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Thomas Merrifield (1708)

Thomas Merrifield
Born in Boston, Suffok, Massachusettsmap
Ancestors ancestors
Husband of — married 12 Jul 1732 in Groton, Middlesex, Province of Massachusetts Baymap
Descendants descendants
Died [date unknown] [location unknown]
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Profile last modified | Created 26 Oct 2010
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Biography

Thomas Merrefeeld, son of Joseph Merrefeeld & Margaret, was born on 8 August 1708 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States.[1][2]

Thomas Merryfield married Mary Anderson on 12 July 1732 in Groton, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony.[3]


From the Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Worcester County, Massachusetts:

Thomas Merrifield was an ancestor of Harriette (Merrifield) Forbes, wife of Hon. William Trowbridge Forbes, of Worcester, Massachusetts. His ancestry is not fully proved. It is possible that he was that Thomas born in Boston August 8, 1708, son of Joseph and Margaret (Warden) Merrifield.
Thomas Merrifield lived in Dedham certainly from 1736 to 1752, the dates of birth of the first and last of his children recorded on the town records. No record of his death has been found. He married, in Groton, Massachusetts, July 12, 1732, Mary, born in Watertown August 29, 1711, daughter of John and Rebecca (Waight) Anderson. Her father was a Scotchman; her mother a daughter of John and Mary (Woodward) Waight, descended respectively from Richard Waite (1) and George Woodward (Richard 1), both of Watertown.[4]

MERRIFIELD from the The Genealogical History of Dover, Massachusetts.[5]
Thomas Merrifield (with his wife Mary) was an early settler in the Springfield Parish, but the date of his coming, or the exact site of his house is unknown. He was one of the petitioners for the organization of the Parish in 1748 and was seated in the meeting-house with his son Timothy in 1769. Soon after he appears as a public charge and it is assumed that he met with an accident or had a severe illness. He was living in Dover in 1784.
A reference to his home is made in a mortgage deed given in 1776 by Aaron Whiting and Theodore Newell to Amos Adams on a forty-acre farm and buildings bounded south by the road leading to the Springfield meeting-house "excepting and reserving 1 acre upon which Thomas Merrifield's house now stands." The house lot of his son Timothy is referred to in a description of the dower of Lois Draper made in 1786, "excepting and reserving 12 rods square where the house of Timothy Merrifield did stand which is within the said bounds." Both places are believed to have been on Farm street. The town has had a remarkably small number of persons who have asked for aid, as shown by the records of the town. Those who became a public charge, for the most part, either bore the infirmities of age or had been incapacitated by the misfortunes or accidents of life.
The enumeration of supplies furnished the poor in the necessaries of life--wood, sometimes 5 cord lots, milk, rice, beef, salt pork, boots, shoes and clothing, shows that they were well supplied--and the payment of doctor's bills shows that they were well cared for.
Children:[6]
Sarah, b. Sept. 27, 1736 in Dedham, Norfolk County, Massachusetts.
Timothy, b. Jan. 4, 1739 in Dedham, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, m. May 22, 1766, Lydia Cheney, m. 2ndly, June 10, 1772, Mercy Perry, Sherborn.
Asaph, b. Jan. 2, 1741 in Dedham, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, m. Feb. 2, 1764, Abigail Richardson.
Phebe, b. Aug. 7, 1742 in Dedham, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, m. Feb. 20, 1766, Seth Ellis, Medway.
Hannah, b. Sept. 14, 1745 in Dedham, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Int. of m. 1768 with John Ranstead.
Simeon b. Aug. 7, 1747 in Dedham, Norfolk County, Massachusetts.
Abraham, b. May 7, 1749 in Dedham, Norfolk County, Massachusetts.
Mabel, b. Feb. 2, 1752 in Dedham, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, m. Oct. 9, 1771, John Wight.

From City Documents, Reports to Boston City Commissioner.[7]

Thomas Merryfield removed from Westfield, Mass., and carried all his possessions on a horse to the mountains of Becket, where he built a large three-storied house that is still standing. He is said to have been an Englishman; his wife of Irish nativity. But they were not contented, and after having ten children exchanged the farm for new land in Ohio, then called the "Western Reserve," and with slow-moving team, in company with relatives and neighbors, migrated to the then "far West." An old, discolored letter forwarded by a member of the family, written in 1859 by a woman in her 75th year, throws much light on the domestic life of those who went West at that time. It shows that Thomas Merryfield had served in the "old Revolutionary war" and was at Bunker Hill; that others of the family, sons of Thomas, were in the war of 1812; that one of the sons was named JOHN and another JUSTICE; that another son, CHARLES, had sold out in Ohio and removed to Michigan, where he owned land and a saw-mill; that her husband, whose name was (I suppose) John, was drafted in Becket, Mass., and went as far as Lenox; that he hired a substitute to go in his place, who was wounded in the legs at Saratoga and went with a stick three years. She mentions a wagon load of soldiers that left Thomas Merryfield's house in Becket and went toward the seaport; writes that the farmers of Ohio had suffered from frost and as cows were drying up for want of feed they talked of driving them out on the prairies. She has "broke her specks" and cannot see well; wants to "git enough money to buy a garden spot and house with one room and a butry and bedroom"; had purchased a lot "clost by the meetin'-house" and was to have lived with another "widder woman," but her children "made such a row" because she did not live with them that she consented to do so if they would furnish a good room and make her comfortable. When she lives with THOMAS she is often left alone, and so far from neighbors that she cannot make any one hear; wanted to live with WILSON, but his health was poor, his wife "narvous" and heavy doctor's bills must be paid. This son had a daughter 20 years of age, one 17, and a son, aged 25, who had settled in southern Ohio; said she could "spin at the great wheel" as well as when young. There is much in this old epistle that I cannot quote, but its perusal suggests that there is a "skeleton in the closet" in every land, in every domestic circle. From what we have gleaned from the letter and correspondence with a venerable member of the family in Springfield.

Sources

  1. Birth: "Massachusetts, Births, 1636-1924"
    citing FHL microfilm: 14734; Record number: 42;
    FamilySearch Record: F4DK-B8B (accessed 21 July 2023)
    FamilySearch Image: S3HY-DZ4S-SDZ Image number 00034
    Thomas Merrefeeld born on 8 Aug 1708, son of Joseph Merrefeeld & Margaret, in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States.
  2. Birth: "The Merrifield family in America"
    Original data: Merrifield, Flora Lincoln,. The Merrifield family in America : with special attention to the descendants of Francis Elliot Merrifield and Sarah Cook Kimball Merrifield. unknown: The Merrifield Cousins, 1967
    Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 28500 #7 (accessed 21 July 2023)
  3. Marriage: "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001"
    citing Marriage, Groton, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston; FHL microfilm 004198966.
    FamilySearch Record: FCSC-SBQ (accessed 21 July 2023)
    FamilySearch Image: 3QS7-L9QY-H3ZC Image number 00277
    Thomas Merryfield marriage to Mary Anderson on 12 Jul 1732 in Groton, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony.
  4. Crane, Ellery Bicknell. Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Worcester County, Massachusetts (Lewis Pub. Co., New York & Chicago, 1907) Vol. 1, Page 354.
  5. Smith, Frank. The Genealogical History of Dover, Massachusetts: Tracing All Families Previous to 1850, and Many Families that Have Lived in the Town Since, with an Account of the Habits and Customs of the People ( The Genealogical History of Dover, Massachusetts. 1917) Page 174
  6. Massachusetts Births Children of Thomas and Mary Merifield
  7. City Documents, Reports to Boston City Commissioner.
    Records from 1630 to 1850
    City Document 43. Page 57
    State Of Massachusetts, Middlesex County, Massachusetts; Author: Salem Massachusetts, Essex Institute; Publication: 1926-1927; Page 115


This person was created through the import of Allen-Patterson & Allied Families.GED on 26 October 2010.





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