John Benson 1608-1679 of Caversham, England and Hull, Massachusetts, and His Wife Mary Williams

John Benson was born in 1608, possibly at Caversham, Oxfordshire, England, situated on the north side of the Thames River.  His parents are not known. He may have been from the parish of Shiplake, Oxfordshire, about three miles from Caversham, and was probably a grandson of Thomas Benson who died there in 1614. Shiplake registers do not survive from this period. [Benson]

On 14 October 1633 John Benson married Mary Williams at Caversham. [Caversham Parish Registers] I believe their wedding would have taken place at St. Peter’s. Mary was baptized at Caversham on 12 October 1606. She was the daughter of Robert and Agnes (Atkins) Williams. Her name is also seen as Marah. John and Mary are my 10th great-grandparents on my grandfather Arthur Washburn Ellis Davis’ side of the family.

St. Peter's Caversham (the original tower was destroyed in 1643

The name of John Benson’s wife is often given as Elizabeth Marsh, daughter of John Marsh and granddaughter of Rev. Samuel Skelton, first Minister of Salem, but Robert Charles Anderson in The Great Migration Begins states that is unsubstantiated. 

John “Binson” gave his age as 30 when he emigrated in 1638 to Boston, on the ship Confidence, with his wife Mary (no age given), son John and daughter Mary both under age 4. The ship sailed from Southampton the last of April 1638. [Banks]

Caversham at the time was densely populated, making it difficult for many to earn a living.  The times in England were uncertain given the persecution of those who practiced religion according to their own beliefs. [Croft]

Records are scarce in early Hingham and the first Town Book of Hull disappeared some time ago. Fortunately he left a will which names his sons and his daughters’ married but not first names.

John and Mary Benson’s children: [details from Richard H. Benson]: 

1. John born probably Caversham about 1634; married and had 11 children; lived at Hull and Rochester

2. Mary baptized Caversham 1 May 1637 [transcript of Caversham Parish Registers at the Oxfordshire Record Office]; probably married Robert Coomes 

3. Joseph born Hingham about 1640; married Sarah (—?—); they lived in Hull; served in King Philip’s War

4. Martha baptized Hingham 3 November 1644; probably married (—?—) Hall 

5. A daughter, possibly Abigail, born Hingham; probably married Sampson Shore; predeceased her father 

I descend from John whose wife’s name is unknown. I wrote about him here.

The family first settled in Hingham where he had his first grant of land by the bay in 1638. [NEHGR 12:251] John had a three-acre house lot at what is now the intersection of Main Street and South Pleasant Street. At that time Hingham townspeople, which numbered about 60 families, transported timber, planks, and masts to Boston, and cedar and pine boards as far as Barbados. [Benson]

It is likely John was a fisherman as well as a farmer since the initial lots at Hull were granted to people who agreed to engage in fishing. Hull was a distance from Boston by land but just nine miles by sea. Space for drying fish was set up on Great Brewster Island in Boston Harbor where he also owned land. He was also a proprietor of the gristmill at Hull in 1667. [Benson]

Great Brewster Island [source FBHI.org]

By 1657 Hull consisted of just 20 families. In 1841 it was still the least populous town in the state and after Newburyport the smallest in size. [Benson] Hull was initially part of Plymouth Colony but shifted to Mass Bay Colony in 1630. So its early records are ofter included in Suffolk County, but in 1803 it was annexed to Plymouth County.

In 1645 John Benson petitioned the General Court for permission to plant and build at White Head Hill, in the town of Hull, and was at first refused because of differences between the towns of Hingham and Hull. By 1652 however the family moved to Hull, where John was an early proprietor. [Smith] Rev. Hobart controversially ran the Hingham church without input from his congregants, which likely led to John’s leaving town.

John's lands were among the first recorded in the Hull Long Book p 11. He owned four home lots on Broad Bay, one and a half lots and two lots of meadow at Strait River, two lots on Allerton Hill, four acres on Peddock's Island (in Boston Harbor), a meadow on Spring Cove, two lots on Strawberry Hill, two on Sucamore (Sagamore) Hill, two on White Head, and one lot on Hogge Island. He also owned two adjoining 2 acre lots at Town Hill, and in 1676 he received lots no. 3 and 28 on Great Brewster Island, as recorded by Zechariah Whitman, town clerk. [Smith]

Peddock's Island (source: Wikipedia)

The earliest records of Hull in 1657 show John owning significant land there including four home lots on Broad Bay, 1.5 lots and 2 lots of meadow on Strait River, two lots on Allerton Hill [Point Allerton is at the entrance to Boston Harbor], 4 acres on Peddock’s Island, a meadow on Spring Cove, two lots on Strawberry Hill, two on Sagamore Hill, two on White Head, one on Hogg Island [now Spinnaker Island], two two-acre lots of Town Hill next to Thomas Jones. In 1676 he received two lots at Great Brewster Island. 

John served his community in a variety of ways. In 1662 John was a Selectman in Hull. On 22 March 1671/2 the townsmen of Hull agreed to divide the wood and timber and John Benson Sr was on a committee to make the division by valuation of wood. [Smith] In July 1673 John Benson of Hull was named to a Boston jury but was fined 10 shillings for not appearing. In October 1673 it was noted that he did appear at court so his fine was reduced to 5 shillings. John and his sons John and Joseph of Hull took the oath of allegiance to the King on 29 Oct 1678. [Benson]

John Benson died at Hull on 13 Jan 1678/9; the date is given in his inventory. He was about age 71.

John Benson wrote his will on 16 April 1678; it was proved 1 March 1679 [Suffolk Co. Probate File 1071] John Benson was “weake and decaying in bodily strength,” named his wife Marah executrix, and left her lifetime use of all his real and personal estate. Other bequests:

• Sons John and Joseph all his "lands and commons and orchard and barns also" with Joseph to have the home lot with the dwelling house on it and John to have the other lot. 
• "My house plott I have verbally given already to son [in law] Hall: he is not to sell it without first offering it to my son Joseph." 
• His meadows were to be divided equally and after death of his widow
• John was to have a double portion of all moveables and Joseph a single portion after their mother’s death.
• His two sons were to pay legacies equally to "my daughters or their children," 5 pounds to daughter Combs, 5 pounds to daughter Hall, and 5 pounds to the children of daughter Shore, deceased

He signed with is mark, perhaps because he was ill rather than an indication he was illiterate. Witnessed by pastor Zachariah Whitman and Abraham Jones. 

On 25 March 1679 Joseph Benson presented the inventory of the estate of his father, John Benson, who died 13 January 1678[/9]. He affirmed that his “mother was lame and unable to come abroad.” It totaled £295, 10 s, 6d. 

Administration was transferred to sons John and Joseph on 29 December 1681, as their mother, Marah Benson, died 14 December 1681. (Suffolk Co Probate 6:265)

An inventory of Marah’s movables was taken 3 Jan 1682, and presented to Court 12 Jan 1682 by Joseph Benson. It included 1/2 dozen napkins with broad work, 1/2 dozen napkins with narrow work, a silk grass bed, 7 pewter platters, a looking glass, 4 pewter porringers, 5 spoons, gun, sword, four cows, half a steer, heifer, calf, ten sheep, one horse, one yoke of oxen, 25 bushels Indian corn, 25 bushels barley. It totaled 64 pounds. [Suffolk Co Probate 9:70]

Imagine what a shock it would be it would be for John to discover what all that island and waterfront property would be worth today!

Spinnaker (previously Hog) Island

Sources:

Richard H. Benson, The Benson Family of Colonial Massachusetts, Newbury Street Press, 2003

William Richard Cutter (editor), New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial, 1914

Charles Edward Banks, The Planters of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1620-1640, Boston, 1930, Reprint c. 2006

Ethel Farrington Smith, NEHGS Register, “17th Century Hull, Massachusetts and Her People,” 142:117 (July 1988)

Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins, 1995

Grace Hildy Croft, The Benson family; descendants of Isaac Benson and Mary Bumpas, and allied families: Archer, Bumpas, Howard, Knapp, Lewis, Luce, Meech, Milks, Potter, Reynolds, Waite, Whipple, Williams, et al, 1973