Tobey (Tobie, Toby) Genealogy

NYPL RESEARCH LIBRARIES 3 3433 08043967 ; file : MICROFILMED DATE_l£~LZi TOBEY (TOBIE, TOBY) GENEALOGY TOBEY (TOBIE, TOBY) GENEALOGY Thomas, of Sandwich AND James, of Kittery AND THEIR DESCENDANTS By Rufus Babcock Tobey and Charles Henry Pope BOSTON, Mass. PUBLISHED BY CHARLES H. POPE 221 Columbus Ave. 1905 [THE NEW YORK-! PUBLIC LIBRAE '370887 A8TOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS. s 1906 One Hundred and Fifty Copies Printed Press ok David Clapp & Son PREFACE. The preparation of this Genealogy was begun by the senior editor for his own gratification many years ago. A large correspondence grew up with persons of the name far and near and an accumulation of facts of general interest. The services of Mr. Harry E. Gifford were called into requisition to aid in the work of copying from private and public records, to arrange the matter thus found and carry on the correspondence. Personal matters compelled him to ask to be relieved from the work in 1901 and the of Mr. ; help Pope was obtained to continue the undertaking. At the end of a year the editors found themselves at the point of publication, as they felt, and asked for sub- scriptions for the issue of the work. The response was not sufficient to encourage the effort, and the editors, both heavily burdened with other cares and labors, laid the matter aside. The conviction at length forced itself upon them that the book ought to come out, and its publication was resolved upon. While the work has been passing through the press much material has been obtained from careful search of public records and from correspondents. In but few cases have any of our applications for co-operation been refused or replies delayed beyond our necessary limits of time. But we wish to thank most heartily the large number who have been exceedingly prompt and liberal in their assistance. ILLUSTRATIONS 1. The Old Freeman House cin| 2. The Tobey Homestead in Dennis 3. Portrait, Edward Silas Tobet . 4. Nathaniel Tobet . 5. Charles Tobey 6. Frank Bassett Tobey 7. Rufds Babcock Tobey 8. Albert Burrell Tobey . 9. James Merrill, Esq. 10. Mrs. Lucy (Tobie) Merrill 11. Edward Parsons Tobie 12. Edward Parsons Tobie, Jr. INTRODUCTION. The Tobey (Tobie, Toby) family is an ancient and reputable one in England. Its origin would appear to the writer to be a familiar form of the Scripture name Tobias, often given as a Christian name, de- rived after the analogy of Davy from David, Willey from William, etc. The earliest record of the name, in any of its forms, in New England is found in the annals of the General Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony. They relate to a man to who seems have been in the country only a few years, and who does not appear to have been related to the Sandwich or Kittery pioneers. "6 th Octob1 Francis , 1634, Toby being fined 10£, hee is discharged of the same." The man was again before the Court in less than a year. " th 7 ordered that July, 1635, Francis Toby (for misdemeanor by him committed) shalbe bound to his good behaviour and shall putt in suretyes for the same, or else to remaine in holde." Whatever his offence the Court softened towards t him, for we read "8 th July, 1635, There is viii £ of Tobeyes fine of x £ re- mitted him." "June 7, 1636, John Jobson, shipmaster, undertooke and bound himselfe in a sum set of 10£ to answear [answer] for Frauncis Tobey any damage not exceeding 10£." The same date Jobson was discharged from his surety, and the fact was again recorded under date of Sept. 6, 1636. 10 TOBEY GENEALOGY. What was the offence? The record does not inti- mate; very likely some mere informality, the breaking I:? of some petty rule or red tape." The laws of the Colony were so angular that even such orderly persons as Sir Richard Saltonstall, Ensign Jennison, Mr. John Humphrey, with many others, had fines imposed on them in those days. The man was a person of some standing, we judge, for the notary Thomas Lechford has a record of a suit about an apprentice " who had been placed by Francis Toby, of Kotherhith, ' : county Surrey, shipwright in the year 1635, and we judge the two sets of records refer to the same person. But he does not show himself here after Jobson ex- tricates him from the mazes of Puritan law. Possibly we might find by search that he was connected with one or more of the Tobies who came here and cast in their lot permanently with the people of New England; but there is nothing now known in this direction. The next man of this name to appeal- in our New England records was Thomas Tobey (also called Tobe, Toby, Tobie and Tobye in the public docu- ments of the day), who was a very early settler in the town of Sandwich, at the head of Cape Cod Bay, in Plymouth Colony. Freeman in his History of Cape Cod quotes the following entry concerning this man : 'Thomas Tobie, Sr. subscribed 7 shillings for the meeting house the (3 mo. 7, 1644." Perhaps Thomas had been in the plantation still earlier; some one has invented the tale that he had been living on Long Island before this time and came thence to the Plymouth Colony settlement. But all probabilities are against this theory, and not a line of evidence has been produced to prove the statement. \Ve may well believe that he had come from some TOBET GENEALOGY. 11 English home not long before the date of his helping in the erection of Sandwich meeting-house in 1644. His will biography be given as fully as our knowledge will allow in later pages. Henry Tobye was a resident of Exeter, New " th th Hampshire, 5 day, 4 month, 1639," when he signed the " " Combination of planters, and was still living there in 1640 when the instrument was re-affirmed. He had died or :r th th removed before 12 , 8 month, 1649," we infer from a deed of John Bursley to Ed- ward Gilman bearing this date, conveying " among other tracts of land one house lot that was Henrye Tobies," with all the meadows and privileges which went with the lot. All search for other items about this Henry has failed to disclose any trace of him. But not far away from Exeter, at the mouth of the Piscataqua river, in Kittery, Maine, dwelt James Tobey, in the latter part of that seventeenth century. The incomplete records of town, church and colony at that period give us no note of the man earlier than June 24, 1687, when a lot of land was granted to him by the town in its orderly apportionment of lands; and the hand of an Indian warrior took his life 21 May, 1705, cutting off his son and namesake James Tobey, Junior, the same day. But we shall see that he left several sons and daughters, through whom a large progeny has descended. Of him and his descendants as full accounts as possible will be given in succeeding pages. We thus see that there were four Tobies in New England in colonial times: Francis, a transient resident of Boston; Henry, for a few years a landholder in Exeter, then vanishing from our sight as the former had done; Thomas, of Sandwich, and James, of Kit- tery, who gave their strength and lives to the founding 12 TOBEY GENEALOGY. of our nation and whose blood has flowed on in the lives of thousands of worthy descendants in this and other names. Two important questions arise at this point: First, Were the Sandwich and Kittery pioneers related? Second, Whence came they? To the first it may be said that there is no similarity of Christian names in the two groups which suggests connection, and no correspondence or community of interest which indicates it. To the second our only reply is that neither of the colonists left on record a line that points to his birthplace or relations. The writer believes that search in the Probate and parish records of England — the country from which every token indicates that they came — would result in discovering the origin of both men, with many items concerning their circumstances and the condi- tion and history of their ancestors. May it not be hoped that the interest developed by this book will lead a number of the family throughout the United States to combine with the writer soon and secure such a search? Correspondence is solicited. In making up this book we place the Sandwich branch first, for the reason that it appears in colonial records many years the earlier, and the dates of mar- riage of the sons lead to the belief that Thomas was somewhat the older man. So in constructing the 7 title w e arrange the different spellings of the name in the order of the number of persons following them, as shewn in our correspondence, in directories, and in public records and books, conceding equal honor to each of the three forms presented. The most 'prevalent spelling of the name by persons of the Sandwich and Kittery families has been Tobey. Yet it is but fair to observe that of the sons of Thom- as Tobey of Sandwich, Nathan signed his name " " Tobie," and Gershom his Toby," while the oldest " V grandson, Thomas, spelled his Tobye.' PART FIRST THOMAS OF SANDWICH AND HIS DESCENDANTS THOMAS TOBEY OF SANDWICH AND HIS DESCENDANTS.

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