Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

GENEALOGICAL NOTES OF BAKN8TABLE FAMILIES. 117
and 120 southerly and northerly, that is to say, from outside to
outside."
This tract of land he sold to his sons Edward and John in
1652 and some part of it is yet owned by his descendants.
Whether George Lewis ever resided on this land 1 am not informed.
His son Edward's house stood on the northeast of the
pond, called at first Rowley's, then Lewes's, and now Hathaway's
pond.
In 1654, before the sale of his estate to Samuel Mayo, Goodman
Lewes had "let and farmed for some certain years" the estate
of Mr. Dimmouk, whose health was feeble. It appears
that he occupied for a number of years the ancient fortification
house, of which an account has been given. Mr. Dimmock owned
another estate at West Barnstable, a short distance east of Anthony
Annable's, where he probably resided at that time.
George Lewes was admitted a freeman of the Colony Jan.
14, 1636-7. His early admission shows that he was a man in
good standing and had been known by the colonists before he
came over. At that time there were few flocks of sheep in this
colony, and in no town was there sufficient business to give employment
to a clothier. Necessity compelled him to become a
planter. Being poor, a servant's share of five acres was allotted
•to him in the division of the lands at Scituate—a quantity insufficient
for the raising of stock product for which there was a
good demand at remunerative prices. Elisha, the prophet, had
twelve yoke of oxen hitched to his plow, when Elijah met him as
the bearer of a mission from the Most High. He must have had
a more ample field in which to turn than our fathers allotted to
their servants.
However industrious and prudent a man may be, the income
to be derived from five acres of land, in a new country, would be
insuflScient to furnish a family with the necessaries of life. In a
country where land was so abundant it would seem a short sighted
policy thus to limit the quantity allotted to settlers. They had
been accustomed to live in villages, and the force of habit had an
influence, and many circumstances peculiar to the times demanded
that the settlements should not be too widely extended. Compact
settlements could be more readily defended against hostile
attacks of the Indians, and all would be nearer to "the mill, the
market, and the meeting."*
Passages like the following from the Colony records are often
read with incredulous eyes :
January 1, 1637-8, Mr. Timothy Hatherly, Rev. John Lothrop,
and others of Scituate, "complained that they had such small
proportions of land there allotted to them that they could not sub-
*I find this expressive alliteration in the Yarmouth Eecords.