters,” a daughter of Roger Chandler. The Chandler family lived next door, so in essence, John married “the girl next door”.John Leonard seems to have had less of the migratory spirit than his brothers possessed for all his life, excepting a few years of childhood, was spent in Bridgewater, Mass. Whether it was that his brothers had a migratory spirit or whether they moved to escape from the constant anxiety of Indian raids, is unknown. Bridgewater was considered more secure from the attacks of the Indians than the newer towns.
John acquired more general knowledge than any other member of the family, and held positions of more prominence in the town. He was evidently intelligent, and much respected, often employed in fixing boundaries of grants of land, divisions, etc.
LAND
The importance LAND played in the early lives of our ancestors cannot be overestimated. Land was valued as much, or possibly even more, than money or books as something to be inherited. Families were large, with many sons, most of whom needed land to make a living to support their families. The original settlers were granted land from the communities in which they settled. They added to their holdings by further grants from their communities as they expanded, or by purchase and trade. As their families came to adulthood, fathers would give land to their sons to begin their own families, and in some cases, to their daughters who married. When they passed on, the children would inherit. The oldest son, by tradition, received a double portion, if not more, than the younger sons. Yet all needed a way to support their own families. At first, land was abundant, and towns and townships could expand and just make another town. Later, it became a problem.
The Bridgewater Proprietor’s Records [1679] outline land ownership of the Leonard Family in a document entitled “The lands of Samuel Leonard, John Leonard, Isaack Leonard, and Jacob Leonard hear in the town of Bridgewater February ‘79”. (See Book I, pgs. 92-94.)
John Leonard’s land consisted of the following:
50 acres of uplands on the south side of the town river, between a neighbor on the east and his brother Isaac on the west; 8 score poles long and fifty poles wide; 10 acres at the head of his two 50-acre lots where his house stands bounded at the head by a red oak sapling in a heap of stones and a small white oak bush with a rock at the foot of it; 13 acres of swamp lot and 3 acres which he bought from Josiah Edson lying upon a small brook bordering upon the horse plain, bounded by a pine tree marked on two sides and to a red oak marked on two sides and from thence to a white oak marked on four sides standing near the brook and from thence to an ash standing near the swampe and thence to run upon a straight line from the ashe to a small white oak marked on two sides and so to the bounds first mentioned.Much, if not most, of this land would be what John received as a gift or inherited from his father as several of the brothers’ lands bordered each others. Lands owned by the Leonards covered a considerable part of the present village of Bridgewater.
The Plymouth Colony Records dated 3 October 1665, state that 150 acres of land were granted by the Court unto “the three sisters”, the daughters of Roger Chandler, to each of them fifty acres lying between the Bay line and the bounds of Taunton, Massachusetts. The Taunton records show that ten acres at Cranberry Meadows, part of the land granted to the three daughters of Roger Chandler, was confirmed to John Leonard of Bridgewater, on 12 July 1692.
MORE LAND FOR JOHN LEONARD AND HIS BROTHERS
A grant of land at “Saconett” seems to have been made by the Plymouth Colony to the Leonard brothers after their father’s death. The grant specifically was untraceable, however a series of Court records dated between March 1675 and June 1682 provide “the bones” of what probably was that grant. Application for the land grant was made by John Leonard (Generation 2).
The known Plymouth Colony Court records relating to this grant are summarized below, dating from 4 March 1674/5 through 6 June 1682.
John Leonard appeared before the Court to make application for a grant of land. He requested “a competency of land for the supply of himself and his brethren in the right of his father being one of the old servants.” The court gave him liberty, “in the behalf of himself and brethren, to look out for accommodation in any land that is free, being not conquest land, nor otherwise engaged; and in case they shall not be supplied, that they apply themselves to the Saconett company at their next meeting, that they may be supplied out of that grant; if the company shall see reason, or in that which did belonge to Tommumucke” [copy unclear].
After this time, the Court ordered certain individuals to “run the line betwixt the lands of Saconett and Punckateesett to Dartmouth bounds, and to lay out Tatamamuckes thousand acres of land, and to make distribution thereof unto those to whom the Court has granted it, and also that tract of land that the country are to have from Mamanuitt” [copy unclear]. After which, the Court granted 150 acres of Tatamanuckes land, to Samuell and John Leanardson, among several others.
After they had “run the line betwixt the lands”, the description of the boundaries follows:
We whose names are under written, being ordered by the Court, October, 1681, to run the line between the lands of Saconet and the lands of Pocassit proprietors, have done as follows: We began on the westerly end or side of a great spruce swamp, at a white oak tree marked formerly by men appointed there unto, and carried it on the same point of compass east northerly through the said swamp, and marked a white oak tree on the east end or side of the said spruce swamp, having a flinty rock and stones on the west side of the said tree, and so by a range of trees marked on the east and west sides to Cokesit River or Brook, and there marked a white oak tree on two sides with an heap of stones against it. This line was run November, 1681, by us. Signed: William Bradford, Joseph Warren, William Paybody.
Finally, on June 6, 1682, the court declared this new area as a new township, having “the liberties of a town, as other towns of this Colony, and shall be called by the name of Little Compton.”
Mr. Leonard died in the year 1699, leaving to his widow, five sons and one daughter – all of age but the daughter – a large tract of valuable land extending into what is now the beautiful village of Bridgewater. A partition of his estate was made on August 30th, 1701, which is recorded in the Probate Records of Plymouth (Book 1, pg. 360).
CHILDREN OF JOHN & SARAH CHANDLER LEONARD (All birth and death dates remain unknown.)
John Leonard Jr. John’s share in his father’s estate was the homestead, to be held with his mother during her lifetime. After her death, by deed dated 6 March 1709/10, he conveyed it to his brother Moses, and went to live with him at Marlborough. He probably continued with him, unmarried, until his death. He was with Moses in Worcester as late as 25 February 1726. Enoch Leonard. Enoch married Elizabeth Hooper, dtr. of William and Susannah Hooper of Reading. She was born 8 July 1689. They had a son, Enoch Jr., born in 1707, and a daughter Elizabeth, born in 1719, both in Bridgewater; and probably several children in between but no record. Enoch Leonard, either this man or his son, built what was known as “Enoch’s Dam” on Town River in Bridgewater. Three deeds record land sales: (1) for £500, “3 score acres where I dwell” (May 1, 1717); (2) for £600, “the homestead where I live” (Feb. 14, 1737) sold to his brother, Solomon; and (3) “20 acres of our homestead” on 17 April 1744. No trace of this family afterwards has been found. MOSES LEONARD was born in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, probably about 1677. He married Mercy Newton. Josiah Leonard. Josiah married (1) on 2 November 1699, Marjoram Washburn; he married (2) on 21 November 1717, Abigail Washburn. His will, from which much of our knowledge of his family is derived, was dated 6 February 1743 and was proved 21 May 1745. His son, Josiah Jr., was sole executor. They had eight children all of whom married. Joseph Leonard. Joseph married 19 November 1712, Hannah Jennings. They had several children all born in Bridgewater except the last, born in Pomfret, Connecticut. Sarah Leonard. She married on 28 July 1708, Thomas Washburn. view all John Leonard\'s Timeline 1645 1645 Birth of John Springfield, Hampden, Massachusetts, USA1677 1677 Age 32 Birth of Leut. Moses Leonard
1678 1678 Age 33 Birth of Josiah Leonard Bridgewater, Plymouth County, Province of Massachusetts
1681 1681 Age 36 Birth of Joseph Leonard
1683 1683 Age 38 Birth of Sarah Leonard Bridgewater, (Present Plymouth County), Plymouth Colony (Present Massachusetts), (Present USA)
1699 November 21, 1699 Age 54 Death of John Springfield, Middlesex County (Present Hampden County), Massachusetts Bay Colony
1923 March 6, 1923 Age 54 baptised (LDS) on 3/6/1923
May 25, 1923 Age 54 endowed (LDS) on 5/25/1923
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Marriage of John to Sarah Leonard
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Burial of John
1693 Massachusetts Bay AMERICAN Manuscript COLONIAL Plymouth MA Mayflower SOULE:
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