Dewey, Thomas Jr
Thomas DEWEY Jr (1640 - 1690) and Constant HAWES (1642 - 1703)
my 8g-grandparents
Thomas DEWEY Jr was born 16 Feb 1639/40 in Windsor, CT, son of Thomas "the Settler" and Frances DEWEY. Thomas Jr was no more than 8 years old when his father died, and his mother remarried, to George PHELPS.
He was still in Windsor on 18 Jan 1660, almost 20 years old, when he paid 6 shillings and was seated "in the long seats" in the meeting house. He moved to Northampton, MA, where he was granted a homelot of 4 acres, and another lot of 12 acres, on 12 Nov 1662. He was a miller as well as a farmer.
Constant HAWES, wife of Thomas DEWEY Jr, was born 17 Jul 1642 in Dorchester, Massachusetts Bay Colony. They married on 1 Jun 1663 in Dorchester. Her parents were Richard and Ann HAWES, who had immigrated on the Freelove, with Capt. GIBBS, in 1635, with children Ann, 2 and 1/2 years, and Obadiah, 6 months.
Thomas and his young family moved to Woronoco (later called Westfield), then part of Springfield, with his 3 brothers, in 1667, after he was granted 30 acres of land on 6 Jul 1666. He settled in the Little River district of Westfield, east of the village of Westfield, where the DEWEY brothers ran a mill on Two Mile Brook. The PHELPS family, including Frances, also came to Woronoco in 1667.
Thomas was referred to by the military rank of Cornet, which appeared on his gravestone. In the British army, Cornet was the lowest grade of commissioned officer, so I assume it had a similar meaning here.
Thomas and Constant had 3 children in Northampton, MA from 1664 to about 1667, and removed in 1667 to Woronoco (Westfield), where they had 7 more children.
Thomas died on 27 Apr 1690 in Westfield, at age 50, leaving his wife with 8 children still living, ages 3 to 26. Thomas' mother Frances died 5 months later, on 27 Sep 1690, in Westfield. Constant (HAWES) DEWEY died on 26 Apr 1703, probably also in Westfield.
1755 map of the Connecticut River valley from Hartford, CT to Northamptn, MA. [cropped from this source]
Thomas DEWEY and his father-in-law, George PHELPS, were among the leading citizens in early Westfield, first called by its Indian name, Woronoco or Waranoco. At a meeting on 21 Jan 1669, they were elected as representatives, along with James CORNISH and Thomas NOBLE, to attend a town meeting at Springfield, where they would negotiate the boundary line, and establish their village as an independent settlement. [DFH, Vol. I, p. 230]
On 2 Feb 1669, Thomas DEWEY, James CORNISH, John ROOT and John SACKET were appointed by the court at Springfield to lay out a grant of 6 square miles for Westfield. [DFH, Vol. I, pp. 230-1]
When they needed a new minister, he was sent to Boston to find one, hire him and bring him to Westfield. In Nov 1671 he found the Puritan Rev. Edward TAYLOR, a recent graduate and resident scholar at Harvard College. It took some time to convince TAYLOR to leave Harvard, but he made the journey that winter. On 12 Jan 1672, when Thomas was visiting in Northampton, his house in Westfield was destroyed by fire. The diary of Rev. TAYLOR tells the story. I'm not sure if it implies that his daughter was injured or killed:
From the Diary of Rev. Edward TAYLOR
On Friday at night Jan. 12 [1672] about nine or ten o'clock Thomas DEWEY being gone from home to Northampton had his house and almost all his goods burned down, and one of his children, i.e. a little girl, being almost undressed to go to bed & affrighted ran into the parlor or bedroom where had not the youth run in to have got something out, & as he went out hit her with his foot or stumbled at her she had in all likelihood been burned. The fire came thus: one of the boys went up into the chamber with a stick of candlewood burning for some corns to play at checkers & the stick dropped a drop in some tow & so fired. John OSBURN their next neighbor a man likely to have stood them instead at that time was providentially hindered from taking any notice thereof by the falling of his child into the fire at the same season. This Thomas DEWEY was the messenger that I came up with.
[DFH, pp. 35-6]
Map showing the Little River district relative to the village of Westfield, from the 1884 Atlas of Westfield.
The DEWEY brothers were Thomas (1640), Josiah (1641), Israel (1645) and Jedediah (1647). They were 19 to 27 when they came to Westfield in 1667. Israel didn't stay long, but the other 3 joined with Joseph WHITING in the construction and operation of a mill on Two Mile Brook (later called Great Brook), in the Little River district of Westfield. This mill was finished in Dec 1672, and served as both a saw mil and corn mill. It was not the first mill in town, as Joseph WHITING had built one previously, which failed due to sandy soil.
The DEWEYs were involved in several lawsuits involving the mills. The first, in 1672, came when Joseph WHITING decided to sell his share of the mill to Capt. Aaron COOK. The original agreement specified that if one partner wished to sell his claim, the others should have the right of refusal. In other words, they had the first chance to buy the share. So the DEWEY brothers refused to recognize COOK's claim. They filed suit on 10 May 1676. This was in the middle of King Philip's War, of which more below.
About 1683, Joseph POMEROY obtained a grant from the town, to have a mill on the brook above DEWEYs. It was said that this would have taken away two-thirds of the water needed by the DEWEYs. So Thomas DEWEY "went one morning and cut down their Dam and hid their tooles." He later made a public confession. I don't know how the matter was settled, but on 31 Mar 1685 the DEWEYs filed suit against Joseph POMEROY, Samuel TAYLOR, John SACKET, John WILLIAMS and Nathaniel WILLIAMS, for unlawfully stopping the flow of the brook. The DEWEYs won the case and were awarded compensation. This time Pomeroy was called before the church, made a confession and was forgiven. [DFH, pp. 233-4]
Map showing part of the Little River district, from the 1884 Atlas of Westfield.
After more than 200 years, there were still mills on the Great Brook.
Relations with local Indian tribes, the Woronoco and Pochasuck, were often contentious, with many atrocities on both sides. Peace generally prevailed between the Pequot War (1636 - 1638) and King Philip's War (1675-1678). Westfield suffered an attack in the latter conflict. The settlements on the west side of the Connecticut River, like Westfield, were more vulnerable to Indian attack.
One of the first casualties in King Philip's War was John DUBMBLETON Jr, killed by an ambush on 27 Oct 1675. The house of John SACKET, father of Thomas' daughter-in-law, was burned on 27 Oct 1675. Ambrose FOWLER and Walter LEE, my 8g-grandfathers, both had their houses burned the same winter.
Several branches of my ancestry were present in early Westfield and Springfield. John ROOT, mentioned above, was my 8g-granduncle. There were several intermarriages between the DEWEY, ROOT, HAWES, ASHLEY, LEE, TAYLOR, DUMBLETON, WARNER, LEONARD, FOWLER and other extended families.
1 Thomas DEWEY Jr b: 16 Feb 1639/40 in Windsor, CT, d: 27 Apr 1690 in Westfield
+ Constant HAWES b: 17 Jul 1642 in Dorchester, MA, d: 26 Apr 1703
......2 Thomas DEWEY b: 26 Mar 1664 in Northampton, Hampshire, MA, d: 08 Mar 1690 in Westfield
...... + Hannah SACKETT b: 07 Mar 1669 in Westfield, m: Abt. 1689, d: 30 Aug 1749 in Windsor, Hartford, CT
......2 Captain Adijah DEWEY b: 05 Mar 1666 in Northampton, MA, d: 24 Mar 1742 in Westfield
...... + Sarah 2810 ROOT b: 24 Sep 1670 in Westfield, m: 1688
......2 Mary DEWEY b: 28 Jan 1668 in Northampton, Hampshire, MA, d: 13 Dec 1757 in Westfield
...... + David ASHLEY b: 10 Mar 1667 in Westfield, m: 11 Jul 1688 in Westfield, d: 07 Aug 1744 in Westfield
......2 Samuel DEWEY b: 25 Jun 1670 in Westfield, d: 11 May 1734 in Sheffield, Berkshire, MA
...... + Rebecca ASHLEY b: 30 May 1685, m: Abt. 1714
......2 Hannah DEWEY b: 21 Feb 1672 in Westfield, d: Aft. 09 Jul 1745
...... + Matthew NOBLE m: 10 Dec 1690
......2 Elizabeth DEWEY b: 10 Jan 1676/77 in Westfield, d: 02 Oct 1757
...... + Deacon Thomas NOBLE b: 14 Jan 1666, m: 19 Dec 1695, d: 29 Jul 1750
...... + Sarah WELLER b: 06 Jun 1677 in Westfield, m: 19 Dec 1695, d: 21 Jul 1709 in Westfield
......2 James DEWEY b: 03 Jul 1678 in Westfield, d: 27 Feb 1682 in Westfield
......2 Abigail DEWEY b: 14 Feb 1681 in Westfield, d: 20 Dec 1747 in Westfield
...... + Joseph ASHLEY b: 31 Jul 1671 in Westfield, m: 12 Apr 1699, d: 25 Feb 1706 in Westfield
...... + Thomas DEWEY
......2 James DEWEY b: 12 Nov 1683 in Westfield, d: 05 May 1686 in Westfield
......2 Israel DEWEY b: 09 Jul 1686 in Westfield, d: 26 Jan 1728 in Westfield
...... + Sarah ROOT b: 27 Jul 1683 in Westfield
Sources
p. 205 The family history
p. 211 Prelude (discusses the Church of England)
p. 216 Thomas DEWEY the Settler
p. 230 Thomas DEWEY (1)
p. 241 Adijah DEWEY (12)
p. 244 Samuel DEWEY (14)
p. 255 Mabel DEWEY (35)
[NEF] New England Families, genealogical and memorial; a record of the achievements of her people in the Making of Commonwealths and the founding of a nation (1913-6) by William Richard Cutter Vol 5 p. 150
Last updated 6 Oct 2020 by William Haloupek. Contact haloupek at gmail dot com.