Watertown Massachusetts

Pierce Family of North Bridgewater, MA

The Pierce families of this country are and have long been very numerous. Early in the settlement of New England came representatives from England, most of them not related, so far as now known. Among them were Abraham, of Plymouth, 1623, who became one of the original purchasers of Bridgewater in 1645; Daniel, of Newbury, blacksmith, who came from Ipswich, County of Suffolk, in 1634, aged twenty-three years; John, of Dorchester, mariner from Stepney, Middlesex, before 1631; another John, of Dorchester and Boston; John, of Watertown, 1638; Capt. Michael, of Hingham and Scituate; Richard, of Portsmouth, R. I.; Robert, of Dorchester; Thomas, of Charlestown, who was admitted to the church there in 1634; and Capt. William, of Boston, who was a distinguished shipmaster of his time.

Genealogy of the Reed and Loud Families of Abington, Massachusetts

These families, Reed and Loud, allied by marriage, are still represented in the ancient town of Abington, where for three generations the Reeds have been engaged in the lumber business with other lines connected with it. Reference is made to the late Amos S. Reed, to his son, the late Maj. Edward Payson Reed, and to the present Arthur B. Reed, son of Major Reed, all active business men, prominent and influential citizens of what is now North Abington. Both the Reed and Loud were early Weymouth families, and we take up the records in order. There follows from William Reed, the immigrant ancestor of the North Abington Reed family alluded to, chronologically arranged, the genealogy of the family.

Abbot Family of New England

Arthur Abbot, Marblehead Perhaps removed to Ipswich, joined Winthrop 1634, in the settlement of that town, was living in 1671, and probably died before 1679. We know of issue, only Philip, whose descendants have tradition that he came from Totness in County Devon, where he left good estate of which for several years after migration …

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Ancestry of William H. Nelson of Plymouth, Massachusetts

Nelson Genealogy William Nelson, an early comer to Plymouth, before 1636, had land granted him Aug. 3, 1640, and was among those able to bear arms in 1643. He was juryman in 1648. He was probably among the first settlers of Middleboro, although it is impossible to state when he went from Plymouth to Middleboro, …

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Genealogy of the Whitney Family of New Bedford, Massachusetts

The Whitney family of New Bedford, of which the late Amasa Whitney, one of the well known citizens of that place, was a worthy member, is one of the oldest and best known of the early families of America. Its members in every generation here from the Colonial ancestor have been noted for high attainments, vigorous intellect and the qualities which make for influential citizenship. Notable among the descendants of John Whitney, the emigrant ancestor, are Eli Whitney, whose fame as the inventor of the cotton gin and no less in other lines has won a place in the hall of fame; the late William Collins Whitney, lawyer and politician, famous as corporation counsel of New York City and secretary of war, 1885-89; and Henry M. Whitney, of Boston – illustrious names Which have added to the glory of their country as well as to the fame of an honored race.

John Lawrence Genealogy

The Lawrence family, in New England, claim to be related to the George Washington family in England. This is probably correct, as the Christian Register, cautious in its statements, indorses it as a fact. John Lawrence John1 Lawrence was first at Watertown, Mass., where he was freeman 1637, afterwards at Groton, Mass., where he was …

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Ancestors of John Richardson Bronson of Attleboro, MA

JOHN RICHARDSON BRONSON, M. D., who for over half a century was one of the best known practitioners of medicine in southern Massachusetts and part of Rhode Island, and who for upward of fifty years was a resident of Attleboro, was a native of Connecticut, born in the town of Middlebury, New Haven county, June 5, 1829, son of Garry and Maria (Richardson) Bronson.

The Bronson family was early planted in the New World. John Bronson (early of record as Brownson and Brunson) was early at Hartford. He is believed, though not certainly known, to have been one of the company who came in 1636 with Mr. Hooker, of whose church he was a member. He was a soldier in the Pequot battle of 1637. He is not named among the proprietors of Hartford in the land division of 1639; but is mentioned in the same year in the list of settlers, who by the “towne’s courtesie” had liberty “to fetch woods and keepe swine or cowes on the common.” His house lot was in the “soldiers’ field,” so called, in the north part of the old village of Hartford, on the “Neck Road” (supposed to have been given for service in the Pequot war), where he lived in 1640. He moved, about 1641 to Tunxis (Farmington) He was deputy from Farmington in May, 1651, and at several subsequent sessions, and the “constable of Farmington” in 1652. He was one of the seven pillars at the organization of the Farmington Church in 1652. His name is on the list of freemen of Farmington in 1669. He died Nov. 28, 1680.

Early Records and Notes of the Brown Family

This is not a compiled genealogy, but rather, a compilation of notes, facts, and genealogies concerning the various early Brown families of the towns of Andover, Ipswich, Hamilton, Reading, Boston-Tewksbury, Cambridge, Charlestown, Chelmsford, Gloucester, Hampton NH, Haverhill, Salem, Watertown, Rowley, Sudbury, and Salisbury. Charlotte Helen Abbott compiled a series of volumes on early families of New England called the “Abbott Genealogies.” This is volume 7 of the series.

Knowles Family of New Bedford, MA

The family bearing this name in New Bedford, where it is one of nearly one hundred years’ standing one, too, of prominence and wealth, is a branch of the ancient Knowles family of the town of Eastham, Barnstable county, this Commonwealth. Reference is made to some of the descendants of the brothers Thomas and James H. Knowles of Eastham, several of whose sons – at least two of the former and one of the latter – in their earlier manhood cast their lot with the people of New Bedford. The firm of Thomas Knowles & Co. for many years was one of the greatest engaged in the whale fishery business in New Bedford; and its members in turn have been succeeded in business by younger generations who have most worthily worn the family name and sustained its reputation; and today the name continues of record in and about the city of their birth connected prominently with many of the most extensive commercial establishments and banking institutions of the locality.

Descendants of Richard Kimball of Ipswich MA

KIMBALL. Richard Kimball, of the parish of Rattlesden, County of Suffolk, England, with his family, came to New England in the ship “Elizabeth” in 1634, arriving at Boston, and thence went to Watertown, Mass. He soon became a prominent and active man in the new settlement, was proclaimed a freeman in 1635, and was proprietor …

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Descendants of Isaac Benjamin of New Bedford, MA

The New Bedford Benjamin family here considered – some of the descendants of Isaac Benjamin, one of whose sons, the late Isaac W. Benjamin, was for years officially identified with the New Bedford Cordage Company and a public servant of the city of New Bedford of rare fidelity and usefulness – is a branch of the Livermore, Maine, family of the name and it of the still earlier family of Watertown, Mass., where arrived John Benjamin Sept. 16, 1632, in the ship “Lion.”

Descendants of Philip Taber of New Bedford, MA

The Taber family of Dartmouth and New Bedford is descended from (I) Philip Taber, who, according to Savage, was born in 1605, and died in 1672. He was at Watertown in 1634, and he contributed toward building the galley for the security of the harbor. He was made a freeman at Plymouth in that same year. In 1639-40 he was a deputy from Yarmouth, and was afterward at Martha’s Vineyard, and from 1647 to 1655 was at Edgartown, going from there to New London in 1651, but probably returning soon. He was an inhabitant of Portsmouth in February, 1655, and was a representative in Providence in 1661, the commissioners being Roger Williams, William Field, Thomas Olney, Joseph Torrey, Philip Taber and John Anthony. Later he settled in Tiverton, where his death occurred. He married Lydia Masters, of Watertown, Mass., daughter of John and Jane Masters, and his second wife, Jane, born in 1605, died in 1669.

Descendants of Thomas Boyden of Bridgewater, MA

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, …

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Biography of Rev. Arthur Buckminster Fuller

REV. ARTHUR BUCKMINSTER FULLER, the third son of Hon. Timothy Fuller, was born August 10, 1822. He was early instructed by his father and his sister, Margaret Fuller. At the age of twelve, he spent one year at Leicester Academy; and, subsequently, studied with Mrs. Ripley, the wife of Rev. Samuel Ripley, of Waltham. In …

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Early New England People

Sarah Titcomb over her years of study of various New England families had collected quite a bit of material of several early New England families. At the bequest of some of her friends, she prepared and published them in book form. When reading through the material I was impressed with the amount of material collected on each individual, and rather then a brief genealogical sketch, readers are provided an in-depth study of each early family: Ayer, Bartlett, Bradley, Chase, Dean, Dow, Dunster, Ellis, Fuller, Hope, Kilby, Martine, Les Dernier, Maverick, Mills, Montague, Pemberton, Pepperrell, Poore, Precott, Sewall, Longfellow, Spofford, Titcomb, Watmough, and Willard.

Descendants of Nathaniel Newcomb of Norton, MA

Mr. Newcomb was born April 12, 1797, of the sixth generation in descent from Francis Newcomb, who was born probably in Hertfordshire, England, about 1605, and came to America in the ship “Planter” in 1635, accompanied by his wife Rachel, then aged twenty, his daughter Rachel (aged two and a half years) and son John (aged nine months). After residing in Boston three years Francis Newcomb moved his little family to Braintree (now Quincy, Norfolk Co., Mass.), where he died May 27, 1692, his gravestone says “aged one hundred years.” Tradition says he came from Oxfordshire, England, and was of pure Saxon blood. He owned several tracts of land in Braintree. He had ten children.

Descendants of Richard Borden who resided in Fall River, Massachusetts

There lived at and figured prominently in the affairs of Fall River for many years and was one of the city’s most useful citizens the late Cook Borden, who most worthily wore the Borden name and sustained the family reputation, and has been followed by sons who carried forward the work he began and left, and who have been or are now active and influential in the city’s affairs – substantial men of the community. The generations from the emigrant ancestor follow somewhat in detail.

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