Thomas Tupper was born Bury, Sussex
Co., England 28 (or 27) January 1578, the son of Henry Tupper. According to the
Tupper Family Association, he grew up on a farm at Bignor (near Bury), West Sussex
County in Southern England at the foothills of the South Downs and
that Tupper descendants
still live on this beautiful land. Thomas
is my 10th great-grandfather on my grandfather Arthur Washburn
Davis’ side of the family.
Thomas Tupper was one of the “Ten
Men From Saugus” who founded the town of Sandwich. I have read that Thomas was
the only exception of the “Ten” who do not come off well as participants in
early town government. In the case of the marshlands’ allocation, they show
themselves as distinctly indifferent to the interests of their fellow townsmen.
The ten founders declared themselves owners of all the marsh along the shores
near their farms, forcing others to go much further away for salt hay. Not very
welcoming or neighborly!
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| Plaque at Sandwich Town Hall |
Thomas received a bequest from
wealthy man named Dennis Geere who contract smallpox aboard the Abigail in 1635. Tupper was probably on
that ship as well.
Thomas was a shoemaker by trade. Apparently
he was also on crews of several boats from England to US, where he eventually
decided to stay.
He is listed as a long-term Sandwich
settler of the original 62 that came 1637-1640 and was the oldest man among
those first settlers.
He was married three times:
First to Katherine Gator in 29
April 1622, Parish of Chelmsford, Essex County, England. He had children
Katherine and Robert (who died in infancy) with her. She died before January
1628 when Thomas remarried.
Second, he married Susan Turner,
a widow, on 25 January 1628/29, in Topsfield, Mass. and had Thomas (who died in
infancy) and Robert, who married Deborah Perry and returned to England. She
died in Topsfield in 1634, but I don’t have a source for that.
He married third widow Anne
Hodgson on 21 December 1634. With Anne he had a son Thomas who grew up to marry
Martha Mayhew and have a large family in Sandwich.
I descend from Katherine who
married Benjamin Nye of Sandwich.
At age 65, Thomas was likely the
oldest man in Sandwich listed as able to bear arms in 1643. He was allowed to
solemnize marriages in Sandwich as a reputable senior and did lay preaching in
town. He served the town in many ways. He was town clerk and deputy to the
court. In 1644 the town meeting warned
the selectmen to repair the meetinghouse and several people agreed to pay Thomas
Tupper in corn "for as many bolts as would shingle the old meeting
house." In 1645 Thomas Tupper was on committee appointed by court to
investigate Kenelm Winslow's charge of injustice in his suit against John
Maynard, but committee found charge untrue. In 1650 he was one of the men that
improved the parsonage for Rev. Leverich. Part of committee of five men ordered
at 21 November 1651 town meeting to make a levy of six pounds for the payment
of the Clerk and the committees. Town Meeting 22 May 1652 committee of four men
named, including Goodman Burgess Sr. and Goodman Tupper shall have power to
call a town meeting. Served on committee of five men approved at the 13 May
1654 town meeting to buy Indian lands, the area of Manomet. The first selectmen
found in Sandwich records were in 1667, and included Thomas Tupper Sr. In June
1676 a special committee of four was named, including Thomas Tupper, to take an
account of the town's debts as a result of The Indian War.
The only black mark against him
in records is when he was accused of “light and lascivious carriage” toward the
adultress Anne Lynceford but was only admonished.
In October 1658 brought a new
land regulation resulted in some of Thomas Tupper's land being taken for a dock
and access road for the town (currently Harbor Street).
A map depicting 1667 settlers'
home locations in Sandwich Village and Spring Hill shows Thomas lived on what
became Dock Lane off Main Street on the right hand side near Tupper Road and
Town Neck. The Jarves Street to Ox Pasture
Neck area. His neighbors were Richard Bourne, James Skiffe, William Bassett and
Nathaniel Fish. All but Fish are my direct descendants, showing how cozy
neighbors were!
The Tupper House on the Back
Street (later Tupper Road) seems to have been first occupied by John and
Katherine Briggs (they are also my direct descendants) and their two children.
Could well date from 1637 and was then taken over by Thomas Jr., the only son
of Thomas Senior. It was tragically burned
by an arsonist in 1921, just a year after the Tupper Family Association
restored the house. A boulder marks the spot on Tupper Road, which is now a
Memorial Park. The Tupper Family Association owned the house and after it was
destroyed developed a Memorial Park where there is a stone marker in Thomas and
Anne’s name.
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| Thomas Tupper's house in Sandwich source: Tupper Family Association |
The first reference to Mashpee
lands occurs in Plymouth Colony Records in 1654: The freemen of Sandwich viz
Mr. John Vincent, Thomas Burgess, Thomas Tupper, Richard Bourne and James
Skiffe desired some several parcels of land at the places following: viz some
land by Marshpee Pond and 10 acres of meadow; some land by Santuit Pond to the
value of one hundred acres; a neck of land by Cotuit River to keep cattle;
certain meadow lying upon and about a place called Mannamuch Bay.
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| Monument at site of Tupper's house in Sandwich |
A Thomas Tupper was involved in
mission work with Native Americans in the Herring Pond area. Although it seems
likely this is his son of the same name, Thomas may have been involved earlier.
Thomas Jr. was not ordained, but mastered the Indian language and was able to
preach.
Thomas Tupper died Sandwich 28 March 1676, in his 98th
year, a remarkably long life for that era. His death is recorded in Sandwich Vital
Records: Thomas Tupper Senir: Deceased the 28th of March Anno Dom one Thousand
six hundred seaventy and six; hee Died in the 98th yeer of his age, and 2cond
month.
Anne Tupper’s death is recorded
directly after her husband’s in Sandwich Vital Records: Anne Tupper, deceased
the 4th of June 1676 in the 90th year of her age.
You can learn more about the
Tupper Family Association at www.tupperfamily.org.
Sources:
Eugene
Stratton, Plymouth Colony, Its History
and People 1620-1691, 1986
Barbara
Gill, CCGS Bulletin, Spring 2005, article on The Ten Men From Saugus
Simeon
L. Deyo, editor, History of Barnstable
County, Massachusetts," 1890
RA
Lovell, Sandwich, A Cape Cod Town, by
RA Lovell, Jr., 1996
Thomas
1 Tupper and His Descendants, As Communicated by the
Tupper Family Association, NEHGR, vol, 99, 1945
