Roxbury Massachusetts

Ashley Family of New Bedford, MA

ASHLEY (New Bedford family). Among the first settlers of Rochester, Mass., and their families appear the names of Joseph Ashley and his wife Elizabeth and their children. There had settled at Springfield as early as 1639 Robert Ashley; and from the fact that many of the early settlers of Springfield were drawn from Roxbury by Pynchon, perhaps Mr. Ashley had been there previously a short time. One Thomas Ashley resided at Cape Ann (Gloucester) in 1639; he was admitted an inhabitant of Boston in 1658, and was probably the Thomas Ashley of Maine, 1654, who, says Savage, may have removed … Read more

The memorial history of Boston, including Suffolk County, Massachusetts

The memorial history of Boston, including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880

The memorial history of Boston comprises four volumes of manuscripts written by professionals in their field of study at the time, and edited by one of the premier historians of the 19th Century, Justin Winsor. Starting with the first volume in the early and colonial period, this work defines the history of Boston up to the date of its publication in 1880. This work is not restricted to Boston, but also includes the cities of Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, Roxbury, and West Roxbury, Replete with illustrations and facsimiles of autographs, genealogists can use this work to help fill in the historical narrative of their ancestors life in Suffolk County Massachusetts.

Ancestry of Charles Henry Nye of Hyannis, MA

Charles Henry Nye of Hyannis, MA

Charles Henry Nye, of Hyannis, Barnstable Co., Mass., is a direct descendant of Benjamin Nye, of Sandwich, Mass., the first of the line in this country, and is related to several of the old families of this region.

Ancestors of George Albert Chace of Fall River, MA

g a chace

CHACE (Fall River family). In and about Fall River for generations the Chace (earlier generations using the orthography Chase) family has been conspicuous in the affairs of that section and especially for a century past in its industrial life. In the particular line of Joseph Chase, who settled in Swansea, the family becoming a Swansea-Somerset one, such names as Oliver, Harvey, James H., Hon. Jonathan and George Albert Chace – the latter of whom planned and built a number of the large cotton mills of Fall River, was long treasurer and manager of the Bourne Mill, in Tiverton, R. I., and as well was a most active and useful citizen of Fall River – will long endure in the annals of this great industrial section. There follows from the first American ancestor of the Chaces named to the present in chronological order the genealogy and family history of the children of the late George Albert Chace of Fall River.

Baker Genealogy of Narraguagus Valley Maine

Narraguagus Valley Some Account of its Early Settlement and Settlers

Among the very early settlers at Steuben was Lemuel Baker, who came from Roxbury, Mass. He must have come about, or soon after, the time that the Leightons came. He married a Tracy, sister of Mrs. Thomas Leighton, 2d, and Mrs. Deacon Stevens. He settled near the shore of Joy’s Bay, on what is known as Baker’s Point, afterwards near where the George Baker house is. By his first wife he had four children. George, Nabby, Rhoda, and Dolly. After the death of his first wife, which occurred while these children were young, Mr. Baker moved to Massachusetts and there married Abigail Griggs, and by her had two children, Susanna and Eli F., both born in Roxbury, and while they were young again moved to Steuben, where Lemuel and Abigail lived for the remainder of their days.

Descendants of Charles Little Hauthaway of North Bridgewater MA

Charles Morton Hauthaway

For nearly a century there have lived in North Bridgewater and Brockton representatives of an earlier family of the name in and about Boston. Reference is made to some of the descendants of Charles Little Hauthaway, who, coming from Roxbury in youth, in 1828, cast his lot with the people of North Bridgewater, where have figured most successfully three generations of the family. From members of this family it seems that the English spelling of the name is Haughtweight or Hautweight, which may be the same as the old County Suffolk English spelling Hautwat, a name still extant there. The records of a century and more ago in Boston reveal the spelling Hauthwait, one Francis Hauthwait being the owner and occupier of a dwelling “North on West street; east by John Ballard; West by Frothingham.”

Archer Family of Fall River, MA

ARCHER (Fall River family). Through much of the nineteenth century the name opening this article was a most highly esteemed and respected one at Fall River, made so by the lives of the late Jason H. Archer, M. D., of the medical profession, and his son, the late John Jason Archer, Esq., for years one of the learned members of the Fall River bar. The home at least for a time of this Fall River Archer family was in the nearby town of Wrentham, in Norfolk county, where lived Amos Archer, father of Dr. Jason H. Archer and grandfather of … Read more

Descendants of Thomas Boyden of Bridgewater, MA

albert boyden

BOYDEN (Walpole-Bridgewater family). For a half century – for fifty and more years: – the name Boyden has stood in the town of Bridgewater, Mass., as a synonym for the highest type of useful, ennobling and elevating citizenship, as exemplified in the life of the now venerable principal emeritus of the Bridgewater State Normal School, Prof. Albert Gardner Boyden, who for the long period of fifty and more years has been identified as student, teacher and principal with the noted institution of learning alluded to, and has reared a son who has taken up the work so recently laid down … Read more

Genealogy of Emery Moore Low of Tewksbury and Brockton Massachusetts

Emery Moore Low, former mayor of Brockton, and one of that city’s most influential and highly honored citizens, is a native of Massachusetts, born at Roxbury March 29, 1849, son of the late Nathaniel and Abigail E. H. (Clouston) Low. Emery is descended from William Low and his wife Mary, of Chelsea, Mass. They arrived in Chelsea, before 1761, on June 17th of which year he purchased of David Jenkins a “dwelling house, barn and buildings” and eighteen acres of land, which was originally a part of the Hasey farm. He bought other property in 1763, 1774 and 1778.

Leach Genealogy of Bridgewater, Massachusetts

James Cushing Leach

This page treats the Leach Genealogy of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, starting with Lawrence Leach, the immigrant ancestor, and descending to the James Cushing Leach family of Bridgewater, Mass.

Descendants of Benjamin S. Atwood of Whitman, MA

Benjamin S. Atwood

Benjamin S. Atwood, the well-known box manufacturer of Whitman, Mass., was one of the best known men in Plymouth county, and as a business man and as a soldier stood high in the estimation of all who know him. He was born in the town of Carver, Plymouth county, June 25, 1840. The Atwood family of which Benjamin S. Atwood is a descendant is an old and prominent family of Plymouth Colony. The founder was John Wood, who came to Plymouth in 1643, and was later known as John Atwood – a spelling of the name that has been retained to the present time.

Descendants of Rev. George Shove of Fall River, MA

SHOVE. Rev. George Shove, gentleman, son of Margery, who was admitted to the church at Boston as a widow in 1638, and who subsequently was of Rowley and a proprietor and still later of Roxbury, where she married in 1654 Richard Peacock, became the third minister of Taunton, ordained Nov. 17, 1665. Of his ministerial life little is known except that be “preached acceptably,” and taught the Taunton school; and it is said that “no rumor of strife or discord in connection with him comes down to us.” His fame, however, as a land bolder and dealer in real estate … Read more

Ancestors of William Mason of Taunton, Massachusetts

Mason Machine Works - Mason Machine Works, Taunton, Massachusetts, 1899 Catalog

It is to the life and paternal lineage of the late William Mason of Taunton that this article is directed, he being a direct descendant from one of the old pioneers and Indian fighters of this section in its early settlement – Major John Mason, of Pequot fame, from whom William Mason’s descent is through Daniel, Peter, Japhet, Japhet Mason (2) and Amos Mason.

The Mason Family 1590-1949

The Mason Family title page

This short manuscript starts with Robert Mason, immigrant ancestor and founder of this branch of the Mason family in America, was born in England about 1590. In 1630 he came to America with Governor John Winthrop’s company, probably, as so many of the early Puritans came, in quest of religious freedom. Here he settled in Roxbury, Massachusetts, where his wife, her name unknown, later died in 1637. After that, he removed with his sons, Thomas, John and Robert, to Dedham, Massachusetts, where he was one of the original landholders in 1642. He died there October 15, 1667. It then with … Read more

Ivers Family of Dedham, MA

Samuel Ivers

IVERS (New Bedford family). The name Ivers seems one uncommon in New England annals and the family by no means numerous. At Dedham are fragmentary records of the Ivers family name, but nothing of an early date.

William and Gregory Ivers, brothers, appear in Boston in the early part of the eighteenth century. They are said to have come about 1720 with the pioneer Scotch settlers from the North of Ireland. William Ivers married in Boston April 28, 1724, Jane Barber, the ceremony being performed by a Presbyterian minister. Jane Ivers died at Boston in 1789; her will, made April 29, 1776, proved April 13, 1789, Capt. Job Prince, executor, mentions sons James and Thomas, probably the only ones living at the date of making the will.

Ancestry of William Bowers Moison Chace of Taunton Massachusetts

Old Families of Southeastern Massachusetts

William Bowers Moison Chace, senior member of W. B. M. Chace & Co., real estate, insurance, stocks and bonds, prominently identified with manufacturing and financial concerns, his position won through his own energy, integrity and general worth, is a worthy representative of a family planted in America but a decade later than the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers. He was born in Somerset, Mass., Dec. 5, 1854, and is of the ninth generation of the family in the New World.

Narrative of the Captivity of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson – Indian Captivities

Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, Wife of the Rev. Joseph Rowlandson, Who Was Taken Prisoner when Lancaster was Destroyed, in the Year 1676; Written by Herself. On the 10th of February, 1676, came the Indians with great numbers  upon Lancaster: their first coming was about sun-rising. Hearing the noise of some guns, we looked out; several houses were burning, and the smoke ascending to heaven. There were five persons taken in one house; the father and mother, and a sucking child they knocked on the head, the other two they took and carried away alive. There were two others, who, being out … Read more

Chase Family of Fall River MA

King Philip Mills ad from 1896.

CHASE (Fall River family). The Chase family here considered is strictly speaking a Massachusetts-Rhode Island one, springing as it does from the early Roxbury Yarmouth family, a later generation of which located in Portsmouth, R. I. In the third generation from the immigrant ancestor through Joseph Chase, who located in Swansea, Mass., and Benjamin, who settled in Portsmouth, R. I., have descended the Chases who have come from those respective localities. And both branches have shared largely in the commercial and industrial life of this section of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. From the Portsmouth branch came the late Borden Chase, … Read more