Eltweed Pomeroy in History of Dorchester, MA and Windsor, CT

The history of the town of Dorchester, Massachusetts, By a committee of the Dorchester antiquarian and historical society ...

Dorchester antiquarian and historical society, Dorchester, Mass., Clapp, Ebenezer, 1809-1881.

Page 32: HISTORY OF DORCHESTER. establishing the form of town goverment. This act acquires some importance from the fact of its precedence, and that the example was followed the next year by the other settlements, and led to the law of the General Court, passed in 1636, regulating town governments, which has continued in force to the present day. " MONDAY, OCT. 8, 1633. Imprinzis-It is ordered that for the general good and well ordering of the affairs of the plantation, there shall be every Monday before the Court, by 8 o'clock A. M., and presently by the beating of the drum, a general meeting of the inhabitants of the plantation at the meetinghouse, there to settle and set down such orders as may tend to the general good as aforesaid, and every man to be bound thereby, without gainsaying or resistance. It is also agreed that there shall be twelve men selected out of the company, that may, or the greatest part of them, meet as aforesaid to determine as aforesaid; yet so far as it is desired that the most of the plantation will keep the meeting constantly, and all that are there, though not of the twelve, shall have a free voice as any of the twelve, and that the greater vote both of the twelve and the other shall be of force and efficacy as aforesaid. And it is likewise ordered, that all things concluded as aforesaid shall stand in force and be obeyed until the next monthly meeting, and afterwards if it be not contradicted and otherwise ordered at said monthly meeting by the greatest vote of those that are present as aforesaid." The names of only seven persons thus selected, are recorded: —Mr. Johnson, Mr. Pomeroy, Mr. Richards, John Pierce, George Hull, William Phelps, Thomas Ford. (Hist, of Dorchester, 1859, pp. 33, 35.)

Page 75:

From March 20, 1866 Hampshire Gazatte:

" Eltweed Pomeroy, who came from Devonshire,

England to this country in 1630, lived at Dorchester and Windor, and died

in Northampton in 1673, was the progentior of all who bear that name in the

US. He is represented to have been a man of good family, tracing his

pedigree back to Sir Ralph de Pomeroy, a favorite knight of William the

Conquerer, whom he accompanied into England, acting a conspicuous part in

the battle of Hastings, fought Oct 14, 1066 and afterwards building a

castle, called Berry Pomeroy, still in preservation on the grant which he

received from the crown."

" Eltweed Pomeroy, a son of Richard Pomeroy was

baptised on July 4, 1585, in Beaminster, Dorset, England, a land of rolling

hills, small villages and rich farm land in the West Country just a few

years before the English defeat of the Spanish Armada." .

Eltweed's first wife, Joanna Keech and their two children, Dinah and Elizabeth,died prior to 1621 of the plague. He married, second, Mary Rockett at Crewkerne, County Somerset, England. Many of Mary's cousins and family came to New England during the Great Migration of the 1630's. Two of her brothers, Ships Masters out of Bridport, Dorset settled in Dorchester,Massachusetts.

" In February of 1630, Eltweed and his wife Mary Rockett were at the meeting of the Reverand White's group of Puritans in the "New Hospital,", Plymouth, England. "

For many years tradition claimed that Eltweed Pomeroy brought his family over at that time in 1630.

Eltweed Pomeroy was not among the 24 Dorchester men sworn as Freemen of Massachusetts in 1631.

Further, English court records show that in early 1632 an Eltweed Pomeroy filed a witness statement in a suit brought by tenants of Langdon Manor in Beaminster.

This "witness" statement was written in Eltweed's own hand, and he called himself "fuller." An interesting question is raised by this written statement. Did Eltweed write this in advance of leaving for America? Early Dorchester, MA records show Eltweed Pomeroy, "yeoman," in New England on March 4, 1632, when he took the oath of Freeman.

Reference Books

Dorset Pilgrims: The Story of West Country Pilgrims Who Went to New England in the 17th Century.Frank Thistlethwaite

John White, the patriarch of Dorchester and the founder of Massachusetts, 1575-1648 Frances Rose-Troup New York : Putnam 1930.

Fire from Heaven, Life in an English Town in the seventeenth century. David Underdown Harper Collins 1992 ISBN 0 00 215865 5

Dorchester Divided, Researches and Reflections on Dorchester in the early seventeenth century. The Dorchester Community Play Research Group, Ed. Terry Hearing Pub Dorchester Community Plays Association, 2002. ISBN 0-9542339-0-5

Eltweed Pomeroy of Dorchester, Mass., And Windsor, Conn., And Four Generations of His Descendants. Compiled by William Woodbidge Rodman,* A.M.. M.D., of New Haven, Conn., and communicated by Mrs. Henry Thorp Bulkley, of Southport, Conn.

Eltweed's first appearance in the New England records was as a freeman on 4 March 1632/3, as one of several West Country immigrants who settled in Dorchester in 1632, including NICHOLAS DENSLOW, GILES GIBBS and GEORGE HULL. (Mass. Colony Records, Vol. I., p. 367.)

THISTLETHWAITE tells us that this Dorchester group, gathered together by the Rev. White, was comprised of a congregation that came largely from a few clusters of towns and villages all within a days walk of Dorchester, England. From Simondsbury, an area of good dairy and cider country, came the Fords; from Marshwood Vale with its dairy pastures and old forest came Thomas Newberry. Upstream from Netherbury is Beaminster, a pretty market town known for its cloth trade, weaver's houses and fine dorset sheep.

Thistlethwaite continues: "It was from Beaminster that Eltweed Pomeroy came. Roger Clapp came from nearby Crewkerne, and the Denslows from Bridport. From Dorchester came two merchants; William Hannum and Bernard Capen. Some of these men were husbandmen, some artisans. None were higher than the minor gentry. The largest group, twelve families in all, belonged to the broad class called yeomen, who lived in small, enclosed farmsteads and grew corn, reared cattle and sheep and kept dairy cows. The merchant class was also well represented by twelve families and there were an equal number of professional people; ministers, a surveyor, two schoolmasters. There were people with special skills - fullers, blacksmiths, coopers, tanners and masons; and, not surprisingly, six master mariners, including Richard and John Rocket, brothers of Eltweed's wife, Mary. In short, a complete, self-sufficient community. (Thistlethwaite)

Eltweed moved his family from Dorchester, MA to more furtile lands in Windsor, CT. in 1635 with the Dorchester Community, led by Reverand Huit, "carrying his daughter Mary in his arms." His wife Mary died in 1655 and he married third Lydia Brown, widow of Thomas Parsons, who also came from Beaminster, Dorset. On March 25, 1670, Eltweed sold to Walter Fyler certain acreage at the "bottom of my meadow next to his." (In 1636-7, Mr. Pomeroy emigrated with Mr. John Warham's congregation to Windsor, Conn. (Hist, of Dorchester, p. 75.)

"In 1665 he made generous provision for his "dear and loving wife Lydia."

Aged and blind, Eltweed's son Medad brought him to Northampton in 1671, where he died March 1673. His trade was blacksmith, but he was termed "fuller" in Dorset, England, and was on a committee of two to oversee of the production of cloth in Windsor.

Virkus says " Eltweed Pomeroy (Pomroy,Pummery, Pumry), (1585-1673) from Eng. in the "Mary and John," to Nantasket, MA 1630; settled at Dorchester; Freeman 1632; selectman, 1633; removed to Windsor, where he received a grant of 1,000 acres, 1636; to Northampton, 1672; m 1617 Johannah Keech (d 1620) m 2d, 1629 Margery (christened Mary, but called Margery) Rockett."

At a court held at Springfield on 30 September 1673 "Eltwed Pomery late of Northampton dying intestate in March last his son Medad Pomery presented to the court the inventory of his father's estate" and was made administrator of his father's estate. He presented an "inventory of the estate of Eltwed Pomery which he brought to Northampton, " which totalled Ð9 18s.; charges against the estate, including Medad's expenses "in bringing my father from Windsor," totalled Ð24 [HamPR 1:146]. Eltweed died in Northampton in March 1673 [HamPR1:146].http://www.winthropsociety.org/settlers/

The Great Migration Begins

Sketches

ELTWEED POMEROY

ORIGIN: Crewkerne, Somersetshire

MIGRATION: 1632

FIRST RESIDENCE: Dorchester

REMOVES: Windsor 1636

CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: Admission to Dorchester church prior to 4 March 1632/3implied by freemanship.

FREEMAN: 4 March 1632/3 [MBCR 1:367]. In 13 May 1669 list of Windsor freemen [CCCR 2:519].

OFFICES: Dorchester selectman (as "Mr. Eltwid Pummery"), 8 October 1633[DTR 3]. Dorchester committee to make rate, 3 November 1633 [DTR 4].Dorchester constable, 3 June 1634 [MBCR 1:121]. Committee to settlec laims of Thomas Richards, 6 October 1634 [MBCR 1:132].

Connecticut jury, 5 October 1658 [RPCC 194]. One of four "experienced men," two from Hartford and two from Windsor, chosen to "determine the price or rate that any weaver in the said town shall receive by the yard"[CCCR 1:104].

ESTATE: Ordered to provide forty feet of fence at common field, rated for two cows, 3 April 1633 [DTR 2]. Granted Lot #85, six acres, in meadow beyond Naponset [DTR 322]. Land of Eltweed Pomeroy mentioned in a grant to William Gaylord, 1 March 1635/6 [DTR 16]. On 4 July 1639 George Minot of Dorchester purchased from Richard Bellingham "one dwelling house and home lot and barn, and all lands, meadows, pastures, woodlands, commons & appurtenances thereunto belonging, heretofore in the possession of one Pomroy" [Lechford 106].

IN THE RECORDS:

In the Windsor land inventory on 4 February 1640[1] "Eltweed Pomry hath granted from the plantation an homelot with the additions nine acres the breadth fifteen rods"; in the "great meadow eighteen acres and half";"over the great river in breadth thirty rod, in length three miles"; "in the northwest field twenty-six acres, the breadth thirty rods"; "in thepallizadoe one acre and half" [WiLR 1:55].

Also, "whereas Eltweed Pomry formerly gave liberty to Mrs Esabell Hueit in the time of her widowhood in way of courtesy to build her a house by the help of her friends adjoining to the end of his dwelling house to use for her own during her life ... and after her death the said Eltweed ... took it for his own" at a price agreed upon between him and her children which he paid [WiLR1:55].

Also, "Eltweed Pomry hath given and granted to his son Caleb Pomery upon his entering into marriage with Hepsiba Baker" a child's portion of land, part of his home lot, and after the father's death to be Caleb's, but he also had provided that the rest of his land "in that particular close to remain for Caleb" after the death of his father, but now whereas Caleb bought a couple of oxen of his father and was to pay for it by work as needed yearly for the next six years, "and he having paid but little of it" and tending to live at New Hampton, "his father is necessitated to sell one acre of the land" [WiLR 1:55]. A parcel of land was granted by the town to Eltweed Pumery to "make in full of his due from the town ... in quantity thirty acres" [WiLR 1:58].

On 4 August 1641 "Eltweed Pomry of Winsor" sold to Tho[mas] Nowell of Windsor "one parcel of land with the house standing on it in the palisado, containing one acre and half an acre," "in the Great Meadow ten acres," and associated common rights [WiLR 1:101].

On 25 April 1671 "Eltwed Pumry" sold to "Walter Fylar" one acre and a half of meadowland in the Great Meadow [WiLR 1:74]. On 7 November 1671"Lidea Pumery" sold to "Walter Fylar" one acre in the Great meadow [WiLR1:74].

BIRTH: Baptized Beaminster, Dorsetshire, 4 July 1585, son of "Richarde Pomerye" [NEHGR 67:261].

On 26 May 1667 John Winthrop Jr. treated"[blank] Pommery" aged "above 80 years" [WMJ 728].

DEATH: Northampton March 1673 [HamPR 1:146].

MARRIAGE: (1) Beaminster 4 May 1617 Johana Keech; she was baptized atBeaminster 15 May 1586, daughter of "John Kiche," and was buried there 27November 1620 [NEHGR 67:261].

(2) Crewkerne, Somersetshire, 7 May 1629 Margery Rocket (the groomidentified as "of Bemister") [NEHGR 59:215]. She died at Windsor on 5July 1655 [CTVR 43; Grant 82].

(3) Windsor 30 November 1664 Lydia (Brown) Parsons [CTVR 10], widow ofThomas Parsons [NEHGR 148:226-30]. On 16 June 1668 John Winthrop Jr.treated "Pummery, Lidia, above 50 years, wife of Elt. Pommery of Winsor,"and on 23 March 1668/9 he treated "Pomery, Lidia, 52 years, wife of oldEldad [sic] Pomery of Winsor" [WMJ 815, 889]. She died after 7 November1671 [NEHGR 148:226, citing WiLR 1:74].

CHILDREN:

With first wife

i DINAH, bp. Beaminster 6 August 1617 [NEHGR 67:261]; no furtherrecord.

ii ELIZABETH, bp. Beaminster 28 November 1619; bur. there 13 July1621 [NEHGR 67:261].

With second wife

iii ELDAD, b. say 1631; in his will of 20 May 1662 "Eldad Pomery"bequeathed to "my dear & beloved friend Susanna Cunliffe whom I had intended to have made my wedded wife" some moveables and one-third of therest of his estate; and the remaining two-thirds to "my two belovedbrethren Medad & Caleb" [HamPR 1:17-18; see also HamPR 1:14, 22, 23]; d.Northampton 22 May 1662 [Pynchon VR 155].

iv MARY, b. say 1633; d. Windsor 19 December 1640 [Grant 78-79].

v JOHN, b. say 1635; d. Windsor 1647 [Grant 80].

vi MEDAD, bp. Windsor 19 August 1638 [Grant 59]; m. (1) Northampton21 November 1661 Experience Woodward [Pynchon VR 141]; m. (2) Northampton14 September 1686 Abigail (Strong) Chauncy [Pynchon VR 143]; m. (3)Northampton 24 January 1704/5 Hannah (Warriner) Noble [NorthVR 1:104].

vii CALEB, bp. Windsor 6 March 1641[/2] [Grant 59]; m. Windsor 8March 1664 Hepzibah Baker [CTVR 10; Grant 59].

viii MERCY, bp. Windsor 21 April 1644 [Grant 59]; d. Windsor 1657[Grant 81]. (Another source gives the death of "Mary Pomry" at Windsor on21 April 1657 [CTVR 43]; this is probably meant for Mercy, and the dayand month are suspiciously identical to Mercy's date of baptism.)

ix JOSHUA, bp. Windsor 22 November 1646 [Grant 59]; m. (1)Northampton 22 August 1672 Elizabeth Lyman [Pynchon VR 142], daughter ofRichard Lyman; m. (2) Northampton 9 January 1678 Abigail Cook [NorthVR1:99].

x JOSEPH, bp. Windsor 20 June 1652 [Grant 59]; m. Westfield 20 June1677 Hannah Lyman [Pynchon VR 31], daughter of Richard Lyman.

ASSOCIATIONS: Eltweed Pomeroy's second wife was Margery Rockett,apparently from Crewkerne. There was a JOHN ROCKETT who appeared briefly at Dorchester in 1633, and a Richard Rockett who was in Dorchester shortly after that, suggesting a possible relationship.

COMMENTS: In 1912 Albert A. Pomeroy, as part of his genealogy of thedescendants of Eltweed Pomeroy, published many English records, including an impressive chart pedigree, which carried the Pomeroy lineage back several generations in the family of that name of Berry-Pomeroy,Devonshire [Pomeroy Gen 1-124, especially 23-77].

Matthew Grant said that "Eltwed Pumery" had five children born in Windsor [Grant 92]. Mary and John, who both died in Windsor in the early 1640s, were probably born during the family's residence in Dorchester.

On 11 April 1639 "Elty Pomry of Windsor complained that he had [a mare] taken away by the Pequatts, which after the wars [worn] was killedby the Naanticke Indians; he desir[ed] therefore the help of the Court to be relieved [and that] some order may be taken with them for restitution. [The] Court took the same into serious consideration and [think] it according to their duty and good reason to protect [the] persons and estates of all members of the Comm[onwealth] so far as lyeth in theirpower in a way of just[ice,] and accordingly promised as opportunity shall be off[ered] to deal with those Indians about it" [CCCR 1:27]. On 6 October 1651 it "was ordered that Thomas Staunton should go to Narragansett and demand of Ninigrett £40 for Eltwood Pomrye's mare, or Pequoiam to be delivered up, according to the determination of the Commissioners in September last" [CCCR 1:227]. On 4 October 1660 "EltweedPomrey hath engaged in Court to rest satisfied with what consideration the Court shall allow him, in reference to his mare that was killed"[CCCR 1:354]. On 14 March 1660/1 the "Court doth grant and order that there shall be paid unto Eltweed Pomry the sum of ten pounds, out of the wampum that is come from Narroganset, at six per penny, as recompense for his loss in his mare" [CCCR 1:362], and on 7 June 1661 the court reported that "Eltweed Pomrey hath received the £10 in wampum, from the Governor, that the Court formerly granted him" [CCCR 1:370]. On 14 October 1669 Connecticut court "upon the petition of Eltwood Pomeroy to have some relief and satisfaction for the mare the Indians killed of his, accordingto the acts of the Commissioners in '59, do see cause to grant to Eltwood Pomeroy ten pound out of the public treasury" [CCCR 2:119].

At a Particular Court in June 1651 "Eltwood Pomry" sued William Trall in an action of the case about cattle impounding to the damage of 39s.,"and the court ordered Pomeroy to pay Trall "4d. a head which was 29 head, being in full satisfaction to Trall for the verdict of the townsmen of Wyndsor which was 27s." [RPCC 102].