52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2015 WEEK 6: JOHN WYMAN, CONCLUSION

So what do I know now about my ancestor John Wyman?
-He and his brother Francis were among the early settlers of Woburn, Ma.

-He married Sarah Nutt on 5Nov 1644

-He held several offices over the years in Woburn town government.

-He served in the militia during King Philip's War and was wounded before the
Great Swamp Fight. His oldest son died there.

 -He was a tanner by trade

-John had a Scottish indentured servant, Robert Simpson, who he bought to help him
in his tanning business. Simpson also served in the militia.

-He also had a "negro servant", James Carringbone.

-John, his daughter Bathsheba and James the servant were involved in a physical
altercation with John Seers over his horse being taken away for military use.    

-John Wyman died on 9May 1684

From the fact that he had at least two servants that are mentioned in documents, I've

concluded  that John must have been well off by the standards of 17th century Massachusetts
Bay Colony. He states in the document about Robert Simpson that he had bought the
Scotsman, who was one of the Scottish prisoners sent by Cromwell to the colony. While
James Carringbone was called a "negro servant" he was probably indentured if not actually
a slave.

I thought there would be some mention of what befell Carringbone in John Wyman's
will, part of which I'd seen quoted on the Burlington Historical Commission website. But
when I found the probate file over on the American Ancestors website in the Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871 database, all that was in it was a photo of a scrap of paper that said:

I hope someday those papers will be found.

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2015 WEEK 6: JOHN WYMAN PT3

Thanks to two books by William Richard Cutter I was able to find out more about the two
petitions I mentioned in the last blogpost. The first excerpt concerns John Wyman's request
that his servant be released from military service:

The records show that he had bought the time of one Simpson, a Scotchman, one of the soldiers of Charles II, captured by Cromwell and sold into servitude in New England. A petition of John Wyman to the governor and council gives an illuminating picture of life in 1676:

"Humbly Shcweth that yore Petitioner Haith beene often out in the service of ye Country against the Indians; his sone also was ont and slaine by the enemy; and his servants hath been long out in the warrs and now being reduced to greate wants for clotheing: desires liberty to come downe from Hadley where he now remains a garrison soldier; and he is a taner by traid and yore Petitioner bought him on purpose for the management of his tanyard: and himselfe being inexperienced in that calling doth humbly request that favore of your honors to consider the premisses and to grant his said servant Robert Simpson a dismission from this present service that so his lether now in vatts may not by spyled but yore Petitioner be ever engaged to pray, &c. JNO. WYMAN." p160

New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of Commonwealths and the Founding of a Nation, Volume 1 (Google eBook) Lewis Historical Publishing Company, New York, New York, 1915

The second one is about the complaint of John Seers against John Wyman and his daughter
Bathsheba Wyman over a horse:

In the case of John Seers versus Lieutenant John Wyman, before the council in 1676, Daniel
Baldwin, aged seventeen years, testified about the impressment of two horses, and that while pressing a horse belonging to John Wyman, who resisted the constable, said Wyman “suffered his negro servant to beat me with a great stick, and reproved him not.” In the same case, on the testimony of several witnesses, Daniel Baldwin is callet “grandchild to John Seers,” and came with him to Lieutenant Wman’s garrison. The witnesses say Daniel Baldwin abused James Carringbone, negro servant of said W yman, “both in words and deeds,” calling him “Black Roag,” and struck him with his gun across his back, and said he would “shute’ him. Seers stated that Baldwin was a “solger” who came to Wyman’s with him, and that one of Wyman’s household struck said Baldwin with a “great stick.” The particulars of this interesting case are published in “Woburn Men in the Indian and Other Wars,” pp. 11-14 (editions of 1897 and 1903).-p62

Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Boston and Eastern Massachusetts, Volume 1 (Google eBook) Lewis historical Publishing Company, 1908 - Boston (Mass.)


That doesn't mention my 7x great grandmother Bathsheba's part in the scuffle. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a  free ebook edition of Woburn Men in the Indian and Other Wars online, but I did find an account on the website of the Burlington Historical Commission. My ancestress Bathsheba was
right in the thick of it, at one point tripping John Seers so that he fell. You can read the whole story
there at this link.

I'll have some thoughts about all this in the next post.

To be continuied

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2015 WEEK 6: JOHN WYMAN PT2

I was fascinated by the references I'd found about my Wyman ancestors being in
some sort of dispute over a horse with someone named John Seers(Sears). It took  me
a little while to track it down on Google but I finally did, and discovered more information
as well:

The lieutenant (Oakes) of Prentice's troop, who held office at the beginning of the war, having been assigned to another command, John Wyman, the cornet, was promoted to his place. In N. E. Hist. Gen Reg., xxxvii. 281, reference is made to a petition of Lieutenant John Wyman, asking for the release oi his son, who was lately married, stating that he himself had been in both the Mount Hope and the Narragansett campaigns, and in the latter had received a wound in his face; that his eldest son was killed in that campaign, and that his servant had been in the country's service all the past winter. The servant was Robert Simpson. Again, a well known character—John Seers, constable of Woburn—made complaint to the authorities that Lieutenant John Wyman and daughter, named Bathshcba, had together resisted him in the impressment of one of the horses of the said Wyman for the country's use, and for this offence they were both charged two pounds each as a fine. The date of Seers' petition was May 10, 1676, and the time of the trouble was April, 1676. Captain John Cutler, of Charlestown, marching through Woburn with several soldiers on the way to Billerica to attack the Indians, who had caused a stir at that place, having a warrant from the late Major Willard to the constable at Woburn and the constable at Billerica, to impress horses or anything desired for the service, found horses were very scarce, because on account of the stir at Billerica about twenty of the best of Woburn men and horses had already gone up to help them. Seers recites the hard words and action of resistance of Wyman, and prays for such legislation "as will prevent such abuse." "That so," he says, "I and other constables may not go in fear of our lives when we are upon the execution of our office."

A warrant had been issued to the constable for six carriage horses and three men from Woburn. Bathsheba Wyman, named above, married Nathaniel Tay, of Billerica,'May 30, 1677. Cf. N. E. Hist. Gen. Reg. xxxviii. 44; Hazen's Billerica, 120.

The troop of which John Wyman, of Woburn, was lieutenant was attached to the Massachusetts regiment, which was organized for the Narragansett campaign, and was present with the army in the memorable Fort Fight of December 19, 1675, being the only cavalry organization of the English there. A letter of Joseph Dudley at the time mentions a slight wound by an arrow in Lieutenant Wyman's face, which he received during a scout about four days before the occurrence of the famous Fort Fight. During this scout a number of Indians were killed or taken prisoners in nn attack on their wigwams, which were burned, the slight wound of Wyman being the only casualty received on the part of the English in that skirmish. Cf. N. E. Hiit. Gen. Reg., xl. 80, 88; xliii. 156.
-p384
History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts: With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Volume 1 (Google eBook)  Duane Hamilton Hurd, ed.
J. W. Lewis & Company,  Philadelphia, Pa. 1890

Now I'd learned a bit more about John Wyman's military service. And the "late Major Willard"
mentioned was another of my ancestors, 9x great grandfather Simon Willard.

Next, I decided to try and find the petitions John Wyman had made, as well as that of John Seers.

To be continued...