William Nickerson (1646-1719) and His Wife Mercy Williams of Yarmouth and Chatham, Massachusetts

William Nickerson was baptized 1 June 1646 at Barnstable on Cape Cod. [NFA; I haven’t found the primary document] He was likely born  at Yarmouth, one of the ten children of William and Anne (Busby) Nickerson. His father was the founder of Monomoit (later Chatham) on Cape Cod, first illegally buying 4,000 acres from Native Americans but eventually working things out with the Colony leaders. Sometimes Nickerson is seen as Nicholson in records. I wrote about William and Anne Nickerson here. Because William and Mercy lived in new settlements, there is a lack of vital records pertaining to the family. 

About 1670 William Nickerson married Mercy Williams, whose name is sometimes spelled Marcy. [NFA] Mercy and William are my 10th great-grandparents on my grandmother Milly Booth Rollins’ side of the family. Mercy was born about 1644, the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (Tart) Williams of Eastham. William Nickerson’s brother John married Mercy’s sister Sarah.

William and Mercy raised their children in Chatham, birth order uncertain [Hawes & NFA]:

1. Thomas married Mary Bangs, the daughter of Jonathan of Harwich; was a Lieutenant in the militia 

2. William married first Deliverance Lumbert/Lombard the daughter of Caleb and second Hannah/Anna Atwood, probably daughter of Eldad of Eastham; was an Ensign in the militia 

3. Nathaniel married Katherine Stuard/Stuart, the daughter of Hugh

4. Robert marred Rebecca Jones, the daughter of Jeremiah of Yarmouth

5. Mercy married first William Mitchell and second James Griffith

6. Elizabeth married William Cahoon of Swansea, son of William and went to Duck Creek

7. Judith married Nathaniel Covell, son of Nathaniel

They may have also had an older daughter Judith who died young. I descend from William and Deliverance; I wrote about them here.

In 1663 William Nickerson signed a letter asking the court to give his father the land at Monomoit that he wanted to give to his children (Plymouth Colony Records, 4:153). 

On 3 June 1668 William Nickerson [Senior] and his sons, presumably including William, were sentenced to time in the stocks for resisting Yarmouth constable Thomas Howes in performing his duty. [PCR, 183-184] 

On 6 July 1686 the Plymouth Court Records show that William was sued by Samuel Hall of Yarmouth.  Samuel's complaint against William Nickerson, late of Yarmouth, was for £12 which he refused or had forgotten to pay for earlier services.  The issue was resolved before the case was heard.  Another suit was brought by Thomas Fallen Jr. of Yarmouth, in the same court, for William's failure to pay him.  This case was also resolved before it reached court.  [Plymouth Colony Records, Judicial Acts, 299]

Mercy is shown to be the daughter of Thomas Williams when she is mentioned in the 10 May 1692 will of Thomas Williams of Eastham. His probate record also proved her marriage to William. Thomas left his homestead to his grandchild John Smith, one shilling “and no more” to his grandchild William Nickerson the son of John,  and the rest of his estate to be divided equally by his four daughters Sarah, Marcy, Elizabeth, Mary and the children of his daughter Sarah Mulford. Thomas Williams’ inventory was taken 12 October 1696 and totaled over £106. On 26 October 1696 the heirs signed a document that they received their just proportion from Jonathan Sparrow and Joshua Bangs executors of  the estate of “our father Tho Williams Deceased,” included Marcy Nickerson (her mark) and witnessed by two men named William Nickerson. [Barnstable County Probate 2:25-28]

Before a Chatham Church was built, William was a member of the Eastham Church. When in 1700 the Chatham citizens voted to construct a meetinghouse, George Godfrey and William Nickerson were selected to oversee the construction. They also agreed to the following; "that every man that had a team should drag one load of the timber.” In 1701 the building had no shingles, clapboards or glass for the windows, rough benches were placed inside for women to sit on one side and men on the other.  On 7 September 1712 Mercy Nickerson was dismissed from the Eastham Church to the Harwich Church. Since a church had been built in town, I’m unsure why Mercy wasn’t attending church in Chatham. Perhaps a suitable minister had not been found. 

William Jr. was a soldier in King Philip's War under Capt. Henry Gold. I also read that William Nickerson was paid 2 pounds, 14 shillings for service on the fourth expedition with Capt. Pierce. I am not sure refer to same William. 

William Nickerson took freeman’s oath on 24 June 1690. [PCR 257]

William served the town of Chatham in a variety of ways, although it is sometimes challenging to differentiate between him and his father William. He was grand juryman in 1681 [PCR 60], appointed constable in 1683 and 1700 [PCR 107], appointed inspector of whales in 1690 [PCR 251], was the first Town Clerk,  a position he held for 15 years, treasurer for six years, Selectman for six years [Chatham Town Records, Deyo’s History of Barnstable Co.], and assessor in 1702. 

In 1712 William Nickerson signed a petition as a Selectman asking the state House of Representatives and Gov. Dudley to exempt townsmen from military service so they could protect the town from the threat from French privateers; petition was denied. 

Ca 1700 Chatham Settlers' Map; William's homestead on top right (source: Nickerson Family Assocation)

William was a large land owner in Chatham, not surprising since his father founded the town. Some of the land transactions he was involved in:

• By a deed of 2 December 1687 he received title from his father and sister Sarah Covell to one-half of all the undivided and unpurchased lands at Monomoit and full title to Monamesset Neck which was between Crow’s Pond and Pleasant Bay. [Hawes]
• On 29 August 1689 he bought from the three grandsons of Mattaquason land at Old Harbor in Chatham where he constructed a home and is known to have resided there for some time. [Smith]
• On 5 December 1692 John Freeman and Jonathan Sparrow of Eastham laid out to him and Sarah Covell the bounds of the un-purchased lands to which they were entitled from their late father William Nickerson. [Plymouth Colony Deeds 109] 
• By deeds dated 6 Oct 1693 and 5 July 1697 he and Mrs. Covel conveyed to Samuel Sprague of Marshfield a part of the land they received in 1692 and an undivided one-third interest in the rest. [Plymouth Colony Deeds, 500-501] On 27 June 1694 he and Samuel Smith bought of John Quason Jr a tract of land at Old Harbor. [Smith] 
• On 13 October 1702 William Nickerson, Nathaniel, William and Ephraim Covel and Samuel Sprague conveyed a portion of land in West Chatham to Michael Stewart. [Hawes citing Thomas Doane Papers]  
• On 13 Oct 1702 William gave land at Monamesset Neck and other property to son William. [Hawes citing Osborn Nickerson Papers] 
• On 11 July 1706 William and Mercy conveyed her land at the Old Harbor to their son Thomas. 
• On 13 October 1707 he conveyed his homestead and other land to his son Robert, reserving a life interest for his wife and himself. 
• On 23 Feb 1709/10, he gave more undivided Chatham land including land north of Muddy Cove to his four sons.  [Smith] 
• In 1713 he was allotted nine shares in the division of Chatham common lands. [Hawes citing Proprietors’ Book]

William died intestate at Chatham probably not long before 7 April 1719 when his widow Mercy Nickerson was appointed Administratrix. [Barnstable County Probate 3:332]

Mercy survived her husband by 20 years but did not remarry, dying 7 April 1739. She was in her 90s, an incredible age for a woman in that time period.

From Diary of Rev. Joseph Lord, printed in the Yarmouth Register 17 Dec 1846: "7 (2) 1739 [second month, old style, is April] died here Mrs. Mercy Nicholson aged ninety years or more (as is judged) and some say ninety-five (for she could not tell her own age). She was born in Eastham and has left a numerous posterity, 146 being now living in this land. Beside which there was a daughter of hers that above twenty years ago went to a place called Duck Creek in Pennsylvania or West Jersey of whose posterity her relations here cannot inform who are living; but she carried seven children with her when she went. I was afterwards informed by her son that he had found 157 of her posterity living here in this county. And Duck Creek I am informed is in Pennsylvania on ye borders of Maryland."

Sources Not Mentioned Above:

The Nickerson Family Association (NFA), The Descendants of William Nickerson 1604-1689 First Settler of Chatham, Massachusetts, 1973

Charles Swift, History of Old Yarmouth, 1884

William Smith, History of Chatham: Formerly the Constablewick or Village of Monomoit, 1909

CCGS Bulletin, Summer 2001, article on Chatham History re-printed from the Yarmouth Register 30 April 1858

Torrey’s New England Marriages

James W. Hawes, Library of Cape Cod History & Genealogy No 91: Children of William (1) Nickerson, 1912

John Thomas (ca 1621 to 1692) and His Wife Sarah Pitney of Marshfield, Plymouth County, Massachusetts

John Thomas was born about 1621 in England. His parentage has not been determined. I believe it was this John Thomas who was a child of 14, unaccompanied by parents, when he came to New England in the fall of 1635 on the Hopewell’s second trip of the year. Robert Charles Anderson believes more proof is need to identify John Thomas of Marshfield as the young man on the Hopewell, primarily because there is an eight-year gap between the ship’s arrival and his appearance in Marshfield records.

I personally believe it is quite likely the John Thomas of Marshfield and the young man on on the Hopewell are one and the same. Perhaps there was a lack of records because he was an indentured servant and a minor for a portion of that time. Governor Edward Winslow did have an indentured servant named John Thomas. Another passenger on the same voyage, Robert Chambers, was known to be a servant of Winslow. The names of John Thomas and Robert Chambers appear adjacent to one another, immediately after that of Edward Winslow, in the Marshfield section of the 1643 Plymouth Colony list of men able to bear arms. John of the Hopewell is the right age to be John of Marshfield. There is no record found of his parents in New England, again supporting that he came here unaccompanied. 

On 27 February 1643-4 Gov. Winslow petitioned the town of Marshfield to grant land to John Thomas and Robert Chambers, effective upon the end of their servitude in November 1645. The land was next to Luke Lilly’s and it was too small for two men, so Winslow advised that the town grant them an enlargement in any convenient place. Winslow guaranteed the taxes until the end of their servitude. [Marshfield Town Records I:10] A grant of 30 acres to each of the men was made on 8 April 1644, so it appears John’s servitude ended by this date as there is no stipulation. The land was on the north side of the South River near the land of Capt. Miles Standish and Mr. John Alden. [Marshfield Town Records I:11]

I have read that after his indenture John was a lifelong overseer of Gov. Winslow’s Green Harbor estate, Careswell, but with no source given. I have not found any mention of this in Marshfield Town Records although my research is not all-encompassing.

Twenty years later, on 24 Oct 1664, the town made a further grant of 30 acres to John Thomas. [Marshfield Town Records, I-93]

John Thomas married Sarah Pitney on 21 December 1648 at Marshfield. [Marshfield Vital Records, p 5] Sarah was baptized 11 February 1627 at St. Olave, Southwark, Surrey, England, the daughter of James Pitney, felt maker. [St. Olave Parish Register 1583-1627, p 291] Her mother was Sarah Smith.  Sarah was age 7 on  the 11 April 1635  embarkation certificate for the ship Planter. [Hotten 56]  She migrated from England with her mother and brother to join her father James Pitney at Ipswich, Massachusetts. I wrote about James Pitney here.

John and Sarah had eight children born Marshfield [births of 1 through 7 recorded Marshfield Vital Records p 18]:

1. John born 16 Nov 1649; m Sarah —-; d 24 May 1699 (drowned) [History of Marshfield]

2. Elizabeth born 12 Sept 1652; some say she married a West and others that she died unmarried; Lysander Richards wrote she attended Gov. Winslow’s wife

3. Samuel 6 Nov 1655; m 27 May 1680 Mercy Ford in Marshfield [MVR p 16]; died 1720 [History of Marshfield]

4. Daniel born 20 Nov 1659; m 26 April 1698 Experience Tilden in Marshfield [MVR p 23]

5. Sarah born September 1662; m 12 Jan 1681/2 Benjamin Phillips of Marshfield [MVR p 16]

6. James born 30 Nov 1663; m 3 Jan 1692/3 Mary Tilden [Duxbury VR p 319]

7.  Ephraim born October 1667, removed to Little Compton RI [History of Marshfield]

8. Israel born about 1671; m 23 Feb 1698/9 Bethia Sherman in Marshfield [MVR p 23]; d 29 Jan 1755 in Marshfield in his 85th year [Descendants in the State of RI Providence Plantations p 108]

I descend from their daughter Sarah.I wrote about Sarah and her husband Benjamin here.

John Thomas took the oath of fidelity in 1657. [Nathaniel Shurtleff editor, Records of the Colony of New Plymouth, p 178] He served on a jury of inquest into the deaths of two men in Marshfield in 1655. [General Court of Plymouth Colony 31 January 1654/5 and 14 Feb 1654/5] He was surveyor at Marshfield in 1656 and 1679 [Marshfield Town Records I:56, 113] and constable there in 1664. [Marshfield Town Records I:92]

The town of Marshfield owned cattle, called the poor stock, that was loaned to the poor in town, often for a four-year period. On 24 May 1652 poor stock was given to Goodman Bump, Goodman Perry and John Thomas. [Marshfield Town Records, transcription of I:36, 1643-1878]

On 21 October 1679 Anthony Snow and John Bourne divided the poor stock to benefit the poor of the town. They found that John Thomas had a five increase of one cow valued at 6/9/0 and there was 4/6/0 due to John Thomas. Two of John Thomas’ cows were of the poor stock. [Marshfield Town Records, transcription of I:170, 1643-1878]

It is puzzling to me that John would have been considered a poor man. At times he served as a surveyor and constable, was literate as his inventory lists books which were expensive to buy in colonial America, he was a land-owner, and his inventory contained a considerable number of livestock. 

On the 16th of August 1683, John Thomas Senior delivered unto John Reed a cow of the Poor’s Stock by order from the overseers of the said Poor Stock for the said Reed to keep at the rate of the letting out the said stock for four years. [Marshfield Town Records, transcription, I:170, 1643-1878]

John Thomas was listed with other inhabitants as not attending town meeting, something that was subject to a fine, in August 1652, November 1652, July 1653, and August 1657. 

Lysander Richards wrote that the site of John and Sarah’s homestead is marked by a statue presented to Adelaide Phillips, the famous opera singer who lived on the land they once owned. Something I need to investigate further. 

In his 14 March 1663 will, James Pitney made a bequest to “my son John Thomas Sr” and appointed “my loved daughter Sarah Thomas” executrix. 

Sarah (Pitney) Thomas was buried 2 January 1682/83 at Marshfield. She was about 55 years old. 

John Sr.’s died at Marshfield, likely not many days before his inventory was taken on 12 January 1691/2. [Plymouth Probate Records, 1:116] The value of the estate, which did not include real estate, was not totaled but it was over 63 pounds. It included household items, books, corn, woolen cloth, a portion of a canoe, horse goods, tobacco, cider, two oxen, fifteen cows, six sheep, nine pigs, and farming tools, John Thomas of Duxborough, eldest son, made oath to this inventory on 16 March 1691/2; he gave bond on 26 March. [Plymouth file 20367]

There is conflicting information among historians and genealogists about when John died although his inventory convinces me of an approximate death of February or March 1691/2. Marcia Thomas wrote that John Thomas was buried 26 June 1673, but I cannot find this in Marshfield records. Lysander Richards gives John a 1676 death year. 

I believe both those dates are incorrect for various reasons with the main one being that when Sarah (Pitney) Thomas was buried in 1682, she was recorded as “wife of John Thomas sen.,” not as his widow or relict, indicating John was still living.

Another reason is that John Thomas and his son John appear in a 1684 list of Marshfield townsmen. [Digital image, ancestry.com “Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988”] One is written as John Thomas and the other John Thomas has a notation next to his name which I decipher as “ye second.”

There is also conflating of the deaths of John and his son John Jr, who also married a woman named Sarah. The latter was drowned “going out of Greens harbour in a Cunnoe” on 20 May 1699 and administration on his estate was granted to his wife Sarah on 7 August 1699 (Plym I:307). This administration is incorrectly stated as that of John 1 Thomas in Pope’s Pioneers of Massachusetts.

There is a memorial monument to early settlers of Marshfield at the Old Winslow Burying Ground with these names inscribed:

Edward Winslow and wife Susanna

Kenelm Winslow and wife Ellen

Josiah Winslow and wife Margaret

Josiah Winslow and wife Penelope

William Thomas

Nathaniel Thomas and wife Mary

John Thomas and wife Sarah

Marshfield Monument to First Settlers [source: findagrave.com]

Sources Not Mentioned Above:

Milton Halsey Thomas, NEHGS Register, “Notes Historical Intelligence: The Death of John 1 Thomas of Marshfield,” 101:72

Marcia Thomas, Memorials of Marshfield, 1854

Lysander Richards, History of Marshfield, vol II, 1905

Barbara Lambert Merrick, The Mayflower Descendant, “Plymouth County Probate Records and Files,” 42:137 (July 1992)

Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins, VII:22 (John Thomas) and II:37 (Robert Chambers), 1995 

John Marchant born ca 1625, was of Yarmouth and died before 1693 at Edgartown, Mass.

I know maddeningly little about John Marchant. He lived in Yarmouth where the town books were destroyed by fire in 1674 and in Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard where there was a lack of records from the early days. To make matters worse, some early Barnstable County land and probate records were destroyed by fire. The lack of solid information has lead to many theories about this family, so most of what is written here does not meet the genealogical proof standard but represents my best-guess research to date. 

John was likely born in England about 1625, possibly to John and Sarah  (——) Marchant, although the surname does sound French. He likely migrated as a child with his parents to New England, living at Newport (1638), Braintree (1638), Watertown, (1642), and Yarmouth (1648). Their last name is sometimes seen as Merchant. 

The two John Marchants are sometimes conflated. Some researchers have just one John who married twice, to Sarah and to another unknown woman. I believe there are two Johns—father and son. The older John would have been old enough to have been married with children when his wife Sarah died in December 1638. The older John would have been too old in 1664 to be starting a military career 26 years later when named an Ensign in the militia. It makes sense that John, son of John, would be the one with a military career at that time. The elder John who was admitted a freeman in Newport, Rhode Island in June 1638 and was at Braintree that same year where his wife Sarah died. 

John the younger is my 10th great-grandfather on my grandmother Milly (Booth) Rollins’ side of the family.

Before 1648 John married a woman whose name is not known and they had seven children [only births of first two recorded Yarmouth but historian Charles Banks wrote they were all  “undoubtedly” his children, likely because there wasn’t another Marchant candidate in Yarmouth and Edgartown to be their father]:

1. Mary born 20 May 1648 (Yarmouth VR to 1850 p 841]
2. Abishai born Yarmouth 10 Jan 1650/51 [Yarmouth VR p 842]; m. Mary Taylor 
3. John born about 1653; buried 19 June 1672 as “John, Junior”
4. Charles born about 1655; of Nantucket in 1679
5. Christopher born about 1658; living at Edgartown in 1685 when he witnessed a deed
6. Sarah born about 1661; married 1st Richard Arey of Edgartown; 2nd Thomas Harlock
7. Joseph born about 1666; living in Edgartown in 1711; m. Ann ——

I descend from John’s son Abishai. I wrote about him here.

John Marchant was made a freeman at Yarmouth on 3 June 1652.

I would imagine it was the younger John Marchant was in court in 1653, accused of trying to seduce another man’s wife: “Wheras wee haue enformacion of John Marchant, of Yarmouth, his attempting the chastety of Annis,  the wife of Thomas Phillips, of the said towne, but haue not as yett oath of it, wee leaue it to the next jury to enquire after.”[Plymouth Colony Records, June 9, 1653, PCR 3:36] 

There seems to be a pattern in my Marchant family of not adhering to social mores! John’s son Abishai was brought to court for fornication and adultery. John’s granddaughter Hannah Marchant (daughter of Abishai) had two children out of wedlock by two different men, not marrying either man.

John Marchant was appointed in 1664 by the court to be Ensign of the Yarmouth Military Company. In 1670 John Marchant Senior was promoted to rank of Lieutenant, so it would seem likely his father has died before this time for him to be referred to as senior. 

In 1676 John Marchant of Yarmouth was taxed 2 pounds 11 shillings towards expenses from King Philip’s War. 

Despite having such a strong, long-term connection to the town of Yarmouth, John removed to Edgartown on the island of Martha’s Vineyard where he was granted 10 acres of land in 1682. The land was “on the right hand of Sanchacantucket cart path, near the cart path that goes to Mortall’s Neck.” [Edgartown Records I:31] Sometimes colonists were granted land but never settled on them, but Banks believes John did remove to Edgartown or he would have forfeited the land for non-residence. There were later Marchant descendants on the island and some of John’s children lived there.

Banks wrote John died before 1693 at Edgartown, but here is no solid reason given for this date. 

Sources Not Mentioned Above:

Charles Swift, History of Old Yarmouth Comprising the Present Towns of Yarmouth and Dennis, 1884

Torrey’s New England Marriages to 1700

Charles Edward Banks, History of Martha's Vineyard, Vol II and  Vol III, 1966