Author: Banks, Charles Edward Title: "The Planters of the Commonwealth: 1620-1640 Passengers and Ships" Publication: 13 Feb 2001 Text: 16 Sep 1632, LYON, William Pierce, Master. She left London June 22 and arrived September 16 at Boston. 'He brought one hundred and twenty three passengers, whereof fifty children, all in health." One of them was John Browne, our ancestor. However, according to the ship's passenger list the Browne family was made up of Browne, John and wife Dorothy, children Mary, John, James and William . It's unlikely the John Browne on that voyage was only a year old as he is listed before James and William. Also, bearing his father's name, it's more likely he was the firstborn son. Since most people breastfed in those days making babies usually 2 years apart, that would make John at least four years old with a birth year of 1628 or earlier.
1632 Came to Boston aboard the ship Lyon, presumably with his parents. - Savage Dictionary (SD)
Settled at Cambridge in the part of town called Menotomy but now is Arlington. G & C(Gustin & Carlisle)
24 Apr 1655 John Browne married Esther Makepeace, daughter of Thomas and Alice, in Cambridge. John was called a Scotsman. (SD) He and Esther had 4 children at Cambridge. (Including our ancestor Elizabeth) Joseph, eldest child, was run over and killed at age of 15. The 2 others are Sarah and Mary.
1662 - Moved to Malboro MA. - Gustine Courson Weaver (GCW)
27 Oct 1665 sold his estate in Menotomy (a part of the town of Cambridge) and 4 days later purchased land in Marlboro. In that deed of purchase he is called a Scotsman. G&C
1666 At the time of the death of Thomas Makepeace, John is referred to as "of Marlborough." (SD)
Seven more children were born to the couple in Marlborough.Dec 1667 Twins Ruth and Esther are born but live only a week.
1671 Eldest son Joseph is run over and dies.
1675-76 King Philip's War - Massasoit, sachem of the Wampanoag tribe, brought food to sustain the newcomers through their first winter and helped them adjust to life in this strange, new world. As more and more colonists flooded into New England, strains in the relationship began to appear. The English were convinced that the various tribes should be under colonial control. Unless the Amerindians were willing to surrender their independence, conflict was inevitable. Finally, in 1675, the battle was joined. Massasoit's son, Metacomet, called Philip by the English, led his tribe into a final struggle. In 1676, the battle was over. Philip was slain, his body drawn and quartered, and his head paraded in triumph in Plymouth. Philip's son, Massasoit's grandson, was sold into slavery in Bermuda. The generosity of Massasoit in 1620 indirectly resulted in the enslavement of his grandson 56 years later.
He sold his farm in Marlboro to Thomas Rice about the time of King Philip's War. (GCW)
1677 lived for a short time in the Bass River section of Salem called Beverly. (G&C) (I think that was a different John Brown.)
1678 Moved to Falmouth, now Portland, Maine. His newly married daughter, Elizabeth, and husband John Gustin, came with them. He sold his farm in Marlboro to Thomas Rice. (G&C)
1680 received a grant of land in Falmouth for service in KIng Philip's War. (G&C)
1683 he served on a grand jury. - Genealogical dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire. (GMNH)
1687 served as selectman. (GMNH)
1690 - Machigonne, now Portland, Me., was settled first by George Cleaves and Richard Tucker, Mrs. Cleaves and daughter and a servant, in 1633. The settlement was entirely destroyed by the Indians in 1676, resettled under President Danforth in 1680, and again destroyed by French and Indians in 1690. King William's war, "the second Indian War" of John Lane's deposition, broke out in 1686. The Indians alleged grievances of their own. They began reprisals at North Yarmouth by killing cattle and in a few instances persons. Samuel and Henry Lane testify to being molested in their house July 26, 1688. Justice Benjamin Blackman ordered sixteen Indians to be seized and kept under guard at Casco, but others continued to rob and capture the inhabitants. In September, 1689, seven hundred French and Indians attacked the fort at Casco which was successfully defended by Col. Benjamin Church and his forces, and probably saved the Maine settlement from absolute ruin. On May 17, the following year, 1690, an expedition from Quebec dismantled three forts at Falmouth (now Portland, Maine), killed and captured one hundred inhabitants and destroyed the town. The slain had no funeral ceremonies and were left unburied until the next year. After the destruction of Falmouth the eastern plantations were deserted. Maine, a second time, was nearly abandoned of English settlements. The fugitives took refuge first on Jewell's, then on Richmond's island to await earliest transportation, some for Pascataqua, some for Boston and some for Salem. From Casco Bay to Pemaquid not one English plantation remained.
John Brown and his family were lucky to escape and came to Watertown near Boston. (G&C)20 Nov1697 John's will is dated. place: Watertown.
Named in the will are: (GCW)
wife Esther
son John
son Thomas
son Daniel
son Joseph
Jeremiah Meacham - married to dau. Deborah
son-in-law John Gustin married to dau. Elizabeth
John Adams married to dau Sarah
Thomas Darley (or Darby) - husband of dau Mary
John Hartshorn - husband of dau Abigail
March 22, 2005
Dear Sarah, Hannah, Tim, and Becky
Tonight I'm going to tell you about our ancestor John Browne, who was a Pilgrim, and was in a war of which you probably never heard.
THE JOHN BROWNE STORY
1628 1702
Scotland Massachusetts
John Browne and his family were Pilgrims. They came to America aboard the ship Lyon from London in 1632. Besides John there were his father and mother, John and Dorothy Browne, his sister Mary, and his brothers James, and William. John was probably between four and six years old at that time. The family settled in Watertown which is right near Boston. Their part of town was called Menotomy then. Now it's called Arlington. When the Browne family arrived first in Boston and then in Menotomy it didn't look anything like it does now. It had only been a little over ten years since the arrival of the first Pilgrims on the ship Mayflower. The country was still very wild and full of forests with a few villages and farm fields carved out. The first house the Browne's built was probably made of bark and branches with a roof of straw and vines. Most pilgrim houses had one large room with a fireplace and a smaller room up a ladder where people slept. All the houses in the village were surrounded by a tall fence called a palisade. John and his sister and brothers didn't have to go to school because there probably was no school to go to. Their parents or other adults taught them. But they didn't get to play all day either. As soon as they were past infancy they worked all day long right along with their parents. A job for a small boy might have been to throw rocks at the birds that wanted to eat the newly planted seeds. As he grew older John gathered firewood, milked the goats, learned to hunt and trap animals, and to harvest the crops. Mary learned to cook and to sew. She helped to make soap and candles. Candles were very important because there was no electricity. When Sunday came the family went to church all day long. The children had to sit very still on a hard bench. They had worked very hard all week. Do you think they minded being so still on Sunday?
When John grew up he married Esther/Hester Makepeace in February of 1655. They had four children in Menotomy, Joseph, Elizabeth, Sarah, and Mary. Then, soon after Mary was born in 1662, they moved further west to the new village of Marlboro which is about 20 miles west of Boston. Here they had John, Esther/Hester, Ruth, Thomas, Daniel, Deborah, Abigail, and Joseph. Do you wonder why they had two Josephs? The reason is very sad. When the first Joseph was 15 years old he was in a terrible accident. He was run over by a horse cart and died. They must have really liked the name Joseph because the next time they had a little boy they named him Joseph. Another tragedy was that their babies Esther/Hester and Ruth both died soon after birth. I believe they were twins.
Here comes the part about the war you never heard of; King Philip's War. Massasoit was a Wampanoag Indian chief who had helped the Pilgrims when they had first landed in America. The Pilgrims had helped Massasoit as well and once saved his life when he was ill. As long as Massasoit was alive, he and the Pilgrims got along well. But not all the Indians liked the Pilgrims. They saw the white men cutting down their forests and killing all the wild game which the Indians needed to live. Some of the Pilgrims cheated the Indians and were cruel. Many Indians were very angry. One of the angry ones was Philip, the second son of Massasoit. Other Indian tribes joined King Philip and a terrible war was begun, King Philip's War. The Indians would hide in the forest until night and then swoop down on a small village or lonely cabin, burning homes and killing as many people as they could. Not all Indians fought against the colonists. Many fought right by their side. It was a very bloody war. One in every ten soldiers on both sides was either killed or injured. When it was over many Indians who had fought with Philip as well as their wives and families were sold into slavery. One of the towns they destroyed was Falmouth. Falmouth was in a part of the Massachusetts Colony that is now Maine and the city there now is Portland, Maine. Our ancestor John Browne, who fought in King Philip's War, was given land in Falmouth as payment for his service as a soldier.
By this time it was about 1680. John and Esther/Hester's oldest daughter, Elizabeth Browne, had grown up and married John Gustin. (Elizabeth and John are also our ancestors. More about them later.) So the Browne family along with Elizabeth and John Gustin, packed up their belongings and moved to Falmouth. They lived there for about ten years when, guess what? Another war!
King Williams War began because of events in Europe. King James came to power in England in 1685. He was Catholic and most of his subjects were Protestant. They did not like being forced into the Catholic Church. They made life so unpleasant for their new king that he ran away to France, which was Catholic. The King of France took up James' cause and started a war with England. In America, there were the English colonies and then there was Canada which was made up of French colonies. The Canadian governor, Frontenac, stirred up the frontier Indians against the English colonists once again, mostly in the present day areas of New Hampshire and Maine. The Indians perpetrated several very bloody massacres, one of them in the village of Falmouth. All the Brownes and the Gustins were very lucky to escape with their lives. This second destruction of Falmouth by Indians happened in about 1690.
The Browne family came back near Boston and settled in Watertown. Perhaps they had had enough of living on the frontier and dealing with Indians. John's will, dated 20 Nov 1697, lists his wife, four sons, and five sons-in-law.
Our Pilgrim ancestor, John Browne, was a part of the early settling of colonial America. He was a pioneer in Marlboro and again in Falmouth. He and his wife raised nine children to adulthood and endured the tragedy of losing three in infancy or childhood. He fought the Indians in King Philip's War and rescued his family from massacre in King William's War. We are very proud of our ancestor, John Browne.
John Browne was your ninth-great-grandfather. John Browne was the father of Elizabeth Browne. Elizabeth was the mother of Thomas Gustin. Thomas was the father of Thomas Gustin Jr. Thomas Gustin Jr. was the father of Elizabeth Gustin. Elizabeth Gustin was the mother of Rodolphus Derrick. (Do you remember him? He wrote a journal of his year's adventure traveling down the Ohio River to explore Illinois.) Rodolphus was the father of Franklin H. Derrick. Franklin H. was the father of Mary Derrick. (Never forget Mary Derrick!) Mary was the mother of Flora Balis. Flora was the mother of Harold Stevens. Harold was the father of Paul Stevens. Paul is the father of Dawne Stevens. Dawne is the mother of . . . Sarah, Hannah, Timmy, and Becky! And that's how we are related to John Browne.
Love, Granny
PROBLEMS:It does not appear to me that our John Browne fits in with any of the Browne's described in the Savage Dictionary. A researcher by the name of Bond cites a deed in which John Browne is described as a Scotsman. Therefore, I am dissociating Our John Browne, husband of Hester Makepeace from any former generations.
December 5, 2009
Dear Children,
Tonight I shall share a story about one of your earliest ancestors in America. She was:
Esther /Hester/ Makepeace
b. 1634 England
d. unknown date, BostonThe reason she has two names is that some places it is written Hester and other places Esther. I'm just going to call her Esther. She was born in Bristol, England and came to America with her father, probably after her mother died in about 1638. In 1655 she married John Browne, the Scotsman. You can read all about their life together in his story. It was an exciting life.
What I want you to remember about Esther is how her family came by the name of “Makepeace.” This is the story as written down in a book called "The Gustin and Carlisle Genealogy", by Lester C. Gustin, 1954, Modern Press, Newton, MA:
“ There was a legend that a certain Scottish King desired to marry a princess of England at a time the two countries were at war with one another. The princess agreed to marry the king provided a peace between the two countries was made. This was done and the family of the princess was known henceforth as the Make-peace family. The heroine of this story was Joan, sister of King Henry III of England, and the name Make-peace was given by the Scotch, because of her betrothal to their monarch, by which peace was brought about by the two countries.”
So never think that what you do can't make a big difference in the world. I suppose it helps if you're a princess!Love,
Granny
Marriage Notes for John Browne and Esther\Hester MAKEPEACE-1094
marriage by Captain Humphrey Atherton
This person is dead.
This person is dead.
This person is dead.
This is what my cousin Yvonne wrote about her g grandmother: She married my g grandfather in
Quebec and moved to Michigan, then Wisconson.She is
William Braden's Mother. Philomena,s mother was
North American Native and Her father was French fur
Trader. Philomena was married to Samual Braden. who
came from Lewes in England.
This person is dead.
Per Wm. Braden Obit. Sam is "of Davenport, Iowa"
This person is dead.
Per Wm. Braden Obit. James is "of Burlingame, California"
This person is dead.
Per Wm. Braden Obit. Joseph is "of Elma, Wn."
1836, and removed to St. Johnsbury on the sixteenth of the same month. He located on the farm purchased of Maj. Daniel Pierce. Maj. Pierce was its first owner, taking it when a dense wilderness, in 1792, and made it his home until conveyed to Mr. Allen. from:http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~vermont/CaledoniaStJohnsbury.html
I assigned the town Westmoreland, Cheshire County, NH on the basis of his father's enlistment from there during the revolutionary War. See sources for Daniel Pierce (b. 1742)