William Nickerson (1701-1763) and His Wife Sarah Covell of Chatham, Massachusetts

William Nickerson was born Chatham 15 May 1701 to William Nickerson and Deliverance Lombard. His great-grandfather William 1 Nickerson was the founder of Chatham. [Birth date from genealogy by Nickerson Family Association hereafter NFA; I have not found his birth record or other source for this date.]  I wrote about William and Deliverance Nickerson here.

About 1723 (first child born 1724) William married Sarah Covell at Chatham, the daughter of Joseph and Hannah (Bassett) Covell. [Smith] I have not found Sarah’s birth record but I believe she was born say 1705 as her parent’s married in March 1703/04 and she married about 1723. The Covell and Nickerson families were quite intertwined—Sarah’s grandfather Nathaniel Covell was married to Sarah Nickerson the daughter of William 1 Nickerson. William and Sarah are my 8th great-grandparents on my grandmother Milly (Booth) Rollins’ side of the family.

The births of 11 children of William and Sarah Nickerson were recorded Chatham [Chatham Vital Records in MD 9:182 & 221; all births recorded by Town Clerk James Covel on 19 March 1749] :

1. Absalom born 12 Nov 1724; married Sarah —?—; was a master mariner
2. Stephen born 11 Oct 1726; married Dorcas Nickerson, 2nd Martha Hallett; removed to Nova Scotia
3. Deliverance born 11 Jun 1728; married Ebenezer Eldredge; removed to Harwich
4. James born 24 April 1730; married Mehitable Covell and removed to Connecticut
5. Mercy born 07 May 1732; married 1st Heman Kenney and 2nd Joshua Atwood
6. Elizabeth born 15 May 1735; married Archelous Smith; removed to Nova Scotia
7. William born 24 Feb 1736; married 1st Martha Ellis and 2nd Roxanne Hopkins; removed to Maine
8. Lumbert born 14 April 1739; married Eunice Ryder; died Chatham in 1804
9. Susannah born 1 June 1741; married Isaac Howes
10. Joshua born 7 August 1743; married Deborah Ryder; removed to Harwich
11. Gideon born 14 March 1745; married Sarah Bearse; removed to Nova Scotia 

I descend from Deliverance; I wrote about her and husband here.

William was considered a religious fanatic. He joined the Separate or New-Light Church in Harwich where he and Richard Chase (also my ancestor) served as the first deacons. This religion broke from the established Congregational Church, eventually becoming the Baptist Church. They believed true preachers did not need formal education and that the mode of baptismal rite was a matter of personal choice. They objected to the ministerial tax and submitted fruitless petitions to be exempt. Some highly respectable men were jailed for refusing to pay the tax. [NFA]

As he was referred to as “yeoman” in records and his inventory included livestock and farming tools, it seems William was primarily a farmer. He was literate as his inventory included books and he did woodwork as it also included carpentry tools.

William was known as William "Red Stockings,” although it is not known why. Perhaps he simply had a penchant for red socks and it helped differentiate himself from other men of the same name. In Chatham records, 18 April 1739 Widow Mary Bassit obliged herself “to you William Nickerson red stocking of said town if I can’t find or make more by any means by your wife or find it my self I do forfit two coverleds of like sort.”  Witnessed by Nathan Bassit and Nathaniel Bassit. This may be Sarah’s grandmother. [NFA]

He is mentioned in his father William Nickerson of Chatham’s 13 September 1739 will but not in his codicil dated 19 Oct 1742. At first glance, his inclusion in the will but not in the codicil seems to indicate he had died between those two dates but that was not the case. He is also the only son not to receive land, but in William the younger’s probate records it states his homestead was at Monomessett Neck, now Nickerson’s Neck, which was where his father lived. Seems likely that William the elder deeded that land to him. 

Map indicating Monomessett Neck (source: Nickerson Family Association)

William was age 61 when he died in February 1763 when he "drowned in a creek out of a canoe last week and is not found yet." [NFA] I found it rather chilling that his inventory included a canoe; perhaps it was recovered after his drowning. Fred Crowell in New Englanders in Nova Scotia wrote William was drowned off Nauset Beach, which is in Eastham and it seems strange he’d go that far in a canoe.

Nauset Beach in distance

William died intestate. His estate was proved 3 May 1763 when Sarah Nickerson, widow, was appointed administratrix of the estate of her late husband William Nickerson, yeoman of Chatham.  [Barnstable Probate Records 10:123] 

His inventory was taken 2 June 1763 and included books, a looking glass, guns, a sword, spinning wheels and yarn, carpenter’s tools, a mare, oxen, heifers, 11 sheep, 10 lambs, 4 swine, tobacco, farming tools including a plough, and a canoe.  Real estate was a land an meadow valued at over £53 and land and all buildings at Monomessett Neck valued at more than £466, a very high value for land at that time. The inventory totaled £612 9 shillings 8 pence. Sarah swore to the inventory on 7 June 1763. [BCPR 12:352-3]

 

It seems William was land rich but cash poor as he died insolvent, leaving Sarah quite a mess to clean up. A 19 June 1764 court document lists the creditors to William Nickerson’s estate and declares the estate insolvent. The total amount due creditors, including court officials, was £169 7 shillings 3 pence. [BCPR 13:49-50]

Sarah Nickerson’s accounting of the estate was presented 5 September 1764. Some of William’s personal estate had been sold for a sum of more than £10. She had paid for threshing of corn and measuring corn and rye and for pork to be salted. Expenses totaled £76 8 shillings 4 pence. She signed with her mark. When charges of administration and debts due to the crown were subtracted there was £43 plus change remaining. The court ordered that the creditors would therefore be paid no more than 5 shillings and 2 pence on the pound for their respective debts. [BCPR 13:49-50]

A partition and division of William’s real estate occurred 1 April 1772. Sarah was to receive one-third part. Parcels mentioned: a small wood lot in Harwich near Great Long Pond purchased of the Quasons [Native Americans]; Monomesset Neck with buildings thereon at the Bay [Pleasant Bay] and Salt Pond. It mentions “the owners or occupiers of the other two thirds” without naming them.  [BCPR 12:526-7]

On 11 August 1772 Sarah Nickerson presented a further accounting of the estate. She had sold, per order of the Superior Court, woodland and meadows for £16 16 shillings. The accounting included costs of selling the land and further administering of the estate and notes she had been paying creditors. [BCPR 12:526-7]

Sarah died before 22 November 1790, probably at Chatham, when she is noted in Chatham records as deceased. [NFA]

Sources:

Nickerson Family Association. The Descendants of William Nickerson 1604-1689, First Settler of Chatham, Mass., vol 1, 1973

William C. Smith, A History of Chatham Massachusetts, 1909

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

John D. Austin, Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Stephen Hopkins, GSMD, 6:132 (2001)

William C. Smith, Library of Cape Cod History and Genealogy,  "Early Chatham Settlers,” Pamphlet No. 36, 1915