| Notes |
- (see note of Lawrence Waters.)
New England Marriages Prior to 1700 by Clarence Torrey 1985, pages 63 and 438, Henry Kibby married Rachael "Lindon" " daughter of Richard" (page 438) George Bennett married Lydia Kibby "granddaughter of Richard Lindon" (page 63) In his will Richard Linton mentions daughter Ann, wife of Lawrence Waters, and granddaughter Lydia, wife of George Bennett (see page 287 of Pioneers of Massachusetts by Charles Pope 1965).
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Descendants of Edmund Sawyer
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/c/o/n/Kenneth--M-Conaway/GENE1-0005.html?Welcome=1021778951
THOMAS4 SAWYER (JOHN3, THOMAS2, EDMUND1)10,11 was born 1616 in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England12,13, and died Abt. September 12, 1706 in Lancaster, Worcester, Massachusetts14,15. He married MARY PRESCOTT16,17 July 02, 1648 in Lancaster, Worcester, Massachusetts17, daughter of JOHN PRESCOTT and MARY GAWKROGER. She was born February 24, 1629/30 in Sowerby, Halifax, Yorkshire, England18,19,20, and died April 171621,22.
Notes for THOMAS SAWYER:
Published in the " Raven Genealogy and Family History "
Thomas Sawyer was born in 1616 in Lincolnshire, England. He participated in the second division of land about 1645 in Rowley, Essex, Massachusetts. He moved in 1647 to Lancaster, Worcester, Massachusetts. He had his home used as a town garrison during King Phillip's War in 1675/76 in Lancaster, Worcester, Massachusetts. He was buried on 12 September, 1706 in Lancaster, Worcester, Massachusetts.
New England Ancestry of Dana Converse Backus, page 152
THOMAS SAWYER is first on record at Rowley, Mass. the settlement of which had been begun in 1639 but the earliest town record is dated 1643. In the second division of land, about 1645, his name appears. He is thought to have been the younger brother of the other Rowley settlers of that name. In 1647 he removed to Lancaster and there married, in 1648, Mary Prescott ( baptized at Sowerby, Halifax parish, Yorkshire, England, February 24, 1630, daughter of John and Mary ( Gawkroger ) Prescott.
During King Phillip's war the Sawyer house was one of the town garrisons and in the fierce attack of February 10, 1675/6 it escaped destruction, but Ephraim Sawyer, aged twenty-six, was killed at his grandfather Prescott's garrison house. Though the town had to be abandoned for about three years, the Sawyer's were one of the first families to return. Thomas died in Lancaster September 12, 1706, " aged about 90 ". His will, dated March 6, 1705/6, appointed his wife Mary sole executrix. He named in it his eldest son Thomas, " other fouer sons" Joshua, James, Caleb, and Nathaniel, and daughter Mary Wilder, widow of Lt. Nathaniel Wilder, who had been killed by Indians the 31st of July, 1704.
THE STORY
OF
MY ANCESTORS
IN AMERICA
BY
REV. EDWIN SAWYER WALKER, A. M.
THOMAS SAWYER was one of these first settlers. Another was John Prescott, whose daughter, Marie Prescott, Thomas Sawyer married in 1648. There were nine families in the place in 1646, and but few additions were made to the number until 1653, when it was incorporated under the name of Lancaster. The next year, 1654, the names of twenty-five men, who were heads of families, were signed as "Townsmen," the full list giving the name of Thomas Sawyer, as the sixth in order. For the next twenty-one years the settlement increased and prospered, and friendly relations with the Indians were maintained. Soon after his marriage, Mr. Sawyer "set up a house near that of his father-in-law," Prescott, and followed the business of a blacksmith.
In August, 1675, all the horrors of Indian warfare broke upon the town of Lancaster. Under the lead of King Philip, of Mount Hope, an attack was made, when eight persons were killed. On the 10th of February, 1676, another attack was made by King Philip, with a force of 1500 allies, consisting of Wampanoags, Narragansetts, Nipmucks, and Nashaways. They invested the town, which consisted of fifty families, in five distinct bodies and places. They were met by the heroic resistance of the settlers, but it was not until they had burned every house but two, and killed over fifty people, and carried away captive twenty more, that the awful work of devastation ceased. Than this, there is no bloodier chapter in New England history. The town was then utterly abandoned for four years, after which time the survivors returned, and rebuilt their desolated homes, and reared anew their family altars. The capture and death of King Philip, on August 12, 1676, just six months after the destruction of the town of Lancaster, closed the bloody drama, in which he was the chief actor, and for a time gave peace to the settlers. Thirteen years later, in 1689, King William's War, again sent the Indians on the war path. The Colonists were for the next eight years, subject to constant alarms. In September, 1697, another attack was made upon Lancaster, when Rev. John Whiting, the minister, and twenty of his people, were killed, gallantly fighting to the last. Soon after this came the peace of Ryswick, and for a time the settlers had rest.
Through all these vicissitudes, and conflicts of border life, from 1644 to 1697, a period of fifty-three years, THOMAS SAWYER was an active participant; and one of the few, of the earliest settlers of Lancaster, who survived to see the close of the 17th century. He died in Lancaster, September 12, 1706, at the age of 80 years.
New England Families Genealogical and Memorial: Volume IV
Author: William Richard Cutter
Thomas Sawyer, the immigrant, appears to have come as early as 1642 from England with brothers. Edmund and William. He lived in Rowley and perhaps other Essex county towns for a time, and in 1653 was one of the nine founders of Lancaster, Worcester county, Massachusetts. He was a blacksmith and farmer. During the Indian raid in King Philip's war his son Ephraim was slain. After the war he returned with others and was prominent during the next thirty years. He was admitted a freeman in 1654. He died September 12, 1706, aged about ninety. His will was dated March 6, 1705-06, and proved April 12, 1720. He married Maria, daughter of John Prescott, a blacksmith from Sowerby, in the parish of Halifax, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, where he married Mary Blatts. Children of Thomas Sawyer: Thomas, mentioned below; Ephraim, born January 16, 1650-51; Mary, November 4, 1652; Elizabeth, January, 1654; Joshua, March 13, 1655; James, January 22, 1657; Caleb, February 20, 1659; John, April, 1661; Elizabeth, baptized January 5, 1663-64; Deborah, 1666, died young; Nathaniel, October 24, 1670.
Thomas Sawyer1 of Rowley in 1643. He was a blacksmith, came to Lancaster in 1647, and m. in 1648, Mary, dau. of John and Mary (Platts) Prescott, bapt. in Sowerby, Eng., Halifax Parish, Feb. 24, 1630.
Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Worchester County vol1
Author: Ellery Bicknell Crane
Call Number: F72.W9C8vol.1
Thomas Sawyer, born in England about 1616, settled first at Rowley, Massachusetts, about 1643. He removed to Lancaster in 1647, when there were but three permanent settlers there: John Prescott, Richard Linton and Lawrence. John Ball had apparently left the settlement after being there for some time in behalf of the proprietors. In May, 1653, Thomas Sawyer was appointed by general court one of the prudential managers of the town. They had full powers to allot land, govern the town and admit freemen. The other members of the board were Edward Breck, Nathaniel Hadlock, William Kerley, John Prescott and Ralph Houghton. Thomas Sawyer was admitted a freeman 1654, and was a proprietor of Lancaster 1648. Naturally he became one of the leading men. He was a blacksmith by trade. His farm was on the present grounds of the Seventh Day Adventists, between South Lancaster and Clinton. There is a stone to mark his grave in the old graveyard in Lancaster. He died September 12, 1706, about ninety years of age.
There is little of interest on the records about Thomas Sawyer until 1676, when King Philip's war was raging and Lancaster suffered greatly. His son Ephraim Sawyer was killed by the Indians at Prescott's Garrison, now in Clinton. Sawyer's house was one of the garrisons, and he was in command there. It was just behind the house now or lately owned by John A. Rice, of Lancaster. It is interesting to note that other heads of Worcester county families of note, written about in this work, were in the same garrison. In 1704 the garrison was at the house of Thomas Sawyer, Jr., the aged father in command. Sawyer had nine men under him: Andrew Gardner, Thomas Sawyer, Jr., Mr. Gardner, Jabez Fairbanks, ancestor of the vice-president; Nathaniel, another son of Thomas Sawyer; John Harris; Daniel Rugg, ancestor of Arthur P. Rugg and most of the Worcester county Ruggs; Samuel Prescott, ancestor of the historian and of Worcester families of the name. These families all lived on the west side of the Nashua river, at what is now called South Lancaster. In the following year Thomas Sawyer, Jr. was taken captive, as will be related later. Thomas Sawyer. Sr. lived with his daughter, Mary Wilder, while Thomas was a captive in Canada.
Thomas Sawyer, Sr., married, 1648, Mary, daughter of John Prescott of Watertown and Lancaster. (See Prescott family). His will is dated March 6, 1705-6, proved April 12, 1720. The children of Thomas Sawyer and Mary (Prescott) Sawyer were: 1. Thomas, born July 2, 1649. 2. Ephraim, born January 16, 1650-1. 3. Marie, born January 4, 1652-3; married (???) Wilder. 4. Elizabeth, born January, 1654. 5. Joshua, born March 13, 1655. 6. James, born March 22, 1657. 7. Caleb, born April 22, 1659. 8. John, born April, 1661. 9. Nathaniel, born November, 1670, mentioned in father's will; three of foregoing not living at time father's will was made--Ephraim, John and Elizabeth
More About THOMAS SAWYER:
Burial: September 12, 1706, Lancaster, Worcester, Massachusetts23,24
Notes for MARY PRESCOTT:
[Sawyer.FTW]
The New England Ancestry of Dana Converse Backus
MARY PRESCOTT, baptized at Sowerby, Halifax parish, Yorkshire, England, February 24, 1630, eldest child of John and Mary (Gawkroger) Prescott, was about ten years old when they came to New England. She married at Lancaster in 1648, Thomas Sawyer of Rowley and Lancaster. (See Sawyer)
The New England Ancestry of Dana Converse Backus
MARY PRESCOTT, baptized at Sowerby, Halifax parish, Yorkshire, England, February 24, 1630, eldest child of John and Mary (Gawkroger) Prescott, was about ten years old when they came to New England. She married at Lancaster in 1648, Thomas Sawyer of Rowley and Lancaster. (See Sawyer)
" MARY PRESCOTT SAWYER
"Mary Prescott was born in Sowerby, Parish of Halifax in Yorkshire, England where she was baptized on February 24, 1630. She was the daughter of John and Mary (Gawkroger/Platts) Prescott. She emigrated from Sowerby to Watertown in the Massachusetts Bay Colony with her family somewhere around 1638. She lived there with them until about 1643 when they moved to their settlement on the Nashaway Plantation which became Lancaster, Mass.
"In 1648 she married another early settler, Thomas who had come in from Lincolnshire, England, and finally moved to the new settlement at Lancaster. He had taken up land, and they built their home there, undertaking all the hard work entailed in wresting a living from the land in that pioneer settlement. They had a family of eleven children - six sons and five daughters.
"In 1676 they suffered through the massacre of Lancaster along with the others, and Mary knew the grief of losing her second son, Ephriam, as well as other relatives and friends in that ordeal. They were evacuated back to Watertown on the coast and remained there for about three years until it seemed safe to return. The Sawyer family came back and rebuilt their farm home and helped with the restructuring of community affairs.
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Abt 1585 - 1665 (~ 80 years)
