10136.Catherine Whitcomb. Born ca 1624. Catherine died aft 12 May 1671.
Catherines mother, Frances Whitcombe of Lancaster, gave to her eldest daughter Katherine 1 s.14
On 25 Dec 1644 Catherine married Ruldophus Ellms, son of Sarah [Ellms] (-1653/4), in Scituate, MA.110 Born ca 1620.14 Ruldophus died in Scituate, MA 19 Mar 1711/2.52
Rudolphus Elmes, aged 15, sailed on the Planter, April 1635 from London, to Boston, 7 Jun 1635, as a servant, of Southwark, Surrey.
From Deane’s History of Scituate:53
Rhodolphus Ellmes was one of the Conihassett partners 1646. His farm was between Gowen White’s (afterward Timothy White’s) and Man hill. His aged and respectable descendant Robert Elmes occupies [in 1831] the paternal spot. The first house in that place was built by Thomas Tart, and sold to Rhodolphus Ellmes 1659. ... Some of this familiy went to Middleboro, Rhodolphus [junior] and perhaps others.
Deane also mentions that in 1660 Rhodolphus Ellmes of Scuate was fined 10s for being at a Quaker meeting. In 1657 the Court of Plymouth Colony had enacted a law prooviding the penalty of “whipping and £5 fine for entertaining a Quaker and 40s fine for being at a Quaker meeing.” Rudolphus got off with a lighter fine.
10137.John Whitcomb. Born ca 1626 in Taunton, Somerset. John was baptized in St James, Taunton, on 6 Aug 1626.32 John died in Lancaster, MA on 7 Mar 1683.32 John drowned.
John removed to Lancaster with his father in 1654.53
On 19 May 1669 John married Mary in Lancaster, MA.
10138.Jonathan Whitcomb. Born in Feb 1628 in Taunton, Somerset. Jonathan was baptized in St James, Taunton, on 14 Sep 1628.32 Jonathan died in Lancaster, MA on 25 Feb 1691.
From Charlotte Whitcombs’s The Whitcomb Family in America, Minneapolis, 1904, page 185:313
With his brother, Robert Whitcomb, his brother-in-law, Rodolphus Ellmes, John Hoar and others, Jonathan served on the jury of inquest upon the death of Richard Mann of Scituate, Mass., February 16, 1655, and must have been at least 21 years of age if the common law of England fixing the legal age held in the Colonies then. He removed from Scituate to Lancaster. Mass., with his father in 1654, and seems to have exercised the rights of a freeman thereafter. He, with others, signed a petition to governor and council for aid after the Indian raid of 1675-6, and, excepting a temporary absence from the town because of its devastation by the savages, he spent the remainder of his life in Lancaster.
From the death of his father in 1662 he shared the home lot with his brother John until the death of the latter in 1683, when it became wholly his. That he acquired real estate besides that in Lancaster is shown by the inventory.
He was married November 25, 1667, to Hannah — and their home was situated in the middle of the town. He died in February, 1690, and the inventory of his estate was taken February 25, 1691, by his brother-in-law, John Moor, Samuel Sumner and Cyprian Stevens, and was returned under oath by his widow, April 7, 1691.
The amount of the inventory was £88 5s and as the items are of interest they are herewith given:
House Barn, and 20 acres of land, £32-00-00
Brush land, 15 acres, £2-00-00
Bare Hill meadow, 1 1/2 acres, £1-10-00
Hassocky meadow, 2 acres, £2-10-00
Plum-tree meadow lot, £0-05-00
Pine-hill, 1/2 acre, £0-05-00
Hog Swamp, 1/4 acres £1-05-00
Intervale at Cambridge, 14 acres, £3-00-00
Outlands at Cambridge, 67 acre, £5-14-00
Personal estate, horse, sheep, cows, etc, £39-16-00
About two and one-half years after the death of Jonathan, or on July 18, 1692, Hannah, Jonathan’s widow, was killed at the house of Peter Joslin in Lancaster by Indians. The tragedy has been considered by several writers in their annals and histories of the times. (See Nourse’s Early Records of Lancaster; Whitney’s History of Worcester County ; N.E. Hist. & Gen. Reg. Vol. IV; etc. )
After Hannah’s death the estate was divided ajnong the heirs by Joseph White and James and John Houghton. They allowed to Mary the youngest daughter, £14 6s.; then to Jonathan, the oldest son, £36 on condition that he pay to the younger daughters, Mary, Katherine and Ruth, 29s. 4 d. each; then Hannah, Abigail and Elizabeth to be paid £8 12s. by the administrators, Josiah Whitcomb and Jonathan. Some of the children were born away from Lancaster during a period when the town had been temporarily abandoned after the Indian raid.
On 25 Nov 1667 Jonathan married Hannah Lewis, daughter of William Lewis (ca 1602-3 Dec 1671) & Amy, in Lancaster, MA. Born ca 1648/9 in Roxbury, MA. Hannah was baptized in Roxbury, MA, 18 Mar 1648/9. Hannah died in Lancaster, MA on 18 Jul 1692. She was killed by Indians.
10139.Robert Whitcomb. Born on 14 Sep 1629 in Taunton, Somerset. Robert was baptized in St James, Taunton, on 20 Dec 1629.32
Robert remained at Scituate when his father removed to Lancaster. He was the first of the family that settled in ‘the beaches’ or beach woods where several generations of his posterity have resided.53
From The Whitcomb Family in America, page 49:313
When, in 1654 Robert’s father John removed his family from Scituate, Mass., to Lancaster, Mass., Robert remained behind, perhaps in the family of his oldest sister Catherine Ellmes, who was settled there, she having been married ten years before. From the fact that Robert remained and was given real estate, it is reasonable to suppose him to have been one of the older sons. It is recorded by several authorities that in this year, 1654, Robert received from his father a half interest in the Conihasset lands and it is probable that this was recognized as his share of his father's estate, as in the division of the property after his father’s death he was awarded no part, nor was he mentioned in the will of his mother.
Events proved that Robert, like his brother-in-law, Rhodolphus Ellmes, and his neighbors, Gen. Cudworth and family, sympathized with the Quakers and possibly his inclinations led him to remain with these friends rather than to accompany his Puritan relatives to Lancaster. It is certain that six years later he was married by a Quaker preacher in Rhode Island to Mary (born July 23, 1637), daughter of Gen. James Cudworth, but this marriage being pronounced unlawful he was remarried by a Puritan preacher, March 9, 1660.
Robert Whitcombe was the first to settle at “Beechwood” in the Beeches, the family place at Scituate where several generations of Whitcombes have resided.
He seems to have died intestate and there is no record of his children except in the will of Gen. James Cudworth, who left legacies to four grandchildren. Another child, Elizabeth, is named elsewhere. Dates of the death of Robert and his wife are unknown at this writing (1903).
9 Mar 1660/1 Robert married Mary Cudworth (13706) , daughter of Gen. James Cudworth (4689) (ca 1612-late 1681) & Mary Parker (ca 1606-bef 15 Sep 1681).14 Born ca 1637 in Scituate, MA. Mary was baptized in First Parish Church of Scituate, on 23 Jul 1637.52 Mary died in Scituate, MA ca 1699.
Concerning Robert and Mary’s difficulty in getting the authorities to recognize their marriage, from The Whitcomb Family in America, page 50:313
Robert Whitcomb and Mary Cudworth for disorderly coming together without consent of parents and lawfull marriage is sentenced to pay ten pounds fine and Imprisoned during the pleasure of the Court; and being desirouse to bee orderly married, accordingly were, this 9th of March, 1660.
Ezekiell Mayne for accompanying and countenancing of the said ptyes in theire extravigant course for the accomplishing of theire eregulare purposes, was fined twenty shillings.
Officers were appointed by the Court to apprehend the Quaker preacher, “Henry Hobson of Road Iland, and to take securities for his appearance at the Court att Plymouth to answare for his derision of authoritie in counterfeiting the solemnising of the marriage of Robert Whetcom and Mary Cudworth.”— (Plymouth Colony Records; Vol. III.)
10140.Job Whitcomb. Born ca 1631 in England. Job died in 1683.313
From Charlotte Whitcombs’s The Whitcomb Family in America, Minneapolis, 1904, page 351:313
Job was doubtless a surveyor, as Marvin's History of Lancaster (p. 17) records: "In surveying the boundaries of Lancaster, Job Whitcomb to carry the chain. It is stated also elsewhere that Job Whitcomb was instructed by the town of Lancaster in 1659 “to assist with Goodman Prescott. young Job Farrar to carry the chain,” etc.
Job was married ]May 19, 1669, to Mary —. Several authorities say this Mary was a daughter of Rev. Joseph Rowlandson, but as Mary Rowlandson was but three years old at the time of Job’s marriage and as she died at the age of thirteen years, she conld not have been the Mary.
The town of Lancaster during the winter of 1675-6 was a scene of alarm, violence and death because of the depredations of the savages, and on February 10, of this season, the house of the pastor, Rev. Joseph Rowlandson, was attacked, whereupon he left the town and later settled in Wethersfield, Conn. Lancaster being considered untenable, troops were sent up with carts and the people and all their movable property were conveyed to the Eastern towns, where they found homes with their friends. The Indians immediately descended upon the luckless town and “burned every house except the house of God and one other.” (See Marvin’s Lancaster, pp. 111-112.)
Job Whitcomb’s name was signed with those of his brothers, John and Jonathan, to a petition to governor and council for aid after this raid; but he did not return to Lancaster at the re-settlement of the town but followed the Rev. Joseph Rowlandson to Wethersfield, (See Nourse's Early Records, p. 266), and settled there, probably subsequent to 1678, as the birth of his daughter, Jemima, is recorded in Cambridge in that year. According to Probate Court files he owned land in Wethersfield in 1680 on a proposed six-rod highway to Rocky Hill, then a part of Wethersfield.
He died in 1683. His will, drawn October 27, 1683, mentions four children, and his brothers, Jonathan and Josiah, are named in the will as trustees.
James second married Elizabeth. Elizabeth died in Boston, MA bef 20 Aug 1712.313
Judge Sewall in his Diary mentions “20 August, 1712, Madam Elizabeth Whitcomb–57 years old buried. Bearers–Cook, Dewall, Addington, Belcher, Brimfield, Borland. Neither the Governor nor the Lieut-Governor were there”.313
10142.Joane Whitcomb. Born ca 1634 in England. Joane was baptized in St James, Taunton, on 18 May 1634.32
10143.Abigail Whitcomb. Born ca 1634. Abigail died in Taunton, Somerset on 18 May 1634.
10144.Josiah Whitcomb. Born in 1638 in Dorchester, MA.313 Josiah died in Lancaster, MA on 21 Mar 1718.313
From Charlotte Whitcombs’s The Whitcomb Family in America, Minneapolis, 1904, page 396:313
Josiah Whitcomb was born in Dorchester, Mass., in 1638, according to Dorchester town records, and is believed to have been the youngest son of John. He accompanied his father’s family from Scitiiate to Lancaster, Mass. in 1654, and his name appears variously in the early records of life in the new town. In 1688 he was granted a bounty for killing a wolf, and again he was named with his brother Job in an action for damages for accidentally or otherwise injuring or killing swine. “Josiah Whitcomb Is allowed 20 shillings to be paid by the County for killing one growne wolfe In ye Towne of Lancaster.” — (Nourse's Early Records of Lancaster: p. 124.)
During Queen Ann's war (1702-17) he was allowed a garrison for protection against the. Indians. This garrison was situated in what is now called Bolton, originally a part of Lancaster, but set off in 1738, and he lived in the southeastern part of this Bolton. He was comander of the garrison and with him were associated his sons, Josiah, David and Hezekiah, his son-in-law, Jacob Houghton, also Henry Houghton and John Wilder. Jr.
In 1705 he was selectman: in 1708 he and twenty-nine others signed the church covenant and, as he was financially in good circumstances, he contributed liberally towards the support of the church; in 1710 he was elected to represent Lancaster in the General Court.
In his will, drawn March 20, 1718, he gave to each of his children one-eighth part of his right to land in the plantation of Littleton. His widow, who survived him eight years, died in 1726
On 4 Nov 1664 Josiah married Rebecca Waters, daughter of Lawrence Waters (ca 1602-9 Dec 1687) & Ann Linton (-6 Feb 1678/9), in Lancaster, MA.313 Born 1 Feb 1639/40 in Dorchester, MA. Rebecca died in Lancaster, MA ca 1726.