In Dec 1679 Mercy married
Dea. Samuel Knowles Esq (3246) , son of
Richard Knowles (17 Sep 1614-prob. between 1670 and 1675) &
Ruth Bowers (1322) (1616-1687), in Eastham, MA.
148 Born on 17 Sep 1651 in Plymouth, MA.62 Samuel died in Eastham, MA, on 19 Jun 1737; he was 85.303 Buried in Orleans Cemetery.
From Libby’s Knowles genealogy:26
“Benaiah Dunham’s earmark for cattle, granted to him in 1665, was in 1679 transferred to Samuel Knowles. During a long period of years Mr. Knowles seems to have been perhaps the most trusted by his fellow townsmen of all his contemporaries. In every matter coming up for town action that called for the qualities of discretion, impartiality, tact, and efficiency, his name is likely to be found. His advance in public affairs was gradual — in 1681 he was fence viewer, in 1687 constable, in 1691 petty juryman. From 1692 on he was often selectman. His earliest term as representative was in 1697. (The local histories say that he served as representative twenty-three years, but these years include both his own and his son Samuel’s terms of office.) In 1703 he was chosen a commissioner to try small causes, taht is, a judge of the police court.
“He lived on his father’s homestead, and, when Richard Knowles’s original grant was rebounded, 13 Feb. 1681/2, the bound-stones were lettered ‘S. K.’ Apparently he had also his brother John’s land, as entries in the town records discriminate between his ‘ancient lot’ and the land formerly of John Knowles, deceased. Also there was granted to him by the town part or all of Rev. Mr. Treat’s ‘plains lot,’ otherwise called ‘Mr. Treat’s old field,’ and still later he was granted by the town all the land between his land and the Treat land. Apparently Mr. Treat must once have lived ther4e, and later, after having reduced the land to cultivation, surrendered it to the town and removed to the location afterwards purchased by Col. John Knowles on the other side of Town Cove. The burning of the records of deeds and the court records makes research difficult, and it cannot safely be said that the original Knowles lands, with what was added to them by Mr. Samuel Knowles and his sons Col. Samuel and Amos, included all the land immediately south, southwest, and west of the upper end of Town Cover, covering almost the whole of the present Orleans Village from some distance south of the road next south of Main Street as far northwast as the land crossed by the railroad north of the station; but it may be said that considerable sections of land at the different extents of this tract trace back to the Knowleses, without other ancient ownership appearing. The late Mr. Josiah Paine, in marking the ancient homesteads on a United States topographical sheet, which has been presented by Mr. Stanley Webster Smith to the Massachusetts Society of mayflower Descendants, marked Samuel Knowles’s farm as the estate of the late John Doane, Esq. All the land between the Doane estate and Town Cove and many lots southeast, west, and north of it were certainly Knowles lands. Samuel Knowles willed his homestead to his son Amos.
“the immediate cause for the making of his will, which was dated 1 June 1732, was evidently his desire to provide for the children of his son Nathaniel, who was at the point of death. for his unmarried daughter Ruth and his daughter-in-law Elizabeth he provided “one fire room” between them, with firewood privileges and a cow for Elizabeth. By a codicil added aftger her remarriage he annulled the legacy of a cow, and gave the price of a good cow to be divided among his son Nathaniel’s children.”