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"!

TUNES

Tim Abbott over at Walking the Berkshires came up with a
meme on "The Music of My Salad Days" about the music that
influenced us in some way in our younger days.

Well, the first thing I recall is the log drums in the cave....er
...just kidding.


Ok, I'm a child of the `50 and `60's. My preteen and early
teen years I watched American Bandstand and listened to
WMEX 1510 on the AM dial out of Boston(Arnie Ginsberg
and the Night Train Show! Woo Woo!) In those days, Elvis
was King of course, but Roy Orbison and the Everley
Brothers were my favorite singers.


Along came the 1960's, high school and then college. Most of
these albums I bought in cassettes (still have most of them)
when I finally bought them, and when I did it was because of
specific songs on them:

Rubber Soul
Hard Day's Night
Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Hey, it's the Beatles! Do I really need to say anything more?


Days of Future Passed
In Search of the Lost Chord
Moody Blues

"Nights in White Satin" is still one of my all time favorite songs.
And the Lost Chord's "Ride My Seesaw" is another.

Between the Buttons
Beggars Banquet
The Rolling Stones
"Ruby Tuesday" from Buttons and "Street Fighting Man" and
"Sympathy for the Devil" from Banquet

Sounds of Silence
Simon & Garfunkel
"I Am a Rock"

Crosby, Stills and Nash
"Suite Judy Blue Eyes". "Marrakesh Express" and "Guinevere"

If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears
The Mamas ands the Papas
"California Dreamin"

Time Peace: The Rascal's Greatest Hits
"Good Lovin", "Groovin"

Yep, I'm a rock and roll dinosaur. And even though I turned
60 yesterday, I still crank up the volume when any of those
songs or many others come on the car radio.



As one of my former coworkers told me once, "Gotta have
my tunes when I'm driving!"

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.))

BLOGGING BRUNCH8

After having spent several hours in hunting for my lost wallet(I
found it, btw) I sat down here with a cup of coffee and calmed
down by browsing genealogy blogs.


First off, I have been remiss in not mentioning that the 34th
Carnival of Genealogy is out and once again Jasia’s call for articles
resulted in great reading. There are the usual fine contributors
but there are also some new names. Thomas Wheatley’s list of
superstitions at Family History Quick Start made me think of
some I recall from my mom’s Irish family. Bob Frank’s
memories of his childhood Halloweens at the Itawamba History
Review made me grin. In fact, there’s a whole slew of posts on
that subject that brought back some memories of my own and
I’ll try to post about them soon. A lot of good reading
as always and if you haven’t read the CoG before, you should!

Other interesting new posts this morning included Tim Abbott’s
at “Walking the Berkshires” concerning an Abbot(t) relative’s
ties to Roger’s Rangers from the French and Indian War. And
isn’t it a great time to be a sports fan in New England, Tim?


Terry Thornton over at "Hill Country of Monroe County,
Mississippi” posted a picture of a friend's grandmother and a
sailor in Smithville, Mississippi 1943 and another of World War
II sugar ration coupons and adds some of his memories of the
time.


Finally, there’s posts at various blogs about the new ties between
A*******.com and the NEHGS. Since I can’t afford the World
Deluxe membership in the first place, the news really doesn’t
effect me. If I can find the money in my budget at some point I’ll
join the NEHGS again at the most affordable membership level
but that’s not likely to happen until next year.

MOVING RIGHT ALONG....

Okay, let’s move along to other matters, shall we?


footnoteMaven has given me a “Nice Matters” award
for which I thank her and which I shall proudly display.
It was created by Genevieve Olsen of Bella Enchanted

The only trouble I have is coming up with others to give the
award to, though. Not that I can’t think of anyone nice, just
that there are so many, and then the ones I think of first
have already gotten the award.


Luckily, I’m able to give one to Tim Abbott for his thoughtful
writing on the environment and history as well as for running
his Family Archive Photo Caption Contest. He was the first of
my distant cousins I’ve discovered online and is a gentleman
and a scholar.



The records I’ve found at Footnote.com will keep me busy for
some time. My direct ancestor Jonathan Barker’s pension file is
only thirteen pages long but his brother Benjamin’s is fifty and
there are the Revolutionary War Rolls and Service Records as
well. The Pension File for Amos Hastings, another ancestor, is
thirty pages.



And I going to post it all here, or the transcriptions that is, to
share with my readers.


I can see those hits already plummeting!


Ah well, back to the genealogy mines.

BLOGGING BRUNCH

One of the perks of vacation time when you have no plans is being
able to sleep in late. In fact, I think it’s probably a constitutional
right! Anyway, once I finally bestirred myself from bed earlier
today I did what I usually do when I have a day off: I make coffee
and toast, then I check the email and surf other folk’s genealogy
blogs.


Today I was rewarded with a fascinating email from katiefloring.
She’s a distant cousin of Katharine Fearing Loring who married
my distant cousin Francis Ellingwood Abbot, and her comment on
my original post has information filling in some of the background
of Katharine’s family. Katie mentions she is working on a book
about David Loring and I look forward to reading it.


Speaking (or blogging) of Abbot(t)s, Tim Abbott of Walking the
Berkshires is the subject of an article in the Litchfield County
Times. Tim’s back from vacation and his posts about Monhegan
Island are wonderful reading and dang, I wish I could write as
well as he does!

Finally, Strange Maine has two posts that had me laughing. In the
first case, all of New England has been laughing about the man who
disguised himself as a tree to rob a bank in Manchester, N.H. I feel
I must point out that the bank branch was on Elm St. And no, his
disguise didn’t work. Perhaps he’ll learn his lesson and turn over a
new leaf, or at least use bigger leaves next time.

The second post concerns strange laws in Maine. One of them
makes clear why we'll never see news reports of a skydiving moose
in Maine.

Enjoy!

BEDTIME GENEALOGY 9

Just a few thoughts for tonight:

First, for those from outside the area who wonder how big a deal
Patriots’ Day and the commemoration of the battles of Concord
and Lexington might be around here, take a look at the calendar
posted over at Boston 1775 by J. L.Bell

Second, I found a map of Andover in 1692 that show the locations
of all those Abbotts and Chandlers and others that are in my line
and in Tim Abbott's as well. It includes a handy name key to go
with the numbered houses. If you have ancestors from there,
check it out!


Finally, I‘m really beginning to like the Google Books site more
and more. I could get lost for hours just looking through the old
books like William Cutter’s and looking for entries on my ancestors.