Continuing on with the women who married into the Moore family on the Barker side of my
family tree:
My 6x great grandmother Susannah (Willard) Moore was also half sister to my 7x great grandfather
Joseph Willard on the West side of the family, so I will discuss the Willards when I do the Wests.
My 5x great grandmother was Betty (Whitcomb) Moore, who was a descendant of immigrant
John Whitcomb, my 8x great grandfather. John seems to have been an early version of a land
speculator, judging from how many times he moved about the colony. Here's what William Richard
Cutler has to say about him in volume 3 of New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial:
John Whitcomb settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and was a church member there in 1635; this and the birth of his youngest son Josiah, which occurred in 1638, are the only events of his family life recorded during the years he spent in Dorchester. Later evidence shows him to have been well-to-do for the times, a man of intelligence and enterprise, much given to buying and selling land. In 1640 he removed to Scituate, where he owned land, one piece being a farm of one hundred and eight acres near the mouth of the North river, on the Marshfield side, and after 1646, when he became one of the Conihasset partners he owned the lands which through that transaction became his share. During his residence in Scituate he was made constable, then one of the most important offices in the gift of his townsmen. He was admitted a freeman June 3, 1652. In 1644 he sold his farm on North river to Thomas Hicks; in 1654 he sold half his share in Conihasset lands to John Williams Jr., giving the other half to his son Robert. In the same year he removed to Lancaster, Massachusetts, where two years before, when the town was laid out, he had bought a share. Not all his children accompanied him to that place; Catherine married and settled in Scituate; Robert remained in Scituate, and settled in Boston. John Whitcomb and his son John are counted among the pioneer settlers of the town of Lancaster, originally the Nashaway Plantation. The homestead of John Sr. was on lot No. 33; John Jr. had lot No. 34. The present postoffice and bank building in Lancaster is on the original house lot. He died September 24, 1662, aged about seventyfour years. He married, in England, Frances, who made a will May 12, 1671, and died at Lancaster, May 17, 1671. The agreement of division of John Whitcomb's estate has the name spelt by his own children three different ways—Wetcomb, Whetcomb, and Whitcomb, October 7, 1662. Children: 1. Catherine, married, 1644, Rodolphus Ellmes, of Scituate; had nine children. 2. James, born in England, settled in Boston, owned five acres of land opposite the Boston Common, died in Boston, November 23, 1686; married (first)Rebecca , (second) Elizabeth; had ten children. 3. John Jr., may have been the eldest son, and was most closely associated in later life with his father; married, May 19, 1669, or 1671; died April 7, 1683. leaving wife Mary and two daughters. 4. Robert, mentioned below. 5. Jonathan, born about 1630, in England; settled in Lancaster, Massachusetts, and Wethersfield, Connecticut. 6. Abigail. 7. Job, land surveyor at Lancaster; married, May 19, 1669, Mary ;settled at Wethersfield, Connecticut. 8. Josiah, born in Dorchester, 1638; married, January 4, 1664, Rebecca Waters.-pp1318-1319
New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of Commonwealths and the Founding of a Nation, Volume 3 Lewis historical publishing Company, New York, NewYork 1914
The part about John's son Robert remaining in Scituate has piqued my interest. One of my brother-in-
law's ancestors was a woman named Mercy Whitcomb from Scituate. Maybe there's a connection with
my Whitcombs.
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