John Albree (1688 - 1755)

Born 1688 in New Providence, Bahamas

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 28 Aug 1755 at about age 67 in Medford, MA

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Peter Roberts [send private message]

Biography

John Albree is part of a Bahamian family.

John Albree came to Boston in 1700. In 1711 he married Elizabeth Green of Boston. Elizabeth died 6 Dec 1751. John died 28 Aug 1755.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Family of John Albree

The Family of Albree

We can trace this Medford family to Nassau, in the Island of New Providence, the capital of the Bahamas. In 1672 the English government sent Mr. Collingsworth to superintend the settlement of that island and its chief city by Englishmen. The attempt succeeded but imperfectly; because the coasts were infested with pirates, and the Spanish were moved by jealousy to check English power. Mr. Collingsworth, after a few years, resigned his office in despair; and the government appointed Mr. Clark governor of the island, and gave him means for sustaining himself. The early English settlers were selected for their energy and enterprise, and they fixed on Nassau as their central port. The place grew and flourished, but its Spanish enemies were numerous and bloodthirsty. They made a sudden and warlike descent upon it, and captured the brave Clark; and in order to show their future intentions, they "roasted the English governor alive." In one of these barbaric assaults, in 1699, the unoffending inhabitants were put to the sword; and two little children were that day made orphans. One was a boy, named John Albree, who was born in 1688: and the other was his sister, Elizabeth, who was three years younger. The brother fled with his sister to seek protection in a Boston vessel, which was there for cargo. The captain knew that the tragic story of the children was true; and, with the characteristic warmth of a sailor's heart, he took the weeping orphans to his arms and offered to bring them to Boston and provide for them. They accepted, but wished to get something from their father's house. The captain went to the house; but could not find anything worth taking away, save an old English one-day clock, which the plunderers had spared. That he took; and that clock is now in possession of Miss Lucy Ann Brooks, in Medford, and will keep time well, although two hundred years old.

Early in the year 1700 John Albree and Elizabeth Albree arrived in Boston, and were tenderly cared for by the family of the captain who brought them. They were put to school and taught to labor; and, when John was fourteen years old, he was indented as an apprentice for seven years, to a weaver in Malden. His master found him a silent and thoughtful boy, and made him a good weaver. His sister, at her own request, became an inmate of his master's family. These children annually received, from an unknown hand in New Providence, generous gifts of raw cotton and fruits. This cotton had seeds in it; and a gin was sent with which to clear out the seeds. After they became of age, the benefactions ceased. Their father was probably a cotton-planter; hence the son's preference to the trade of cotton-weaver. When he became of age, he moved to Medford, and soon afterwards purchased a small house, which stood on the spot now occupied by the house of Mr. Thomas Magoun, jun. His sister became his housekeeper. In May, 1711, he married a near relative of Gov. Belcher, - Miss Elizabeth Greene, of Boston. When his first child was born, he wished to have it baptized, and his name was Joseph in honor of his grandfather; but not knowing whether he himself had been baptized, either in England or in New Providence, he resolved to ask baptism for himself; and on Sunday, Sept. 7, 1713, he received the rite, and then offered his son. After a few years, he sold his house and garden, and bought a farm of twenty-two acres; which, now occupied by Mr. Peter C. Hall. There was a gristmill upon it, on the west side of Purchase Street. He enlarged the mill by an addition of a weaver's shop. Here he worked, and grew comparatively rich. His grandson told us, that, in 1785, the stream that fed the mill failed; and that he then "removed the mill and shop, and filled up the flume." The house of John, the first settler, was about ten rods north-east of his mill. He was a retired man, with many thoughts and few words; he was a great questioner, and remarkable for his high sense of honor. With the English slowness to adopt, he untied the English tenacity in holding fast what he had chosen. He was an active friend of the poor, especially of orphans. He tenderly cherished his sister in his family while she lived. She died unmarried. He had four children, - Joseph, Elizabeth, Ruth and Susanna. Joseph was the father of Mrs. Jonathan Brooks; Ruth was the mother of Gov. Brooks; and Susanna, the mother of Captain John Pratt. The grandsons were called John, in honor of their grandfather, John Albree. Of the first settler's descendants, the only ones who remained in Medford were Mrs. Jonathan Brooks and Governor Brooks; and through life, the were drawn towards each other by the tenderest ties.

Brooks, Charles, History of the town of Medford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts : from its first settlement in 1630 to 1855 (Rand, Avery & Co., The Franklin Press Boston 1886, c 1885). p. 520-521

THE TRADITION OF THE OLD WEAVER'S CLOCK

By John Albree, Jr.

[Read before the Medford Historical Society, October 19, 1902.]

HOWEVER interesting the old weaver's clock may be as an antique, its true worth is in its serving as a means to reveal to us the men who lived in this town and who used it. Can we assume that if the grandparents, and aunts, and uncles, and cousins galore, whose names are on the slate stones across the street, were to troop in here tonight, we could meet with them on common ground in speaking of a clock, or a watch, or of time itself? There is no question that Gov. Brooks would marshal this troop, for like the MacGregor, "Where he sat, there was the head of the table." As a boy he knew this clock, for its owner, John Albree, of Medford, was his grandfather, and in after years he must have seen it in the home of his cousin, Mrs. Jonathan Brooks. Did the men of that day recognize, as we do, that time is money? Could John Albree, the weaver on Meeting House Brook, figure out the money value of an extra throw of his shuttle, or comprehend the condition of society which sanctions a law punishing the weavers of our day if they allow their operatives to begin work ten minutes ahead of the opening time? How he and his neighbors would have resented any interference in their dealings with their servants. His own clock will help us answer these questions.

In Charles Brooks' History of Medford, is a story that is still touching, even if it is packed away in a lot of genealogical material. It is the story of the two children, a boy and a girl, made orphans by the Spaniards. The Spaniards and the English were in continual strife in the Bahamas, and in 1699, at Nassau, the Spaniards gained control, and beginning a course of plunder and slaughter, killed, among others, the parents of these children. Mr. Brooks relates how the orphans in some unknown way escaped and fled to the wharves and found a friend in the captain of a Boston vessel. He took pity on the helpless little folks and assured them that he would take them to Boston. Before sailing, the captain went to the plundered home and found a clock, which he brought to the ship; so, with the sister in one hand, and the clock in the other, John Albree, at the age of twelve, began life in Medford, and the tradition is that this is the clock.

An investigation into this tradition will give us an insight into the Medford homes of two centuries ago. Brooks, in his history, used about all the existing material concerning John Albree. The first record of him is in a list of those assessed September 2, 1701, on a "country rate," the amount being three shillings. His name appears on the lists each succeeding year. In 1711, he married Elizabeth Green, who was daughter of Samuel Green (John 2, Percival 1), and his wife, Elizabeth Sill, who was daughter of Joseph Sill and his wife, Jemima Belcher, the latter being the daughter of Andrew Belcher and Elizabeth Danforth. He bought first the property afterwards known as the Thatcher Magoun estate, on the banks of the Mystic, and later, selling it, acquired the estate through which Meeting House Brook runs, on which the second meeting-house was built. He used the brook for power for his mill. It seems probable that Rural avenue was a road to his house. His grandson told how the road used to be blocked with snow in the winter. There his children and his son's children were born.

The story of the clock Brooks received from his mother, who was Elizabeth Albree, daughter of John Albree. She received the clock in the division of the estate of her father, Joseph Albree, in 1777. At the same time, her brother, John Albree (1757-1842), received a silver spoon marked with the initials of the original John Albree and his wife: i.AE Each of these heirlooms has come down, and each has its particular injunction associated with it; that with the clock being that it shall always remain in the female line, and that with the spoon, that it shall always pass to the oldest son. The fact of these parallel heirlooms suggests that .they have a common origin, which is readily seen to have been when the property of John Albree's only son was divided in 1777. Furthermore, that these were thus created heirlooms shows that they were then regarded as valuable relics of John Albree, the weaver, and as the date of the son's death was less than twenty years after that of the weaver, we find the traditions both as to spoon and clock existing at that time. Thus, we are pretty near to getting confirmation from the weaver himself. But these parallel traditions, each confirming the other, are not the only evidence, and in following the other lines, we get an insight into time keeping of two hundred years ago.

Stated in its simplest form, the tradition is: "The orphans brought this clock." Different people would expand this statement in different ways, according to which word, orphans or clock, made the deeper impression. To Charles Brooks' sympathetic nature, the word orphans appealed. His history shows what a delightful * man he was, always thoughtful and considerate of others. A series of family letters confirm impressions given by his history. Fortunate indeed is the man who can unconsciously, yet naturally, leave such an index of his character. But if the story were expanded on the word clock, it might be asked if there was anything strange or worthy of notice that the orphans should have arrived with a clock. There are more automobiles owned in Medford tonight than there were clocks when John Albree arrived, as we will show from the inventories on file, for by means of them we can enter and ransack the homes of that time. One of childhood's delights is to rummage in the grandparents' garret, but this garret disappears with advancing years. For us the searching of ancestors' inventories must take its place, for in those lists we can know to the last glass bottle everything there was in their homes. Let us see what we can find for timepieces. If time-pieces existed at all, they must surely have been found in the homes of the best citizens. The men of Medford in .1728, by their own official acts, determined for us who twenty-five of the best citizens were, and the list is found in Brooks' History of Medford (page 334). Who of us would dare to serve on a committee to nominate the twenty-five men in our respective churches who are entitled to have the first choice of seats? What heart burnings must have been caused by that custom. It is a wonder it continued so long. Of this list of twenty-five, there are on file inventories of the contents of the homes of twelve. Mr. John Francis, Sr., who heads the list, did not live long to enjoy the best pew in the new meeting house, which had been built on land bought from John Albree. A large pewter platter which he gave his daughter, Lydia, on her marriage is still in existence, even though one of her descendants did use it as a cover for a flour barrel. During the twenty years subsequent to the making of the list, seven of those pewholders passed on to where "congregations ne 'er break up and Sabbaths have no end." Of these seven there is only one whose inventory shows he had a time-piece; that was Dr. Simon Tufts. His inventory lists first his real estate, then after the two slaves, Pompey and Abraham, peculiarly personal property, is mentioned one watch, .£35.

After this minute examination of the homes, possible only through the exactness of the old appraisers, we must conclude without doubt that time-pieces were rare in Medford in the early decades of 1700, and that the appearance of a clock, seen in the possession of these two orphans, was an event to be noted and remembered. The records of Essex County confirm this result as to the scarcity of time-pieces, for in the three years from December, 1699, to December, 1702, there were one hundred eleven inventories filed, and in but four of them is there mention of a clock or watch, and to three of these the epithet old is attached, indicating that they were probably out of repair and useless.

The records of Suffolk County for 1699-1700 show seventy-two inventories, in but eight of which clocks or watches are mentioned.

The question may now be asked, "If they had no clocks or watches, how did they keep time?" But, before answering, we must determine what we of 1900 mean by keeping time. We follow time so closely that it is seldom we are surprised at finding our watches indicating a different hour and minute from what we anticipated before looking. With this in mind, how shall we define keeping time in Medford in 1700, when the smallest subdivision on the hour dial of the weaver's clock is the quarter of an hour, and furthermore, it never had but one hand, and that the hour hand. What sort of a mess would the men of today make of therr work if but five only out of one hundred possessed time-pieces, and these with the hour hand only?

The witchcraft trials of Salem, 1692, furnish much evidence as to the temporary use of words of time-measurement. They referred to three fixed times; sunrise, noon, and sunset. Parris, the minister at Salem village, notes that on November 1, 1691, he called a meeting, "For tomorrow an hour and a half before sundown." The entry the next day is, "After sunset about seventeen of the brethren met." Owing to the indefiniteness of time, some of these brethren must have wasted at least an hour and a half. Yet their needs seem to have been satisfied. Each house was sufficient to itself, for it had its water, its fuel, its lights, its stocks of food in the cellar, and a snow storm that to us would be a calamity was to them an inconvenience. Such independence is impossible now. A bargain hunter drops a brass curtain rod on the subway track, and in countless homes, from Milton to Medford, the evening meal is late. The breaking of a steam pipe in a power house puts a city in darkness. We all depend for our existence upon each other; and we all carry the same time in our pockets to regulate not only our own movements, but the movements of everybody else. The man with a slow watch, or no watch, the world pushes one side, and there he stays until he rouses himself.

The clock itself has undergone changes. When John Albree brought it here, perhaps twenty years after it was made, it had a bell on top supported by the four finials, which are pierced for that purpose. It had a short," bob" pendulum that received its name from its rapid appearance at either side through slits in the doors, which have also disappeared. This "bob" pendulum with this escapement was of the form in use from 1658, when the pendulum was invented, until the long, or royal, pendulum and anchor escapement were invented in 1675. Sometime in the eighteenth century the clock fell into the hands of a blacksmith who fixed clocks when horseshoeing and nail-making were dull. He cleared away the alarm and its works to make the necessary changes so that he could attach the long pendulum. The form of the grandfather's, or hall, clock was developed from this clock. First, a hood was made to keep out the dust; then the hood was supported by a long case which protected the pendulum, for the hanging weights and swinging " bob " must have proved to be an attractive plaything for a child or a kitten. The pillars at the side, the arched top of the dial, and the brass finials then became features of the tall clock and are still retained.

A study of this clock establishes two points; first, the independence of the individual in 1700 as contrasted with the inter-dependence of 1900; and second, that when in answer to the question that seems to be uppermost when one first looks at the old weaver's clock," can it keep time?" the reply is made, "it keeps the time of 1700," one understands what is meant.

From:

The Medford Historical Register, Volume 6 (Google eBook) Medford Historical Society (Medford, Mass.) <http://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Medford+Historical+Society+(Medford,+Mass.)%22>

The Society 1903

Page 9

Sources

• Brooks, Charles. History of the Town of Medford. Boston: James M. Usher (pub). 1855. pp. 499-500.

• Albree, John, Jr., The tradition of the old weaver's clock." The Medford Historical Register, Vol. 6. No. 1. January 1903. See http://books.google.com/books?id=EY1QAAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA9&ots=-V3b-fdvQB&dq=Tradition%20of%20the%20old%20weavers%20clock&pg=PA10#v=onepage&q=Tradition%20of%20the%20old%20weavers%20clock&f=false

• https://books.google.com/books?id=pr0UAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA209&lpg=PA209&dq=chester+bidwell+albree&source=bl&ots=F3niSGANyp&sig=Q9_2XJymaIhACGcg1zeuYjE1S7k&hl=en&sa=X&ei=kwXHVMqZD4WryATTiILoBA&ved=0CD4Q6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=chester%20bidwell%20albree&f=false

• Bahamas DNA Project, Direct Paternal Line Descendant Charts https://genealogy.hopetownmuseum.com/bahamasdnaproject/bahydna.htm

DNA

Paternal 5th great grandfather of Y-DNA kit 140100