Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

GENEALOGICAL NOTES OF BARNSTABLE FAMILIES. 415
6. Lieut. Col. Joha Gorham was brought up and worked at
the trade of his father. His tannery was a short distance southwesterly
from Hallett's Grist Mill, then owned by the Gorhams.
He was a man of wealth, ranking next to liis brother James in
the town of Barnstable. He inherited the northeasterly portion
of his father's homestead, with his father's dwelling-house thereon.
In 1686 it is represented as being the most easterly in the
town of Barnstable. It stood where Miss Abigail T. Gorham's
house now stands, and was enlarged over a century ago. He was
a. man of influence, much respected, and in the latter part of his
life almost constantly employed in the public service. He was
with his father in King Philip's war. June 5, 1690, he was appointed
a captain in the unfortunate Canada expedition, and subsequently
Lieut. Col. of the militia. He was a man of sound
judgment and of good business capacity. He was much employed
as conveyancer, in writing wills and in drawing up public
documents. He married Feb. 16, 1674, Mary, daughter of Mr.
John Otis. He died Dec. 9, 1716, in the 65th year of his age.
His tomb is at the north-east corner of the Unitarian Meeting
House in Barnstable. It is covered with a slab of gray sand
stone, and the inscription is now hardly legible.
7. Ensign Joseph Gorham, son of Capt. John Gorham, was
a shoe maker, and not much engaged in public business. In the
division of his father's estate he had the south-west forty acres of
the old Hallett Farm. It was bounded easterly by the land of his.
brother James, southerly by the commons, westerly by the land of
Caleb Lumbard, and northerly by the highway. This tract of
land, with five acres of meadow at Stony Cove, he exchanged
March 18, 1680-1, with Joseph Benjamin, of Yarmouth, for 19
1-2 acres of upland and six acres of meadow and appurtenances
at Clark's Neck, * and removed to Yarmouth. In 1683 he was
exempted by the Colony Court from serving as a common soldier
in the militia, because he had formerly served in the ofHce of ensign
at Barnstable. He died July 9, 1726, aged 72, and was
buried in the old burying ground in Yarmouth.
8. Jabez Gorham, son of Capt. John Gorham, is the ances-
tor of the Gorham families in Rhode Island. From an entry in
Colony records, 1 infer that be went to Rhode Island when a lad,
and was there in the time of King Philip's war. May 5, 1677,
the following record was made by the Plymouth Colony Court
"In reference unto the cure of Jabez Gorham who was wounded
in the late wars, the Court doth apprehend, that in case it be not
paid by some of Rhode Island concerned in it, that they judge the
charge of said cure should be defrayed out of the general estate
of Captaine John Gorham, deceased, both lands and moveables."
After his recovery he returned to Yarmouth, and it appears
Clai'k's Neck is in the northerly part of Yarmouth, west of the Alms House. It was
successively called Gorham's, Matthews' aiKl Hawes' neck.