Author Topic: Some early New England Thompsons - unfortunately not mine  (Read 8856 times)

Stirling Thompson

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Some early New England Thompsons - unfortunately not mine
« on: February 10, 2009, 07:18:31 AM »
Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine
By George Thomas Little, Henry Sweetser Burrage, Albert Roscoe Stubbs
Published by Lewis historical publishing company, 1909


THOMPSON - There is ample record that several of this name were among our earliest seventeenth century settlers. Sir William Thompson, of England, was the owner of property about Boston, and his coat-of-arms has come down through many generations of James Thompson's descendants, but patient research has failed to establish the exact connection between the English and American houses. Edward Thompson came over in the "Mayflower" in 1620; John, his brother, came over from England in 1643 ; Archibald Thompson settled in Marblehead in 1637; Edward Thompson settled in Salem in 1637; Dr. Benjamin Thompson settled in Braintree and was town clerk in 1696, and left at his death eight chiblren and twenty-eight grandchildren.

(I) James Thompson was among the original settlers of Wob1trn, Massachusetts, and settled in that part of the town which is now known as North Woburn. He came in Winthrop's great company, in 1630, and probably first settled in Charlestown. He was born in 1593, in England, and was accompanied on his journey by his wife Elizabeth and three sons and one daughter. He was then thirty- seven years of age, and tradition has it that he was one of the party who landed at Salem, Massachusetts, in the early part of June, 1630. His coat-of-arms is identified with that of Sir William Thompson, a London knight, an1l it is probable that he came from the family. With his wife Elizabeth, James Thompson was admitted to membership in the First Church of Charlestown, August 31, 1633. In the following December he was admitted as a freeman of the town. In December, 1640, he was one of the thirty-two men who subscribed to the noted town orders for Woburn. He was among the.few adventurers who early pushed their way into this wilderness region. Charlestown Village was incorporated in 1642, under the name of Woburn, and it is believed that this was in memory of the ancient town of that name in Bedfordshire, England, whence some of the emigrants probably came. James Thompson was chosen a member of the first board of selectmen, and continued to serve the town in that office nearly twenty years with brief intervals. In 1650 he was the commissioner to carry the votes for town officers to Cambridge. The exact location of his residence cannot be positively stated, but it is probable that it was near the junction of Elm street and Traverse. It appears by the records that he was an extensive land owner for that time. It is probable that he disposed of most of his property before his death, as his will makes no reference to real estate. His first wife Elizabeth died November 13, 1643, and he was married (second) February 15, 1644, to Susanna Blodgett, widow of Thomas Blodgett, of Cambridge. She died February 10, 1661. He survived his second wife about twenty-one years, and died in Woburn, 1682.

His children were: James, Simeon, Olive, Jonathan, and possibly another daughter.

(II) - Jonathan, youngest son of James Thompson, was born in England, probably about 1630, and was married November 28, 1655, to Susanna Blodgett, of Cambridge, a daughter of his father's second wife, and bearing the same name. There is good reason for believing that he lived in the house built by his father, near the junction of Elm and Traverse streets, traces of which some of the oldest citizens of North Woburn still remember. It is probable that his father lived with him in his old age and bequeathed to the son his homestead. Not much is known of the personal history of Jonathan. From the town records it is learned that he was one of three teachers of schools and the first male teacher ever employed under the authority of the town. This was from 1673-75. In the year last named he and his good wife shared the responsibility and labor, "he to tech biger children, and she to tech leser children," the two to receive one sovereign between them for their services. In subsequent years he served as constable of the town, and still later as town sexton. He died October 20, 1691, and his wife February 6, 1698. Their children were: Susannah, Jonathan, James (died young), James, Sarah, Simon and Ebenezer.

(III) Jonathan (2), eldest son and second child of Jonathan (1) Thompson, was born September 28, 1663, and it is believed that he lived in the house already designated as the probable home of his father and grandfather in North Woburn. He was one of the town "tything men." He was also on a committee in 1728 to go to the great and general court and give the reasons why the petition of Goshen, or that part of Woburn which subsequently became Wilmington, should not be granted. He was also in the same year one of a committee of nine "to goe to the Reverend M. Fox to see if they can make things easier with him." He married Frances Whitmore, a daughter of Francis Whitmore, of Cambridge. His death is supposed to have occurred in 1748. His children were : Jonathan, Hannah, Joseph, James, Susannah, Ebenezer, Mary, Samuel, Patience, Esther, Jabez and Daniel.

(IV) Samuel, fifth son and eighth child of Jonathan (2) and Frances (Whitmore) Thompson, was born September 8, 1705, in what is now North Woburn. About 1730, probably, he built the house on North Elm street, North Woburn, which has been the home of six generations of Thompsons. It is not now occupied by people of the name. He was largely engaged in getting out ship timber for his brothers, who were ship builders in Medfield. While unloading timber m the spring of 1748 he received a severe injury which was followed by a fever resulting in his death, May 13, 1748, while in his forty- third year. He married Ruth, daughter of Joseph Wright, and a great-granddaughter of Captain John Carter, one of the first settlers of Woburn. They were married December 31, 1730, and she survived him more than twenty-seven years, dying October 3, 1775. Their children were: Samuel, Daniel, Ruth, Abijah, Mary. Phoebe, Lois and Jonathan.

(V) Daniel, second son of Samuel and Ruth (Wright) Thompson, was born in Wobum, Massachusetts, March 9, 1734. He was a man of warm temperament, active and enterprising. He was one of the guards to the royal governors, but when the trouble began between the mother, country and his own, he quickly espoused the side of the colonies. Upon hearing of the march of the British toward Concord, April 19, 1775, he jumped into a saddle and hurried to the North village for the purpose of arousing his neighbors. He met but one man that hesitated to follow him in the defense, and this timid fellow asked Daniel if he wasn't too hasty, and likely to get into trouble. The famous reply of Daniel as given is : "No ! I tell you the tyrants are on the march to destroy our stores, and if no one else opposes them to-day, I will !" Going at once to Concord, he poured his steady and telling fire into the faces of the British. When the enemy retreated, he took a stand near the road, behind an old .barn, and fired diagonally through the platoons of the enemy, and his shot raked the line of the hated English terribly. Enraged at his deadly work, a grenadier who had watched his movements ran behind the barn and fatally shot him. The place where Daniel fell is still pointed out, and is on that part of the road from Lexington to Concord, and is in a protruding corner of Lincoln. A double funeral was held in the church, the other being Asahel Porter, who was killed the same day, the Rev. Josiah Sherman delivering an able and patriotic discourse. Daniel was one of the first victims to fall in the cause of the revolution. A monument has been erected to his memory on his grave in Woburn, and bears this inscription:

"Here lies buried the Body of Mr. Daniel Thompson, who was slain in Concord Battle on ye 19th. of April. 1775, Aged 40 years.

"Here Passenger, Confined. Reduced to dust
Lies what was once Religious, wise & just.
The cause he engaged did animate him high.
Namely. Religion & dear Liberty.
Steady & warm in Liberties defence.
True in his Country, Loyal to His Prince.
Though in his Breast a Thirst for glory str'd.
Although lie's gone his nаme Embalm'd shall be
And had in Everlasting Memory."

Daniel Thompson was a member of the c'.mrch in Woburn, and married Phoebe Snow, who after surviving him for thirty-six years died in Baldwin, Maine, where she was residing with her daughter. Their children were: Isaac Snow, Phoebe and Daniel.

(VI) Dr. Isaac Snow, eldest son of Daniel and Phoebe (Snow) Thompson, was born in Woburn, June 28, 1761. He was thirteen years old when his brave father was slain, but he was imbued with the spirit of his sire, and young as he was he determined to have a hand in revenging the act and upholding his country. When fifteen he went to sea in an American privateer, and being captured by a British cruiser was imprisoned at Barbadoes, but escaped by swimming three miles to a French vessel. He finally reached home and read medicine with Dr. John Hay, of Reading, and settled in practice at Pearsontown, now Standish, Maine. He was a man of small stature, dark complexioned, and pleasing manners. Like his father, he was a person of great activity and energy, with a somewhat poetic temperament as well as a fighter. Full of kindness and generosity, he was always sunny and cheerful with his patients. In infancy he was so small he was put into a quart measure, and wore his mother's ring above his elbow when three years old. One of his first shoes was exhibited in the Boston Museum as a curiosity. Dr. Thompson married Charlotte, daughter of Dr. John Hay, his old preceptor, in 1785. Their children were: Charlotte, Daniel, Sarah Hay Bowers, who was the mother of Alphonse Bowers, of California, inventor of a hydraulic dredger, and Roscoe Bowers : Frances, married Abner Dow. elsewhere mentioned, and was grandmother of Fred T. Dow (see sketch), and John Hay. The strains of Frances Thompson, and Benjamin Thompson, who was the celebrated Count Rumford, were collaterally connected and diverge in the fourth generation from James Thompson, of England and Woburn, Massachusetts. They had a common great-great-grandfather. Mr. Dow has a letter written by Dr. Isaac S. Thompson to Charlotte Hay just before their marriage in 1785.
Semper Fidelis! Semper Familia!
Stu

Stirling Thompson

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Re: Some early New England Thompsons - unfortunately not mine
« Reply #1 on: February 10, 2009, 07:52:13 AM »
Another early line... this one in New Hampshire and southern Maine. Still can't make a connection.

Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of the State of Massachusetts
By William Richard Cutter, William Frederick Adams
Published by Lewis historical publishing company, 1910


(The Thompson Line.)

Robert Thompson was the immigrant ancestor of the family in America. He was in Durham, now Dover, New Hampshire, as early as 1635. and Thompson's Point, just south of the mouth of the Cocheco river, was named for him. He was taxed in Dover in 1648, and witnessed a deed in 1652.

(II) William Thompson, according to the family tradition, was the son of Robert Thompson. In 1656 he received a grant of land in Dover, "beyond Cocheco Log Swamp," and October 15, 1656, a short way below the mouth of Sturgeon creek, a grant in Kittery which was originally assigned to John White. He probably married a daughter of John White, and in 1659 was presented at York court "for rebellion against his father and mother-in-law." He died in 1676, and his estate was appraised at fifty-two pounds and eighteen shillings. He left twenty-three acres of land, a house and orchard in Kittery, and fifty acres in Dover. Children: I. John, born 1659; married Sarah Woodman. 2. William, 1661; married, probably, Mary Levering. 3. Robert, 1664; "lived with Tobey Hanson at Dover." 4. James, 1666; married Elizabeth Frye. 5. Alexander, 1671; mentioned below. 6. Judith, 1675.

(Ill) Alexander, son of William Thompson, was born in 1671. He had a grant of land in Kittery in 1694, and died July 13, 1720. He married Anna, daughter of Thomas Curtis, of York, Maine. She was the administratrix of her husband's estate, appointed October 4, 1720. Children: I. Elizabeth, married John Allen, of York. 2. Abigail, married John Garry or Geary in 1720. 3. Benjamin, born October 14, 1702; married, in 1726. Hannah Smith. 3. John, December 30 1704: mentioned below. 4. Samuel, April 6, 1707; married. 1730, Hannah Brackett, of Berwick. 5. Joseph, May 13, 1711; married, 1733. Mary Welch, of York. 6. Jonathan, May I. 1713: married. 1737, Dinah Thompson, his cousin. 7. Curtis. June 2, 1715; married, 1740, Daniel Junkins. 8. James, died October 22, 1724.

(TV) John, son of Alexander Thompson, was born in Kittery. December 30. 1704. He settled in San ford. Maine, after the birth of his children. He married (intentions dated December 7. 1728) Priscilla. (laughter of Stephen and Mary (Tucker) Davis, of Haver- hill. Massachusetts. Children, born in York, Maine: i. Anna. January 7, 1731-32. 2. John, October 26, 1733. 3. Jesse. 4. Priscilla. 5. Naomi. 6. Olive, March 17, 1747-48: married Joseph Lewis (see Lewis, V).
Semper Fidelis! Semper Familia!
Stu