Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

330 GENEALOGICAL NOTES OF BAKN8TABLE FAMILIES.
ascertain the conditions on which the grant to Messrs. Hull and
Dimmock was made. The result of his investigation he placed
on record. He found no record of the grant or of the act of incorporation,
but he ascertained that both were made in the year
1639.
Notwithstanding there is no record of the day on which Barnstable
was incorporated as one of the towns of Plymouth Colony,
the date can be fixed with certainty by other evidence. It clearly
appears by the records that Barnstable was not an incorporated
town June 3, 1639, 0. S. As has been already stated, a certain
conditional grant of the lands had been made to Mr. Collicut and
his associates, preliminary to the organization of a town government
; and under the authority of that grant, about fifteen families
had settled within the limits of the township. Mr. Dimmock
was authorized, March 1639, to exercise the men in the use of
arms, because, in a remote settlement, surrounded by bands of
Indians, in whose friendship reliance could not be placed, a military
organization was of prime importance.
The terms of the Court order of May 6, imply that some of
Mr. Collicut's associates had then settled at Mattakeeset, but he
himself, it is emphatically stated, had not, and he was allowed till
the 3d of June, 1639, to remove, and if on that day he had not
removed, the grant made to him was to be null and void. He did
not remove, and on the 4th day of June the grant to Mr. Collicut
was declared null and void, and the grant transferred to Rev.
Joseph Hull and Elder Thomas Dimmock. Perhaps the reason
for not making a record was this ; the grant was a simple transfer
from Mr. Collicut as principal to Messrs. Dimmock and Hull
two of his associates. As no change had been made in the
conditions, no record was deemed necessary.
Beside the above, others had settled within the present territory
of the town of Barnstable prior to Jan. 1644, but had removed at
that date. Rev. Mr. Bachiler and his company, as above stated,
on lands, that prior to 1642, were included within the bounds of
Yarmouth. William Chase afterwards owned a portion of those
lands occupied by Mr. Bachiler, and as he had a garden and an
orchard thereon, it is probable that he resided some little time in
Barnstable prior to 1644.
President Ezra Stiles presumes that George Kendrick, Thomas
Lapham, John Stockbridge, and Simeon Hoit or Hoyte, removed
with Mr. Lothrop There is some evidence that George Kendrick
was one of the first who came to Barnstable. Mr. Deane says he
left Scituate in 1638. He is named as of Barnstable in 1640, but
there are reasons for doubling the accuracy of the date. If of
Barnstable he removed to Boston in 1640 or soon after. Mr.
Deane's notice of Thomas Lapham is imperfect. He was one of
the first settlers in Scituate, certainly there April 24, I(i36, and