LYNN AND READING

Lynn is pleasantly situated on the northern shore of Massachusetts Bay between the cities of Salem and Boston ~ Alonzo Lewis

Lynn

Lynn, inhabited in 1629, was one of the earliest towns founded in New England. The first non-native settlers known living there were Edmund Ingalls and his brother Francis. Edmund was a great-grandfather of Laura Ingalls Wilder of Little House on the Prairie fame. Many armchair genealogists believe that our grandfather, Daniel Eaton who settled in Lynn for a time, married a woman from the Eaton family which would have made us a cousin of Laura!! Sadly, my research has found that it's not true.

The early families in Lynn at that time numbered about five. Over the course of the next five years, a wave of newcomers made the voyage across the ocean to the New World. Some of these newcomers would find their way to the settlement at Lynn.

the Ballards arrive in America

One of these newcomers was William Ballard. He and his wife, our grandmother Elizabeth (last name unknown) (9GGM) arrived in New England on the ship James in 1635. They had with them two of their children, Hester, 2 (9A) and John, 1 ( (U). William and Elizabeth most probably settled in Lynn shortly after their arrival. They had one more child, Nathaniel (9U) before William died suddenly in 1639.

Note: Two William Ballards arrived in America at about the same time. One is our 9th grandfather William Ballard (9GGF), born in 1617, who settled in Newbury. The other William Ballard is a subject of this post and coincidentally married our grandmother Elizabeth (9GGM).

a Knight to the rescue

In 1637, William Knight (9GGF) appeared first in Salem where he was granted 10 acres of land. By 1638, we find him a landowner in Lynn. He was given 60 acres in the general land distribution. The bits of information we have about William Knight come from a deposition of a woman who knew his son John (9U). According to Martha Williams, he "was a mason, and a deacon of a dissenting congregation in England; that he came over with one Hathorne and others for the enjoyment of the liberty of his conscience; that he had a house plastered on the outside with plaster of Pelis and estate in lands in England; also the liberty of killing deer and rabbits in a certain park there."

Note: The "Hathorne" he came over with was John Hawthorne, brother to William Hawthorne. William was a great-grandfather of our distant cousin Nathaniel Hawthorne (6C5x), the author.

Sometime between William Ballard's death in 1639 and the birth of their first child in 1641, William Knight and the widow Elizabeth Ballard were wed. William had four children with his first wife, John (9U), Anne (9A), Francis (9U) and Hannah (9A). With Elizabeth's three children and the four they had together, their grand total came to eleven.

William was made a freeman in 1638 , served on juries at the Salem Quarterly Court from 1638 to 1653, and in 1641was named constable. In 1652, he was "licensed to retail strong waters."

Note: Again the constable/tavern keeper connection noticed by Hana.

the Puritan way

Records show that William became involved in petty squabbles like pretty much everyone in Puritan America. In 1640, he and Elizabeth testified in one of those ever popular defamation cases. In 1647 Robert Blood "was presented for abusing William Knight in provoking speeches, challenging him, pushing him with his arm and breaking his fence in." In 1648, William and seven others were fined for not fencing a common field against cattle. Worst of all, in 1653 Thomas Chadwell was fined "for abusing Elizabeth, wife of William Knight in her house and hold up his hand to strike her."

another uneven legacy

William died in 1655 at about age 50. In his will, he left to Elizabeth a third of his estate so she was well taken care of. But then we find another unequal distribution of wealth to the kiddies. To the four children of his first marriage, he left money ranging from one shilling to 40 shillings. Not a lot of money even back then. He left 40 shillings each to his two Ballard step-sons. The children he had with Elizabeth got the lion's share of the estate. The house and all lands he had accumulated went to Elizabeth (9A), Daniel (9U), Jacob (9U) and Mary (8GGM). Even this allotment didn't turn out to be equitable. He left a double portion to his third born child, Jacob.

Elizabeth died in 1687 at age 78.

A fateful trip to Lynn

The Genealogical History of the Town of Reading, Mass was written by our cousin, the Honorable Lilley Eaton (4C7x). A small paragraph notes the visit of three men to the town of Lynn:

"In 1651, John Clarke, John Crandall, and Obadiah Holmes (no relation to our Holmes family), "came from Newport and attended a Baptist meeting that was held at the house of William Witter, in Lynn..."

Baptists and Quakers were not well tolerated in Puritan America. Outraged neighbors duly alerted the authorities. The three men were promptly arrested and taken to the Boson jail. All three, found guilty of heresy, got off light with a simple fine. Two of the men paid and were free to go. Not so for Obadiah Holmes. As a matter of principle, he refused to pay the fine. On 31 Jul 1651, he was sentenced to 30 lashes, one for each pound he owed. Holmes answered: “I bless God I am counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus.”

Roger Williams, a minister who had been expelled by the Puritan leaders from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for spreading "new and dangerous ideas"sent a scathing letter to Governor John Endecott. Williams chastised Endicott and the magistrates for "persecuting and hunting any for any matter merely spiritual and religious."

The whipping of Obadiah took place in Boston with a crowd gathered around to watch. The executioner tied him to the whipping post and lashed him 30 times with a three-corded whip. With the whipping over, the bleeding Obadiah proclaimed, "You have struck me as with roses."

News of the brutal whipping spread quickly through the colonies, generating widespread disapproval of the government's actions. Obadiah became a symbol for a religious freedom movement which condemned the "tyrrany and persecutions" of the Puritan Church. The days of Puritan absolutism were coming to an end and Obadiah Holmes was at the forefront of this movement.

Note: Obadiah Holmes was the 4th great-grandfather of Abraham Lincoln.

Lynn's offshoot, the town of Reading

In 1639, a number of Lynn's inhabitants, looking for expansion, petitioned the Court for an "inland plantation." This settlement, which they called Lynn Village, lay on the south shore of the Great Pond, now known as Lake Quannapowitt. Incorporated in 1644, the new village changed its name and the town of Reading was established, taking its name from the town of Reading in England. There were just seven houses and seven families in 1644 when the town was incorporated.

Note: Reading is pronounced the same as Lori's home town of Redding.

the Eatons in Dover, England

Our grandfather William B. Eaton (11GGF) was born in England ca. 1535. Most of what we know about him is found in his will and that of his wife Jane (11GGM). He lived in Dover, England, but also owned property in Dunkirk, France and in the Spanish Netherlands. Dunkirk at the time belonged to Belgium, not France. William was a merchant and his holdings were all in valuable trade centers. Dover was one one the cinque ports, five port cities in England with key military and trade importance.

St Mary in Castro Church and Dover Castle ramparts above the white cliffs of Dover

William died sometime before December 1581 and Jane followed in 1684. In her will, Jane named her four sons, William (11U), John (11U), Peter (10GGF) and Nicholas (11U). She stipulated that a certain amount of money should be used for Peter and Nicholas (underage at the time of her death) to "...keep them both one yere or more year in France to learn the French tongue and afterwards to put them to some science or occupation..."

our grandfather, Peter Eaton

After his apparent stint in France "to learn the French tongue," Peter Eaton (10GGF) returned to England and eventually took up his father's business. In 1603, he married widow Elizabeth Patterson (10GGM). Peter was a deputy for Dover, representing the port at the meeting of the brotherhood of the Cinque Ports ca. 1615. He was evidently chosen to be a churchwarden for Dover in 1619, but he asked to be excused. He stated that "his place exempts him now from serving, as it did on a former occasion" and asked direction from Lord Zouche, in a letter dated 5 April 1619 at Dover. Lord Zouch sent a warrant from London on 8 April 1619 to the mayor and council of Dover to discharge "Peter Eaton, a soldier of Arch-cliff Bulwark, Dover, from serving the office of churchwarden." It pays to know people in high places.

Peter died in 1630 at about 60 years and Elizabeth died in 1632 at about 57 years. Peter and Elizabeth had ten children.

The map below shows Dover, the Eaton's land holdings abroad, and the two towns where William Eaton (9GGF), our immigrant ancestor, lived before his departure with his family for America.

Orange = Dover Yellow and Green = foreign properties Red = Margate, marriage site Blue = Staple

the immigrant

William Eaton (9GGF) was baptized 26 Sep 1607 in Dover, Kent, England. He was named for a brother who died shortly before he was born. He married Martha Jenkin (9GGM) 28 Jan 1628 in Margate, Kent, England, where Martha was born.

Their first child was baptized in Margate and the subsequent four in the little town of Staple. Two of the children were buried there within a month of each other in 1634. Below is St. James the Great church in Staple. Built in the 14th century, it is most probably the church that the Eatons attended and where their children were baptized.

William, his wife Martha and children John (9U), Martha (9A) & Albe (9A) emigrated in June of 1637 from the port of Sandwich, England. Jonas Eaton (10U), William's brother, came over on the same ship but, for some reason, was listed as a servant.

in Reading

William Eaton (9GGF) and his brother Jonas settled first in Watertown. William's last child, our grandfather Daniel Eaton (8GGF), was born in Watertown in 1638. In 1644, William moved to Reading. His homestead was on the "east side of the Great Pond," Lake Quannapowitt. The rural community of Reading, according to Edward Johnson's Wonder Working Providence, was filled with "enormous flocks of wild pigeons, wild turkeys exceeding fat, sweet and in abundance, fish in the rivers and ponds, grapes, blackberries, blueberries in great quantities." Paradise.

Lake Quannapowitt by Lori McDonald

William didn't become a freeman until 1653, a full sixteen years after his arrival. At that time, Reading was still a small town with less than 50 households.

William died in 1658 at 54 years. Martha died in 1680 at 75 years. They had five children, all born in England with the exception of our grandfather Daniel.

Note: The Eaton family has been extensively research by the Eaton Family Association. They have hired genealogists and had DNA testing done. There is an annual fee to join their association but I found enough info without having the pay the $50 bucks.

George Davis

It's been bandied about amongst the genealogy crowd that our grandfather George Davis (10GGF) was the son of Nicholas Davis, a well-to-do tailor who came over on the ship "Planter" in 1635. That Nicholas and George were father and son is highly doubtful but, in researching that relationship, I found another interesting tidbit. Nicholas Davis just happened to be the master of our grandmother Judith Phippen Symonds (10GGM). He brought her over as an indentured servant on the "Planter"and they settled in Woburn. Woburn is where Judith met and married our grandfather William Symonds (10GGF). Their story will be told in our future Woburn post.

Another misconception about Grandpa George is that he died off the coast of Cape Fear, which sounds a little romantic. George was a sea captain and had occasion, in 1664, to make a voyage down the coast to North Carolina. The confusion about his death arose because of his will which he wrote on the ship. It begins:

I, George Davis, beinge bound for Cape Feare, doe now dispose my outward estate as followeth, in case I die before I come againe or shall hear after make any other will...

Red = Reading Orange = Cape Fear, North Carolina

Along for the ride on the voyage to South Carolina was George's oldest son, our grandfather Joseph Davis (9GGF). Joseph was the only son of George and his first wife, the widow Mary Audley (10GGM). When she married George, Mary had two children from her first marriage, Edmund (9U) and Mary (9A).

Happily, neither George nor Joseph died on the Cape Fear expedition. George was able to return home to his second wife, Sarah Clarke Davis, and their eight children.

It appears that George and Sarah lived a quiet life in Reading because there is absolutely nothing else written about them. Possibly their main claim to fame was the eight children born to them. George died in 1667, three years after his Cape Fear voyage. He was only 51.

In a future post, we'll have more on George's wife Sarah who remarried and became embroiled in the witch brouhaha of 1792.

Reading becomes legit

Lynn and Reading were two of the few towns settled without an actual deed of ownership. However, in 1658, the need for that written piece of paper became more pressing. The fear sweeping the colonies at that time was the crown's demand for the return of the charters that had been previously granted. The inhabitants of Reading wanted to use any means necessary to substantiate their claim to the land.

Note: In our Ipswich Revisited post we wrote about our cousin Thomas French and the town of Ipswich's resistance to these proposed charter revisions and new taxes to be levied.

When the towns of Lynn and Reading were first founded, the land in question lay in the realm of Sagamore Wenepoykin, better known as George-No-Nose. George received his unusual nickname due to disfiguration from smallpox. Following his mother's death, George became Sachem, or leader, of the entire area north and east of the Charles River. Unfortunately for George, he got caught up in the Pequot tragedy, was captured and transported to Barbados. There, he was scheduled to be sold into slavery. The Reverend John Eliot, who was instrumental in setting up "praying towns" for the Native Americans, intervened on George's behalf. George, happily, returned to New England, settling in the Praying Town of Natick, near Dedham, where much of his family lived.

The lands that encompassed Reading technically still belonged to the descendants of George-No-Nose. Town officials made a deal with David Kunkshamooshaw, a grandson of Sagamore George. Below is a portion of the quit-claim deed signed by town officials and David.

The deed says in part:

"To all Christian People...David Kunkshamoosaw, who, by credible intelligence, is grandson to old Sagamore George-No-Nose...the nearest of kin and legal successors of ye aforesaid George-No-Nose...whom we affirme was the true and sole owner of ye land that the towns of Lynn and Reading stand upon...David Kunkshamooshaw...for and in consideration of ye summe of sixteen pounds of current sterling money of silver, in hand paid to ye Indians clayming...do acknowledge themselves to be well and truly paid..."

In less than twenty years the need for the Native Americans to be "well and truly paid" would end with the grand battle for superiority in New England known as King Philip's War.