William Irish born 4 May 1714 of Little Compton, RI and Rochester/Mattapoisett, MA, and His Wife Dinah Dexter

William Irish was born 4 May 1714 at Little Compton, Newport County, Rhode Island, the son of David and Martha (Nelson) Irish. [Newport County VR 4:6-131] Little Compton was originally called Sakonnet and was part of Plymouth Colony, it was then incorporated into Massachusetts Bay Colony, and finally the the colony of Rhode Island in 1747. William is my 7th great-grandfather on my grandfather Arthur Washburn Ellis Davis’ side of the family.

William’s father David, a wealthy man in Little Compton, in 1721 purchased 500 acres of land at Rochester, Plymouth County, Massachusetts. [Plymouth County Deeds 17:46] I’m not sure if it was at this point or later that the Irish family relocated to Rochester, but they kept their Little Compton land where the parents eventually returned.

William Irish (int. Iresh) and Dinah Dexter married 16 Nov 1742 at Rochester, Plymouth County, Massachusetts. (Rochester VR 2:188) Dinah was born 14 October 1711 at Rochester, the daughter of John and Sarah (Clark) Dexter. [Rochester VR 1:109]

I suspected William was a Quaker as his family lived across the road from the Quaker meeting house in Little Compton and the administrator of his estate was of that faith. This was confirmed by a Sandwich Monthly Meeting record of May 1743 when David Irish was questioned about his son William’s marriage to Dinah Dexter. [Sandwich Monthly Meeting/40:157] Perhaps Dinah was not a Quaker or was not in good standing. For some time Rochester was included in the Sandwich Monthly Meeting and at other times Dartmouth. [Hagglund]

Dinah and William had four daughters born Rochester [Rochester VR 1:188]:

1. Content Irish born 10 Nov 1743

2. Elisabeth 3 Aug 1745; married Jonathan Nye at Rochester July 1762

3. Ruth born 30 Nov 1748

4. Priscilla 22 June 1751

I find it endearing that William named all of his daughters after his sisters. I descend from Elizabeth. I have not yet found marriages or death dates for the other three daughters. 

William and Dinah lived in the area known as Pine Islands, Rochester, in an area that became Mattapoisett. 

Current day photo of Pine Islands area

In May 1745 William Irish was elected Rochester constable but refused to serve. This may be because as a Quaker he would have had an issue with collecting taxes to pay the ministerial tax for the established church and seize possessions for non-payment. However most of the time Rochester Quakers were exempt from paying the ministerial tax. His refusal may have also stemmed from the financial difficulties of the town, a time when collecting taxes was extremely difficult and from 1735-1745 it was common for Rochester men to refuse the office of constable. Election of Quakers to the office of constable was rare—only six were chosen for that office between 1710-1735. Those that refused to serve were sometimes fined. [Hagglund] One historian suggests that Rochester deliberately harassed its Quaker residents by choosing them to be constable in order to raise revenue when they refused to serve and paid a fine. [Bumsted]

In Willam’s father David Irish’s 15 January 1746 will, which was proved 5 April 1748, he bequeathed to son William rights in Pine Islands, lying south of my farm in Rochester, Massachusetts, housing &c., and 200 acres uplands, and he not to sell same until forty years of age. To him also a gun, all husbandry tools at Rochester and carpenter’s tools, he providing a fat dressed hog of one hundred pounds or more yearly for his mother. [Austin] Perhaps William worked as a carpenter, following in his father's footsteps. Perhaps he used these tools to make the thousands of shingles that are listed in his estate inventory. From the inventory, it’s clear he also was a farmer and his family made cloth. 

Martha Irish, in her 20 June 1759 will, proved 1 April 1760, left to son William of Rochester, “all my household stuff left at his house, not disposed of.” To sons and daughters, equally, her paper money. The inventory of her estate totaled more than £2,150, an impressive sum. [Austin]

In the 1776 Assessors’ Rate Bill of the Inhabitants of Rochester, William was the only man with the Irish surname. He was taxed 16s 5d 2q which included Poll, Real, Personal, and Faculty Taxes. [Leonard]

William died before 30 May 1777 when his widow Dinah Irish agreed to the appointment of the administrator of her late husband William Irish’s estate. He died intestate, but there is an estate inventory and a few other probate documents. [Plymouth County, probate file no. 11161]

In the probate document regarding Dinah’s dower, some of the land owned by William Irish, yeoman of Rochester, is mentioned. The dwelling house, corn house and barn are mentioned as well as English meadow, pasture, tilling land, salt meadow, wheat field, a pond, orchard, marshland, wood lot. His homestead land abutted the sea. His land is bounded by that of Benjamin Dexter [likely Dinah’s uncle] and land late owned by John Irish [likely William’s brother]. Setting off of the dower was overseen by John Courby, Silas Briggs, and Enoch Hammond. 

The inventory of the estate of William Irish was taken 20 June 1777. Apparently William was literate as his inventory contained religious books. The same three men conducted the inventory of William’s estate which totaled £650 19 shillings and 5 pence; £540 of which was real estate. He clearly was a farmer but also made cloth. The inventory included household furniture and kitchen supplies, a woolen wheel, a linen wheel, pair of looms, churn, butter tub, sheep sheers, wool cards, grindstone. Livestock included 2 pair of oxen, 2 cows, 2 calves, 1 riding beast, 3 swine. Some personal items I found interesting are an ivory headed cane, a whale bone, two Bibles, testament, snuff box, shave buckles. He also owned 272 thousand shingles, indicating another line of business. 

On 28 June 1777 John Courby, Silas Briggs, and Philip Turner made oath to the inventory. On 4 August 1777 estate administrator Isaac Hiller “of the people called Quaker” swore in court that the inventory was accurate. 

It appears that Dinah Irish lived a very long life, dying after 1798 as she is a land owner at Rochester in the Massachusetts and Maine Direct Tax List. Dinah is the owner of two parcels: one of 78 acres valued at $585 and another of 2 acres with a dwelling house valued at $100. Both are occupied by William Nye 2d. [Massachusetts and Maine Direct Tax 1798 vol 13:94, 148]

Sources:

Willis Luther Irish and Stella Bertha Irish, Descendants of John Irish The Immigrant 1629-1963 and allied families, 1964.

Carol Hagglund, Disowned Without Just Cause: Quakers in Rochester, Massachusetts, During the Eighteenth Century, A Doctoral Dissertation/University of Massachusetts Amherst, 1980

Mary Hall Leonard, History of Mattapoisett and Old Rochester, 1907

John Osborne Austin, The Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island: Comprising Three Generations of Settlers Who Came Before 1690 With Many Families Carried to the Fourth Generation, 1887

John M. Bumsted, Pilgrims’ Progress, 1989