Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

BODFISH.
The ancestor of this family wrote his name "Robert
Botfish," yet on the records it is written Botfish, Botffish,
Bodfish, Badfish, Bootfish and Boatfish. He was early
at Lynn, a freeman May 5th, 1635, and of Sandwich in 1637,
of which town he was one of the original proprietors. The
Indian title to the lands in Sandwich was purchased by
William Bradford and his partners of the old Plymouth
Company in 1637, for £16, 19 shillings, payable "in comodities,"
and Jan'y 24, 1647-8, they assigned their rights to
Edmund Freeman, and on the 26th of February following,
he assigned the same to George Allen, John Vincent, William
Newland, Robert Botfish. Anthony Wright and Richard
Bourne, a committee of the proprietors of the town of
Sandwich. In 1640, the meadow lands were divided, giving
to each in proportion to his "quality and condition."
Robert Bodfish had five acres assigned to him, a little less
than an average amount.
Jan'y 1, 1638-9, Robert Bodfish "desired to become a
freeman of the Plymouth Colony ; in 1641 he tvas a surveyor
of highways; in 1644 on the grand jury, and the
same year licensed "to draw wine in Sandwich." He died
in 1651, leaving a wife Bridget, who became Dec 15, 1657,
the second wife of Samuel Hinckley (the father of Governor
Thomas.) He had a son Joseph, born in Sandwich April 3,
1651, a daughter Mary, who married Nov., 1659, John
Crocker, and Sarah, who married June 21, 1663, Peter
Blossom, and a son Robert, who did not become an inhabitant
of Barnstable. The family removed to Barnstable
in 1657.
Joseph, the ancestor of all ot the name in Barnstable,