Nutfield Genealogy: Hands

Showing posts with label Hands. Show all posts

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Surname Saturday ~ BELL of Charlestown, Massachusetts

BELL

Abraham Bell, a Charlestown "waterman",

was reported to have drowned in 1662 in at least one source I found.

Abraham Bell is an ancestor with a fleetingly short story. There are only small clues to his life in the early New England records. In James Savage’s Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England there is this fleeting entry:

“BELL, ABRAHAM, New Haven 1639, rem a. 1647 to Charlestown, d. early in 1663. Admin. Of his est. £154.. 1. 1. was giv. to his w. Catharine, who. D. 29 Aug. 1692, aged 68. I see no ch. But Isaac, bapt. At C. 12 Oct. 1662.”

I found a reference on page 9 of of The Bell Family in America by William M. Clemons, New York, 1913 available online at archive.org:

Abraham Bell, waterman, was in New Haven

in 1643 and came to Charlestown in 1647. He

married Katharine Waffe, widow, who died

August 29, 1692, aged sixty-nine. It appears

by the town records that he was cast away

31 Dec, found 4th [Jan.], buried 7th [1662-3].''

His children were: Hannah married Samuel

Bignall, 1669; Mary, born about December 25,

1653, married John Hands; Abraham, died Janu-

ary 16, 1656-7 ; Abraham, born November 17, 1657 ;

Dorothy married Samuel Cutler, 1681 ; Isaac, born

October 10, 1661, or 1662.

There was also a reference to Abraham Bell in The Cutler Memorial and Genealogical History by Nahum Cutler, Greenfield, Massachusetts: Press of E. A. Hall & Co., 1889, pages 512 and 513, in the sections about the Samuel Cutler who married Abraham’s daughter, Dorothy Bell. Using all these clues I was able to find vital records, land records, and the inventory of his estate in documents from New Haven, Connecticut and Charlestown, Massachusetts. From this I could piece together a story about my 9^th great grandfather, Abraham Bell. There is no evidence he was related to Francis Bell, the early settler at New Haven, who died on 8 January 1690 in Stamford, Connecticut. I never found the town records that told the story of his drowning in 1662/3 mentioned in the Bell compiled genealogy.

Genealogy:

Generation 1: Abraham Bell, died about 31 December 1662 in Charlestown, Massachusetts, married to Katherine Bullfinch, widow of John Waffe. She was born about 1624 and died in 1692 in Charlestown, Massachusetts. Six children.

Generation 2: Mary Bell, born 25 December 1653 in Charlestown, married about 1677 to John Hands, son of Mark Hands and Mary Shattuck.

Generation 3: Katherine Hands m. Jonathan Kettell

Generation 4: Katherine Kettell m. Caleb Rand

Generation 5: Caleb Rand m. Mary Mayhew

Generation 6: Mary Rand m. Asahel Bill

Generation 7: Ingraham Ebenezer Bill m. Isabella Lyons

Generation 8: Caleb Rand Bill m. Ann Margaret Bollman

Generation 9: Isabella Lyons Bill m. Albert Munroe Wilkinson

Generation 10: Donald Munroe Wilkinson m. Bertha Louise Roberts (my grandparents)

For more information on Abraham Bell:

The Bell Family in America by William M. Clemons, New York, 1913 available online at archive.org

Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England, by James Savage

The Cutler Memorial and Genealogical History by Nahum Cutler, Greenfield, Massachusetts: Press of E. A. Hall & Co., 1889, pages 512 and 513

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Saturday, June 15, 2013

Surname Saturday ~ Hands of Boston

HANDS/HAMES/HUMES

Mark Hands was a nailer, who according to Savage came to America in the ship Jonathan in 1639, aged 20. He is found in early Boston records buying land, and witnessing documents. In the inventory of the estate of John Hanniford, his wife Abigail names Mark Hands as her brother. John Hanniford’s estate listed sugar and wine debts from the Barbados.

The deposition Mark Hands signed in 1652 which stated he arrived in the Jonathan in 1639 was stolen because it contained the signature of Richard Bellingham, who was governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. [The Historical Magazine, Volume 8, page 334] Here is a transcription:

“Mark Hume of Boston aged 33 years or thereabouts deposeth and Sayth:

That about thirteen years since this depont Came into New England
in a Shipp called the Jonathan, wth Thomas Blanchard and his wyfe and
two children, and his wives mother (as the depont was informed) an old
Sickly Wooman and very weak. And this depont Sayth that he well
remembers that the sayd Thomas Blanchard took very much paynes wth the
said old woman, and was very carefull of her, and Kept a candle
burning by her (for the most part) all the night long, in so much that
this depont, (having a Cabbin over against her in the said Shipp) did
marvaile that he was able to endure the paynes & charges he
continually had about her and the two children.

Sworne 5.-2.-1652. before me, R. BELLINGHAM.”

Mark Hands went to Barbados in 1661 and never returned, probably dying at sea since his will was proved on 17 June 1664. However, he had written out his will before his voyage, and named his two children and some other family members. The will of Mark Hands, written in 1661, can be read at Google Book search, Suffolk County Wills, by New England Historic Genealogical Society, Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2005, page 234. See below.

It is thought that Mary, wife of Mark Hands, was the daughter of Damaris (Sibley) Shattuck, the last wife of Thomas Gardner of Salem. If this is true, I am twice descended of William Sibley, the father of Damaris, because I already have a line of descent from her brother Richard Sibley (1630 – 1676) of Salem. I am descended from Thomas Gardner, Damaris’s second husband, through his daughter, Sarah Gardner (abt 1627 0 5 April 1686) and her husband, Benjamin Balch of Beverly, Massachusetts. A very tangled family tree indeed!

There are few sources for this family. I found court records, and a few mentions in Boston histories. You can read the short sketch about Mark Hands in James Savage’s Genealogical Dictionary of the first settlers of New England.

Genealogy:

Generation 1: Mark Hands, born about 1619 in England, died about 17 June 1664 at sea; married to Mary Shattuck?. Two children: John and Mehitable.

Generation 2: John Hands, born 10 September 1654 in Boston, Massachusetts, married about 1677 to Mary Bell, daughter of Abraham Bell and Katherine Bullfinch.

Generation 3: Katherine Hands, born about 1681 in Charlestown, died 8 March 1748; married first on 30 May 1705 to Jacob Waters, son of Jacob Waters and Sarah Hutson (no children); married second on 8 May 1707 in Boston to Jonathan Kettell, son of Jonathan Kettell and Abigail Converse. Ten children.