William Lamson

PUBLIC LIBRARY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY Authorized in 1853 as a Public and School Library, it became in 1867 anjndependent Public Library for the City, and in 1898 the Library for all of Hamilton County. Departments in the central bUilding, branch libraries, stations and bookmobiles provide a lending and reference service of literary, educational and recreational material for all. 17u Public Libra" lS ruurs . .• list il! WILLIAM J. LAMSON. M. D. DESCENDANTS OF WILLIAM LAMSON OF IPSWICH, MASS. BY WILLIAM J. LAMSON ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK TOBIAS A. WRIGHT PRINTER AND PUBLISHER 191 7 Nn •. -.. -~ ..( .... -.- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS William]. Lamson, M. D. Fron tispiece Lamson Homestead, Ipswich, Mass. facing p. II Lamson Homestead, Weston, Mass. " 64 Indenture of Apprenticeship of Francis Lamson " 90 Jarvis7 Lamson II 21 5 Rev. Samuel Lamson " 228 Sarah Ann (Sawyer) Lamson " 228 Jarvis8 Lamson II 299 John Sawyer Lamson " 309 Mrs. John Sawyer Lamson " 309 Edward Manny Lamson " 340 PREFACE his book represents the genealogical gleanings of thirty T years. The first steps were made by Edwin Lamson, of Summit, N. J., in 1888, and the collection of further data was later taken up by the author and compiler, who has worked at it ever since with varying degrees of genealogical enthusiasm and intensity. The demands of a busy professional life have retarded the work to a large extent. Much help has been given to him by Miss Flora M. Lamson, of Cottage City, Mass., who died in 1916, and by Albert H. Lamson, of Elkins, N. H. The author begs to apologize in advance for any errors or inaccuracies, which may appear in the book. The difficulties in the way of gathering accurate statistics are very great. Not only do the Town Records and Vital Statistics at times show conflicting data, but personal letters, abstracts from old docu ments, family bibles, deeds, etc., from which a w0rk like this is largely made up, present a surprising variation in their statistical information. Then, too, awkward gaps occur in certain lines of descent, which must be bridged by painstaking analysis of the facts available, and the most logical inferences and hypotheses have been selected as the probably correct solution of the problem. The difficulties above mentioned and an unwillingness to record on the printed page any possible inaccuracies which might impair the value of a genealogical work, have led to a diffidence in having this work published. But there is so much that is of interest to William Lamson's descendants, and the author has been requested so many times, by so many people, to have the results of his investigations published, that he offers this book as a record of his gleanings. INTRODUCTORY The earliest mention in this country of the name of Lam son,-variously spelled LAMPSON, LAMPSONNE, LAMB SON or LAMSON,-occurs in the vicinity of Boston, Mass., and New Haven, Conn., and the three men who are the ancestors of the vast majority of those who bear that name were: I. WILLIAM LAMSON, of Ipswich, Mass. 2. BARNABAS LAMSON, of Cambridge, Mass. 3. THOMAS LAMSON, of New Haven, Conn. I. WILLIAM LAMSON is said to have come over from Eng land about 1634, and first appears on a list of Freemen at Ipswich, May 17, 1637. 2. BARNABAS LAMSON came over from Harwich, England, in the ship Defence on the loth of August, 1635, in company with Rev. Thomas Shepard. From researches made in England it has been found that in the Ridgewell, Essex Co., Register, 1562- 1700, the baptisms of two of his children are recorded, viz.: "1631, Barnabas Lampsonne filius Barnabe Lampsonne et (--) uxoris ejus baptizatus 22 Novembris. "1633/4, Martha Lambson daughter of Barnabas Lambson and Marie his wife baptized 13 January." Barnabas settled at N ewtowne, now Cambridge, Mass., arriv ing there about the time that the Rev. Thomas Hooker left there to settle a large portion of his congregation at Hartford, Conn. In 1636 he received a grant of land on the south side of the Oharles River, consisting of six acres, in lots given out by the town; and he was a Selectman of Cambridge in 1636. In May, 1634, the people of Newtown, meditating removal, "sent men to Agawam (this name was changed to Ipswich in August, 1634), and Merrimack, and -gave out that they would 10 INTRODUCTORY move," but they emigrated to Connecticut, so that there was probably some social connection between Ipswich, Cambridge and New Haven in those early days, and the first settlers perhaps radiated out along these lines. 3. THOMAS LAMSON appears for the first' time in New Haven, Conn., about 1639, when his name is on a list containing all the "Freemen of the Courts of New Haven." Where he came from originally, or whether he located elsewhere previously, before going to New Haven, is not known. It seems fair to presume, in view of the above facts, that William, Barnabas and Thomas Lamson might have been the tra ditional "three emigrant brothers," or at least closely related to each other,-that they came from the County of Essex in Eng land about 1634 or 1635, and that they settled as their fancy or the exigencies of their position demanded, or their religious con nections led them, in Ipswich, Cambridge and New Haven, respectively. A partial list of the descendants of Barnabas Lamson of Cambridge has been published by Mr. Frank B. Lamson, of Buffalo, Minn., r908, in a Memorial of Elder Ebenezer Lamson, of Concord, Mass. The following pages are devoted to the descendants of William Lamson, of Ipswich, Mass. LAMSON HOMESTEAD, IPSWICH, MASS. IPSWICH, MASS. As William Lamson selected Ipswich for his home, and as it has numbered citizens by the name of Lamson from 1637 to the present time, it may be interesting before proceeding to the strictly genealogical part of this work, to obtain a general idea of the early conditions in that town, and to familiarize ourselves with the daily life of these first Colonial settlers. The character of our New England ancestors was formed by years of struggling against adverse conditions. A new country was to be developed, land cleared, houses built and furnished, while the dreaded Indian foe lurked ever ready to destroy life and property. For a most interesting description of the early Ipswich days the reader is referred to Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Col ony, I633-I7oo, by Thomas Franklin Waters, President of the Ipswich Historical Society, to which the writer is indebted for much of the following description. The Indian name of the village was Agawam, and it was early famed for its fertile land and rich fisheries. In order to secure this valuable tract of land the Governor and Council of the Massachusetts Bay Colony sent an expedition thither, in March, 1633, led by John Winthrop, son of the Governor, with twelve men of good rank and quality, who, during the summer, built themselves comfortable homes and raised crops sufficient to carry them through the following winter. There was a steady growth in the population, and on Aug. 4, 1634, the Court of Assistants decided that the place should be called Ipswich, after old Ipswich in England, "in acknowledgment of the great honor and kindness done to our people who took shipping there." Ipswich, England, is in Suffolk County, and only a few miles from Harwich, from which point Barnabas Lamson emigrated to this country. The early location of a mill for their food supply, a meeting house for their spiritual nurture and a burying-ground for their dead was imperative, and around these centres the crude homes 12 IpSWICH, MASS. of the settlers naturally grouped themselves. Roads were cut through the woods, and some of them were known as, "the way to the mill," "the way to the Meeting-House," "Dirty Lane," Mill Street, ye Great Street, ye Long Street, King's Highway, etc., showing the utilitarian or topographical character of these thoroughfares. On all these streets, plots of various sizes, but rarely more than three acres, were assigned for house-lots. Till age lands were apportioned in six or twelve acre lots, or more, and great farms on the outskirts. The house-lots were fenced in, or paled with sharpened sticks, enclosing gardens, and protecting them from stray cattle. The houses were small and very roughly made, for there was no saw-mill of which there is certain record until 1649, and the planks were all sa wed by hand. Every nail, hinge and bolt was also forged by hand. The chimneys were built of wood, daubed with clay, and the danger from fire was ever present. The houses were unpainted. The appraisal value of an estate, in these early days, was rarely over £100. The average price received from the sale of a house was less than £25, and often, we may pre sume, they were built of logs. The interior furnishing of these houses was correspond ingly meagre. Gn the ground floor there were generally two rooms-the living or family room, where they cooked, worked, ate and sat, and the parlor or fine-room. In the former the large fire-place, with its andirons, bellows and tongs, and the iron bar (later supplanted by the crane), from which were suspended large and small pots of copper, brass or iron, dripping-pans, spits for roasts, skillets and the indispensible warming-pan-all this was the centre of cheer and comfort, as the snapping and crackling logs sent forth their warmth and glow. Upon the open shelves stood rows of pewter plates and pots, or brassware, candlesticks and a few books~notably "the great Bible." Homely household utensils also were in this room-"chimes," powdering-tubs (for salting meat), barrels and "keelers," "bucking-tubs" (for wash ing) , pails, etc.

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