THE INDENTURING OF JACOB PRESTON TO THOMAS CHANDLER

In 1676, a man named William Curtis brought suit against his indentured servant
Jacob Preston for failure to serve out the full term of his indenture. While I am
not related in anyway to Curtis, there is a connection because Jacob Preston was
originally servant to my ancestor Thomas Chandler. That original document was
submitted as evidence in the case and read as follows:

"This Indenture made and concluded this twenty day of May in the yeare of ye Lord God
one thousand six hundred seventy and one & in the three & twentieth year of the reign of
ye soveraigne Lord Charles the Second by the Grace of God of England, Scotland, France
& Ireland, king, Defender of the Faith &c, Between Ensigne Thomas Chandler of the
towne of Merrimack in the County of Essex in New England Blacksmith on ye one part
and Jacob Preston of Andover with the full and free consent of Nicolas Holt of Andover aforesaid, his Father-in-law by the marriage of his Mother and also with the full consent
of his said Naturall mother hath and doth by these presents bind himselfe an apprentice
to ye said Thomas seven years to be compleated and ended accounting from the twenty-
sixth day of March last past untill the said seven years next & immediately ensuing the
said 26th of March 1671 shall be fully expired. During which time of seven yeares the said Jacob shall behave & demeane himself during his sd apprenticeship as an apprentice or servant ought for to doe according to the usuall & lawdable customs of England in the like cases. During wh time also of seven yeares, the above named Thomas, Master unto ye sd
Jacob, is hereby obliged & stands bound at his owne costs & charges to provide & procure
for his said servant, meat, drink, cloathing, washing, and lodging with all other things convenient, necessary & sufficient for an apprentice as is usuall in England. And the said Chandler is also to learne or cause his sd Apprentice to be learnt to read ye English tongue perfectly to write & cypher or cast & keepe accounts sufficiently for his owne employment
of a Blacksmith, if his capacities will attaine thereunto. And the sd Thomas is also hereby obliged according to his owne best skill & abilitie to learne and instruct the sd Jacob in the trade & art of a Blacksmith, if the sd Jacob be capable of learning the same, and he shall
keepe his said servant Jacob at worke upon the sd trade as much as may be without
damage to other necessary occasions that may fall out unavoidably to be done in a family; that so for want of time & use & instruction, ye said Jacob may have no just ground to complaine of his owne want of experience or profitting under his sd Master in ye sd Trade
of a Blacksmith. Alsoe ye sd Thomas when the sd seaven yeares are expired shall give the
sd Jacob two suits of Apparell from head to foot, suitable for a person of his degree, one
good & hansom and suitable to weare on ye Sabbath dayes, & the other convenient for ye week days. The said Thomas doth bind himselfe, heires, executors, & administrators to the
sd Jacob his heires, & assignes to fulfill the articles herein conteined belonging to him to
doe for the sd servant. In witnesse whereunto ye sd parties Thomas & Jacob as they are severally concerned in this instrument & the articles of the same have hereunto interchangeably sett their hands & scales.

Signed sealed & interchangeably delivered before
George Abbot Jr
Alexander Sessions.

Thomas Chandler
The Mark of
Jacob + Preston "


Sara Loring Bailey "Historical Sketches of Andover" Houghton Mifflin Co , Boston 1880
pp 49-50

Now, besides being one of the earliest known examples of an indenture agreement in the Colonies (along with the earlier one between Thomas Chandler and Hopestill Tyler), this document is of interest to me for two of the names on it. The first is that of Nicholas Holt,
Jacob's "Father-in-law by the marriage of his Mother" or in other words, his step-father.
Martha Holt was Nicholas' third wife. I am descended from Nicholas and his first wife,
Elizabeth Short and both their children Henry and Elizabeth Holt.

George Abbot Jr. is also a relative, another 9x great-grandfather who was married to
Hannah Chandler, sister of Thomas Chandler. This might be why there was a copy of the
original indentureship contract available to the court.

And George's son Benjamin Abbot married Nicholas' granddaughter Sarah Farnum and
their descendants, besides myself, include Tim Abbott of "Walking the Berkshires" and
Janice Brown of "Cow Hampshire"!

BAD NEWS ABOUT " COW HAMPSHIRE"?

Ironically, I was checking the links on my Puckerbrush Award posts when I
found that the one to Janice Brown's Cow Hampshire blog doesn't work.

I got one of those dreaded error messages:

"ERROR: cowhampshire.blogharbor.com is temporarily unavailable
or does not exist. Please check the address and try again."

I hope it is only temporary, but given the length of time since Janice last
posted I fear the website is now gone.

I hope Janice is well wherever she is at present and that someday we will see her
return to her genealogy blog!

THE PUCKERBRUSH AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE

This past Friday I was honored to receive The Puckerbrush Award for Excellence"
from both Cheryl Fleming Palmer and Judith Richards Schubert. I am flattered and
grateful for being given this award, especially since it is given in honor of one of my
first genea-blogger friends, Janice Brown. She has a great sense of humor and it was
her that gave me the challenge to come up with 49 Genealogical Uses for a Flutaphone!
Early on we discovered we were distant cousins.


The award was started by Terry Thornton, aka Willie Puckerbrush:


"In honor of our absent friend, Janice Brown, whose delightful blog Cow Hampshire
continues to inspire through all her archived articles, is my attempt to recognize a few
writers and their blogs --- those I consider the best in the blogging world and whose
work has influenced me the most.

Janice told us all about the word "puckerbrush" in an article she posted August 27,
2007, at Cow Hampshire .... That article inspired me to use, on occasion, the
alias of "Willie Puckerbrush" in making some of the many foolish comments I've left
about the blogosphere.

It appears to me that in the thicket of all the blogs being written that I should highlight
those ten writers of greatest influence to me --- in other words, my list of the ten best
based solely upon my personal opinion."

So here are my list of ten. Please note I had one heck of a time coming up with this, not
because I couldn't think of anyone, but because there are so many out there to choose
from. So in the end I opted to go by the wording used by Terry and pick those who've had
the greatest influence on me through their style of writing and the content of their blogs.
They've all contributed prominently to the formation of our genea-blogger community:

Jasia from Creative Gene- The creator of the Carnival of Genealogy through which I
discovered so many other genealogy blogs and author of great articles on her own
blog!

Chris Dunham from The Genealogue- There's always something there that makes me
laugh and I found many genealogy blogs through hi Blog Finder, Besides, he's a cousin!

Randy Seaver from Genea-Musings- Randy's blog has great analysis of genealogy
programs and issues written in a direct and easy to understand style! And his Saturday
Night Genealogy Fun challenges are exactly that: fun, and educational!

Miriam Midkiff from AnceStories- The creator of ScanFest Sunday where I've
learned a lot about scanning and have had a chance to "meet" other bloggers.
Besides, she's a cousin!

Tim Abbott from Walking the Berkshires- Reading his blog inspired me to explore
the historical background of my family's history. And, besides, he's ...yeah...another
cousin!

Craig Manson from The GeneaBlogie- Another great writer. Craig is able to explain
legal aspects of genealogy and blogging in a way even a dunderhead like myself can
understand.

footnoteMaven from footnoteMaven- A creative lady with a sense of humor that rivals
Janice's own. Creator of great graphics for various genealogy carnivals and an authority
on proper source citation. All that, and a writer I enjoy reading!

Terry Thornton from Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi- Terry's writings on his beloved Mississippi are great reads. And he's the Founder of the Association of
Graveyard Rabbits bloggers .

Thomas MacEntee from Destination: Austin Family- "The Perle Mesta" of genea-blogging community and creator of the Geneabloggers website and the Genea-Bloggers group on Fb.

Apple from Apple's Tree- Another fine writer who's blog I read regularly. And, yes, she's
a cousin!

It was after I made my choices that I realized that four of them were my distant cousins.
But so is Janice, so I guess I'm sort of keeping the award in the family!

Thanks again, Cheryl and Judith, for this award!

RELATIVELY SPEAKING

When I started this blog my main objectives were to record as
much of our family’s history that I knew and remembered and
to talk about the discoveries I’ve made while researching our
genealogy. There was the hope that by putting that information
on line I might find other relatives from either the West or White
sides of the family.


It’s been nearly a year now(my first posts were on 23 Jan 2007)
and while I’ve yet to hear from or discover any White relations,
I’ve found or been contacted by some very interesting folks on
my Dad’s side including fellow genealogy bloggers. A link on
Boston 1775 led me to Walking the Berkshires and Tim Abbott.
Besides the pleasure of reading his blog, I also discovered in an
exchange of comments with Tim that we’re related through
several of our family lines, some of which Tim detailed on a
comment to my post here. I’ve learned much from Tim’s posts
about the Abbotts and the Barkers at WtB and I’ve had fun
with his family photo caption contests.


I’ve also learned much from Janice Brown at Cow Hampshire,
another Abbott descendant, who among other things set me off
on the quest for The 49 Genealogical Uses of the Flutaphone and
has given me some sound advice and suggestions in my research.


Another connection I discovered is with Chris Dunham of The
Genealogue who is my 6th cousin through my Dunham line and
with whom I’ve traded some images and discussed the tangle of
the different Dunham and Donham lines.


Recently I think I’ve found some connections with Randy Seaver
through his Hildreth line but I haven’t finished running down all
of them as yet.


And as anyone who has read their blogs knows, all four have
great senses of humor!


I mention Tim, Janice and Chris first because they were the first
connections I discovered since starting my blog and surfing those
of others. I’ve also had two significant genealogy finds by
searching on RootsWeb’s WorldConnect sites. The first was at
Larry Overmire’s site which led to my learning that ancestress
Lydia Phelps had been married to Larry’s ancestor Sampson
Read but was a widow when she married my ancestor John
Ames, and that the pedigree I had for Lydia was wrong.
Some pruning of the family tree had to be done.


Another was N.’s site. I sent an email with a question about the
spelling of a surname and the ensuing correspondence led to
more information on the Barkers and Coburn/Colburns in our
family trees.


Some research on my Ellingwood/Ellinwood/Ellenwood lines
brought me to D.Balcro’s website. D. and I are related also
through the Ballard and Stone families.


The two most recent contacts include one from J. about a family
related to my Ames line. I didn’t have much that was of help I’m
afraid but she filled in some information about Sally Ames’ family
for me.


Lastly, I heard recently from H., another Barker relative who has
given me a lot of information about our ancestor Jonathan Barker
and his brothers Jesse and Benjamin. You’ll be seeing that in
upcoming posts I’ll be doing on the Barker Brothers. H. has also
given me the means to contact two other Barker relatives.


Before my blog, I had made a contact with a West descended
relative through Family Forums who shared some files on the
family of Louisa Almata Richardson, Jonathan Phelps West’s wife.
I am ashamed to admit that I can’t recall his name; it and his
email address was on the computer I used at the time which has
long since gone to Computer Heaven and I hadn’t yet added his
name to my printed backup list of email addresses beforehand.
So if that person ever reads this, thank you again and please get
in touch with me again using the comments link so I can share
some of what I’ve found with you!


So far all my contact with these newfound relatives has been
through the email, which I think is the least intrusive. I’ve
learned a lot I hadn’t known before and I am more than glad to
share anything I know in return with them or anyone else,
related or not, because I believe that knowledge should be
shared.


There are some folks who I have alluded to with just an initial
because for privacy issues I won’t give full names unless I have
the person’s permission.


It’ll be a year on January 23rd since I started this blog and given
how many relatives I’ve found met in the first year, I look
forward to meeting many more in the years to come. I may
never become rich or famous through my blog but that wasn't
the reason I started blogging, and the knowledge and contacts
I've gained have made it well worth the effort, relatively
speaking!

UPDATE 1/17: I've just made another connection, this time with
someone who is descended from my Griffith and Boyden lines!

((This post was written for the Carnival of Genealogy. Check it
out for links to other genealogy bloggers and great reading.))

MRS. JESSIE H. TUTTLE PT4

Continuing the story of Mrs. Jessie H. Tuttle's correspondence
I’ve found at Footnote.com while exploring my ancestors’ in the
Revolutionary War Pension Files:


Some months passed between the previous exchange and the
next one that I found in Moses Barrows’ file. Perhaps an event
called World War 1 might have had something to do with the
delay?


It was February 1917 before Jessie sent the check:


"4650 Fremont Ave. So.
Minneapolis, Minn.
Feb. 17,1917
Commissioner of Pensions
Dear Sir:-
Enclosed please find my certified check for $3.15. Please send
me photographic copies of the eleven pages concerning the
pension claim of Lemuel Stimson, widow file 7222
Revolutionary War, and the ten pages concerning the claim of
Moses Barrows Widows file 18560.

In both there are 21 pages at 15 cents page making 3.15..
I do not care for certified copies.

Very truly yours
Jessie H. Tuttle"

Jessie emphatically underlined "certified".

Written above Jessie’s address in another’s handwriting is:

“Check for $3.15 rec’d--(three initials that I cannot decipher).


And a few days later came the typewritten reply:

“Rev. War Section

Feb.27,1917
Jessie H. Tuttle
4650 Fremont Ave, South
Minneapolis, Minn.
Madam:
In reply to your letter of the 17th instant, herewith
are enclosed copies of eleven pages from the Revolutionary
War pension claim of Lemuel and Catharine Stimson. Mass.
W.7222, and of ten pages from the Revolutionary War pension
claim of Elizabeth widow of Moses Barrows, Mass. W. 18,560,
said uncertified Photostat copies are furnished to you under the
provisions of the act of August 21,1912.
Very respectfuly,
G.M. Saltzgaber
Commisioner"



I had to smile at the underlined “certified” in Jessie’s request.
She might have been living in Minnesota but she had Yankee
frugality. She was getting copies of government files from a
government agency mailed no doubt with an official stamp in a
government envelope. Why spend extra money for certification
of something so patently obvious ?


So that concluded Jessie’s mail in the Moses Barrows’ file. A few
years later she sought information about his brother Asa,
perhaps having only just then learned of Asa’s existence. I was
certain Jessie must have been related to the Barrows family and
as Janice Brown of Cow Hampshire kindly proved in her
comments to part 1 of this series of post, Jessie's genealogy
shows she was indeed descended from Moses and so a distant
cousin of mine.


I decided to see if Jessie made any other inquiries from the
Pension Dept.

GENEALOGY GRIN

Janice Brown over at CowHampshire has posted about a
genealogy seminar she'd like to see and I am honored to be
listed among the.. umm..presenters.


Now all I have to do is come up with things to do with a
flutaphone!


Thanks for the mention, Janice, and for a laugh that I
really needed!

BY GEORGE!

I will have more thoughts on Varanes Libbey to post soon
but I had to acknowledge the birthday today of George Abbot(t)
of Andover Ma, whose birthday according to most of the
information I’ve seen was on June 14, 1615 or 1616.

George settled in Andover, married Hannah Chandler and
became the progenitor of many, many Abbotts and other
descendants. Among these are myself, Tim Abbott, Janice Brown
and historian Elinor Abbott.

So Happy Birthday, George! We wouldn’t be here without you!