American Ancestors Digital Library & Archives
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JL >- INTRODUCTION. WITH reference to the early settlers of New England, the reader of history will readily acknowledge that there was much truth contained in the following letter written by Thomas Dudley to a friend in England, dated Boston, N. E., 1631 : " If any come hither to plant for worldly ends, that can well stay at home, he commits an error of which he will soon repent him ; but if for spiritual, he will find here what may well content him, materials to build, fuel to burn, ground to plant, seas and rivers to fish in, a pure air to breathe in, good water to drink till wine or beer can be made, which, with the cows, hogs and goats brought hither already, may suffice for food. For clothes and bedding, they must bring them with them, till time and industry produce them here. In a word, we yet enjoy little to be envied, but endure mucii to be pitied in the sickness and mortality of our people. If any godly man, out of religious ends, will come over to help us in the good work we are about, I think they cannot dispose of themselves or their estates more to God's glory and the furtherance of their own reckoning. But they must not be of the poorer sort yet for divers years ; and for profane and debauched persons, their oversight in coming here is wondered at, where they shall find nothing to content them." —Hiliretlfs Hist. United States. 3 h PEDIGREES AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. HAMPTON, N. H. HAMPTON was formerly known as Winnecunnet. In 1622, a grant was made by the Council of Plymouth to Sir Ferdi- nando Gorges and Capt. John Mason, from Merrimac River back to the St. Lawrence. This tract was called Laconia— first grant in which the territory of Hampton was included. The first settlement made in Hampton was in 1 G38, by a company who purchased lands there with the principal object of carrying on the fishing business. Portsmouth, Dover, Hampton and Exeter were first laid out, being considered, for many years (until 1G79), under the jurisdiction of the Colony of Massachusetts. On the death of King Philip in 1G76, the Indian war terminated in the southern part of New England; in New Hampshire it raged two years longer. In 1G79, New Hampshire separated from Massachusetts. At this time the whole number of voters in the four towns was 209. (Hampton 57, Exeter 20.) The assembly con sisted of eleven members: three from each town, except Exeter, which had two. The members from Hampton were : Anthony Stanyan, Thomas Marston and Edward Gove. The assembly met at Portsmouth on the 16th March, 1680. Rev. Joshua Moody, of that town, preached the election sermon. The delusion of witchcraft was not confined to the vicinity of Salem: it extended to this town, and persons here fell under suspicion, and were tried for the crime of witchcraft. 5 When the settlement was in its infancy a log house afforded the people a temporary place of worship; that house was located on the spot where three of the subsequent meeting houses stood, very near the present site of the academy The log house was dispensed with and a meeting-houst built about 1646. Following Rev. Stephen Batchelder were Wheelwright, Dalton, and Seaborn Cotton, son of Rev. John Cotton (settled in 1660), one of the most distinguished of the early New England divines. Seaborn was his eldest son, and was born in 1633, during the passage of his parents across the Atlantic, from which circumstance he received his name. He gradu ated at Harvard College* Ansr. 12, 1651. Dr. Cotton Mather says of him, that " he was esteemed a thorough scholar and an able preacher." North Hampton ("North Hill"), was set off and incorpo rated Nov. 26, 1742. In 1797, Rev. Jesse Appleton was pastor of the Hampton Church. In 1807, Mr. Appleton was elected President of Bowdoin College. Rev. Josiah Webster was installed June 8, 1808, and remained until his death, which occurred March 27, 1837, aged 65 yrs. The first church was erected in "North Hill" in 1734. Belknap's Hist, of Neic Hampshire; also an Address delivered at the Second Centennial Anniversary of the first settlement of Hampton, by Jos. Dow, A.M. DRAKES OF HAMPTON. THE family of Drake, according to the old English Genea logists, " is one of great antiquity." That it is of great anti quity there can be no question, for, as early as the Norman Conquest, there were several families of the name, residing * Founded in 1638. chiefly within a small compass, in the south part of tlie county of Devonshire. (An engraving is here given of the Drake family's coat of arms.) " It has always been the practice in New England for all persons who could trace a connection to him who had arms granted him, to appropriate to themselves the same arms ; this is merely a customary thing, and only serves to show that the possessor is allied by blood to the original grantee. The more remote an indi vidual is from him to whom the honor was first given, the less he generally values it; and many at this day, even in England, care very little about their family arms, and when any of these emigrate to Republican America they often leave even the recollection of them behind. Hence in the course of two or three generations, descendants do not know that their ancestors ever had any arms at all." JOHN DRAKE, of the Council of Plymouth, one of the original company established by King James in 1606, for settling New England, was a branch of the family of Ashe, several of whose sons came to this country. John came to Boston in 1630 with two or more sons, and finally set-tied in Windsor, Conn. ROBERT, also, with two or more sons anl one daughter, who settled in Hampton, N. H. From these brothers are descended all of the name in New England, and most, if not all, of those bearing it in the Middle, Southern and Eastern States. We, however, meet with some modern emigrants of the name, but they are not numerous. Robert Drake was born in Colchester, Essex, England, in 1580 (the year of the great earthquake referred to by Shakspeare, and whose appalling effects are so graphically described by Holinshed); came to New England with a family before 1643, and took up his residence in Exeter, N. H., but removed from thence to Hampton in the same State in the beginning of 1651. His son Abraham, as will he seen, was connected with Hampton affairs as early as 1G f 1. 8 Hence it is inferred that Robert Drake, his father, came to Exeter with his family, on or before the year last named. As Exeter was settled only three years previously, he may have been among the founders of that town, and one of the Rev. John Wheelwright's company who settled there in 1638. Mr. Drake was a man of eminent piety and highly respected. His house stood in the same place now occupied by the Baptist meeting-house in Hampton. He was called " ould " Mr. Drake, and very properly, as he was over seventy at the time he came to Hampton. In 1654 he was one of the selectmen. His death occurred Jan. 14, 1668, aged 88 years. ABRAHAM, son of Robert, b. 1620, a prominent inhabitant of Exeter and afterward in Hampton. His residence was at a place since called Drakeside, because it was on the western side of a considerable swamp; and his estate has been handed down in the name to this day, and in the name of Abraham, with a single exception, now about two hundred years. The present owner (1845J, is Abraham Drake, whose buildings are to be seen from the railroad depot in Hampton, it being about one mile south-westerly from it. He appears to have been interested in Hampton lands from the first. His "lot" is mentioned in 1642. On the 14th April, 1641, with several others, he was appointed by the town of Hampton to fence in the common land near Boar's Head. In 1643, in a peti tion, which with twenty others he signed and presented to the General Court of Mass. f then including New Hampshire), in that year, against the encroachments of the neighboring settlers, it is said, " those people know that we long since purchased these lauds, also quietly possessed them." In the allotment of the Ox Common at Hampton in 1651, he had one share. He was Marshal of the County of Nor folk from 1663 to 1673, and continued to hold that office until the separation of New Hampshire from Mass. In 1663 the town chose him to lay out 4000 acres " west of Hampton bounds and a way to great Pond," and in 1668 he was ap- pointed to run the town lines. He was Selectman in 1658, and perhaps in other years. He was a man capable of any business, a good penman, and forward in all public service. Abraham Drake, like his father, lived to a very advanced age, but the time of his death I have not yet discovered. He was living in 1712, at the age of 84. His wife died in 1676. In King Philip's war he served at various times, but in what capacity does not appear. ABRAHAM, 3d generation, son of Abraham 2d, b. Dec. 29, 1654, appears to have been one of the wealthiest men in Hampton ; the inventory of whose estate was £926.5s.