52 Ancestors #12 - John Moses

John Moses came to Casco (Maine) about 1631 and later he moved to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In a deposition on October 5, 1686, John Moses said his age was 70. This would make him born about 1616. He was married twice - his first wife was named Alice and she died before 1667; his second wife was named Anne and was the widow of John Jones. Anne died after January 6, 1680. 

It is believed that John Moses came to Casco as an apprentice. This is based on a grant of land given to him in 1646, “in consideration of seven years service as an apprentice performed unto us.” He became a freeman on October 2, 1666.

In October 1648, John and Alice Moses sued Nicholas and Elizabeth Rowe for slander alleging that Elizabeth said “Alice was George [Ellett’s] whore.” Elizabeth was given a choice of paying a fine of 5 pounds or publicly admitting she did wrong in the public meetinghouse at Dover and at Strawberry Bank. Elizabeth Rowe must have been quite a feisty woman because she said, the “court should kiss her arse,” and when this was reported, she was whipped. 

John Moses was appointed to be a member of the jury for trials being held on June 26, 1666 but he did not show up and was fined. However, the fine was waived after he explained that he was “hindered by wind and weather at the Iles of Sholes.” 

Children with Alice:

Elizabeth was born about 1642 and married Joseph Walker before 1662. 

Daughter (name unknown) was born about 1644 and married Thomas Creber. 

Mary was born about 1645 and married Ferdinando Huff. 

Joanna was born about 1649 and married Timothy Davis. 

Aaron was born about 1651 and married first Ruth Sherborne and second Mary.

Sarah was born about 1653 and was unmarried in 1679. There are no further records for her. 

My line:

John Moses

Aaron Moses

Ruth Moses

John Waterhouse

Lydia Waterhouse

Alice Garland

Richard Hayes

Sidney Hayes

George Hayes

Eva Delphinia Hayes

Linona Yates - my grandmother

The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2010), (Originally Published as: New England Historic Genealogical Society. Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III, 3 vols., 1995).

A Case of Domestic Violence

On June 5, 1632, Henry Sherburne arrived in Boston on the James.  He came from Odiham, Hampshire, England where he was baptized on March 28, 1611. He married his first wife, Rebecca Gibbons, on November 13, 1637 and she was the mother of all of his children. Sherburne settled in southern New Hampshire where he owned land in the Little Harbor and Sandy Beach regions of the Piscataqua settlement. Henry ran a ferry and kept an ordinary or inn, and was involved in town affairs, serving as town clerk for three years and a local justice for twenty-five years among other offices. During that time, Henry and his wife raised a family and seemed to have been good citizens of the colony. Only two incidents indicate any conflict. In 1649, Henry successfully sued Thomas Wedge for slandering his wife. Records do not reveal what Wedge said about Rebecca. Then in 1665, when there was some opposition to the authority of the Massachusetts Bay Colony over the Piscataqua area, Henry was arrested and charged with sedition. His defense was that he was influenced by his neighbors to attend a meeting at Strawbery Banke where a Mr. Corbett read a petition and asked those present to sign. Henry refused to sign the petition because there were some words in it “concerning the usurpation of power over the people here by the Massachusetts government.” It is unclear whether Henry supported the aims of the petition but was simply astute enough not to sign the document or whether he truly supported the Massachusetts authorities. 

After Rebecca died, Henry married Sarah, widow of Walter Abbott. That seems to be the start of a series of troubles. Walter Abbott was a Portsmouth innkeeper who died in 1667 and left his affairs in disarray. Because he married Sarah, Henry became involved in several protracted lawsuits involving Walter Abbott’s property and debts. Even more troublesome was the relationship between Henry and Sarah. Within a year of their marriage, they were in court where they each admitted to beating each other. Henry confessed to beating his wife “several times” and was fined. Sarah confessed to “beating her husband and breaking his head” and she also had to pay a fine. Two years later, they were presented to the court again for “disorderly living and fighting.” The next year they confessed once again to living “disorderly” and fighting and they were given the choice of paying 50s. each or being whipped ten stripes. They paid the fines.

After Henry’s death, his neighbor, Edward Bickford, his wife and children were summoned to appear before the court and “answer sundry objections about Mr. Sherburne’s death” but they were released when no evidence of foul play was found. There had been some conflict with this neighbor regarding Bickford’s hogs, cattle, and horses causing damage on Henry’s land and the Bickford children being accused of stealing Henry's pears. Neither of these minor disputes seems like something to kill someone over but apparently Henry’s death was unexpected and hard to explain so his family was seeking answers. Walter Goodwin Davis speculates that perhaps Henry disappeared during a winter storm in 1680 and his body was not recovered until spring. However, he notes that he has no evidence to support this hypothesis. 

Henry Sherburne was my 10th great-grandfather. His name is spelled in a variety of ways as was common at that time - Sherborn, Sherborne, Sherburn, Sherburne, etc. 

His youngest daughter, Ruth, married Aaron Moses. 

Ruth Moses m. Timothy Waterhouse

John Waterhouse m. Alice Babb

Lydia Waterhouse m. Richard Garland

Alice Garland m. Isaac Hayes

Richard Hayes m. Rebecca Greenwood

Sidney Hayes m. Apphia Delphina Cole

George Hayes m. Anna J. Rowe

Eva Delphinia Hayes m. Estes Yates

Linona Alice Yates

Sources: 

Davis, Walter Goodwin, and Gary Boyd Roberts. Massachusetts and Maine Families in the Ancestry of Walter Goodwin Davis (1885-1966): A Reprinting, in Alphabetical Order by Surname, of the Sixteen Multi-ancestor Compendia (plus Thomas Haley of Winter Harbor and His Descendants) Compiled by Maine's Famous Genealogist, 1916-1963. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical, 1996. 

Robert Charles Anderson. Great Migration Begins Index: Immigrants to New England, 1620-33 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.