More New England roots for the South family

The Davis, Cobb, Stearns, Barnes, Dimmock, and Related Lines

Yes, it’s back to Barnstable, Massachusetts, Southsiders, to learn what we can about some of our other immigrant ancestors who gave this country a good start in the face of long odds and ultimately married into the South family. They lived near and mixed with some of the families we have already mentioned like the Hulls, Fullers, and Lathropps. We will find that these lines are also a return to some of our ancestors for whom there are solid records.

I have tried to find a better way to present how these lines intersect in our tree, but so far these tree snips are the best I can do:

I chose to start (r) with Hannah Dimock, Jesse Columbus South's grandmother.

The Davis Line

Robert Davis (1608-1699) 9xggf

Starting on the paternal half of Hannah Dimmock Wilson’s lines, one finds the Davis line. Our first Davis in the colonies was Robert Davis, whose origins were most likely English. Records for the ship Confidence show that Robert was a passenger leaving England and arriving at Plymouth Colony in 1638 as the servant of Peter Noyce of Hampshire, England. Robert’s wife Margaret Davis, 26, is shown as a servant as well. Robert is said to have been from Yarmouth, which on the map of Plymouth colony from an earlier post was next to Barnstable. He is on record as one who could bear arms in Yarmouth in 1646 and had two daughters there. His marriage to his second wife Ann is recorded in New England Marriages Prior to 1700 (available to members on Ancestry.com) to have taken place in Barnstable, and there is the birth of his first son Andrew in 1650 recorded in Barnstable. Robert was granted part of the Barnstable Commons in 1657 and admitted a freeman of Barnstable in 1659. In 1662 a list was made of 89 Freemen in Barnstable and a document recorded to give them rights to the Commons that would pass to their heirs who could qualify as Freemen. This document has the men’s names and titles. Robert did not have the title Mr. that would have been accorded a gentleman. There are land records showing that Robert increased his holdings throughout his life in Barnstable. He died in 1693, and his 1688 will was probated in 1693. It named his widow Ann and grants his son Joseph land he bought from the Indians, which family legend says was traded for a brass kettle (Otis, 278). Ann passed away in 1701.

Joseph Davis (1673-1735) 8xggf 

Joseph Davis lived his life in Barnstable, and more than one source states that he was one of the most respectable men in town. From a court document that remains it appears that he was a cooper, one who made barrels. Another anecdote tells that he tanned leather for a pair of boots for the town doctor. He married Hannah Cobb in March,1695. They had several children, including Hannah (1705-1755) 7xggm who married into the Dimmock family.  His tombstone from 1735 is still preserved in Barnstable in the Cobb cemetery. His wife passed in 1739. We have DNA matches with Joseph Davis and Hannah Cobb as the common ancestor., all matched to Lee South.

Hannah Davis (1705-1755) 7xggf

Hannah was born to Joseph Davis and Hannah Cobb in 1705. She married into the prominent Dimmock family in 1724, marrying Samuel Dimmock. They had at least ten children. Hannah and Samuel moved from Barnstable and relocated in Connecticut.  We will take a brief look at Hannah’s father’s line, the Cobbs, and then take up the Dimmocks.

Monument in Scituate to the “Men of Kent” like Henry Cobb who settled the town of Scituate

Cobb Line

Henry Cobb (1607-1679) 10xggf

Henry is sometimes referred to as Elder Henry Cobb for his service to the church at Barnstable and the Reverend John Lothrop whom he had begun to follow back in England around the time Lothrop and thirty-four of his congregants were imprisoned in London in 1632.

As you recall from an earlier post, Lothrop’s daughter Jane married Samuel Fuller, “our” Mayflower passenger, and their daughter Hannah married Nicholas Bonham; their daughter Hannah married Daniel Lippington, and their daughter Dorothy married Thomas South, all detailed and approved by the Mayflower Society in the Silver Book on Edward Fuller. Barnstable, a small town to be sure, will hold still more interest for us besides the families mentioned and the Davis family immediately above.

Henry Cobb was born in Kent, England, in 1607 and some historians have called him one of the “Kentish men” who came to the colonies to escape the persecutions that Laud began ordering to try to bring dissenters into conformity with the Church of England. He most likely had been in Lothrop’s London congregation, but it is known that he was on Plymouth’s tax rolls by 1632. He became a freeman in Plymouth in 1633.  In 1634 Cobb and his wife were dismissed from the church in Plymouth because they had, like Lothrop, removed to Scituate. Cobb is said by Otis to have been one of the first men to clear the land for Scituate, and Lothrop’s meticulous records say that Cobb’s home was the seventh in that town, and that he and thirteen others who “had been in Covenant before” established a congregation in Scituate. In 1635 Henry was made a deacon. Troubles seemed to follow Lothrop, and therefore his loyal followers like Henry, so that in 1638 he and some other men proposed moving to another location which became the town of Barnstable. There is a nice column now erected in Scituate about the “men of Kent” and Cobb’s name is on that column.  One of the complaints he made to persuade the governor to allow another settlement was that the portions of land in Scituate were not large enough to sustain a family. The deed for his sale of the property in Scituate was for over one hundred acres at the time he sold, however.  He headed the committee that decided on the site of the town. His town or house lot was seven acres, and his home similar to those of the other two “pioneers” of Barnstable, Dimmock [a name we will follow] and Crocker. The homes had bottom floors made of stone and upper floors made of wood. They were called palisaded houses, intended not only for shelter but for protection should the Indians turn hostile. It is thought that Henry farmed his lands in the commons and raised cattle on a larger property of around 60 acres on the outskirts of town.  He likely did his own stone work, for several Cobb generations had the trade of stone masonry. Otis says of Henry that he was “active and useful in providing for the temporal, and in ministering to the spiritual wants of the first settlers. He was a town officer, a member of the most important town committees, and in 1645, 1645, 1652, 1659, and 1661 a deputy representative to the Colony Court.” The only fault that Otis mentions of Cobb is that when he was a representative to the Plymouth Colony, he did not register his disapproval of the stringent and intolerant laws they enacted against Quakers and Baptists, something Otis felt went contrary to what Cobb had shown of his character. [It is generally assumed that these intolerant laws were what propelled our ancestors toward New Jersey.]

Henry Cobb’s first wife was Patience, a daughter of Deacon Hurst, a tanner in Plymouth, who died in 1657 and left property to his wife and also to Henry and Patience Cobb’s seven children. In 1644 he was licensed to sell wine and was a tavern keeper. This seems odd for a church deacon and community leader, but moderate drink was not frowned upon by the church, and Henry must have run a very upright establishment. He knew how to read and write as shown by his signature to a town document in 1643.   Patience died in 1648 and was the first to be buried in the cemetery by the meeting house according to Lothrop’s records.

In 1649 Henry married again to Sarah Hinckley, daughter of another Kentish man, Samuel Hinckley, who had arrived in New England in 1634 with his wife and four children, including Sarah. Like Henry and Lothrop, he moved from Plymouth to Scituate and then to Barnstable. They married in 1649 and had eight children. Henry was named ruling elder of the church in 1670. Henry died in 1679 and was buried with his first wife in the graveyard on Lothrop’s Hill in Barnstable.

James Cobb (1634-1695) 9xggf

James was Henry’s 2^nd son, born in Plymouth, Massachusetts colony. He married Sarah Lewis (1643-1735) 9xggm and had eleven children. At the death of his father he inherited the “the great lot” of over sixty acres. He was recorded by Otis as serving on juries. One of the children was Hannah Cobb who married Joseph Davis above. He died in 1695 without a will but all children and Sarah divided the estate. Sarah remarried to Jonathan Sparrow and died in 1698 and died in 1735.

Hannah Cobb (1671-1739) 8xggf

Hannah Cobb was born in 1671 in Barnstable into two prominent Barnstable families, the Cobbs and the Lewises. She married Joseph Davis [already mentioned] in 1695 as recorded in U.S., New England Marriages Prior to 1700. They had eight children. Hannah died in 1739 in Barnstable. Hannah Cobb is listed in the AGBI.  As mentioned earlier, we have DNA matches where the common ancestor between our tree and the matches’ trees is Joseph Davis and Hannah Cobb.

The Lewis Line

George Lewis or Lewes (1600-1662) 10xggf

Another immigrant ancestor for us is George Lewis, also spelled Lewes, who was born in Kent, England, in 1600. He married in England to Mary Doggett and was a clothier, one who makes cloth. He arrived in the Plymouth Colony 1634 on the ship The Hercules along with his brother John. This was not long after the colony began. This era is called the Puritan Great Migration. George was granted land in Scituate in 1635, around the time his wife and five children arrived. He was a member of Lothrop’s church in Scituate and also moved with others of Lathrop’s church to Barnstable by 1641. Some researchers have speculated that George knew Rev. Lothrop and his congregation back in England, but there are no records to back this up. He is on a list of men who are entitled to bear arms in Barnstable in 1643. Otis suggests that Lewis was not often engaged for civic affairs, but he was a surveyor of highways in 1648 and 1650, on a jury in 1649, and in 1651 was the constable. George left an undated will which was filed in Plymouth Court in 1634 and probated in 1662 after his death. The will mentions his daughter Sarah Lewis

Sarah Lewis (1643-1735) 9xggm

Sarah Lewis married James Cobb, second son of Henry Cobb, in Barnstable 1663. Their daughter was Hannah Cobb, above. Sarah has an entry in the AGBI and record in sources like American Marriages before 1699 and Massachusetts, Town Records 1620-1988. When James died, she married Jonathan Sparrow in 1698 in Barnstable. She died in 1735 in Barnstable.

I am going to continue with Hannah Dimock’s paternal lines which are the Lewises, Cobbs, Davises, and now the Farrars, Lathrops, Bursleys and Dimmocks. Hannah Dimock is the mother of Hannah Sweeney/Swaney/Swinney Wilson, wife of Stephen South.

The Farrar Line

Thomas Farrar (1615-1694) 10xggf Immigrant ancestor accused of witchcraft and jailed

Thomas Farrar was born in 1615 in Lancashire, England, to Thomas Farrar and his wife Ethelred. He married about 1645 to Elizabeth Thomas. They had seven children including daughter Sarah who married into the illustrious Lothrop family. In 1640 the Farrars immigrated to the Colonies with two other families, the Bassets and the Hoods. Settling first in Boston and then later moving to Lynn, Massachusetts, Thomas took up farming. Lynn was very close to Salem, Massachusetts. In 1780 Elizabeth died. He became a freeman in Lynn in 1689, and his son Thomas Farrar, Jr. was chosen as a Selectman to “order the prudential affairs of the town” in 1692, in the group of seven men of the town who were the first Selectmen elected there. I think this shows that the family was considered quite respectable by their neighbors. In 1692 the town voted that Thomas Sr. and seven others could sit in the pulpit in church, presumably because these older folks were hard of hearing. He was sometimes referred to as “the old Pharoah,” because of his last name. He married a widow, Abigail Collins, in 1681. In his will he leaves 32 acres to his son and the remaining part to his nephew Samuel Newhall who lived with him at the time.

Artist rendition of the Salem Witchcraft trials

Map of New England 1677 Salem and Lynn are on the right side of the bay just right of Cape Cod

Thomas Farrar could have turned out to be one of our less interesting forbears were it not for the particular tragic circumstances that began in February, 1692. There is a good 2011 blog post by Rebecca Brooks about the Witch Trials of Salem, Massachusetts, on the History of Massachusetts site which helped me understand the context of what took place. In answering the question of what caused the witch hysteria, Brooks wrote:

The exact cause of the Salem Witch Trials is unknown but they were probably a number of causes. Some of the suggested theories are: conversion disorder, epilepsy, ergot poisoning, Encephalitis, Lyme disease, unusually cold weather, factionalism, socio-economic hardships, family rivalries and fraud. Also, In 17^th century Massachusetts, people often feared that the Devil was constantly trying to find ways to infiltrate and destroy Christians and their communities. As a devout and strongly religious community living in near isolation in the mysterious New World, the community of Salem had a heightened sense of fear of the Devil and, as a result, it didn’t take much to convince the villagers that there was evil among them.

In addition to this constant sense of fear, Salem residents were also under a great deal of stress during this period due to a number of factors. One major factor was that in 1684, King Charles II revoked the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s royal charter, a legal document granting the colonists permission to colonize the area. The charter was revoked because the colonists had violated several of the charter’s rules, which included basing laws on religious beliefs and discriminating against Anglicans. A newer, more anti-religious charter replaced the original one in 1691 and also combined the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Plymouth Colony and several other colonies into one. The Puritans, who had left England due to religious persecution, feared their religion was under attack again and worried they were losing control of their colony. The political instability and threat to their religion created a feeling of uneasiness and discontent in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Other factors included a recent small pox epidemic in the colony, growing rivalries between families within the colony, a constant threat of attack from nearby Native-American tribes, and a recent influx of refugees trying to escape King William’s war with France in Canada and upstate New York.

Brooks lists nine girls eventually involved in making accusations and acting strangely. Modern theories, according to Brooks, about why they might have begun suffering from “fits,” hiding under furniture, contorting in pain and having a fever, include possible epilepsy, boredom, mental illness, or a disease brought on by eating rye flour tainted with fungus. When Rev. Samuel Parris, father of one of the girls summoned a doctor, he could find no cause and suggested that they might be bewitched. The girls named two women they believed were bewitching them, older women somewhat on the margins of society in the town, Sarah Good and Sarah Osburn, and a slave named Tituba who worked for Reverend Samuel Parris. Tituba, on March 1^st, made a startling confession that she, Osburn, and Good, were indeed witches who had been approached by Satan to do his bidding. Four more women were accused and arrested along with the original three.

It is possible that the girls’ parents were encouraging the girls to name towns people whom the adults disliked or envied. In April around twenty women and some men were named. A special court was set up called the Court of Oyer and Terminer (to hear and determine). This type of court in English law was to hear cases that were extraordinary and serious in nature. There were eight judges. In May the number of accused surged to over thirty and included Thomas Farrar from the neighboring town of Lynn. Other towns included Amesbury, Andover, Salisbury, Topsfield, Ipswich, and Gloucester. Citizens from these towns were brought to Salem for trial. Accusations continued in June and the local jails held more than 200 accused people. Pre-trial examinations took place in the Salem meeting house, at Reverend Parris’ house, and at two taverns in Salem.

Brooks asserts that criticism arose from the start of the accusations. For example, John Proctor did not believe in the business at all. Soon he was accused with his wife, and both were jailed and stood trial. 

The first person to be tried had been accused as a witch years before and cleared, Bridget Bishop. She was convicted and hanged on June 10, 1692. Five more were hanged in July, one being Rebecca Nurse, probably the most respected and well-loved member of the community. There had been a petition to save her, and most believed they would never convict her. Pronounced innocent, the girls began to have fits in the courtroom and after a week, the jury reversed themselves, convicted her, and Nurse was hanged on July 19^th. Proctor sought the intervention of the clergy in Boston and asked for a change of venue to Boston. He was hanged in August, but his wife escaped execution since she was pregnant. Giles Cory would not enter a plea, so he was tortured over a period of three days by being made to lie under a board onto which stones were heaped until he died in September. In the latter half of September, it was decided that spectral evidence would not be accepted, so the girls could not report what they dreamed any longer. Still eight more people were hanged in September.

October 29^th the Court of Oyer and Terminer was dismissed by Governor Phips with 52 remaining in jail. These were tried in a new court in the winter. The guilty were pardoned by Phips, with the last prisoners going free in May. In all, nineteen were hanged. Some were found guilty and pardoned, some found not guilty (especially after spectral evidence was banned), thirteen, including Thomas Farrar, were never indicted (although they were jailed awaiting trial), and ten evaded arrest or escaped from jail. Four pled guilty but were pardoned. Four died in prison. 

Thomas was accused by Mercy Lewis in a deposition against him and Phillip and Mary English, Lydia Dustin, and Elizabeth Johnson. She said in her deposition:

"1692/3
Jan. 12. The Deposition of Mercy Lewis Aged [illegible] this Deponant Testifieth & saith that Last night Philip English & his Wife came to mee also Goodwife Dassten Eliz. Johnson & old pharoh of Linn: s'd Mrs English urged mee to set my hand to a Booke & told mee she would Afflict mee Dreadfully & kill mee if I did not, s'd also if I would but touch the Booke I should bee well, or else I should never, s'd Mrs English s'd she might bring the Book now she thought ever one of them would be Cleared & now at this present time before the Grandjury s'd Philip English, his Wife & old pharoah, come in the Roome or their shape & Stroke mee on the Brest: & almost Choaked mee & s'd they would strangle mee if they Could owned before the Grandjury upon the oath she had taken Jen'y 12th 1692/3"

 Ann Putnam, who accused 62 people, accused Thomas Farrar. Her deposition said this:

"The Deposition of Ann Putnam, who testifieth and saith, that on the 8th day of May, 1692, there appeared to me the apparition of an old gray-head man, with a great nose, which tormented me, and urged me to write in his book; and I asked him what was his name, and from whence he came, for I would complain of his; and people used to call him old father Pharaoh, and he said he was my grandfather, for my father used to call him father. I told him I wouldnot call him grandfather, for he was a wizzard, and I would complain of him. And ever since he hath afflicted me by times, and beating me, and pinching me, and almost choaking me, and urging me continually to write in his book." From Essex County Court Archives, Salem—Witchcraft Vol.2,no.114.

In 1706 Ann Putnam publicly apologized for her part in the accusations, especially those against Goodwife Nurse and her sisters, made when she was a girl of twelve, saying that she had been deluded by Satan.

The Massachusetts History site lists Thomas as never indicted, but there is an indictment recorded thus that led to his being jailed:

Essex in the Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England Anno RRs & Reginae Gulielmi & Mariae Angliae &c. Quarto Anno'qe Domini: 1692

The Juriors for our Sovereigne Lord & Lady the King & Queen doe present that Thomas Pharoa -- of Linn in the County of Essex husbandman -- the 10th of May In the year aforesaid and Divers other Dayes and Times as well before as after Certaine Detestable Arts calle dWitchcraft and Sorceries wickedly malitiously & feloniously hath used practised and Exersised at and in the Towne of Salem in the County of Essex aforesaid in and upon and against one Ann Putnam of Salem. Singlewoman by which said wicked acrs the Said Ann Putnam The day and year aforesaid and Divers other Dayes and Times both before and after was and is tortured afflicted Consumed wasted Pined and Tormented against the peace of our Soveraigne Lord & Lady the King & Queen their Crowne & Dignity and the law in that Case made & Provided

Witnesses
Ann Putnam
Elizabeth Hubbard
Sarah Vibber"

A mittimus "To the Keeper of Theire Majest's Goale in Boston" was issued from Salem on 18 May 1692 so that Roger Toothaker of Billerica (who died in prison), John Willard of Salem Village, Thomas Farrar of Lynn and Elizabeth Hart of Lynn were all taken into custody and jailed there. From Suffolk Court Records Files, Vol.31, docket 2667 p.149.

Sue Friday in her article about Quakers and the witch hysteria gives a fact I had not known: Thomas had himself accused the mother of his good friend William Bassett, Ann Burt, of being a witch twenty-two years before Thomas was accused himself. [Emphasis mine]  Friday also states that the Quakers gained new members from the families of those accused in the witchcraft hysteria, giving as an example Thomas’ nephew Samuel Newhall, who inherited from Thomas and then started a line of Quakers in Lynn that went on for generations.

Thomas spent between five and seven months in jail. I doubt he would have been accused had he not sat in the pulpit area facing the congregation, an old man with a large nose, whom the younger members of the congregation were forced to gaze upon when their attention drifted in church. 

Sarah Farrar (1667-1712) 9xggm

Sarah was born to Thomas and his first wife, Elizabeth Hood, in Lynn, Massachusetts in 1646. She married into the revered Lathrop family to Rev. John Lothrop’s grandson Melatiah Lathrop. Melatiah’s aunt Jane was married to Samuel Fuller, one of our Mayflower Passenger Fullers. So this line crosses paths with our Mayflower line with the Lothrop/Lathrop family of Barnstable. Sarah and Melatiah married in 1667, well before her father Thomas Farrar became a victim of the Salem witch hysteria. Sarah and Melatiah had eight children including Tabitha Lathrop/Lowthrop who married into another respected Barnstable family, the Dimmocks.

Resources

https://archive.org/details/cu31924028819212/page/n287 online version of Amos Otis, Genealogical Notes of Barnstable Families published by Goss in 1888. This source quotes Lothropp’s notes frequently.

https://books.google.com/books?id=UATv4fSk6xkC&pg=PA84&dq=%22joseph+davis%22+barnstable&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi0--LfstneAhXphFQKHSuKBowQ6AEIUDAH#v=onepage&q=%22joseph%20davis%22%20barnstable&f=false online version of The New England Historical& Genealogical Register, vol. 3 “First Settlers of Barnstable” article p.84. Some vital statistics about Joseph Davis.

https://books.google.com/books?id=8LsTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA212&dq=%22joseph+davis%22+1664&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiZ2Jb-q9neAhWJwlQKHV7CBdsQ6AEILzAB#v=onepage&q=%22joseph%20davis%22%201664&f=false online version of Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts p. 2.

https://books.google.com/books?id=9dEUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA135&dq=robert+davis+barnstable&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjTgcaTptneAhUJKHwKHYv7BoQQ6AEINjAC#v=onepage&q=%22joseph%20davis%22&f=false online version of Genealogical Notes of Barnstable Families, Vol. 2 by Amos Otis, p. 15.

http://www.hcobbfamily.com/getperson.php?personID=I1&tree=Tree1 is a nice website with a concise biography of Henry Cobb and links to his family members.

Anderson, Robert. The Great Migration and The Great Migration Begins. These well-documented and authoritative two books are available online at Ancestry.com to members. 

https://www.plimoth.org/sites/default/files/media/pdf/cobb_henry.pdf a good concise website on Henry Cobb prepared by the Plimoth Plantation folks and the New England Genealogical Society.

https://archive.org/details/historyofcobbfam13cobb/page/n227 online version of a lengthy genealogy of the New England Cobbs by a descendant, Philip Cobb, in 1907. There is of course a lot of space given to Henry Cobb.

http://massandmoregenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/08/henry-cobb-ca-1605-1679-england-to.html A nice website with a picture of the column erected in Scituate to the “Men of Kent.”

https://books.google.com/books?id=GN8_AAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false online version of The History of Cape Cod: The Annals of Barnstable County by Frederick Freeman, published in Boston, 1858.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Lewis-467 Nicely documented tree on Wiki Tree maintained by a group of Lewis descendants.

http://www.bluemoon.net/~tammy/genealogy/georgelewis.html  A well-documented page on George Lewis.

http://scituatehistoricalsociety.org/early-scituate-families/ Nice list of the families of Scituate which includes Henry Cobb, Samuel Fuller, Samuel Howse, George Lewis, and the Rev. Lothrop, all with brief entries.

http://historyofmassachusetts.org/the-salem-witch-trials/ Very good site on the Salem Witch Trials which lists Thomas Farrer/Farrar as one of the accused

http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=BoySal1.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/oldsalem&tag=public&part=46&division=div1 Online version of Memoir of the Farrar Family by Timothy Farrar (member of the New England Genealogical Society) published privately in 1847.

https://books.google.com/books?id=XAt4MF1DyfwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=thomas+farrer+lynn+MA+1615&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjcrNOsm7LfAhUBH6wKHdNHBHMQ6AEIaTAM#v=onepage&q=thomas%20farrar&f=false Online version of Charles Wentworth Upham’s Salem Witchcraft: With an Account of Salem Village, and a History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects Vol. 2 published in Salem in 1867.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Farrar-121 A nicely documented tree with many quotes from the Lynn Historical Society publications.

http://kristinhall.org/fambly/Farrar/ThomasFarrar2.html Another well documented tree which provides the accusations and indictment of Farrar.

Friday, Sue. “Witchcraft and Quaker Convincements: Lynn, Massachusetts, 1692.” Quaker History (Fall 1995) pp.89-115. Available on JStor.org for members [my son’s library is a member library.] This article is quite interesting, which is good because it’s long enough that one would not finish it otherwise. It includes a discussion of what was different between Quakers and Puritans when it came to witchcraft.

https://bojasmi.wordpress.com/2018/04/04/thomas-farrar/ Another blog post about Thomas Farrar with information about the location of the court records on Thomas.

https://books.google.com/books?id=_oweAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA273&lpg=PA273&dq=sarah+farrar+lathrop&source=bl&ots=UZeWsuWDtB&sig=YSDGLNGvrRU3uBHyw3yAy1Koud0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiM_bvttbTfAhVCRKwKHT0YBJUQ6AEwFXoECA0QAQ#v=onepage&q=sarah%20farrar%20lathrop&f=false Online version of article on first settlers in Barnstable, MA published by The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. 3-4, p.272. This helped me correct a mistake often made showing Sarah’s birth and marriage date in the same year. The listing for Melatiah and Sarah gives her age at death in 1712 which helped me calculate her birth year.

The Bursley Line

John Bursley (1589-1660) 10xggf

John Bursley was born in Crewkerne, Somerset, England in 1589. Crewkerne, as you might recall, was also where the Reverend Joseph Hull was born around the same year. Hull gathered over one hundred of his followers after the Church of England expelled him as pastor and sailed to the colonies in 1635. John Bursley had already been in the colonies since 1623 when the London adventurers attempted to make a second colony after Plymouth. He did not marry until Hull arrived in Weymouth, choosing to marry Rev. Hull’s daughter Joanna in 1639, in or near Barnstable where Hull was pastor until the arrival of John Lothrop. As you can see, these Barnstable folks are peppered in our background, and we’re not done with them yet.

The first ill-fated attempt to make a second settlement in the colonies landed north of the Plymouth colony at Wessagusset, later known as Weymouth. It was a failure backed by Thomas Weston, the main backer of the Plymouth Colony. The sixty men chosen for the colony were not from the skilled classes and therefore unprepared for what lay ahead. There was less motivation for this group since, unlike the Plymouth settlers, they did not have religion and a desire for freedom of religion to bind the group together. The group was under-supplied from the start, and the Plymouth colonists had little to share. The men hired themselves out to the Indians but began to steal from them. Then the Indians turned against them and would set upon them as they foraged in the forests. The conflict between the Indians and the Wessagusset colonists escalated and spilled over to make trouble for the Plymouth colony. After a violent incident in which Myles Standish from Plymouth and some colonists from both settlements murdered the Indian leaders plotting against them, the Wessagusset colony fell apart, with some men going northward into what was then Maine, and others joining the colonists at Plymouth.

John Bursley joined Robert Gorges, a captain in the English Navy who obtained a royal commission to become Governor-General of New England. They landed in 1623, but Gorges found his leadership was unwanted in the colonies. John remained in Weymouth where he was made a freeman in 1631. John took out patents for land in Agamenticus, later York, Maine, but he seems never to have occupied that land. We must remember that his father-in-law, Rev. Hull preached in Maine, so it is not hard to imagine his buying property there and possibly planning to move there too.  He was a deputy for the Massachusetts Bay General Court in 1636, said to represent the original settlers there while two others selected belonged to the factions wanting more colonial government and those from Rev. Hull’s supporters. John served on various committees. He moved to Barnstable in 1639, married Joanna Hull, the Reverend’s daughter, and our 8x great aunt as well as our 10x ggm by marriage. John became constable of the town with thirteen families at that time. The Bursleys had six children who survived to adulthood, including Joanna, who married into the Dimmock family. John died before 21 August,1660, when an inventory was made of his property for his widow. The Bursley home stood in Barnstable until the early 1800s. There is a B&B located there now, a destination perhaps for that bucket list trip to family history locations? Joanna Hull Bursley later married Dolor Davis, a widowed carpenter. I could not ascertain if Dolor had ties to Joseph Davis who is in our line. 

Joanna Bursley (1645-1727) 9xggm

Joanna was born to John and Joanna Hull Bursley in March,1644, in Barnstable. She married the Deacon Shubael Dimmock Sr. in Barnstable in 1663. There is an AGBI entry for Joanna and records for her birth, baptism, and marriage. She and Shubael had eight children, one being Shubael Dimmock Jr.

The Dimmock or Dimock Line

A Street in Lavenham, England as it appears today; we have visited Lavenham with old friends the Eppersons who were stationed nearby. It is full of medieval buildings, some very colorful.

Thomas Dimmock (1604-1658) 10xggf

Thomas Dimmock, often called Elder or Lt. Dimmock, was born in Lavenham, England in Suffolk in 1604. There is a traditional story that he made all attempts to hide his ties to his family back in England since he had married into a family of Puritans, and since his family was part of the royal court as hereditary “champions” of the king, so the story goes, this would make his choice wrong indeed. For whatever reason, Thomas Dimmock and his wife Anna, and possibly a child or two boarded the ship Hopewell in May,1635. Robert Newton concludes in his 1989 paper that it is quite likely that Thomas Dimmock had been a member of Rev. Lothrop/Lathrop’s London church before Lothrop was imprisoned and departed with many of his congregants for the colonies. He also suggests that Thomas Dimmock was possibly a brother of Lothrop’s second wife. At any rate, Dimmock must have been held in high regard to have been chosen a selectman in the year of his arrival in Dorchester. He is included in Dorchester town records as early as January,1636. He is always titled Mr. which was only given to gentlemen or to someone who held civil office. Others were referred to Goodman or Goodwife. Land records of Dorchester show that Dimmock received more than one grant of land. He was, like many who came to the colonies, a man who moved from settlement to settlement, since he was among the first settlers in Hingham, Massachusetts in 1637. It may or may not have been coincidence that “our” Joseph Hull was also in Hingham at that time. From Hingham, Dimmock moved to Scituate in 1638 or 1639. Little is known of his stay there, according to Newton, but we do know that Rev. Lothrop had settled there as well, and that trouble was brewing between Lothrop and Hull. 

Hull and Dimmock were given a grant to make a settlement at Barnstable, and Thomas built there in 1639. Lothrop and many of his followers came from Scituate in that year as well. And Hull had come from Weymouth some time earlier. Hull and Dimmock occupied nearly all the town offices, and no appeal of their decisions was ever taken to the Colony Court (Newton 23). [As you recall, Hull ran afoul of authorities after the arrival of Rev. Lothrop; he was booted from the church at Barnstable for preaching in Yarmouth, and he later moved to Maine.] In 1639 Dimmock was appointed by the Colony Court to lead the Barnstable men in arms exercises. Dimmock and was deputy to the General Court of Plymouth Colony in 1640-1642, 1648-50. He sat on the first Barnstable County court to hear small complaints. In 1644 he was appointed assistant to the higher courts. 

In 1642 the Colony Court appointed Thomas to the council of war, and in October of that year he was elected Lieutenant of the militia of Barnstable. Dimmock built one of several fortification homes which were about 25’ x10’ with the lower story of stone and an upper wood story overhanging the lower story with holes for shooting, after 1643 when the Indians had grown more hostile for a period. In August of 1650 Dimmock was ordained Elder of the Church of Barnstable, most likely a “teaching elder.” Dimmock’s health failed and he did not take any public office after 1650. He leased his farm in 1654, and from then until his death in 1658, he was in poor health. His oral will, attested to by Anthony Annable and John Smith is recorded in the Plymouth Colony Wills and Inventories in June,1658. He had asked the two men to see him, and when they advised him to get his affairs in order, he said that the little that God had given him he would leave to his wife, for the children were her children as well. Amos Otis in his history of Barnstable families gives him this effusive (for Otis) description:

“Few of the settlers lived a purer life than Elder Thomas Dimmock. He came over, not to amass wealth, or acquire honor; but that he might worship his God according to the dictates of his own conscience; and that he and his posterity might here enjoy the blessings of civil and religious liberty. His duties to his God, his country, and to his neighbor, he never forgot, never knowingly violated. In the tolerant views of his beloved pastor, the Rev. John Lothrop, he entirely coincided. If his neighbor was an Anabaptist or a Quaker, he did not judge him, because he held that to be a perogative [sic] of Deity, which man had no right to assume. A man who holds to such principles, whose first and only inquiry is what does duty demand, and performs it, will rarely stray far from the Christian fold. His posterity will never ask to what sect he belonged, they will call him blessed, and only regret that their lives are not like his.”  (Otis, 337)

Shubael Dimmock Sr. (1644-1732) 9xggf

Shubael Dimmock Sr. is often called Ensign or Deacon Dimmock. He was born to Thomas “Elder or Lieutenant” Dimmock in 1644, baptized in that year as well. His father died when he was just fourteen. He carried on the character and leadership qualities of his father. In 1669 he was recorded as a landholder in Yarmouth on Cape Cod, but like so many of the settlers of the time, he moved, this time back to his place of birth in Barnstable. He was involved in town affairs in Barnstable, a selectman in 1685 and 1686, a deputy to the Colony Court in those years, and again in 1689. He was an ensign in the Barnstable militia, and in most documents referring to him, he is called Ensign Dimmock. It is noted that he inherited real estate from his father and added to it during his life.

Shubael married Joanna Bursley as noted above in 1663. They were married over sixty years and had eight children, all of whom survived to maturity, a rare thing in those times. They moved west to Windham, Connecticut, later divided into two towns, Windham and Mansfield, among the pioneers there in 1693. In 1699 he was admitted as a freeman and also made selectman that same day in Mansfield. He was a member of the Windham church, and when Mansfield was divided off Windham, he was instrumental in organizing their church, where he was selected a deacon; a copy of the covenant for the church from 1710 exists with Shubael’s signature second on the document. There are over eighty references in town and church records in Mansfield to demonstrate that he was highly involved in his community. He and Joanna lived long lives, Joanna dying in 1727 and Shubael in 1732, ninety years old.  

Mansfield First Congregationalist Church where Shubael was Deacon

Shubael Dimmock Jr. (1672-1728) 8xggf

Born in Barnstable, Shubael married Tabitha Lathrop, great granddaughter of the Rev. John Lathrop we have covered earlier, and daughter of Melatiah Lathrop (spelling of Lothrop changed to Lathrop in that generation) and Sarah Farrar Lathrop.  They had five children. Shubael Dimmock Jr. died before his father, Ensign Dimmock passed. Both he and Sarah were in their fifties at death. They resided in Barnstable after Shubael Dimmock Sr. moved to Mansfield, CT

Samuel Dimmock (1702-1755) 7xggf

Samuel Dimmock (although often spelled Dimick) was born in 1702 in Barnstable, MA to Shubael Dimmock, Jr. and his wife Tabitha Lathrop Dimmock. He married Hannah Davis, the daughter of Joseph Davis and Hannah Cobb [covered above].  They lived in Barnstable until 1740. In 1745 they resided at Rocky Hill, a small settlement in central Connecticut on the Connecticut River, and later in Saybrook which lies at the mouth of the Connecticut River. Saybrook was originally established by John Winthrop the Younger, son of the Governor of Plymouth Colony; it was merged with the more prosperous Connecticut Colony in 1644. Samuel was Justice of the Peace in Saybrook and was nominated Captain of the Second Company raised by Connecticut for service during the preliminary stages of the French and Indian War. He returned to Barnstable shortly before his death. Hannah died in 1755 in Barnstable. They had seven who lived in Barnstable, but at least two of them moved to Tolland, Connecticut.

We have three DNA matches where the common ancestor between our tree and the matches’ trees is Samuel and Hannah Davis Dimmock.

Shubael Dimmock III (1731-1804) 6xggf

Shubael Dimmock III was born in Barnstable to Samuel and Hannah Davis Dimmock in 1731. He married Lydia Stearns, the daughter of John and Elizabeth Barnes Stearns, in Tolland, Connecticut, in 1751. He and Lydia died in Tolland, CT.  They had eleven children, all born in Tolland, Connecticut. Their daughter, Hannah Dimmock / Dimock (born in 1752 with a twin Lydia), married Jacob Wilson and was the mother of Hannah Sweeney/Swaney/Swinny Wilson, wife of Stephen South.

This finishes out the paternal lines for Hannah Dimock. Next comes the maternal lines: the Stearns, Gibsons, Uptons, Stuarts, Barnes, and Andrews lines.

The Stearns, Gibson, Andrews and Barnes Lines: Hannah Dimock’s Maternal Lines

Here is another look at Hannah Dimock’s maternal lines in the lower half of her ancestors.

 

Charles Stearns (1625-1694) 9xggf      

Charles Stearns was born in Hertfordshire, England, in 1625. There is a tradition that three brothers, Daniel, Isaac and Shubael Stearns came from England on the ship Arabella, to the colonies in 1630 and settled near Watertown, Massachusetts; that Daniel died unmarried; that Isaac and Shubael had their families with them; and that soon after landing, Shubael and his wife died leaving two sons, Charles and Nathaniel, in the care of Isaac.

Charles was admitted a Freeman in Watertown in 1646. In 1647 he purchased a house on eight acres and several other parcels of land. He is mentioned in Isaac’s will in 1671 as kinsman. In 1680 he was elected constable, but he refused to take the oath; that same year he sold his land to his son Samuel. Soon after he moved with his son Shubael to the part of Lynn called Lynn End, now the town of Lynnfield. Charles’ first wife Hannah died in 1651; his second wife, Rebecca Gibson, came from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and they married in 1654 as listed in Lexington Record of Marriages. He had one son Samuel with his first wife, and five children with Rebecca Gibson. It is believed he died before 1695 in Lynn. 

Shubael Stearns, Sr. (1655-1734) 8xggf

Shubael and at least one other child of Charles and Rebecca were born in Cambridge where Rebecca’s family resided, Shubael being named for his grandfather on his birth in 1655. He and his father had settled in Lynn. He married Mary Upton in 1682, but it is believed that that was his second marriage. They had nine children. His will is dated 1733 and was probated in 1734. 

Avis Stearns Van Wagenen recorded in her book about Charles and Nathaniel Stearns that Shubael was involved in King Philip’s War or the Narragansett War of 1675-76.

What was King Philip’s War also known as the Narragansett War?

Encyclopedia Britannica online (yes, it’s still around) says that it was “one of the bloodiest conflicts (per capita) in US history.” The Narragansets were at that time the largest Indian group then in southern New England. Their chief or sachem was Metacom but called by the English King Philip. A member of the tribe, John Sassamon, was educated at Harvard and converted to Puritanism. He often acted as interpreter and advisor to Philip, but he was murdered when Philip suspected him of spying for the colonists. There were numerous problems between the Indians and the colonists over land claims and disputes over grazing rights. The cultural encroachment of the English seemed to be accelerating, causing lots of tension. After the murder of Sassamon, the colonial militia and Indian raiding parties ranged over Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Maine. The Narragansetts had attempted to stay neutral, but individual warriors had participated in raids nonetheless. Believing that treaties had been broken by the Indians, the colonists’ militias joined together to form the largest army up to that time with over one thousand militia as well as 150 Indian allies. They attacked the Narragansett main fort and killed over 150 Narragansetts, many of the old, women, and children. The militia also lost 70 dead and 150 wounded. The Narragansetts were firmly in the anti-English war after that. The Indians pushed back most of the colonial frontier, and by incorporating Indian allies, stopped the Indian opposition. King Philip was killed. In the war there was tremendous loss of life, with around 600 soldiers killed, 67 settlements destroyed or damaged to some degree, and thousands of Indians killed or taken as slaves or indentured servants. Connecticut was the only colony unscathed because the colonists there had better relations with the Indians. 

John Stearns (1691-1787) 7xggf 

John was born in Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts to Shubael and Mary Upton Stearns in 1691. He moved to Tolland, Connecticut early; in 1720 there were just twenty-eight families there. He married Elizabeth (possibly Barnes) in 1723 in Tolland, Connecticut. He was awarded custody of their children when Elizabeth died in 1737. He married two times later, but our line continues through John and Elizabeth’s child Lydia who was born in 1732. John died in 1787 in Tolland, Connecticut. [John’s more renowned brother Shubael Stearns, Jr. moved his large extended family, including some of his brothers and sisters to Sandy Creek, Guilford County,NC, where they founded a church. Shubael Stearns, Jr. was very involved in spreading the Baptist faith throughout the Carolinas.] 

We have four DNA matches with the common ancestor shown as John Stearns and Elizabeth Barnes.

 

Lydia Stearns (1732-1779) 6xggm

We know only a little about Lydia Stearns other than that she married Shubael Dimmock III in Tolland in 1751. One of eleven children of Lydia and Shubael Dimock was Hannah Dimock (as the spelling had changed by then), the wife of Jacob Wilson and mother of Hannah Sweeny/Swaney/Swinny Wilson, Stephen South’s wife and mother of Jesse Columbus South. Lydia would have been his great grandmother.

I am going to present some information on the lines that converge with Hannah Dimock next. Warning: we’re not done with witchcraft yet.

The Gibsons

John Gibson (1601-1694) 10xggf Immigrant

There is debate about John’s country of origin, whether England or Scotland. He came to Newe Towne (later Cambridge) Massachusetts. In 1634 he was declared a Freeman of Cambridge. He was granted six acres and his home was on Sparks Street, not far from Watertown. John belonged to the church formed by Rev. Hooker who was removed, and the new church, called First Church, formed then lists John and his wife Rebecca as members in 1637. He owned numerous packets of land in Cambridge. John was a farmer and did not hold church or town office other than to have jobs like surveying the fences. John was involved in a court case that changed the family’s status. In 1660 John’s family, including his daughter Rebecca and her husband Charles Stearns, and John, Jr., accused their neighbor Mary Holman and her widowed mother of being witches. It appears that a grand jury did not indict the women.  A few months later, John Gibson, Jr. was found liable for court costs when the Holman mother and daughter filed a defamation suit against him and his family. It is notable that this was thirty years prior to the witch hysteria of Salem. Rebecca Gibson died about a year after the accusation; several sources mention that the Gibsons experienced many difficulties after the accusation and law suits, but I could not find details of that. In the end the fine was waived and apologies made in public. 

Rebecca Gibson (1635-1681) 9xggm

Rebecca was born to John and Rebecca Gibson in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1635, as attested to by many records and an AGBI reference. She married Charles Stearns (see above) in 1654 and died in Watertown, Massachusetts in 1681. It was Rebecca’s mental problems in 1658 that she felt were caused by Mary Holman bewitching her that led to her family making a formal accusation to the Court against Mary and her mother.

The Barnes Line

Monument naming Thomas Barnes a founder of Hartford, CT

Thomas Barnes Sr. (1623-1691) 9xggf

Thomas was born in Barking, England and came to Boston in 1635. In 1636 he became a proprietor of a new settlement, Hartford, Connecticut. He fought the Pequot Indians in 1634 and after a move to Farmington was sergeant of the Farmington Train Band (militia) in 1651. He was made a Freeman in 1669. He received fifty acres of land for his service against the Pequot in Farmington, and six acres in Hartford. He died in Middletown, Connecticut in 1691. His will names his son Thomas by wife Mary Andrews. His death is recorded in town records. Some researchers have confused this Thomas Barnes with the husband of the Mary Barnes, hanged in the Salem witchcraft trials since there were at the time more than one Thomas Barnes.

Thomas Barnes Jr. (1665-1742) 8xggf

Thomas was left land and a home in his father’s will. Thomas was one of the first deacons of the church in Southington, named to that post in 1727. He married Mary Jones. He died in 1742 and she in 1748. They had seven children. 

Elizabeth Barnes (1692-1737) 7xggm

Elizabeth was born to Thomas Barnes, Jr. and Mary Jones Barnes in 1692 in Marlboro, Tolland County, Connecticut. She was baptized in 1695. Her marriage to John Stearns was recorded in 1722; it was John’s first marriage and included six children, one being Lydia Stearns as mentioned above. She died in Tolland County, Connecticut, in 1737.

The Andrews Line

John Andrews or Andrus (1616-1682) 10xggf

John Andrews was born around 1616 in St. Giles Parish Cripplegate, London. It is not known exactly when he emigrated to the colonies, but he was one of the earliest settlers of Tunxis, later called Farmington, Connecticut. In an 1872 genealogy that begins with John and his wife Mary, the author describes John as “a plain farmer, with common intelligence, [who] had his farm homestead on the east side of river, about two miles north of the village of Farmington…the farm has remained in the possession of his direct descendants to this date (1871).” His wife Mary joined the church in April,1654 along with three young sons. John united with the church in 1658; several of the older children were baptized that day as well. Mary might have been a second wife. He is mentioned in an Indian deed of land as one of three men who took “black lead” from the hill being deeded. He was made a Freeman in Hartford in 1658. There are very numerous land records for parcels from three acres up to ninety-three acres.  John’s will mentions his daughter Mary Barnes and bequeaths to her two cows.

Mary Andrews (1643-1708) 9xggm

Mary was born in 1643 to John and an unknown first wife in Farmington, Connecticut. She was baptized in 1658 just after her father joined the church. She was the second wife of Thomas Barnes Sr. who was much older than she. Her father made Barnes sign a prenuptial agreement providing that she and her children would be provided for at Barnes’ decease.  She married after Thomas’ death Jacob Bronson in Farmington.

The Upton Line

John Rupton or Upton (1622-1699) 9xggf

There is not agreement about John Upton’s origins, with some claiming he was a Scot and others providing dates and places in England. Recent research has concluded that John Upton was a Scottish prisoner of war at the Battle of Dunbar in 1650 and exported with a group of other prisoners for service in the Ironworks at Lynn. This group arrived in 1650 on the ship Unity. Free after 1657, John bought land in 1658, and the deed calls him John Upton of Hammersmith, which was the name of the ironworks at Lynn. He appears to have learned metal working well, for later records show that he could exchange one day of his labor for two or more days of farmers’ labor. He made a large purchase of land in Salem twice, from different sellers, eventually having 160 acres in Salem village in the area later called Danvers. There are no church records for John, so some have assumed that as a Scot, he was likely Presbyterian. He began in 1664 to buy land in Reading, a village only a couple of miles from his Salem property,and by 1678 he moved to Reading and left his sons to manage the Danvers property. He was involved in a court case in Salem, charged with aiding and abetting a runaway. No punishment was given, and some researchers see this as his helping a fellow Scot, so quite understandable. He was made a Freeman in the Massachusetts Colony in 1691, after the oath of allegiance had been modified to leave out allegiance to the King. He eventually owned 277 acres in North Reading, as well as a great many other properties and is known as a holder of a great deal of land. It is interesting to note that in his lifetime, John was referred to on some documents, and on the rolls of the Scots prisoners transported to the Lynn ironworks, as Rupton. John’s wife was named Eleanor and possibly Stewart as a last name; tradition says she was a Scot. They married about 1655 but records of the marriage don’t exist. They had thirteen children, but some died as infants. John made a will in 1697 and died in 1699. There is a road in North Reading called Upton Road for him.

One anecdote was given about John and his obsession with land. It was said that he and a seller were bargaining over some land, and John gave him the pony he was riding on and his breeches, having to borrow his wife’s petticoat to make the trip back home. 

Mary Upton (1665-1744) 8xggm

Mary was the last child of John and Eleanor Upton, most likely after they moved to Reading. She is mentioned in her father’s will and provided 20£. The will was witnessed by Shubael Stearns Sr., whom Mary married in 1682 in Reading. Our line goes through their son John Stearns. 

As mentioned above, we have DNA matches to John Stearns and his wife Elizabeth Barnes.

My original plan after reaching this point on our journey was to focus on our Souths, Stephen who came from New Jersey and settled in Grayson County, Virginia, and his son Jesse Columbus South, grandson Clark Albert South, and great-grandson Charles Emmett (CE) South. Putting some faith in the word of Betty South, whom I believe will be able to contribute a great deal to our knowledge of those Souths, and pledged that she will prepare her undigitized work for sharing in this year, I am going to leave the Souths here and move on to our Vestal lines. You may not know as much about the Vestal line other than that CE South’s mother was Priscilla Adeline Vestal, but you are in for some interesting ancestors and an expanded view of our backgrounds.

Resources

I found the online resources available to Ancestry.com members quite useful on our New England folks: American Genealogical Biographical Index, American Marriages Before 1699, Colonial Families of the USA, 1607-1775, Maine Pioneers, 1623-60, Massachusetts, Town Records, 1620-1988, Millenium Files, New England, The Great Migration and The Great Migration Begins, 1620-1635, North America, Family Histories 1500-2000, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index 1500s-1900s, U.S. and International Marriage Records 1560-1900, U.S., New England Marriages Prior to 1700, Colonial Families of the USA, 1607-1775, Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England

The Amos Otis book Genealogical Notes of Barnstable Families published in 1888 was of course useful for all these Barnstable families.

https://www.plimoth.org/sites/default/files/media/pdf/bursley_john.pdf Good concise account of John Bursley.

https://books.google.com/books?id=aT4WAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA100&dq=john+bursley+weymouth+1623&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjA2q7H3rTfAhUEaq0KHYYqCnsQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=john%20bursley%20&f=false online version of Wessagusset and Weymouth by Charles Adams and Gilbert Nash. Published by the Weymouth Historical Society, 1905.

https://books.google.com/books?id=fnEbAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA387&dq=john+bursley+barnstable&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiLys2K4bTfAhUG-6wKHb2fAJsQ6AEINDAC#v=onepage&q=john%20bursley%20barnstable&f=false online version of William Hopple Edwards’ Genealogical and Ancestral Notes: Series 1, published in 1957.

https://archive.org/details/barnstabletownre01ajohn/page/44?q=john+bursley online version of Barnstable Town Record published in 2007 by the Town of Barnstable.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9esI7LJIDbPNmIyNWQ1NjUtN2RkZC00MzdlLWFlY2QtYjIyMzJlMmE3YWNi/view  A wonderfully thorough and documented paper done by Robert S. Newton entitled The Dymokes of England and Some of the Descendants of Elder Thomas Dimick of Barnstable, Plymouth Colony, privately published in 1989. This is a great place to start on the Dimmocks of England in particular.

https://connecticutgenealogy.com/windham/early_settlers_of_windham.htm A website about early Connecticut settlers.

https://archive.org/details/genealogymemoirs00invanw/page/n5  Online version of Genealogy and Memoirs of Charles and Nathaniel Stearns, and Their Descendants by Avis Stearns Van Wagenen, published in Syracuse, NY, 1901.

The Early History of Tolland: an address delivered before the Tolland County Historical Society by Loren Pinckney Waldo in 1861.

https://books.google.com/books?id=M80UAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA394&lpg=PA394&dq=charles+stearns+massachusetts+1625&source=bl&ots=X1-xDC2iRn&sig=Ll46IcsZUgRk8Lm1T9ZVv_2VV-A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwicx6_o5cLfAhVMEawKHdzkCC0Q6AEwD3oECBQQAQ#v=onepage&q=charles%20stearns%20massachusetts%201625&f=false  online version of Genealogical and Family History of the State of New Hampshire by Ezra S. Stearns, William Whitcher, and Edward Parker.  This had more information than some of the sources on Shubael Stearns Jr.

https://archive.org/details/onelineofstearns00aust/page/10  online version of One Line of the Stearns Family by John Austin and published in 1897 in Boston.

http://haygenealogy.com/hay/sources/britton/gibsontree.html Website on the Gibson family.

http://www.craw.us/crawfords/massachusetts/GibsonWitchTrial.html Interesting site with great detail about the Gibson accusation of witchcraft.

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=ucw.ark:/13960/t1qf8tf4s;view=1up;seq=269 online version [for members] of The Memorial History of Hartford County, Connecticut, Vol. I by James Hammond, published in Boston, 1886.

https://books.google.com/books?id=8S0xAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA177&lpg=PA177&dq=john+andrews+farmington+1620&source=bl&ots=Ue4NiWVWK9&sig=jfCkWoTPlZKoeWwJvRIUdsm6S_o&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwito6bkttDfAhUMA6wKHR6CDX8Q6AEwG3oECAcQAQ#v=onepage&q=john%20andrews%20farmington%201620&f=false online version of Genealogical History of John and Mary Andrews Who Settled in Farmington, Conn. 1640 by Alfred Andrews in 1872.

https://archive.org/details/uptonfamilyrecor00upto/page/n209 online version of Upton Family records: being genealogical collections for an Upton family history by William Henry Upton, published 1893.

https://scottishprisonersofwar.com/john-rubton-27-on-the-scots-in-lynn-1653-iron-works-inventory/ website that quotes from a recent book on Scottish prisoners of war from the battle of Dunbar and exported by the Crown to the colonies as laborers.

https://books.google.com/books?id=H89DXKVm4qcC&pg=PA2018&lpg=PA2018&dq=will+of+john+upton+of+reading+1699&source=bl&ots=4VlCI0J7t_&sig=b3UpQn1z47T6i4Q4cSZfddjTX2k&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiii7mXgdLfAhVDUKwKHWFtD8cQ6AEwDXoECBEQAQ#v=onepage&q=will%20of%20john%20upton%20of%20reading%201699&f=false online verson of Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating the Families of Boston and Eastern Massachusetts Vol. 4 by William Cutter, published in 1908 in Boston. This early book suggested that John was a Scottish prisoner of war.

https://books.google.com/books?id=SoRYAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA17&lpg=PA17&dq=will+of+john+upton+of+reading+1699&source=bl&ots=zStqlkh2FM&sig=0Kuknh9D8wZZN93XVYcrehmivpQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiii7mXgdLfAhVDUKwKHWFtD8cQ6AEwDnoECBAQAQ#v=onepage&q=will%20of%20john%20upton%20of%20reading%201699&f=false online version of The Upton Memorial: A Genealogical Record of the Descendants of John Upton of North Reading, Mass. by John Vinton and privately published in 1874. This book has a lot of deed details and gives John Upton’s will.