Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

GENEALOGICAL NOTES OF BAKN8TABLB FAMILIES. 91
stable in 1652. His name is on the list of freeman in Barnstable
in 1558, 1670, and in 1684.
June 7, 1659, the Colony Court granted liberty to Mr. Thomas
Hinckley, Henry Cobb, Samuel Hinckley, John Jenkins and
Nathaniel Bacon, "to view and purchase a tract of land at Saconesset,
soe much as they can conveniently, and they are to have
each of them a considerable portion thereof as the Court shall
think meet, and the rest to be disposed of by the Court." Mr.
Thomas Hinckley and Mr. Richard Bourne were authorized to
purchase the said lands of the Indians. Subsequently others
were added to the list of grantees or proprietors.
At the first division of the lands at Suckinesset,* Dec. 3,
1661, Samuel Hinckley signs for himself and John Jenkins. In
1668 he was admitted an inhabitant of the plantation, but he did
not long reside there, for four years after he is called of Barnstable.
June 4, 1686, Suckinesset was incorporated as a town. I
presume by the name of Falmouth, but it is not so stated on the
record. Previous to that date Suckinesset plantation was annexed
to Barnstable, and it seems difficult to fix precisely the status of
the residents thereon they had to bear arms in Barnstable, and the
territory was in fact a part of Barnstable, as Maine was a part of
Massachusetts before it was admitted to be a State of the Union.
In 1684 John Jenkins was a freeman of Barnstable. He had
deceased in 1690, when his son John of Falmouth was made a
freeman of that town. The settlement of his estate does not appear
on the Probate Records. He probably died during the time
of the usurpation of Sir Edmond Andros, when it was required
that the estates of deceased persons should be settled in the
Perogative Court in Boston. This was an arbitrary act, and unpopular
with the people, and to avoid it, some divided their property
by deeds, not by will. John Jenkins probably did so ; but
as the records are burnt, it cannot now be verified. He was living
in 1684 ;
and probably died soon after, aged about 76 years.
John Jenkins married Feb. 2, 1652-3, Mary, widow of John
Ewer of Bar|;jstable, a young man who died early in 1652.
Whether or not this was his second marriage, the records afford
no evidence. His children are all recorded as born in Barnstable,
though in 1668 he was admitted an inhabitant of vSuckinesset.
Tradition says he resided at West Barnstable on the estate now
owned by his descendants, Dr. F. H. Jenkins, but this is very
doubtful, in fact the records of the laying out of the lands furnish
no confirmation of the truth of the tradition. He probably resided
at first on the Ewer farm. In 1675 the town granted him an
*I prefer this spelllBg, because it accords better with the Indian worde from which it is
compounded. It signiiies a place where black wampum is made. The quohaug, or round
clam, was formerly abundant on the shoies of Falmouth. From the dark colored portion
of the shell the black wampum, or Indianmoney, was made. It was of half the value of
the white. It was made in the form of beads, and strung, and was estimated by the fathom.