John Hall about 1638 to 1710, Charlestown and Yarmouth/Dennis, Massachusetts

John Hall was baptized 13 May 1638 at Charlestown, a Boston, Massachusetts neighborhood (ChChR 47], one of the ten children (all boys!) of John Hall and his wife Bethiah whose maiden name is unknown [Thacher Reid writes her name as Farmer but without a source]. I wrote about that couple here. He is my 10th great-grandfather on my grandmother Milly (Booth) Rollins’ side of the family. 

The Hall family moved to Cape Cod, first to Barnstable in 1643 and then to Yarmouth before 1653. The Yarmouth area they settled later became Dennis. The location of their large lot of land today is between Nobscusset Road and Elm Street in the village of Dennis. 

About 1661 John married Priscilla, whose maiden name is not known with certainty. Most of my sources for this couple are older and not cited and give Priscilla as the daughter of Austin/Augustine Bearse of Barnstable. The more current work of Robert Charles Anderson finds no strong evidence of this. Torrey’s New England Marriages, Vernon R. Nickerson’s manuscript From Pilgrims and Indians… and Amos Otis’ Genealogy Notes on Barnstable Families, are just three that identify her as a Bearse. Some circumstantial evidence she is Priscilla Bearse is that she is the right age and her children share names with many of her siblings. 

John and Priscilla had nine, possibly more, children born at Yarmouth (now Dennis):

1. John born about 1661; died by 1666 when another child John was born

2. Joseph b. 29 Sept 1663, m. 1st Hannah Miller, 2nd Mary (Faunce) Morton

3. John b. 1666, m. Margaret Miller (buried Ancient Cemetery, Yarmouth, age at death gives 1666 birth year)

4. Bethiah (a daughter was born middle of November 1668 but her name is unreadable; possibly birth of Bethiah who married Zachariah Paddock died in 1707 age 41, so born about 1666 and not an exact match)

5. Priscilla born Feb 1671; m. John Paddock 

6. Hester/Esther born last week of April 1672; m. John Ryder

7. Mary born 1 March 1673/74

8. Martha born 24 May 1676; m. Robert Paddock

9. Nathaniel born 15 Sept 1678, m. Jane Moore

There is wear to the pages of the births of John Hall Jr.’s children in the Yarmouth Vital Records, 1:2-3. Births of children Joseph, Presilla, Hestar, Mary, Martha, and Nathaniel are legible. One of the sons named John is recorded, but the date is unreadable. A daughter was born in November 1668, but her name is illegible, perhaps this is Bethiah. 

I have more research to do on the children. Some researchers also give them a daughter Experience who married Ebenezer Ryder. The Hall sketch in the Cape Cod Library pamphlet gives a daughter Barshua, born April 1686 and married Joseph Crowell.  

I descend from Esther; I wrote about her here.

John was a Deacon of the Yarmouth Church where he was member as early as 1671.  He lived in the Yarmouth neighborhood of Hocanom which became Dennis when the latter was formed in 1793. 

In 1676 John Hall Jr. was taxed three pounds 6 pence towards King Philip’s War. 

John Hall died at Yarmouth (now Dennis) on 24 Oct 1710. He is buried at Hall Cemetery: Here Lies ye body of Decon [sic] John Hall aged 73 years departed this life October ye 24, 1710. The small family cemetery is located on the land of the original Hall homestead. 

John Hall's Gravestone in Dennis

Priscilla Hall died 30 March 1712, age 68 years, and is buried next to her husband: Here Lyes ye Body of Presiller Hall wife to Decon [sic] John Hall, Aged 68 years Died March ye 30 1712.

Priscilla Hall's Gravestone

John Hall of Yarmouth wrote his will 31 May 1709. He names his wife Priscilla Executrix. He leaves land to his son John and mentions that he had already given land to his sons Joseph and Nathaniel. Any of his moveables that his wife does not dispose of in her lifetime will go to his daughters, who he does not name, after Priscilla’s death. He signs his will.  His will was proved 4 January 1710/11, which seems late.

Deacon John Hall’s inventory was taken 16 November 1710, did not include real estate, and totaled over 179 pounds. It includes farm animals and tools, household furnishings, a spinning wheel, yarn, linen, Holland pewter, hour glasses, Indian and English corn, and an Indian servant whose value was not known. 

Sources:

Otis, Amos, 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, Barnstable, MA, The Patriot Press, 1888

Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins, 1995

Library of Cape Cod History and Genealogy, “The Hall Family of Yarmouth,” no. 67, CW Swift Publisher, 1913

Torrey’s New England Marriages to 1700

William Richard Cutter, Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Boston and Eastern Massachusetts, volume 4, 1908

Nancy Thacher Reid, History of Dennis, Massachusetts From Firstcomers to Newcomers 1639-1993, 1996

John Hall’s probate, Ancestry  database “Massachusetts Wills and Probate Records 1635-1991,” citing Barnstable County Probate and Guardianship Records Vol 1-2, 1674-1742