Elisha Bourne 1641-1706 and Patience Skiffe 1652-1715, Sandwich, Mass.

Elisha Bourne was born at Sandwich, Mass. in 1647 (based on age at death), the son of Richard Bourne and his wife Bathsheba. I wrote about Richard here. I believe Elisha is my 9^th great-grandfather, but I don’t have my line of descent through my grandfather Arthur Washburn Davis completely proven yet.

On 26 October 1675 Elisha married Patience Skiffe at Sandwich. Patience was born 25 March 1652 or 1653 (recorded under both dates in the Sandwich VR) at Sandwich, the daughter of James and Mary Skiffe.

Elisha and Patience had seven children recorded in the Sandwich Vital Records:

Nathan b. 31 August 1676

Elizabeth b. 26 June 1679

Mary born 4 February 1681/82

Abigail b. 22 July 1684

Bersheba/Bathsheba b. 12 December 1686

Hannah b. 4 May 1689

Elisha b. 27 July 1692

I descend from Hannah who married Seth Pope.

Elisha was the second eldest son of Richard Bourne and he received his father’s properties in the Herring River and Manomet area. He lived in Manomet near the 1888 location of the Monument Beach Depot on the Cape Cod railroad. The area of Sandwich Elisha lived in later became the town of Bourne. 

the old Monument Beach RR Depot

Elisha was active in the town of Sandwich, serving as a Selectman, Constable and Deputy to the General Court. The town's third grist mill was allowed to Elisha Bourne on Herring River in 1695. There are frequent references after this date about requiring the mill to close each spring for six weeks to allow the herring to get up to Herring Pond to spawn.

Herring Pond in Bourne

Elisha died at Sandwich on 21 December 1706. He is buried at the Old Town Burying Ground, Sandwich.

ELISHA BOURNE

AGED 59 YEARS

DIED DECEM'R

21 1706

Elisha's gravestone

Elisha’s will is dated 9 June 1686, proved 3 March1706/7. He names his wife Patience, his sons John (this should probably be Nathan) and Elisha (the latter it appears was not in good health) and his five daughters: Abigail, Hannah, Elizabeth, Mary and Bathsheba. The estate was finally settled by agreement, dated 8 April 1718, by which time Mrs. Bourne and her son Elisha had died. The agreement is signed by Nathan "only son" and all the daughters and their husbands.

Patience died at Sandwich 25 October 1715. She's also buried at Old Town Cemetery, Sandwich.

Patience Skiffe Bourne's gravestone source: Findagrave.com

Sources Not Listed Above:

RA Lovell Jr., Sandwich, A Cape Cod Town, 1984

Amos Otis, Genealogical Notes of Barnstable Families, being a reprint of the Amos Otis Papers, originally published in the Barnstable Patriot, revised by CF Swift, Volume 1 and 2, 1888

Simeon L. Deyo, editor, History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1890