52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2019 WEEK 18: ROBERT LONG OF CHARLESTOWN, MA. :

Turning to the families of the women in the Perkins line, I'm beginning with Hannah (Long) Perkins' father, Robert Long. Robert is another of my immigrant ancestors and made the voyage tothe Massachusetts colony with his  first wife and ten children.He settled in Charlestown where he became a prominent and wealthy man. Assuch, he became a member of the Militaty Company of Massachusetts which was a Boston militia company. It was chartered by Gov. John Wintrop in 1635 and still exists today nder the name of The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts. This makes it one of the oldest military organizations in the world. I found this entry for Robert Long in a history of the company written by Oliver Ayers Roberts:

Robert Long (1639), of Charlestown, came from Dunstable, England, in the "Defence," in 1635, at the age of forty-five years, bringing his wife, Elizabeth, and ten children. He had been an innholder at Dunstable, Bedford County, England, where Rev. Zechariah Symmes, of Charlestown, Mass., had formerly preached. He was an innkeeper in Charlestown, and his house was situated "on the south of Mill hill — his houselot being bounded by the market place, meeting house lane and High Street." He was licensed Sept. 3, 1635, "to keepe a house of intertainment att Charles Towne for horse and man." In 1640, Charlestown chose him to sell wine, and the General Court approved the choice. Dec. 11, 1648, Robert Keayne (1637) and James Penn, deputies of the General Court, and in behalf of said court, signed articles of agreement with William Phillips (1644), Robert Long (1639), Hugh Gunnison (1646), William Hudson (1640), and Robert Turner (1640), vintners, by which the latter had the exclusive right to sell and retail all kind of wines in Boston and Charlestown for five years, by paying to the treasurer of the jurisdiction of Massachusetts one hundred and sixty pounds yearly, in current money. He owned, according to the Book of Charlestown Land Records, twelve other pieces of real estate, containing above one hundred and fifty acres. He died Jan. 9, 1664.

"The Great House, first used as the official residence of the Governor, was purchased in 1633, by the town, of John Winthrop and other gentlemen, for ,£10, and used as a meeting-house until it was sold, for L30 to Robert Long [1639] in 1635, when it became a tavern or 'ordinary,' sometimes known as the 'Three Cranes' from its sign. It stood wholly in the market-place, in front of the building lately the City Hall, at the corner of Harvard Street. The tavern was kept by Mr. Long [1639] and his descendants till 1711, when it was sold to Eben Breed, in whose family it remained until the land was bought by the town to enlarge the Square after the Revolution." -p93

History of the Military Company of the Massachusetts, Now Called, the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts, 1637-1888  Volume 1  A.Mudge & Son  Boston, Ma 1895


There has been an archaeological dig at the site of the Three Cranes Tavern and you can see some of the items recovered at this website of the Massachusetts Historical Commision

Four more children were born after Robert and his wife arrive in the colony, bringing the total number to fourteen. One of the four was my  8x great grandmother Hannah.