Archive:The Descendants of John Whitney, page 21
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The Descendants of John Whitney, Who Came from London, England, to Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1635, by Frederick Clifton Pierce (Chicago: 1895)
Transcribed by the Whitney Research Group, 1999.
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| WHITNEY GENEALOGY. | 21 |
A chaine a iron bar a spoone of iron an old adsc a set for a saw two wedges and an iron pin for a cart a hay crome and other old iron, 000 12 00 A grind stone with the iron to it.................................... 000 04 00 An old haire a cart rope an old bage two old cushins................. 000 02 00 Fifty acres of land caled devident................................... 025 00 00 Three acres of meadow at beaver brooke with an acre and half of ap- land to it........................................................ 020 00 00 An acre of meadow called plaine meadow............................... 010 00 00 A forke and a shovell................................................ 000 02 00 All so of............................................................ 000 14 00 Joseph UNDERWOOD William BOND Nathan FISKE Massachusetts Colony Records A quarter Court, held at Boston, the first of the 4th mo., 1641. John WHITNEY was chosen constable at Watertowne and tooke oath. There was granted to Goodm. NUTT, Marten UNDERWOOD, John WHITNEY, Henry KEMBALL and John WITHEREDGE alowance for 881/2 yrd. of cloth, valued at 12 d. p. yrd. 1655. In answer to the peticion of Mr. Lymon EIRES, Jno. STONE, Jno. WHITNEY, Wm. PAGE, etc, the Court judgeth it meete to referre the peticioners to the retourne of the commissiones appointed to settle the matters in difference betweene them those acts this Court doth approove of and continew, as they are presented to this Court, and are on file. ---------- WHAT HENRY AUSTIN WHITNEY SAYS. JOHN WHITNEY probably arrived in June, and immediately settled in Water- town, where his son Joshua was born the 15th of July. He purchased a sixteen acre homestall, which had been granted to John STRICKLAND, who was dismissed from the Watertown church May 29, 1635, and was one of that colony from Water- town that went and planted Wethersfield, the oldest town on Connecticut river. This homestead was the permanent residence of Mr. WHITNEY. In 1668 he requested his youngest son, Benjamin, who had settled in York, Me, to return and live with him on his homestead, with the assurance that it should be his own after his father's decease. In 1671 Benjamin, with his father's consent, conveyed his rights and obli- gations in this homestead to his brother Joshua, who had settled in Groton, for £40. After the decease of his father Joshua returned to Groton, and on the 29th October, 1697, sold this ancient homestead to Dea. Nathan FISKE. It was situated at a little distance north of Belmont street and east of Common street. (See the map of the original allotments in BOND's Early History of Watertown.) It is stated above that Mr. WHITNEY purchased his homestall, but before 1642 the town had granted him nine other lots of land, amounting to 198 acres. The Registry of Deeds, which contains comparatively few of the early conveyances, shows that he made several purchases of land, and it is probable that he had aided all his other sons in their settlements as he did Jonathan, to whom he gave 39 acres about 1659- and Benjamin, to whom he gave the homestead as we have already noticed. Jonathan and Benjamin received these gifts from their father when they were quite young, and it is possible that they shared in some later division of his estate, which may account for the fact that Mr. WHITNEY in his will, while he bequeathes parcels of land to all his other sons, merely gives to Jonathan "one iron kitle and a great brass skilet;" to Benjamin, "the old mare if she live." Mr. WHITNEY was admitted freeman March 3, 1635-6; appointed constable of Watertown by the General Court, June 1, 1641; selectman, 1638 to 1655, inclusive, and town clerk, 1655. His wife Elinor, the mother of his eight sons, died May 11, 1659, aged 54 [NOTE]; and he married Sept. 29, 1769,[NOTE] Judah CLEMENT, who was not living at the date of his will, April 3, 1673. He died June 1, 1673, aged 94. Inventory, dated June 4, 1673: 50 acres dividend land, 3 acres Beaver Brook meadow, and 1 1/2 acres upland; 1 acre plain meadow, besides his personal property, consisting of household goods and stock on the farm. This shows that he then held but a small part of his lands granted and purchased, which had probably been distributed to his sons. [Note: The original has for the date in the last paragraph, 2nd line: Sept. 29, 1569 which has been manually corrected in my copy and is no doubt in error. On the 3rd line, his ages is listed as ?4 (1st digit unreadable in my copy) and has been manually corrected to 94. - Tim Doyle]
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