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... ... ... migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See The Directory, by R. C. Anderson, p. 101)
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1 Biography
2 Research notes
3 Sources

Biography

This is the profile for Thomas Eames who lived in Dedham (1641-1651) and later Medford, Cambridge, Sudbury, Sherborn and what-became Framingham.

Date of Birth

Based on depositions he gave in October 1652 in which he stated that he was aged 34 years or there abouts,^[1]^[2] in November 1663 in which he stated that he was aged about 46 years,^[3] and in February 1666[/7] in which he stated that he was aged 48 years,^[4] Thomas was probably born about 1618.

Parentage

Thomas' parentage had not been determined. No record has been found that establishes any connection between him and any Eames/Ames in England. Based on YDNA results, which indicate that male lineal descendants of Thomas do not share a common male ancestor within the genealogical time frame with male lineal descendants of Anthony Eames of Marshfield,^[5] it seems highly unlikely that Thomas was related to the Eames of Fordington, England.

Place of Birth

Thomas' place of birth is uncertain, but it is highly likely that he was born somewhere in England.

Emigration to New England

The date of Thomas' emigration to New England is uncertain. The earliest definitive record of his presence in New England is the grant to him of a parcel of land by the town of Dedham on September 28, 1640.^[6] However, in a petition by Thomas in April 1668 to the General Court of Massachusetts for a grant of land, Thomas stated that he "hath lived in this Country about thirty-four years" and had served in the Pequot War (which took place in July 1636 - September 1638).^[7] Assuming Thomas' statement in his petition to be true, Thomas arrived in New England about 1634.

Indentured Servitude?

Assuming Thomas's statement that he arrived in New England in 1634 is correct, he would have been only about 16 when he emigrated and since there is no evidence that he arrived with his family, it seems reasonably likely that Thomas came over as an indentured servant. If so, then, based on Thomas' occupation, his master was probably a brickmaker.

Participation in Pequot War

The Pequot War was fought in New England in July 1636 - September 1638 between the Pequot tribe and an alliance of colonists from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Plymouth Colony and the Saybrook Colony.^[8] A bronze tablet dedicated in 1920 to the soldiers in the Pequot War included an entry for "Eames, Thomas, 1618-1681, of Sherborn."^[9] No record contemporaneous with tthe Pequot War has been found that establishes Thomas's participation in the war. He is not mentioned in any of the contemporary accounts of the war included in the Massachusetts Historical Society's 1897 History of the Pequot War, nor is he included in the list prepared by "Battlefields of the Pequot War" of participants in the war.^[10] However, in his 1668 petititon to the General Court of Massachusetts for a grant of land, Thomas included among the reasons that his request should be granted, a statement that he had been "employed in hazardous publique services" including "in ye expidition against ye Piquits" in which "ye said poore petitioner served as a common soldier".^[7]

Residency in Dedham

Thomas' first known place of residency was Dedham, where, in September 1640, the town granted him a parcel of land on the "great island", provided he subscribed to "the towne orders".^[6] The latter was no doubt a reference to the Dedham Covenant, which was first signed in 1636 by the then inhabitants of Dedham, but was also required to be signed by subsequent newcomers.^[11]^[12] Thomas' name appears as one of the signatures of the Covenant.^[13] Over the next five years, the town of Dedham gave Thomas additional grants of land, as well as assistance in obtaining wood and earth suitable for making bricks.^[14] ^[7] In March 1650/1, the sale by Thomas to Robert Ware of 3 acres of upland on the island plane was recorded in the Dedham town records,^[15] which probably coincides with the approximate date of Thomas' move to Medford.

Remnants of old bio, which will be replaced, follow:

THE ORDEAL OF THE THOMAS EAMES FAMILY^[16]

King Philip's War broke out in June, 1675. The event however, of most direct consequence to Framingham, is the destruction of the home and family of Thomas Eames, Feb.1, 1675/6. Mr. Eames had taken up lands and built a home on the southern slope of Mt. Wayte, in 1669. It should be noted here that his house lot was on the land that Mr. Danforth bought of Richard Wayte, and not on the land which he, (Eames) afterward received by grant, and purchased of the Indians. His nearest neighbors were the two Stone families farm, and Henry Rice, who lived a short distance to the south of Salma D. Hardy's. His family then consisted of a wife and not less than six children of his own, and probably 4 children of his wife by a former marriage, varying in age from 24 years to 7 months. Two children were born to him in Framingham. His eldest son settled in Watertown; and before the summer of 1675, it appears that one or two of his wife's children were away at service, so that, at the time of the assault, eight or nine of his own and one or two of his wife's children were living at home. This: accords with Mr. Eames own statement that he had lost a wife and nine children, and also with the statement of his sons, that 5 of their father's children were slain, and only four of those taken returned from captivity, implying that at least one daughter was held a considerable time after the taking. Some of the published accounts differ from this, and from each other; but it has been deemed safe to follow the statement of Mr. Eames and his sons, who certainly knew the facts. As soon as hostilities broke out, the Council at Boston sent four soldiers to guard the scattered families on the Framingham Plantation. The farmers were required to furnish them food and lodging in return for the protection afforded. Probably the soldiers were quartered on Mr. Eames. "On July 23, 1675, it was ordered that two of the four men ordered to guard Eames and the farmers, be forthwith and hereby, are remanded to guard Mr. (Rev. Edmund) Brown's house (at Sudbury), and the other two to remain as they are till the court take furthur order."

As Mr. Eames was "maimed in his limbs," he was not liable to be pressed into the service; but his horses were not exempt. And September 1st, 1675, he sends the following petition:

To the Honorable Council now sitting. Devine providence having cast my lot in a place both remote from neighbors in the woods, betwixt Marlborough and Medfield, and in a place

of no small danger in this day of trouble, when God hath so signally let loose the heathens against his people everywhere. And it is my duty to seek by all lawful means to preserve my family from the rage of the enemy, and to provide for our welfare both at home and on our journeyings, from place to place, which I cannot do with any comfort without the horses I continually use; My humble petition therefore to this honorable Council is, that I may have my horses free from the

press, to which they are continually exposed, whenever I travel to the neighboring towns, nay, so that I cannot pass on a Sabbath, which in every respect is grevous to me who am, your humble petitioner, Thomas Eams

"The Council grant the petitioner freedom from the impress of his horses at such times as he and his family coming to the public worship of God in Marlborough or Sudbury." The guard seems to have been withdrawn from his house; and on the last week in January, Mr. Eames went with his horses to Boston, to procure help and a supply of ammunition. February

1, a party of eleven Indians came suddenly upon the defenseless family, burned the barn, cattle and house, killed the mother and five children, and carried off five or six children and as much plunder as they needed.

The family tradition is, that the mother had expressed the resolution never to be taken alive by the savages; and that; true to her words, she courageously defended her home, using hot soap and such weapons as were at hand in the kitchen. According to the confession of one of the murderers, the party, comprising 6 of the former residents at Magunkookhad returned thither for some corn which was left in their granaries, and finding that it had been destroyed, started at once, partly for food and partly for revenge, towards the nearest English settler. And it was probable that the stout resistance of the brave woman so provoked them that they left nothing alive.

The children were carried to the neighborhood of Wachusett, and a part of them to Wennimisset. Three of them found means to escape from their captors, and returned in the course of a few months. One of these was with the party of savages that attacked Sudbury the 21st of April. The escape of another is thus related: "On the next day, (May 12), a youth of about eleven years made his escape from the Indians, who as taken prisoner when his fathers house was burnt and his mother murdered on the first of February last; and though the boy knew not a step of the way to any English town, and was in continual danger of the skulking Indians in the woods, and far from the English, yet God directed him aright, and brought him to the sight of Plantain (the herb which the Indians call English Foot, because it grows only amongst us and is not found in the Indian plantations); whereupon he concluded he was not far from some:: English town, and accordingly following the Plantain, he arrived safely amongst us."

Of the girls taken, some authentic accounts are found. Thomas Reed, a soldier taken captive at Hockanum April 1, escaped from the Indians who were in camp at Turner Falls, May 14th, 1676, reports; "There is Thomas Eame's daughter and her child (younger sister), hardly used." Aug. 14th, Joseph Wannuck-how his examination states: "That about two months since he inquired concerning Goodman Eame's two daughters, and understood they were at a great hill about middle way between Wachusett and Pennacook, (Concord, N.H.), and were in good health and not in a starving plight." William Jackstraw (same date) saith, that Mattahump (sachem of the Quaboag) hath one of Goodman Eame's daughters, and Pumapen (former ruler of Mungakok) the other, and they were alive at planting time, and he thinks they may yet be towards the at Auranes (Albany). * There is evidence that these girls, and perhaps one boy were carried to Canada, where the youngest, Margaret, was found by the agents sent by the Colonial Government to effect the release of captives, and redeemed, and returned home. The author agrees with Mr. Barry, that "It is quite probable that one or more of the childrens result of reference on the part of the captives, who became so accustomed to their change of life, as to lose attachment to their English Society and friends. Hutchinson states in his history that the captives who have been carried to Canada have often received very kind usage from the French inhabitants."

An inventory of the loss of Thomas Eames, when his house was fired by Indians at Framingham near unto Sudbury in the county of Middlesex, the first of Feb 1675/6.

Imprimis--- A wife and nine children.

Item--- A house 34 feet long, double floors and garrett, and cellar, and

a barn 52 feet long, leantir'd one side and two ends, $100,00

Item--- 4 Oxen 24.00

Item--- 7 cows fair with calf 28.00

Item--- 2 yearlings 3.00

Item--- 1 Bull 2.00

Item---2 heifers fair with calf 6.00

Item---1 heifer 2.00

Item--- 8 sheep fair with lamb 3.12

Item--- 30 loads of hay in ye barn at 8s.per load 12.00

Item--- 10 bush. Wheate at 6s. p. bush. 3.00

Item--- 40 bush. Rye at 4s. 8d. p. bush. 8.00

Item--- 210 bush. Of Indian a 3s. p. bush. 31.00

Item--- Hemp and Flax in ye barn 1.00

Item--- Fire Arms with other arms and ammunition 6.00

Item--- Butter 20s.,Cheese 40s, 2 ½ barrels of Pork

Four flitches of Bacon 1.00

Item--- Carpenters and Joyner's tools 5.00

Item--- 2 great spinning wheels and 2 small wheels 4.s.

4.s. for cards 1.00

Item--- 6 beds 3 of them featherbeds and three flock, 6

Rugs and 12 blankets 12.00

Item--- one chest of lynen, with ye sheets and shifts 10.00

Item--- a livery cupboard with what was in it 2.00

Item--- My wife's linen and wearing apparel, and

Children's cloathing, and my own cloathing

With clothing that was my former wifes. 25.00

Item--- Pewter, Brasse, and iron ware 14.00

Item--- Churns and other Dairy vessels with other

Wooden lumber 5.00

This was a large estate for those days, and comprised all he possessed except the two horses and vehicle, and what money he had with him. Asindemnity, the General Court granted him 200 acres of land. He also sued the Indians at law, and obtained from them, with consent of the court, the tract of 200 acres lying near where his former habitation stood. He also recovered three of his own children, Samuel, Margaret and Nathaniel, and one of his wife's children, Zachariah Paddleford.

Thomas & Mary's children, b. in Sudbury, Massachusetts Bay:

Samuel, b. 11 January 1664
Margaret, b. 08 July 1666
Nathaniel, b. 30 Dec 1668;

born in Framingham, Massachusetts Bay:

Sarah, b. 03 October 1670
Lydia, b. 29 Jun 1672.
Gershom, d. in infancy on 25 September 1676

Research notes

Great Migration Directory entry: Eames, Thomas: Unknown; 1637; Dedham, Medford, Cambridge, Sudbury [MA Arch 67:128; DeTR 1:71; DeChR 26; DeVR 1; NEHGR 32:408; Goodman 181-83]. Key

Sources

↑ Waters, Hnery P. "Passengers and Vessels that Have Arrived in America. No. IX: The Voyage of the Jonathan to New England, 1639." The New-England Historical and Genealogical Register for the Year 1878. Volume XXXII. 1878. p. 408. Link to page at archive.org.
↑ Middlesex County, MA: Abstracts of Court Files, 1649–1675. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2003), (Unpublished abstracts by Thomas Bellows Wyman, "Abstract of Middlesex court files from 1649," n.d.). Vol. 1, p. 9. Link to record at americanancestors.org.
↑ Middlesex County, MA: Abstracts of Court Files, 1649–1675. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2003), (Unpublished abstracts by Thomas Bellows Wyman, "Abstract of Middlesex court files from 1649," n.d.). Vol. 1, p. 173. Link to record at americanancestors.org.
↑ Middlesex County, MA: Abstracts of Court Files, 1649–1675. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2003), (Unpublished abstracts by Thomas Bellows Wyman, "Abstract of Middlesex court files from 1649," n.d.). Vol. 2, p. 37. Link to record at americanancestors.org.
↑ See "Ames, Eames, Aimes, Amos - Y-DNA Colorized Chart," Ames-Eames DNA Project, FamilyTreeDNA. Link to chart at familytreedna.com. Analyzing the results on that chart using the Family Grouping App shows that (with the one exception of a test taker, whose named earliest Eames ancestor is no doubt incorrect) the test takers who claim Thomas Eames as their earliest known Eames ancestor have a genetic distance of at least 16 on a comparison of 37 markers from the test takers who claim Anthony Eames as their earliest known Eames ancestor. FTDNA guidelines have stated that a genetic distance of more than 5 on a comparison of 37 markers indicates that the test takers very probably do not share a common male ancestor within the genealogical time frame. See Expected Relationships with Y-DNA STR Matches.
↑ ^6.0 ^6.1 The Early Records of the Town of Dedham, Massachusetts. 1639-1659. 1892. p. 71. Link to page at archive.org.
↑ ^7.0 ^7.1 ^7.2 Massachusetts Archives, Vol. 67, folio 128. Link to folio at familysearch.org.
↑ "Pequot War," wikipedia.org. Accessed on May 18, 2023.
↑ Ballou, Hosea Starr. "Dr. Thomas Starr, Surgeon in the Pequot War, and His Family Connections." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Vol. LXXXIX, No, 353 January 1935]. p. 174. Link to page at americanancestors.org.
↑ "Who's Who of the Pequot War", Battlefields of the Pequot War, pequotwar.org. Accessed on May 18, 2023.
↑ "Dedham Covenant," wikipedia.org.. Accessed on 18-Oct-2020.
↑ Brown, B. Katherine. "Puritan Democracy in Dedham, Massachusetts: Another Case Study." The William and Mary Quarterly. Vol. 24, No. 3 (July 1967). pp. 378-396. Link to article at jstor.org.
↑ The Early Records of the Town of Dedham, Massachusetts. 1639-1659. 1892. p. 3. Link to page at archive.org.
↑ See Chronologh of Records for Thomas Eames (Eames-218).
↑ The Early Records of the Town of Dedham, Massachusetts. 1639-1659. 1892. p. 181. Link to page at archive.org.
↑ Taken from the History of Framingham Mass. Published by Framingham in 1887