This manuscript provides a look into some of the descendants of John Beal of Hingham, Massachusetts.
John Beal, immigrant ancestor, came from the parish of Hingham, County Norfolk, England, to Hingham, Massachusetts, with his wife and five sons, three daughters and two servants. This fact is stated in many words on the town clerk’s record by Daniel Cushing, fourth town clerk of Hingham. He was born in Hingham, England, or vicinity.
John Beal
John Beal, immigrant ancestor, came from the parish of Hingham, County Norfolk, England, to Hingham, Massachusetts, with his wife and five sons, three daughters and two servants. This fact is stated in many words on the town clerk’s record by Daniel Cushing, fourth town clerk of Hingham. He was born in Hingham, England, or vicinity. He had a grant of land at Hingham, Mass., September 18th, 1638, six acres for a house lot on what is now South Street. He was a shoemaker. He was admitted a freeman in 1639 and was deputy to the General Court in 1640 and 1659. He married (first) Nazareth Hobart, born in England about 1600, died at Hingham, Mass., 23 September, 1658, daughter of Edmund and Margaret (Dewey) Hobart. He married (second) 10 March, 1659, Mary Jacob, widow of Nicholas Jacob, who died at Hingham, 15 June, 1681. In noticing his death, David Hobart, son of Rev. Peter Hobart, made full record “April 1, 1688, my uncle John Beal died suddenly.” Judge Sewell also made record on the same date, “Father Beal of Hingham died aged one hundred years.” His will was dated Sept. 27, 1687, and bequeathed to his children and grandchildren.
Children, all by first wife.
Martha, born 1620, married (first) 16 March, 1640, William Halloway of Plymouth; married (second) 29 June, 1649, Samuel Dunham ; died 26 April, 1690.
Mary, born 1622; married 30 December, 1647, James Whiton of Hingham; died 12 December, 1696.
Sarah, born 1625; married (first) 22 March, 1648/9, Thomas Marsh; married (second) 5 September, 1662, Edmund Sheffield of Braintree, 9 November, 1710.
John, born about 1627. See below.
Nathaniel, born 1629.
Jeremiah, born about 1631.
Joshua, born about 1633.
Caleb, born 1636.
Rebecca, baptized at Hingham, February, 1640/41; died 13 December, 1686.
Jacob, born 13 October, 1642.
John Beal Jr.
John Beal, son of John, was born in England about 1627, and died September 12, 1694. He resided on the homestead which he inherited from his father. He was a carpenter by trade. He married (first) 6 January, 1658/9, Elizabeth , who died February 1,1659/60; married (second) 14 November, 1660, Mary Gill, baptized in Hingham, January, 1643/4, died June 17, 1701, aged 57, daughter of Thomas and Hannah (Otis) Gill.
Child of first wife, born in Hingham.
1. Elizabeth, born 19 November, 1659.
Children of second wife.
2. Mary, born 7 September, died 29 September, 1661.
3. Mary, baptized 26 October, 1662, married (first) 3 September, 1683, John Stowell; married (second) 31 May, 1695, Nathaniel Hobart.
4. John, born 26 March, 1665; died 6 December, 1666.
5. John, born 17 September, 1667; died 21 October, 1668.
6. John, born 19 December, 1669.
7. Thomas, born 15 March, 1671/2. See below.
8. Hannah, born 13 March, 1675/6; married 24 May, 1698, John Ward.
Thomas Gill, early planter of Hingham, born in England about 1616. Wife Hannah, daughter of the first John Otis, died 25 January, 1675/6. He died 24 February, 1704/5. Daughter Mary married John Beal, Jr.
Thomas Beal
Thomas, son of John Beal, was born in Hingham 15 March, 1671/2, and resided on Fort Hill street, Hingham. He removed to Newton in 1726, and died there, 14 September, 1751. He married, 13 June, 1710, Jael Remington, born in Hingham, 22 April, 1688, daughter of Thomas and Remember (Stowell) Remington.
Children born in Hingham.
1. Jael, born 1 September, 1710; married 10 November, 1735, Jonathan French.
2. Mary, born 10 May, 1712.
3. Hannah, born 29 September, 1713.
4. Mercy, born 29 May, 1716 ; married 1737 Samuel Bates.
5. Thomas, born 18 April, 1718; died 5 January, 1718/9.
6. Silence, born 18 November, 1719.
7. Leah, born 9 June, 1722; married Elisha Remington.
8. Thomas, born 13 May, 1724.
9. Israel, born .25 April, 1726, in Newton. See Below. (Birth place there given as Hingham.)
10. Thomas, born 1727, married Hildah Flagg.
11. John, born 10 September, 1728, married Elizabeth Hall.
12. Susanna, born 18 April, 1733.
Thomas Remington of Hingham, married 16 March, 1687/8, Remember Stowell. She died 5 November, 1694. Their daughter Jael, born 22 April, 1688, married Thomas Beal.
Israel Beals
Israel, son of Thomas Beals, born in Hingham 25 April, 1726, and removed, when an infant, with his father to Newton, where he afterwards resided. He married there 8 September, 1748, Eunice Flagg.
Children, born in Newton.
1. Israel, born 22 June, 1749.
2. Eunice, born 6 May, 1752.
3. Joshua, born 27 December, 1753. See below.
4. Susanna, born 28 March, 1756.
5. Eleazer, born 9 July, 1758.
6. Isaac, born 10 September, 1763.
Joshua Beals
Joshua, son of Israel Beals, was born in Newton, 27 December, 1753. He was a tailor in Cambridge, and died there at sixty years of age. He was a soldier in the revolution, from Boston in Captain Loring’s company, Colonel Edward Proctor’s regiment, four months and three days in 1780, reinforcing the Continental army. His age on the revolutionary rolls of this year is given as twenty-six. He married in Boston, 16 December, 1778, Elizabeth Lane, born 27 August, 1755, died 7 May, 1839.
Children, born in Boston.
l. Joshua, born 22 October, 1779.
2. John, born 23 September, 1781.
3. Betsey, born 3 October, 1783, married J. Partridge; children; Joshua and Elizabeth.
4. William, born 16 December, 1785. See below.
5. Harriet G., born 22 March, 1792, died in infancy.
6. Henry M., born 11 August, 1793.
7. Maria, born 29 May, 1799, died 1808.
8. Caroline A., born 12 April, 1803.
Samuel Stowell of Hingham, married 25 October, 1649, Mary Farrow, who survived him and married, secondly, Joshua Beal. Samuel died 9 November, 1683.
Daughter Remember, born 22 April, 1662, married Thomas Remington. John Farrow, from Hingham, England to Hingham, Mass., in 1635, died 7 July, 1687. Wife Frances died 28 January, 1688/9. Daughter Mary, born in England, married (1), 25 October, 1649, Samuel Stowell and (2) 10 October, 1689, Joshua Beal.
The Newton Birth Records give; Joshua Beal (duplicate Beals), son of Israel and Eunice, born 27 December, 1753. Also several other records used by Cutter.
The Boston Records give the births of Betsy, John and Joshua, children of Joshua and Elizabeth Beals. Also that of William, son of William and Mary Beal, 5 August, 1723. Also the marriage record of William Beal and Mary Wright 9 April, 1719, and that of Joshua Beals and Elizabeth Lane, 7 December, 1778. Also many other records relating to Beal, Beale and Beals.
Joshua Gardner Beals
Joshua Gardner, son of William Beals, was born in Boston, 25 August, 1836. He was educated in the public schools in Boston, from which he graduated as a first scholar. From the Boston Latin School he entered Harvard College, where he was graduated in the class of 1858. He studied law for a time in Dane Law School, Harvard University, leaving in 1859 to assist his father and his brother, James H., in the management of the Boston Post. His father’s partners in the ownership of the newspaper at that time were Charles G. Green and Richard Frothingham. In 1875 Mr. Beals retired from the Post. In 1877 he removed to New York, but three years later returned to Boston, where he has since made his home. He attends the Arlington Street Church. In politics he is a democrat. He is a member of the University Club and the New England Society of New York and the Harvard, Athletic and University Clubs of Boston. (He died July 14th, 1914.) He married 25 October, 1865, Edith W. Simmons, born 20 October, 1845, in Boston, daughter of George W. and Frances A. (Gay) Simmons.
Children
1. Gertrude, born 25 May, 1868; married Frank a Bourne, an architect, graduate of the Institute of Technology; child Philip Walley Bourne.
2. Gardner, born 14 January, 1873.
3. Sidney Lane, born 22 April, 1880. The latter two are graduates of the Harvard Law School and are practicing in Boston.
William Beals
William, son of Joshua Beals, was born in Boston 16 December, 1785, died there 8 December, 1870. He was the senior proprietor of the BOSTON POST, firm of Beals & Green, this paper being established in 1831, he having been connected with it forty years. Here he made an independent fortune by strict attention to every detail that came under his charge. He was universally and justly esteemed as one of the most honorable, straightforward business men of the community. As prosperity came to him, others shared it, and no poor or worthy printer ever applied to him for assistance without getting relief. He never made any display of his wealth or benevolence. He was an active member of the Baptist Church, and a regular attendant at the Old South prayer meetings, often taking charge of them. Before he became identified with the POST, he was one of the publishers of the COMMERCIAL GAZETTE. He married 20 November, 1814, Dorothy Whitney, born 1 April, 1797, daughter of Silas and Patience (Goodnow) Whitney of Stow. Silas Whitney was in the Revolution, and was descended from Daniel (5), Richard (4), Richard (3), Richard (2), John (1).
Children
1. Francis A., born 29 September, 1815 ; married 20 May, 1844, George Baker. He died 1854, aged 36.
2. Maria A., born 2 February, 1817, married 26 February, 1846, Sumner Flagg.
3. Elizabeth B., born 28 September, 1819 ; married 1853, Isaac Kendall.
4. William, born 29 May, 1821. See below.
5. James H., born 19 January, 1823 ; married Annie M. W. Reed.
6. Harriet M., born 15 February, 1825; married 1852, George W. Tuxbury.
7. Louisa A., born 13 March, 1827 ; married 1849, John Wetherbee.
8. Emily C., born 27 June, 1831, married 1854, Edward C. Mitchell.
9. John W., born in Newton, 8 January, 1834; married 1.859, Virginia A. Simmons. He d. 12 Sept. 1914.
10. Joshua G., born 25 August, 1836, d. 14 July, 1914. See below.
William Beals #2
William, son of William Beals, was born in Boston, 29 May, 1821. He attended the Boston public schools and the English high school. He began his business career at the age of 14, determined to become a merchant and ambitious to win success and distinction in his chosen field, and in which he was eminently successful. He began as a clerk for an old fashioned establishment on Milk street, where a commissioned business was done in baled goods, remaining there until he was 22 years old, when he embarked in business on his own account as a manufacturer of flannels, for five years, and achieved a 119 notable success. He then engaged in the importing trade, buying and selling English, French and German textile goods for the next twenty years, in partnership with George Baker, under the firm name of Baker & Beals for five years. Afterwards he continued the business under his own name for fifteen years. His store was at Milk street, Boston. In 1863, he retired from business as a merchant, and from that time to 1907, devoted his time to the care and management of his property and various estates and trusts committed to his care. The death of his son William impelled him to give up all possible business cares. He is a member of the First Baptist Church of Boston. In politics, he is a Democrat of the old school. He resides at 125 Newbury street, Boston. Mr. Beals achieved a remarkable success in trade, and in later years displayed conspicuous ability and sound judgment in the management of large property interests. He has the esteem of all who know him. Married (first) 7 June, 1848, Nancy Wilkinson Marchant of Providence, R. I., born 26 September, 1826, died 26 August, 1854, daughter of Henry Marchant, a distinguished manufacturer. He married (second) 28 October, 1857, Sophia B. Mauran of Providence, born 27 June, 1831, died 29 October, 1905, daughter of Captain Suchet, owner of ocean-going vessels.
Children of first wife:
1. Sarah Elizabeth, born at Boston, 14 September, 1849; died 9 July, 1852.
2. Emily Frances, born 28 May, 1855; died 8 February, 1875.
Children of second wife.
3. Sophie Elizabeth, born 5 November, 1858 ; died 2 February, 1863.
4. William, born 3 April, 1865; died at San Francisco, 9 January, 1907; graduated from Harvard College, taking degree, class of 1888, magna cum laude, and became a brilliant and expert mining engineer; He had visited and inspected every mine of importance in North and South America except the Calumet & Hecla; and made several visits to Europe in the employment of mining interests, and was well known abroad. His career was cut short suddenly while he was on a trip to inspect mining property in Nevada. Married Edith Maud Melcher, of Portsmouth, N. H. She resides there.
5. Edward Mauran, born 30 March, 1868; educated at the Mass. Institute of Technology; now a merchant in Boston; married Bertha W. Thomas of Brookline, Massachusetts; children Madeleine T. and Edward M.
6. Mary Alice, born 28 May, 1873; died 28 July, 1875.