Jeremiah Austin (1662 - 1754)

Born 1662 in Kingstown, County of Providence Plantations, Rhode Island Colony, British Colonial America

Descendants

Died 6 Mar 1754 at about age 92 in Exeter, Kings, Rhode Island Colony, British Colonial America

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Biography

Jeremiah Austin, son of Robert resided at Kingstown, Exeter, RI.

On 6 September 1687, Jeremiah Austin is cited on Gov. Andros' tax roll at Rochester (renamed later to Kingstown), Rhode Island owing a “pole” (poll) tax of 1s, and a property tax of 0s 0d, which places him as an adult, male resident, but NOT a property landholder in Kingstown, RI on this date. ^[1] This tax roll identifies a sum total of 136 heads of house living in the roughly 22.5 square mile area associated with Kingstown, RI on this date in 1687; one consequence of this sparse population is that he would have been well acquainted with many, if not all, of the individuals identified on this list. Therefore, this tax list is a defacto definition of the people who were available to be his friends, neighbors, and allies; it would be essential to cultivate strong working relationships with these neighbors in order to survive on this frontier landscape. This cross reference tool provides hot links to peruse most of the 136 Wikitree families identified in this tax roll; families who were very frequently interconnected, or became interconnected, by marriage, over the course of their lives and throughout the ensuing generations, further binding a network of neighbors into extended families. ^[2] His brother Edward is also appears on this 1687 tax list, but his father, Robert does not.

In 1720, he and son Jeremiah, Jr. attended town meeting. This year the town was divided into North & South Kingstown. Twenty years later Exeter was set off from N. Kingstown, and Jeremiah Austin, though found successively in three towns, may yet have lived on one piece of land.^[3]

His Will, dated 6 Mar 1752,^[4] proved 1754 lists executrix, wife Elizabeth. He signed by mark, perhaps through infirmity of age, for he calls himself weak "Weak in body and well striken in years." "To wife Elizabeth, two feather beds, iron pot, all the pewter, two iron kettles, and all movable estate." He mentions no real estate, which had perhaps already been deeded to his children.^[5]

Sources

Footnotes

1. ↑ Roberts, Gary Boyd; Genealogies of Rhode Island Families, Vol. II, Niles - Wilson; Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore 1989. RI Taxes under Gov. Andros pages 592- 594.
2. ↑ Randolph Beebe; Cross Reference: Gov. Andros 1687 Rochester RI Tax Register to Wikitree profile; Wikitree Free Space Profiles, 2024.
3. ↑ Baker, M. S. C. (1928). Genealogical record of Robert Austin and his lineal descendants.10-11
4. ↑ Rhode Island, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1582-1932 image 193-120, Exeter Town Council and Probate, Book 1, 1746-1756, page 185-186.
5. ↑ Moore, Edith Austin. 1951. A Genealogy of the Descendants of Robert Austin of Kingstown, Rhode Island. St. Petersburg, Fla. p.437

See also:

• Families Association of America profile for Robert Austin

• Ancestry Profile Many sources included. Jeremiah Austin, born 1664 in England. Died 6 Mar 1754 in Kingston RI.

• Austin, John Osborne. 1887. The Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island, Comprising Three Generations of Settlers Who Came before 1690 (with Many Families Carried to the Fourth Generation). Albany, N.Y.: J. Munsell’s Sons.