Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

204 GENEALOGICAL NOTES OF BARNSTABLE FAMILIES.
He was illiterate, kept a public house where it was customary in
early times, for a certain class of people, found in all communities,
to assemble to drink, and indulge in low and vicious
conversation. Such company and such associations never improve
the temper or moral character of a man, or add anything to
his respectable standing in society. His treatment of his servant
Roger Glass, a very worthy young man, shows that he was a man,
"In whose veins the milk of human kindness did not flow." That
he belonged to Mr. Lothrop's church, does not appear. He was
one of the pioneer settlers in Scituate and in Barnstable. He
was not a perfect man. His ashes rest in the old burying-ground
beside thosa of the fathers where it will be well to let them rest
in peace.
William Crocker, a younger brother of John, joined Mr.
Lothrop's church in Scituate Dec. 25, 1636. He came to Barnstable
Oct. 21, 1639, and his daughter Elizabeth, baptized Dec.
22, 1639, is the fourth on the list, showing that he was among the
first who came. He built a frame house in Scituate in 1636—the
forty-fourth built in that town. June 5, 1644, he was propounded
a freeman, but does not appear to have been admitted till after
1652. He was constable of Barnstable in 1644; on the grand
jury in 1654, '55, '57, '61, '67 and '75 ; selectman in 1668
deputy to the Colony Court in 1670, 71, and 74 ;
and surveyor of
highways 1673. In the year 1675 he was on the jury which
condemned the murderers of John Sassamon, secretary of King
Phillip. He was one of the leading men in early times and was
often employed in the business of the town and in settling the
estates of deceased persons.
He probably settled first in the easterly part of the town,
and removed to West Barnstable about the year 1643. The loss
of the early records makes it difficult to decide, but it is probable
that his first house in Barnstable was on the lot next west of
Henry Bourne's. He had a large landed estate, and for many
years was perhaps the richest man in town. His sons were all
men of wealth. In 1703 his son Joseph was the owner of the
largest estate in Barnstable.
In 1655, Dea. William Crocker owned one hundred and
twenty-six acres of upland, and twenty-two acres of meadow at
West Barnstable, and forty acres of upland at the Indian ponds.*
The West Barnstable farm was bounded easterly by the farm of
John Smith, now known as the Otis farm, and by the farm of
Samuel Hinckley, now owned by Levi L. Goodspeed, southerly
t Tbe Indian ponds are three in number, and form the head waters of the stream now
known as Marston's Mill river. Excepting where the water was very high, all these ponds
did "not originally connect with the mill stream. They were called the Indian I'ouds
because the Indian land reservation was on their borders. On the town records there is an
entry of five dollars, paid for permanently closing one of the passages ; and, at some former
time a new outlet was excavated at a very considerable expense, probably for the purpose
of admitting herring.