Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

aBNEALOGIOAIi NOTES OF BARNSTABLE FAMILIES. 121
nah, Samuel, 23d April, 1673, and Hepsibah 15th Nov. 1674.
Mr. Deane's statement of his removal to Swansea is apparently
right ; but there are other records and other conflicting facts.
Thomas Lewis of Lynn, son of Edmund, whose wife was Hannah
Baker, removed to Swansea about 1670. I have not space to
state all the facts. The evidence in my judgment is conclusive,
that Thomas Lewis of Swansea was a son of Edmund of Lynn.
The subsequent history of his family is known—he was not a son
of George of Barnstable.
Thomas Lewis, son of George, resided in Barnstable till
1 662, and probably till 1668, for he was in June that year quali-
fied as one of the surveyors of highways. In 1654, the year after
his marriage, he owned the easterly part of his father's houselot,
adjoining the lot of John Davis. "Quinque Die, April lB56," he
bought for £20 the ancient tavern and twelve acre houselot of
Thomas Lumbart, Senior, bounded westerly by the lot of Mr.
Robert Linnell, northerly by the harbor, and easterly by the lands
of Thomas and Joseph Lothrop. This old tavern, the first built
in Barnstable,, stood on the houselot now owned by the heiys of
Ezra Crowell, deceased. He had hot sqld this estate in April,
1661. June 1, 1658, he was admitted a freeman of the Colony,
and his name is on the lists of the freemen of Barnstable, up to
Jifne 4, 1686, when Si^ckenesset was incorporated as a town.
He was not one of th^ original, proprietors of Suckenesset,
and was not admitted, an inhabitant residefit ,ifi that plantation
till 1668.* He was clerk of the proprietors from July ,1685 to
March 26, 1691, and probably for a much longer period. July
23, 1677, he had lapds alloted to him at Little Neck, near
"Wood's Hole. On that lot he had a dwellingTJiQuse, which he
_9old with the land Fe]b,. 25, 1689-10, to Jpnathan H^oh, Senipr,
of "Sacknesset," tor^^ten- shillings in silver money." ,The dee^ Js
in the handwriting of '^Thomas Lewes, Senior," witnessed by
"Samuel Ganson and Matthew Price," and was ackppwledged
before Col. John Thacher of Yarmouth, justice of the peace. Pep.
17, 1703, nearly fourteen years after it was dated. The lot is described
as No. 4 of the Little Neck lots, and as extending "across
the Neck to. the Great Horbpur, so called."
The handwriting indicates that he was a ready penman, and it
ean be easilv read by persons familiar with manuscripts of that date.
Few errors occur in the spelling, and the conditions of the grant are
clearly stated. The small sum named as purchase money, perhaps
*Since writine this I find some evidence that he was of Barnstable in the early part of
the -fear 1668, consequently removed that year. All the original proprietors at Suckenesset
were not residents. At least one-half of the original grantees were non-resident pronrietors
Before Suckenesset was incorporated, June 4, 1686, strictly speaking, all the inhabitants
were townsmen of Barnstable, and by admitting an inhabitant at Suckenesset,
steictly speaking, was only an admission that the party had become a proprietor by pur-
^chase or otherwise.