Thomas Tarte born ca 1592 of England, Scituate Massachusetts, and the Barbados

Thomas Tarte / Tart was born England say about 1592, perhaps at Tenterden, Kent. He migrated to Plymouth Colony before 1641 when he is named to a jury, a duty that would not be given to someone brand new to the area. He may have also lived briefly at Boston. I have found minimal information on Thomas, so this profile is evolving. He is my 12th great-grandfather on my grandmother Milly (Booth) Rollins’ side of the family.

I haven’t found anything definitive on whether Thomas had one wife or two but I feel this is plausible:

Thomas married, likely in Kent, England, by about 1617, a woman whose name is unknown. They had at least one child:

1. Elizabeth who was born, possibly Tenterden, Kent, about 1618. She married Thomas Williams 30 Nov 1638.

That Elizabeth is Thomas Tarte’s daughter is shown in a 3 May 1641 court order: To enquire of Willm Brackenberry of Charles Town or elsewhere, for any goods that are sent out of England for Mr. Thomas Tart of Scituate, and that Thom Williams may have them for the payment of his wife’s portion, because he gave an aquittance for yt upon promise that the said Mr Tart would pcure her portion to be paid; the sum is xxiiij or there abouts. [PCR 2:14-15] I descend from Elizabeth whom I wrote about here.

Thomas married, second, by about 1640 a woman named Elizabeth. They are named as the parents of:

2. Jonathan born about 1641

3. Eunice born about 1641

Both of these children were baptized at the First Church Boston, 11 April 1641. Thomas and Elizabeth are noted as members of Church of Scituate in the record. [Boston Town and Church Records, 1641, p. 11] I haven’t found anything further on Eunice and Jonathan in records.

There was an Edward Tart/Tarte, a servant  who came to Plymouth Colony with Nathaniel Tilden, his family and six other servants on the Hercules in 1635. He was on the 1643 Scituate list of men able to bear arms. There are theories that Edward was Thomas’ son and that they originated from Tenterden, where Tilden was from, and that Thomas was on the Hercules as well. It does seem likely they are related as Tart is not a very common surname and Scituate was a small town.

Savage gives Thomas just one wife, Elizabeth, but it seems unlikely she would be the mother of children some 22 years apart. 

Thomas Tart is on the 1643 list of Plymouth Colony men, in the Scituate section, who had taken the oath of fidelity; he is not on the next list of 1644. [PCR 8:183] On 1 June 1641 Thomas Tart was sworn to a jury at Plymouth court [PCR 7:20]

In 1627 the Undertakers or Merchant Adventurers Richard Andrews, John Beauchamp, James Sherley, and Timothy Hatherly were promised the whole tract of land called Conihasset (westerly Scituate). In a 1647 deed Hatherly noted he had control of Andrew’s and Beauchamp’s shares and divided his three-quarters of the tract into 30 shares. He kept three for himself and sold the remaining ones for £108 each. Thomas Tart was one of the 27 men to purchase a share. [Stratton p. 172; PCR 159/recorded 6 February 1648]

In attempting to find where Thomas’ homestead was located in Scituate, I found a few notes of interest:

12 May 1645 deed of Scituate land, John Whetherden to Thomas Rawlins mentions land of Christofer Winter purchased of Thomas Tart purchased of Anthony Annable. [PCR 12:174] On its website, the Scituate Historical Society mentions this land being on the north side of Second Cliff. 

Location of Thomas' homestead; from ScituateHistoricalSociety.org

A 1655 deed of Scituate land from Timothy Hatherley to Thomas Ensign mentions bounding “land that was the land of Mr Thomas Tart to the south to a great Creeke.” [MD 9:165]

Among the persons to whom small lots of land at Scituate were due by order of a 5 April 1683 town council decision was “Rodulphus Elmes as successor to Mr. Tarte, 10 acres.” [SciTR 1:397] In April 1692, as successor to Thomas Tart, Rodulphus Elmes received ten acres of land and, as successor to William Holmes, Rodulphus Elmes received land near the new sawmill. [SciTR 1:401]  In Court of Common Pleas June 1726, Nathaniel Tilden and John Tilden of Scituate vs. John Elmes of Scituate, trespass ejectment of land in Scituate. Plaintiff claimed land as successor to Thomas Tart’s grant as shown in town records. Defendant pleaded that he holds the land “under his father Mr. Jonathan Elmes.” [MD 51:16] 

He is referred to as a planter, a merchant and shopkeeper. He is also mentioned with the honorific “Mr.”  

Mr. Tarte of Scituate was presented and fined at the June 1640 Plymouth court for selling wine, contrary to order.. [PCR 1:156] He was again presented and fined for drawing wine at the September 1640 court. [PCR 1:162] Mr. Tart of Scituate acknowledged he owed the court £10 in June 1649. [PCR 2:141] Perhaps Thomas ran a tavern.

On 12 May 1645 Thomas Tart witnessed a date from John Whetherden, miller of Scituate, and Thomas Rawlins of Scituate. The land was formerly the free simple of Christofer Winter purchased of Thomas Tart, purchased of Anthony Annable. It s 20 acres or more on the north side of the Second Cliff. [PCR 12:189]

On 20 Nov 1647 Thomas Tart witnessed the acknowledgment of Christopher and Elizabeth Lawson, she his wife and the daughter of John James, that they had received £10 from the estate of Thomas James of Gloucester. 

When he sold his Scituate land to Timothy Hatherly in 1646, Thomas is called of Barbados. There doesn’t seem to be any further mention of Thomas in Massachusetts records, so perhaps he lived out his days at Barbados. [Savage, Torrey, Smith]

On 20 July 1649 “Samuel Howse of Scituat shipwright” made a letter of attorney to “Tho[mas] Tarte of the same merchant…to ask &c. of the executor &c. of the last will & testament of Thomas House late of Lond[on] watchmaker, all such legacies as due unto the children of the said appearer by virtue of the said last will.” [Anderson] It seems like he was already in Barbados by 1649, so interesting this document calls him of Scituate. Perhaps he was not in Barbados full-time.

I haven’t found any records of Thomas at Barbados. There was a John Tart of St. Philip Parish, Barbados, who had sons John and Robert baptized in 1665 and 1668 respectively. [“English Settlers in Barbados 1637-1800,” on Ancestry] Could this be Thomas’ son Jonathan or another son? More questions than answers when it comes to researching Thomas Tarte. 

Sources:

Henry Pope, Pioneers of Massachusetts

Eugene Stratton, Plymouth Colony Its History and People, 1986

Samuel Deane, History of Scituate, Massachusetts, 1831

Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins, 1995

James Savage, Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England, 4:257-8 (1862)

Tenney Smith, Charles Smith and Rachel Amy Bryant, Their Ancestors and Descendants (Brattleboro, Vt.: Vermont Printing, 1938)

Harvey H. Pratt, Early Planters of Scituate, 1929