John Goffe 4th (1701 - abt. 1781)

Born 15 Mar 1701 in Londonderry, New Hampshire

Ancestors

Husband of Hannah (Griggs) Goffe — married 16 Oct 1722 in Roxbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Descendants

Died about 20 Oct 1781 at about age 80 in Bedford, Hillsborough, New Hampshire, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: William Wires [send private message]

Biography

Colonel John GOFFE was born about 1720. Hunter Goffe; Continental Army

• religion > Paster Increase Mather (Matthew) North Church” baptized Mar 25, 1701 Congregational ‘Puritan’. Increase Mather, is the name of the second minister of this wooden structure [called a meeting house within the community] they, the members of the main religion of the English immigrants in the Boston area called it their church. The Congregationalists founded this building on the North square across the street from what is now called Paul Revere’s house. John Mayo was installed as the first Minister in 1655 & continued until 1673 when because of old age, he was replaced by ‘Increase Mather’ his close associate. This church was dismantled and burned for firewood by the British soldiers during the occupation of Boston 1775. The New England Churches were mostly protestant; Congregationalist, Quaker, Presbyterian or Puritan, also known as Purists, they all had issue with the British Anglican Church. Hence probably the burning!
• First > Chief Passaconaway (was believed to be Chief of Chiefs, and to have been born between 1550 and 1570 and is said to have died in 1679; he was Chief of the Penacooks, loved to fish in the Cohas Brook. In 1663 a tract of land was deeded to Passaconaway by Governor John Endicott of the General Court in Boston, Massachusetts starting in what is now Litchfield, a mile and a half on either side of the Merrimack River and ending at the Cohas Brook. Chief Passacoaway is an interesting read…Look him up!
• Then in 1722 along comes our Gpa. Col. John Goffe who migrated with his family from the historic Nutfield community and settled north of the Cohas on the Merrimack River. He was the first deeded landowner in what is now Manchester NH. He was Manchester's first Moderator. This neighborhood community assumed his name. John Goffe was also one of the justices of the NH court, and first judge of probate for Hillsborough County; he was one of the early settlers of Goffe’s Falls, on the Merrimack River, living at different times on both sides of the stream, learning to live among the Indians and the mystics of Chief Passaconaway.
• Two of his mother's sisters [Griggs] and their mother were massacred by the Indians about 1691 at Dunstable, now Nashua. His mother and her youngest sister hid under a hogshead in the cellar, and thus were saved.
• Colonel John Goffe: See a Sketch by his Great-Grandson ‘Gordon Woodbury’, Manchester, NH 1899

Alternate Death Date

October 20, 1786 in Bedford, NH

Notes

Military Service - He was with Lovewell in his expedition in 1725 to attack the Pequauquauke (Pequawhet). He was left as part of the guard at the camp on Lake Ossipee and so survived the disaster that befell Lovewell and the main force.

Public - Between 1728 and 1732 Londonderry, Rockingham County, NH - active in various town offices.

Military Service - Between 1745 and 1748. In 1745 during King George's War he commanded a company of scouts to protect the Merrimack Valley from Indian incursions, and also marched companies into the wilderness in 1746, '47 and '48.

Military Service - Between 1755 and 1760 John Goffe was involved with New Hampshire regiments throughout the French and Indian War. At the outbreak of the war he was a Captain in a company of the First New Hampshire regiment. He was with the NH regiment in the Crown Point expedition of 1755.

Public - Between 1762 and 1777 - served in provincial and state legislature for all but one year between 1762 and 1777. Served as judge of the probate court from the County of Hillsborough from 1771-1775.

John was born in 1701. He passed away in 1786.

Burial

Old Bedford Cemetery, Bedford, Hillsborough, New Hampshire

Sources

• "New Hampshire Marriages, 1720-1920," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FDLM-R36 : 31 December 2014), John Goffe and Hannah Grigs, 16 Oct 1722; citing reference 2:3XV1QP0; FHL microfilm 1,000,995. Hannah GRIGGS 16 OCT 1722 in New Hampshire.
• Manchester Historic Association Collections (J. B. Clarke Co., Manchester, N.H., 1897) Vol. 1, Page 233-72
• Find A Grave: Memorial #32752429
• Stearns, Ezra Scollay. Lovewell's Men, The New England Historical & Genealogical Register (NEHGS, Boston, 1909) Vol. 63, Page 295. He died 20 Oct 1788.