Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

294 GENEALOGICAL NOTES OF BARNSTABLE FAMILIES.
Itt—I give and bequeath to my daughter Mercy for her tender
care and labor past done for me and her mother, £20 in money,
and £5 a year so long as she continues to attend me and her
mother, or the longest liver—her diet, washing, and lodging, in
the family with her brother Benjamin; 1 cow and heifer, 2 sheep,
2 swine, and at her mother's decease, 1-2 the household stuff and
bedding forever, and the southward end of the house so long as
she shall live a single life.
Names son Samuel, to whom he gives 1 yoke of Oxen and a
great chain. Son Benjamin, to whom he gives nearly all his
estate in consideration of his taking care of him and his mother
during life.
Names sons Dollar, Timothy, Jabez, daughters Ruth Linnell,
Hannah Jones' 5 children, son John's four eldest sons, granddaughter
Mary G=oodspeed, grand-son Joseph Davis, Daughter
Mary Hinckley. Benjamin Davis, Executor.
Signed with his mark, J. D.
Witness—Joseph Lothrop, James Cobb, Samuel S. Sergeant, (his
mark)
Appraisers—James Lewis, Jeremiah Bacon, Edward Lewis.
Am't of Inventory 268,12,4.
Nicholas Davis came to Barnstable with his father, and was
able to bear arms in 1643. Judge Sewall says he favored the
Quakers at their first coming, though he did not embrace their
principles till after 1657, when he took the oath of fidelity. He
was a trader, built a warehouse at South Sea, the first building
erected by the English in that part of the town. His accounts
show that he dealt more with the Indians than was for his profit,
and that the gift of land to him by the Sachem Hianna, was not
in the end a good bargain.
June 1656, he was in the court at Plymouth when the Sandwich
men were convicted and fined for refusing to take the oath of
fidelity, and was a witness of the unjust usages to which they
had been subjected by the cruelty of the under Marshal Barlow.
He was indignant and attempted to speak, saying "That he was a
witness for the Lord against their oppression," and was about to
say wherein, when he was put down, and committed to prison
but was soon released.
In the same month he went to Boston to settle with those
with whom he had traded, and pay some debts. He was there
arrested, sent to prison to remain till the sitting of the court of
Assistants. His fellow prisoners were William Robinson, a merchant
of London, and Marmaduke Stevenson of Yorkshire,
Quaker preachers, and Patience Scott of Providence, a little girl
eleven years old. He was kept in prison till Sept. 12, 16.79,
when he was liberated on the consideration if found within the
colony of Massachusetts after the 14th of that month he should