Sandwich Massachusetts

Ancestry of the Jennings Family from Fall River, Massachusetts

Several persons bearing the name Jennings (variously spelled) located in Massachusetts in its early settlement. Richard Jennings put himself as apprentice to Robert Bartlett, of Plymouth, in 1635, for a period of years. He is said to have lived at Sandwich, whence he moved to Bridgewater, and had a family of children. The Jennings family was long prominent and highly respected in the town of Sandwich, but in time became practically extinct there. Thomas Jennings was an early settler in Portsmouth, R. I. It is, however, the purpose to refer here to the special Fall River family of the name the head of which was the late William H. Jennings. The latter was a descendant in the seventh generation from John Jennings of Sandwich, Mass., from whom his descent is through Isaac, John, Isaac, Isaac and Andrew M. Jennings. These generations follow in the order named.

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Ancestors of the Rufus W. Bassett Family of Fall River, Massachusetts

The family bearing this name in Fall River, to which belonged the late Hon. Rufus W. Bassett, long prominent in business and public affairs, for years a member of the board of police and much of the time its chairman, is a branch of the earlier Taunton family, it of the still earlier Rochester branch of the distinguished Bassetts of the Cape Cod towns of the Old Colony.

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Ancestry of Henry Huttleston Rogers of Fairhaven Massachusetts

Henry Huttleston Rogers, Fairhaven’s most distinguished son, was born there Jan. 29, 1840, and died May 19, 1909, in New York City. Of typical New England stock and Old Colony antecedents, his continued identity with Fairhaven made him dearly beloved in that community. The Rogers family is, perhaps, one of the most ancient and numerous of the old settled families in the country. There were no less than a dozen who bore the name of John Rogers among the seventeenth century emigrants, and one of this Christian name was president of Harvard College in the latter part of that century. It is the purpose in this article to deal, briefly, with only one of the New England Rogers families – that of which Henry Huttleston Rogers was a representative.

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Descendants of William Swift of New Bedford, MA

For an hundred years and more the Swift family in and about New Bedford has been one of prominence, wealthy and influential not only in their several local communities but out through the Commonwealth and into the nation, where their extensive enterprises have extended. These Acushnet-New Bedford Swifts, a branch of the Cape Cod family, brought to their new field of effort that activity, industry, ability and honesty that had for generations characterized their forefathers and also the line of business that had enriched earlier generations in the old home section – the dealing in live oak timber and its manufacture into water craft, in shipbuilding for not only the United States government, but for those across the water. Reference is here made especially to some of the sons, grandsons and great-grandsons of William Swift, of the town of Falmouth, this Commonwealth, among whose sons were Hon. Elijah, Thomas, William, John and Reuben E.; and among the sons of the latter Rodolphus Nye and William Cole Nye Swift, who with their sons together and in turn figured most prominently in and about New Bedford and abroad, as intimated; and some of their sons are yet active here and in the Massachusetts metropolis.

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Descendants of Thomas Tobey of Sandwich, MA

The earliest record of a Toby or Tobey in our American annals is that of one Francis of Boston, who was in court on July 7, 1635.

The first known and credited ancestor of this family was Thomas Tobey, of Scituate, Mass. He removed to Sandwich, Mass., and was a member of church there in 1694. He married at Sandwich Nov. 18, 1650, Martha Knott, daughter of George Knott, deceased

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Ancestry of the Mortons of East Freetown, Bristol County, Massachusetts

The Mortons of East Freetown, Bristol Co., Mass., formerly quite numerous in that vicinity, but not now represented by many of the name, are the posterity of Maj. Nathaniel Morton and descendants of the eminent George Morton.

George Morton, born about 1585, at Austerfield, Yorkshire, England, came to New England in the ship “Ann” in 1623. He had married in Leyden, in 1612, Juliana Carpenter, daughter of Alexander Carpenter, of Wrentham, England. He is said to have served the Pilgrims in important relations before coming to this country, and published in England in 1621 the first history of the Colony, which was entitled “A Relation or Journal of the Beginning and Proceedings of the English Plantation settled at Plymouth in New England.” It is commonly known as “Mourt’s Relation.” He died in 1624.

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Ancestry of Hon. Willard Nye of New Bedford, Massachusetts

Nye (New Bedford family). The family of this name in New Bedford, the head of which was the Hon. Willard Nye (deceased), one of the successful business men and substantial citizens of the city, prominent in public affairs, at one time mayor, is a branch of the ancient Nye family of Sandwich, Mass., where members in the line of the deceased just alluded to were long prominent. A sketch of Mr. Nye, with his Nye lineage, traced back to the immigrant settler, follows.

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Descendants of John McCullough of New Bedford MA

The McCullough family is of Irish extraction. Patrick McCullough, grandfather of John McCullough, was a native of the parish of Altacamicussey, County Tyrone, Ireland, where he lived and died. He followed farming. He married Mary Conway, who was a native of the same county, and their son, John McCullough, was born on a farm in Altacamicussey, County Tyrone, June 15, 1821. There he grew to manhood, and what little education he received was obtained in the local school. Meantime he worked at farm labor and also obtained some knowledge of the mason’s trade. He there married about 1845 Alice Devlin, who was a native of the parish of Pallough, County Tyrone, and daughter of Michael and Annie Devlin. In the spring of 1847, with his wife and an infant son, he sailed for the New World, making the trip on a sailing vessel bound for New York. After a passage of six weeks they landed at that port, where they remained three months, during which time they lost their first-born, the infant son mentioned.

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Descendants of William Swift of Sandwich, MA

William Swift, the founder of the family on Cape Cod, was a native of Bocking, County of Essex, England, and came to New England in 1634, stopping first at Watertown, of which he was a proprietor in 1636. He sold his property there in 1637 and removed to Sandwich, where he spent the remainder of his life and where he died about 1641. His wife Joan bore him two children, William and Hannah, and after the death of her husband she married Daniel Wing, Nov. 5, 1642. She died Jan. 31, 1664.

William Swift (2), son of William, born in England, came to the New World with his parents and settled at Sandwich, Barnstable county. He represented his town in the General Court, 1673, 1674, 1677 and 1678. He died in the latter part of 1705.

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Descendants of John Washburn of Duxbury, MA

The Washburn name in this country is a distinguished one. Perhaps it is as yet only a tradition that John Washburn, the ancestor of the Washburns here considered, was he who first served as secretary of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Several governors of our States have borne the Washburn name and at one and the same time four of the name occupied seats in the United States Congress. And the branch of the Massachusetts Washburns seated in Middleboro and vicinity have borne no small part in the annals of the Old Colony and later Commonwealth. Capt. Amos Washburn was in command of a company in the American Revolution; one of his sons, a graduate of Harvard, was a talented lawyer at Middleboro; Edward Washburn, brother of Capt. Amos, was another patriot in the Continental army; and his son, Gen. Abiel Washburn, was one of the leading men of his time in Middleboro, the acknowledged leader of the Federal party, and for thirty-six years held commissions through the different grades of office in the State militia; while Luther, Cyrus and the late Bradford Sumner Washburn, in turn, were substantial citizens of the town, and the latter’s son, Judge Nathan Washburn, lawyer and present Justice of the Courts of Plymouth county, is giving a good account of himself.

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Allen Genealogy of New Bedford Massachusetts

The Allen family of New Bedford Massachusetts is descended from George Allen who’s children and descendants would eventually settle in Old Dartmouth and New Bedford Massachusetts. This is an extensive genealogy of five sons of the fourteen children of James Allen and Sarah Howland of New Bedford MA, including the ancestry of James Allen back to George Allen.

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