Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

118 GENEALOGICAL NOTES OF BAJRNSTABLE FAMILIES.
sist upon them," and the Court on their petition granted them the
lands between the north and south rivers, on the condition that
they make a township there, settle all differences between them
and Mr. Vassal, and maintain a ferry over the north river. These
conditions were not complied with. It seems singular to have a
complaint of want of room at that early period. The same territory
now supports ten times as many people, and we have no
complaint that "the place is too straite for them."
The raising of stock, as above remarked, was then the most
profitable business of the farmer, and they required much land for
pasturage, and extensive salt meadows, from which to procure
forage for their cattle. It was the extensive salt meadows, and
the facilities for raising stock, that induced Mr. Lothrop and his
church to remove to Mattakeese, rather than to Sipican as they
first proposed.
Goodman Lewes was seldom employed in public business.
In 1648 and '50 he was surveyor of highways, in 1649 a juryman,
and in 1651 constable of the town of Barnstable.
He wrote his name Lewes. On the Colony records it is sometimes
written Leyes, sometimes Lewis. His sons and grandsons
Bpelled their name with two e's, and it is so uniformly written in
the early town and church records. After 1700 some wrote the
name Lewis, and during the last century that has become the uniform
orthography. In this article I spell the name as I find it.
There was a George Lewes at Casco in 1640. Mr. Willis
supposes he was a son of George of Barnstable. Mr. Savage,
however, shows conclusively that he was another man. In 1649
there was a George Lewes and a Richard Foxwell at Scarborough.
Mr. Deane supposes they were Barnstable men. Foxwell certainly
was not. George Lewes, Senior, was an inhabitant of
Barnstable June, 1656, and in 1661. There is no evidence that
he left Barnstable. It is possible that he may have been of Scarborough
in 1659, but it is not probable that so aged a man removed
to the eastern country. His son George was an inhabitant
of Barnstable in 1659. I am of the opinion that George of Casco
was afterward of Scarboro', and the records decidedly favor that
opinion.
Mr. Deane says George Lewis had sons Nathaniel, 1645, and
Joseph, 1647, born in Barnstable. These names do not occur in
the town or church records, nor in the will of Goodman Lewes,
though he names all his other children. He also says that
Thomas, son of George, removed from Barnstable to Swansey,
and there had Samuel 1672, and Hepsibah 1674, and that Joseph
of Hingham was son of George. These errors have been copied
and perpetuated by the many who tave undertaken to write the
genealogy of the Lewis family.
The identity of the names in the families of George Lewes of