Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

108 GENEALOGICAL NOTES OF BARNSTABLE FAMILIES.
Of the early history of Mr. Eichard Bourne little is
known. It is said he came from Devonshire, England. He
was a householder in Plymouth in 1636, and his name appears
on the list of freemen of the Colony, dated March 7,
1636-7. On the 2d of January preceding, seven acres of
land were granted to him to belong to. his dwelling-house.
At the same court seven acres of land were granted to John
Bourne, in behalf of his father, Mr. Thomas Bourne.
May 2, 1637, he was on a jury to lay out the highways
about Plymouth, Duxbury and Eel Eiver. June 5, 1638,
he was a grand juror, and also a member of u coroner's in-
quest. On the 4th of September following, he was an inhabitant
of Sandwich, and fined 18 pence for having three
pigs unringed. He was a deputy to the first general court
in 1639, and excepting 1643, represented the town of Sandwich
till 1645 ; again in 1652, 1664, '65, '66, '67 and '70.
In the division of the meadows in Sandwich in 1640,
he had seven acres assigned to him.
In 1645 he was on the committee elected to draft laws
for the Colony ; in 1652 agent of the Colony to receive oil
in Sandwich. In 1655, Sarah, daughter of Eichard Kerby,
was sentenced to be punished severely by whipping, for uttering
divers suspicious speeches against Mr. Bourne and
Mr. Freeman, but the execution was respited till she should
again be guilty of a like offence. In 1659 he and Mr.
Thomas Plinckley were authorized to purchase lands of the
Indians at Suckinesset,* and the same year he and Mr.
Freeman wei'e ordered to view some land at Manomet, and
confirm the sapie to Thomas Burgis.
In 1658 he was one of four referees to settle a disputed
boundary between Yarmouth and Barnstable. The boundary
established by them is the present bounds, but the grant of
the township to which they refer in their report is lost.
In 1661, he and Nathaniel Bacon and Mr. Thomas
Hinckley were authorized to purchase all lands theft unpurchased
at Suckinesset and places adjacent.
*Sue KiNES SETT the Indian nnme ol the town ol Falmouth is variouslyspelled
on the records. It means '-the place where hlack wampum
(Indian money) is made." I prefer the orthos^raphy here given, because
the roots of the words from which the name is compounded can be more
easily traced. Sucki means black ; the terminal syllable is applied to
places on the sea-shore, or by water. The other syllables I cannot explain.