Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

GRNKALOGIOAL NOTES OF BARNSTABLE FAMILIES. 403
found a large sum in silver hid under the ceiling. This
story is doubtful. Why should money be concealed in a
boat, where the chances for loss were greater than in the
vessel.
Five thousand dollars in specie was a large sum for a Barnstable
man to hold in those days, and it is not surprising
that the amount should be reported to be much larger. Excepting
Goodspeed, and one other, all the rest soon spent
their shares in riotous living. Goodspeed was frugal in his
expenses, and cautious in business. A portion of his silver
he loaned at high rates, interest and principal payable in
Spanish milled dollars ; the remainder he carefully hoarded,
and much of it was inherited by his daughter, whose children
spent it,
hoarding.
having no reverence for antiquity, or love of
Of the many stories told of "Silver John Goodspeed" it is
diffleult to separate the true from the false or highly exaggerated.
His biography would be interesting, and teach some
useful lessons. His early life of trial, his eccentric courtship,
and his adventures as a privateersman or buccaneer,
have a romantic intei'est. In after life, he devoted all his
energies to the accumulation of wealth.
He had an only child, Mercy, baptized Aug. 7, 1763. She
inherited all her father's and her mother's wealth, and from
early childhood was educated in the belief that ''man's chief
end is to gather up riches." She married Dr. Jonas Whitman,
a man not unlike in Character to "Silver John." She
had two daughters and several sons, among whom Silver
John's great wealth was divided ; but it soon took to itself
wings and flew away,—and is now enjoyed by the children
and grand-children of his poor neighbors. "Silver John's"
wealth was a curse to his posterity.
19. Benjamin Goodspeed, son of Ebenezer, born 31st Oct.
1678, resided in Barnstable, where he died in 1750, aged 72. In
his will, which he signs with his mark, he devises half the improvement
of his estate to his wife Hope ; to son Jabez, 10 shillings
Old Tenor (22 1-2 cents) ; to son Jonathan, 10 shillings Old
Tenor ; to his daughter Patience, one-half his indoor moveables ;
and to his son James, all his real estate,
&c., &c.
wearing apparel, cattle,
He married in 1 707 Hope, daughter of Benjamin -Lumhact,
and had seven children born in Barnstable, namely :
45. I. Jabez, 26th Jan. 1707-8, married Reliance Tobey, of
Sandwich, 1733, and had: 1, Jabez, July 31, 1737, married
Margaret Bassett Aug. 6, 1761 ; 2, Jane, March
3, Heman, Sept. 4, 1743; 4, Benjamin, May 26,
21, 1739;
1745; by
his 2d wife, Elizabeth Adams, 5, Elisha, baptized Jan. 31«j.