Samuel Morse II (1687 - 1735)

Born 4 Jun 1687 in Sherborn, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Ancestors

Husband of Mary (Lovewell) Morse — married 13 Jan 1713 in Cambridge, Middlesex, Province of Massachusetts Bay

Descendants

Died 10 Oct 1735 at age 48 in Needham, Suffolk, Province of Massachusetts Bay

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Hayward Houghton [send private message] and Caroline Morse [send private message]

Biography

Samuel, eldest son of Samuel and Deborah (Herring) Morse, was born in Sherborn MA on 4 June 1687.^[1] His father died in 1704 when Sam was a teenager.

He married in Sherborne on January 13, 1712/13, MARY LOVEWELL [alias Mary Cook] of Watertown.^[2] She was the 17-year-old daughter of Joseph and Mary’ (___) Lovewell.^[3] She lived in that part of Watertown which in 1713 became Weston. As a young girl, she is said to have lived with her aunt Phebe and uncle Andrew Cook, whose farm adjoined her parents, and thus became known as Mary Cook.^[4] [Samuel's sister Deborah married Mary's brother Joseph Lovewell and settled on the Lovewell farm in Weston.]

Samuel establish his farm on 150 acres he inherited from his father in what was called the Needham Leg. His home was southwest of the present intersection of Walnut and Bacon streets on what is now Walnut Hill in present Natick.^[5] [The area known as the Needham Leg was separated off from Dedham in 1711 when Needham was established and years later was annexed to Natick.]

The six families living in Needham Leg decided they wanted to attend the closer Natick church rather than the church in Needham^[6] and in 1724 Samuel and his neighbors Timothy Bacon [m. [sister] Martha Morse], Stephen Bacon, John Underwood, Thomas Frost and John Goodenow petitioned the court to have the Leg separated off from Needham and attached to Natick.^[7] At that time a survey was taken showing the location of the six homes. [This request began a controversy which lasted over seventy years: in 1743 the Leg was attached to Natick, in 1761 it was rejoined to Needham and in 1797 it was permanently annexed to Natick.^[8]]

Samuel died on October 10,1735. He did not leave a will. The court appointed Mary and her brother Jo­seph Lovewell administrators. The inventory of the estate was taken on April 5, 1736 by John Goodenow, Timothy Bacon and Ebenezer Fitch and appraised at £1361, of which the house and land in Needham (Leg) was valued at £1000, his meadow in Natick (the land called Waban which he inherited?) at £200 and his husbandry tools at £20. It was submitted to the court in Boston by the administrators on July 6, 1736.^[9]

The homestead, in 1739, was described as being 90 acres. This may have been the remainder after the widow's dower (1/3) was set off. In 1741, rather than divide the land, eldest son Samuel Jr. was given the entire estate on con­dition that he pay £77, with an additional £38 at the death of his mother, to each of his brothers and sisters: Deborah Sadler, Mary Morse, Miriam Morse, Joseph Morse, Amos Morse, Benjamin Morse, and Sarah Morse.^[10]

Mary never remarried. She died at the advanced age of 92 on November 20, 1787.^[11]

For the location of his home see Map 12, p.150; for a copy of the survey map taken in 1724 showing the location of his farm see Map 13, p.151, and for a Representative Map of Needham including the Neck, see Map 14, p.152 in ^[12].

Children:^[13]

DEBORAH MORSE (Aug 23 1715- )

SAMUEL MORSE Jr. (Jun 7 1717- )

MARY MORSE (Jul 29 1720- )

JOSEPH MORSE (1st) (Mar 12 1723-Oct 18 1725)

MIRIAM MORSE (Jun 17 1725- )

JOSEPH MORSE (2nd) (Mar 30 1727- )

AMOS MORSE (Jul 8 1729- ).

BENJAMIN MORSE (Oct 4 1731- )

SARAH MORSE (May 28 1734- )

Sources

• Suffolk County, MA: Probate File Papers.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2017-2019. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives. Digitized mages provided by FamilySearch.org). Case 6841: Division of estate.

1. ↑ Sherborn vital records, p.69: of Sam. & Deb..
2. ↑ Sherborn vital records, p.157: Mary 'Cook' of Watertown..
3. ↑ Stearns, Ezra S., Early Generations of Founders of Old Dunstable (1911), p.37.
4. ↑ Stearns, p.37.
5. ↑ Massachusetts Archives Map #840
6. ↑ Natick church records: baptisms of many of their children recorded there.
7. ↑ Clarke, George Kuhn, History of Needham (1912), p.129.
8. ↑ Clarke, pp.141-153.
9. ↑ Suffolk Co. Probate Bk.32, p.469: inventory gives date of death.
10. ↑ Suffolk Co. Prob. Bk.18 (new series), p.170.
11. ↑ Morse, J. Howard, Morse Genealogy (1903), p.38. (Not in Natick or Needham VR.)
12. ↑ Harrell, Elizabeth J., The New England Ancestry of Jonathan Ware (1782-1864) of Needham, Massachusetts, and Shelby County, Alabama: Ackers, Adams, Bacon, Chickering, Fairbanks, Fisher, Fuller, Greeneway, Herring, Hunting, Lovewell, Marriot, Metcalf, Morse, Paine, Pierce, Sylvester, Thorne, Ware, and Woodcock. 1988. 2nd ed. Family Search Identifier #2798254 [Not #638943] https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/records/item/145761-redirection
13. ↑ Needham MA vital records