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Monday, February 15, 2016

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2016 WEEK 6: VINCENT SHUTTLEWORTH OF MEDFIELD, MA.

It's time to turn to the family of my 6x great grandmother Keziah (Shuttleworth) Butterfield, the wife of David Butterfield.

Keziah's is another one of those families where I haven't out much as of yet. I'm not sure who her
immigrant ancestor was. This is something I found about her grandfather, Vincent Shuttleworth:

The first mention of the Shuttleworth family in Dedham is the record of the marriage of Vincent Shuttleworth and Elizabeth Leonard, Feb. 18th, 1677-8. They seem to have settled at once in Medfield. Their oldest child, Benjamin, was born Feb. 19, 1678-9. -page ix

Hill, Don Gleason ed., Early Records of Dedham, Massachusetts, Volume 2, Dedham Transcript, Dedham, Ma. 1888

Vincent has two brief mentions in The History of Medfield, the first being from the years 1677 :

Soldiers went from this town to fight the Indians in the province of Maine. John Mason, the record says, was " killed in the country's service at the eastward." Benjamin Rockwood was brought into Salem, wounded. Vincent Shuttleworth was fined £4 for deserting the service "into which he had been impressed by the town of Medfield. -p 94

And later, from 1686:

Vincent Shuttleworth, the deserter of 1677, was employed  to ring the new bell and sweep the meeting-house.  -p 101

Tilden, William S. editor, Town of Medfield Massachusetts 1650-1886, Geo. H. Ellis, publisher,
Boston, Ma, 1887

The Benjamin Rockwood who was wounded is another of my 9x great grandfathers and he was 
wounded at the Battle of Moore's Brook, near Scarborough, Me. I posted about that Battle several
years ago. I learned from several online sources that Vincent Shuttleworth was fined 4 pounds for
his desertion. 

Interestingly, the desertion doesn't seem to have been an obstacle to Vincent's marriage to Elizabeth Leonard, and the Shuttleworth family went on to prominence in Dedham in the years following.

I'm descended from Benjamin Shuttleworth, Vincent's eldest son.

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