52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2019 WEEK 28 THOMAS SAWYER SR. OF LANCASTER, MA.

My 8x great grandfather Thomas Sawyer, Sr. is another of my immigrant ancestors and one of the original settlers of Lancaster, Ma. Some of his fellow settlers are also my ancestors. Ezra Stearns wrote this description of Thomas for a book on New Hampshire genealogy:

(I) Thomas Sawyer, the American ancestor, son of John Sawyer, of Lincolnshire, England, was born about 1626, in Lincolnshire, and came to Massachusetts in 1636, with two elder brothers, and they settled in Rowley in 1639. As early as 1647, when he was twenty-four years of age, he became one of the first six settlers of Lancaster, along with the Prescotts, Wilders, Houghtons and two other families. In May 1653. the general court, in answer to a petition of the inhabitants of Lancaster, appointed Edward Breck, Nathaniel Haddock, William Kerley, Thomas Sawyer, John Prescott and Ralph Houghton, "prudential managers," "both to see all alotments to be laid out for the planters in due proportion to their estates, and also to order their prudential affairs." During this same year these managers allotted a part of the lands of the town. All divisions of land subsequent to the first, whether upland, intervale, meadow or swamp, were to be "accorded to men's estates," on the valuation of the taxable property which they brought into the settlement. Thomas Sawyer's property was valued at ino, which was about one forty-second part of the property held by the thirty adult male inhabitants of the town. Thomas Sawyer was made a freeman in 1654. He settled near the south branch of the Nashua river, and not far from the junction of that stream with the North branch. Here he built a house which was a garrison, and the scene of the most conspicuous events in the town's history. In 1704 this garrison with nine men was commanded by Thomas (2) Sawyer, and was the place of defense of the families in the vicinity, in case of an attack by Indians. Thomas Sawyer and his family passed through some of the most horrible experiences of Indian warfare in this home of theirs. King Philip's war, which began in 1675, raised a storm which broke in great fury on Lancaster, August 22, 1675 (o. s.), and eight persons were killed in the town that day. February 9, 1676, King Philip, with fifteen hundred warriors attacked Lancaster, and fifty persons, one-sixth of the inhabitants of the town, were captured or killed. Among the latter was Ephraim, the son of Thomas Sawyer, who was killed at Prescott's Garrison, in what is now the town of Clinton. The town included fifty families, and they made a heroic resistance, but overpowered by numbers they could not prevent the enemy from destroying a large number of their cattle and all but two of the houses in the settlement. After having been abandoned four years, the resettlement of the town was undertaken by the survivors of the massacre, one of whom was Thomas Sawyer. He was a blacksmith, and after participating in the struggles and trials of fifty-three years he died in Lancaster, at the age of eighty years. He was buried in the old burying ground on the bank of the Nashua river, and his headstone still stands inscribed: "Thomas Sawyer, Dec'd, September 12, 1706." Thomas Sawyer married, in 1647, Mary, daughter of John and Mary (Plaits) Prescott. John Prescott, blacksmith, was a native of Lancaster, England, and the first permanent inhabitant of Lancaster. He was the progenitor of Colonel William Prescott, of Bunker Hill fame, and William H. Prescott, the historian. The children of Thomas and Mary Sawyer were: Thomas, Ephraim, Mary, Elizabeth, Joshua, James, Caleb, John and Nathaniel.-pp103-4

 Genealogical and Family History of the State of New Hampshire: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation, Volume 1  Lewis Publishing Company, 1908

CYPRIAN STEVEN'S LETTER TO THE GOVERNOR AND COUNCIL

I found a few more things during my research on Simon Willard that
touched on some of my ancestors. One of them is this transcription at
Genealogy.com by Janice Farnsworth of "Lancaster in Philip's War:
The Early Records of Lancaster, Massachusetts 1643 - 1725 Edited by
Henry S. Nourse, A.M. Lancaster, 1884 (page 107)





"Lancaster March 11, 1675/6 - Letter to the Governor and Counsell -"A
humble Petition of the poor distressed people of Lancaster (excerpt)
"...many of us heare in this prison, have not bread to last us one month &
our other provisions spent & gon, for the genrallyty, our Town is drawn
into two garisons - sixteen soulders....we areseartaynly a bayt (bait) for
the enemy. We are sorrowful to leave the place but hoplesse to keep it
unlesse mayntayed by the Cuntrey....our women cris dus daily...which dus
not only fill our ears but our hearts full of Greefe and makes us humbly
Request yo'r Hon'rs to send a Gard of men & that if you please so comand
we may have Carts about fourteen will re-move the whool eight of which has
presed long at Sudbury but never came for want of a small gard of men, the
whooll that is, all that are in the Garison, Kept in Major Willards house
which is all from y're Hon'rs most humble servants & suplyants -
Lancast'r March 11, 1675/6 Jacob FFarrar
John Houghton Sen'r
John Moore
John Whittcomb
Job Whittcomb
Jonathan Whittcomb
John Houghton Jun'r
Cyprian Steevens


The other garrison are in like distresse & soe humbly desire yo'r like
pitty & ffatherly care, having widows & many fatherless children - the
number of carts to Carey away this garison is twenty carts. Yo'r Hon'rs
Humble pettisioners
John Prescott Sen'r
Tho. Sawyer Sen'r
Tho. Sawyer Jun'r
Jonathan Prescott
Tho Willder
John willder
Sarah Wheeler, Wid.
Widow Ffarbanks
John Rigby
Nathaniell Wilder
John Rooper
Widow Rooper

The whole is in the handwriting of Cyprian Steevens.
[Massachusetts Archives, LXVII, 156.] "

Transcribed by Janice Farnsworth

What struck me reading this was the names of those in the garrison. They include my
direct ancestors John Prescott, Thomas Sawyer, Senior and Thomas Sawyer, Junior
in the second garrison two of my Houghton relatives in the first. It reminded me again
of how many of my ancestors were so close to a violent death during the Indian wars
of New England. Some, as I've mentioned in earlier posts, did not escape it. One of
those things that historians sometimes ponder is "What If?" If more of my colonist
ancestors had died, I and many more of their descendants wouldn't be around to
trace our ancestry.

As it was, Thomas Sawyer Junior was to have another encounter with Indians
some years later, and I'll be telling that story soon.

Thank you to Janice Farnsworth for granting me permission to use her transcription!