MT. PROSPECT CEMETERY, BRIDGEWATER, MA.

I have relatives buried in many of the cemeteries in the three Bridgewaters. I visited one of them, Mt. Prospect Cemetery in Bridgewater, seven years ago in April 2012. It's built on a hillside so I got a workout climbing up the hill but I found quite a few relatives, mostly from the Keith family but a few from the Fobes and Perkins families as well.

Here's a few of them:

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2019 WEEK 13: EDWARD FOBES OF BRIDGEWATER, MA.

I don't know much-yet- about 8x great grandfather Deacon Edward Fobes, so this will be a short  52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks entry. Here's a brief biography from Nahum Mitchell's History of Bridgewater, Ma.:

* 2. Dea. Edward (s. of John I) m. Elizabeth D. of John Howard, and had Elizabeth 1677, John 1679, Mary 1681, Bethiah 1683, Hannah 1686, Ephraim 1688, Joshua 1689, Benjamin 1692, and William 1698.—Edward the father, d. a. 1732.—Elizabeth m. Joseph Keith.—Mary never m.—Bethiah m. Samuel Keith 1703.—Hannah m. Timo. Keith, 17 10. p163

Mitchell's History of Bridgewater, Massachusetts,  Published By Edward Alden Bridgewater, Ma.1897 


What does stand out from the entry is that three of the Fobes daughters married three sons of Rev. James Keith. I am descended from Elizabeth Fobes who married Joseph Keith.

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2019 WEEK 12: JOHN FOBES OF BRIDGEWATER, MA.

Back when first started researching my family's history I discovered my 9x great grandfather John Fobes. I couldn't find much information about him other than he was a Scotsman who'd come to Massachusetts and had originally lived in Duxbury before moving on to Bridgewater. But I did find some family trees online that fascinated me, including Scots ancestors with nicknames such as David "Trail the Axe" and  John "with the black lip" Fobes.

Here's the entry for John Fobes from Nahum Mitchell's History of Bridgewater, Massachusetts:

John Fobes (from Duxbury) was one of the original proprietors of Bridgewater, where he settled, and d, a. 1661; made his nuncupative will before William Brett and Arthur Harris; his wid. Constant, sister of Experience Mitchell, m. John Briggs of Portsmouth R. I. 1662.—he had John, Edward, Mary, Caleb, William, Joshua, and Elizabeth.—John d. at George Allen's in Sandwich 1661.—William m. Elizabeth I), of Constant Southworth a 1667, and settled finally at Little Compton, and was with Capt. Church in Philip's war.—Joshua fell with Capt. Michael Pierce of Scituate in that disastrous battle with the Indians near Attleboro’, in 1676.—Caleb went to Norwich. -p162

Mitchell's History of Bridgewater, Massachusetts,  Published By Edward Alden Bridgewater, Ma.1897

NEATNESS COUNTS

 ((This was originally written in February 2015, during the winter we called Snowmageddon))


It's been a somewhat exciting month of February here in New England  weatherwise
as we're setting all sorts of regional records for snowfall. Since road trips and Find A
Grave activities are not possible for awhile I've been keeping myself busy working on
my family tree and uploading photos I already had taken to Find A Grave.  I've also
been looking for more family documents  on Americanancestors.org and FamilySearch,
and last night I found a pair of wills belonging to my ancestors James and Joseph Keith.

James Keith is my 8x great grandfather, He was born in Scotland, attended the University
of Aberdeen, and came to Massachusetts around 1662, becoming the first minister at
Bridgewater, Ma.  He married Susannah Edson, the daughter of his deacon. I'm descended
from them through their son, Joseph. Last night I found the Probate Files for both James and
Joseph in the Massachusetts, Plymouth County, Probate Estate Files, 1686-1915 collection on
FamilySearch I've got to say both wills are probably the most legibly written I've found so far
for my ancestors from that era of colonial history.

Here's James' will. Looking at the signature and comparing it to the body of the document
it is obviously the same handwriting. it's very neat, and the lines across the page mostly straight. 

Joseph married Elizabeth Forbes and had a very large family. One of their children was
Jemima Keith, my 6x great grandmother, who married James Packard. Joseph Keith was a
farmer, soldier, and a town Representative to the colonial government. The signature to
his will is different handwriting from the will itself so someone else wrote it for him.
Still, it's neat and readable, and on the second page Joseph leaves Jemima one sixth
of the fifty acres he was dividing up among his children.   

I'm very grateful to grandfather James and to whoever wrote Joseph's will because when
trying to read the writing on colonial documents a legible hand makes my life easier.

In handwriting, neatness counts!

MY PACKARD LINE

Starting next week in the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks series I'll be writing about  the family of my 4x great grandmother Cynthia (Packard)Dunham, wife of James Thomas Dunham. Cynthia is one of my ancestors who has relatives from both Plymouth and Essex Counties. On her father Reuben Packard's side she is descended from some of the founders of all three Bridgewater towns:Bridgewater, East Bridgewater, and West Bridgewater. These are towns only about ten miles away from where I live. In fact, I graduated from Bridgewater State College nearly fifty years ago.

On her mother Anne Perkins' side she is descended from prominent citizens of Ipswich, Beverley, and Salem.

Here's Cynthia's Packard line

The associated families are Edson, Fobes, Hayward, Howard,  and Keith who arrived in Massachusetts after the Great Migration so the line isn't as long as some of my other families.















I'll discuss the Perkins line in the next post.