THANKFUL BARNES’S ANCESTORS IN SUDBURY, MASSACHUSETTES

 

We described in an earlier issue how Thanlful Barnes’s ancestors were ogiginal settlers of Sudbury Massachusetts. In this issue we quote from  "The History of Sudbury, Massachusetts, 1638-1898", by Alfred Sereno Hudson, Sudbury Press, Sudbury MA, 1898.

 

I have copied all references to the emigrants BENT, HOWE, and GOODNOW, except in those chapters that relate to their land holdings, the location of the lands, and roads they were on.

 

CHAPTER III.

 

Origin of the Sudbury Settlement.- Why it Was Formed.-Names of the Early Settlers: Residents of Watertown, Emigrants from England.-Passenger List of the Ship "Confidence".-Tradition About John Rutter.-Character of the Settlers.-Biographic Sketches.

 

pp. 26-27

            From the town records we have compiled the following list of the earlier grantees or settlers, who went to the Sudbury Plantation about 1638 or 1639:-

 

(Then follows a list of names, including:)

            Edmond GOODENOW

            Thomas GOODENOW

            John HOWE

            John GOODENOW

 

            Of those who came directly from England, we have on a single ship's list of passengers the names of some of the most prominent persons in the Sudbury Plantation, namely:

 

"The list of the names of Passebg^rs Intended for New England in the good shippe the Confidence of London of C C. tonnes John Jobson M^r And thus by virtue of the Lord Treas^rs of the xjth of April, 1638.  Southampton, 24^O April 1638..

 

Then follows a list of names, including:

John C of Penton in the County of Southⁿ Husbandman                35

            Martha BENT his wife

Robert BENT            their children

William BENT            all under y^e age

Peter BENT            of 12 years

John BENT

Ann BENT

 

            Thomas GOODENOW of Shasbury, 30

            Jane GOODENOW his wife

            Thomas GOODENOW his sonne

            Ursela GOODENOW his sister

 

pp. 30 - 31

            The settlers of Sudbury were young men, or in the prime of stirring manhood: they were not patriarchs near the close of their pilgrimage. Even with those whom, because of their prominence, we most associate dignity and gravity were comparatively young men when the settlement began. By the passenger list of the "Confidence" it will be noted that only Walter HAINE had reached the age of 55, and John RUTTER was only 22; ...John GOODENOW, 42; Edmond GOODENOW, 27, Thomas GOODENOW, 30. These ages are doubtless correct, as we have in 1666 a deposition made by one of them, Edmond GOODENOW, in which he alleges that he was about fifty-five years old.

 

p. 37

            THOMAS GOODNOW was a brother of John and Edmund, and became a freeman in 1643. He was twice married, and had seven children by his first wife, Jane. In his will, bearing date 1664, he mentions his brother Edmund and John RUDDOCKE. He was petitioner for the Marlboro Plantation, and moved there at its settlement. In 1661, '62 and '64, he was one of its selectmen. At least two of his children were born in Sudbury, Thomas, and Mary, who was born Aug. 26, 1640. The house of his son Samuel, who was born in 1646, was one of the Marlboro garrison houses. Mary was killed and scalped by the Indians in 1707.

 

pp. 38-39

            JOHN HOW (or HOWE) was a son of John HOW, whom it is supposed came from Walwickshire, Eng., and was descended from John HOW, the son of John of Hodinhull, who was connected with the family of Sir Charles HOW of Lancaster, Eng. John HOW was admitted a freeman in 1641, and two years later was one of the town's selectmen. In 1665 he was appointed to see that the youth were well behaved on the Sabbath. He was said to be the first white settler on the new grant land. He was petitioner for the Marlboro Plantation in 1657, and moved to that place about the same year. He was located east of the Indian "planting field," and was the first tavern-keeper in Marlboro, having kept a public house there as early, at least, as 1670. At this ordinary his grandson, who afterwards kept the Sudbury "Red Horse Tavern," may have been favorably struck with the occupation of an innholder, and thus led to establish the business at Sudbury. Mr. HOW was a man of kindly feeling and uprightness of character, and both Sudbury and Marlboro were favored with the presence of successive generations of the family. John HOW died at Marlboro in 1687, at which place and about which time his wife also died. (See chapter on Wayside Inn. ) [Note by COH, John HOWE's grandson, David HOWE, built the Wayside Inn.]

 

pp. 45-46

            JOHN BENT came to America from Penton, Eng., in the ship "Confidence," in 1638, at the age of thirty-five. {NOTE by COH: Other records state that he was born on November 20, 1596.) He was by occupation a husbandman. He was accompanied by his wife Martha, and by five children all of whom were under twelve years of age, whose names are as follows: Robert, William, Peter, John, Ann (or Acnes) who married Edward RICE, Joseph, and Martha who married Samuel HOW in 1668. The same year of his arrival in this country he returned to England for others of his family, and came back in the ship "Jonathan" the next year. His sister Acnes BLANCHARD and her infant child died on the voyage; and his mother Acnes also died on the voyage or soon after the ship reached our shores. He was a freeman May 13, 1640. He was one of the proprietors of the Marlboro Plantation, but died Sept. 27, 1672, at Sudbury. His wife died May 15, 1679. His son Joseph was born at Sudbury, May 16, 1641. The BENT family has from the first been quite numerous in Sudbury. Some of them have long been residents of Cochituate, formerly a part of the town. John, Jr., purchased land of Henry RICE near Cochituate Brook, where he built a house; and it is said that he was the fourth person to erect a dwelling in the territory of Framingham. The BENTs have lived on both sides of the river, and the name is still familiar within the present limits of the town.

 

 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Miscellaneous.—Laws concerning Domestic Animals, Birds, Wolves, Ammunition and Fire-arms.—Common Planting Fields.—Fence Viewers and Fences.—Staple Crops.—Meadow Grass; Abundance, Time and Price of Cutting, Measures for Improving.— Mode of Travel.—Staking the Causeway.—Climate.—Rain and Snow Fall.—Occasion of Floods.—Breaking Out Roads.—Care of the Poor.—Laws for the Prevention of Poverty Enacted by the Town; by the Province.—Town Action for the Encouragement of Industry.—Education.—Morality.—Instruction in the Use of Fire-arms.—Tithing-men.—Stocks.—Lecture Day.— Fasts.—Baptism of Infants.—Laws Relating to Labor.—Payments Often Made in Produce.—Negroes Bought and Sold.— Copy of Bill of Sale.—Schedule of Inhabitants a Century and a Half Ago.—Respect Shown by the Use of Titles; by Gratulation; by Seating in the Meeting-House.—Careful of Dues.— Precaution Against Fire.—Borrowing Canoes.—Board of the Representatives.—Peculiar Names of Places,

p. 133 (Fence Viewers Appointed )

            "Edmond RICE and Thomas GOODENOW for all the fences of cornfields from new bridge southward within the town bound."

 

p. 140

            The same year [1655] John HOWE was "appointed by the Pastor and Selectmen to see to the restraining from the profanation of the Lord's day in time of public exercise."

 

            The stocks were employed as a means of punishment. ..... This old-time appliance was for a period near the meeting-house, as the records state that, in  1681, "Samuel HOW was to build a new pair of stocks," and was "to set them up before the meeting-house."

 

p. 145

            But not alone by the application of titles was there a recognition of merit and respect shown where it was due. In 1666, the Town Book states, "We have chosen, constituted and appointed our trusty friends Mr. Joseph NOYES, Sargeant John GROUT and Corporal John RUTTER to read, issue and determine all matters of difference ensuing about sufficiency of fence." It was customary to"gratulate" sometimes for service done for the public. In a single list in the Town Book are the following persons, who were "gratulated " for some service done by them, and the quantity of land given:— (There follows a list of names, including:)

 

John BENT,     4 acres meadow            6 of upland

 

 

CHAPTER XXXI.

 

CEMETERIES.

 

pp. 568-575

 

 

First Burial Place.—Old Burying-Ground at Sudbury Centre.—Mount Wadsworth Cemetery.—Mount Pleasant Cemetery.—New Cemetery.—North Sudbury Cemetery.—Burial Customs. 

 

Our vales are sweet with fern and rose,

Our hills are maple-crowned;

But not from them our fathers chose

The village burying-ground.

WHITTIER

 

            There are few, if any, places in our New England towns more suggestive of the past than its ancient burial places. It is there that we find names now but rarely spoken in the places that knew them once, and the old headstones give a record of  births, ages and deaths, which perhaps could be found nowhere else. Sudbury has at present five cemeteries within its limits: one at South Sudbury, one at North Sudbury, and three at the Centre; but the first burial place of the town was in East Sudbury, now Wayland.

 

 

SUDBURY’S FIRST BURYING- GROUND.

 

            This ancient burial place is in Wayland, on the north side of the road leading to Sudbury Centre, and about a half mile from the railroad station. It has the general appearance of an old-time graveyard. The wild grass covers the toughened and irregular sods and the uneven surface of the ground indicates that it was long, long ago broken by the sexcton's spade. These indications of the existence of old graves are correct. It was the burying-ground of the settlers, and here—

 

" Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap,

Each in his narrow cell forever laid,

The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep."

 

            The older part of this cemetery lies near or beside the county highway, and may be the half acre bought of John LOKER for a burial place. Tradition says that prior to the selection of this spot a few interments were made just over the hill to the north, where tradition also states that there vas an Indian graveyard. These traditions have perhaps some confirmation in the fact that on the northern hillside remains of human skeletons have been exhumed. An old citizen, Mr. Sumner DRAPER, states that in his boyhood, when men were at work in the gravel pit in what was known as the "old Indian graveyard," he saw bones which they dug up, that he thought belonged to several human skeletons, and that he had himself in later years dug up a human skull. He also stated that there were two or three flat stones on some graves, which he believed were without any inscription, and that he thought some such stones were removed from the spot long ago.

 

            The town owned thereabouts two or three acres of land, which was generally known as the " old Indian graveyard." But if this land was reserved by the settlers for a burial place, it was not long made use of; for the southerly slope was soon set apart for this purpose, and has continued to be used for more than two centuries and a half. Additions have repeatedly been made to this latter portion, as the generations have passed away, and new graves have been opened to receive them; and thus has the slow, solemn march of that silent company been moving over that midway space, until the two portions are almost joined. Besides the age of the yard, there are other things that make it an interesting spot to the inhabitants of Sudbury. Within its enclosure stood the first meeting-house. (See page 100.) Here lie buried the bodies of those who bore the name of GOODENOW, CURTIS, GROUT, RUTTER, PARMENTER, RICE, BENT, and others of the early grantees, besides still others of Sudbury's most prominent citizens before the division of the town. Because of the interest that thus attaches to the place, although it is not now within the limits of the town, we will give the inscriptions on some of the older gravestones which lie along the common highway.

 

MEMENTO MORI. In memory of

 

Mr. Thomas BENT who died

Wednesday morning July the

26^th 1775.

 

Ætatis 69Our term of time is seventy years

An age that few survive 

But if with more than common

  strength

To eighty we arrive

Mrs. Mary BENT wife of Mr.

Thomas BENT who died Wednesday

morning July y^e 26^th 1775

Ætatis 57.

 

Yet then our boasted strength decays,

To sorrow turns and pain

So soon the slender thread is cut

And we no more remain