Caleb Taylor (1690 - 1762)

Born 27 Feb 1690 in Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 11 Jul 1762 at age 72 in Littleton, Massachusetts

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Biography

Caleb Taylor was born in Sudbury on 27 Feb 1690, son of Richard Taylor and Hannah Rice.^[1]

When his father died, Caleb's mother had to petition the court for division of his estate. The final division of his estate was carried out on Dec. 18, 1695 with portions going to:

• widow Hannah
• daughters Hannah Colby, Elizabeth, Annah and Lydia Taylor
• sons Richard, John, Caleb and Jonathan ^[2]

From Records of Littleton, Committee of the Proprietors 30 January 1716-1717, the following reference:

"Caleb purchased land in Nashoba of Daniel Powers (deed dated Oct 13, 1708) and is supposed to have resided on the Taylor homestead as early as the incorporation of Littleton. His deed from the Committee of the Proprietors, dated Jan. 30, 1716-17, conveyed the estate on which he was then located and on which the Taylor family has resided to the present date (1874)."

Researching this area on the Internet in 2007, we find that this land is located in the heart of apple country in the Nashoba Valley, between Littleton to the north and Marlborough to the south, along the Interstate 495 expressway.

As described by Gookin in 1674:

"The inhabitants are about ten families, and consequently about fifty souls. The dimensions of this village are four miles square. The land is fertile, and well stored with meadows and woods. It hath good ponds of fish adjoining it. The people live here, as in other Indian villages, upon planting corn, fishing, hunting and sometimes labouring with the English. Their ruler of late years was John Ahattawance (Tahattawan), a pious man. Since his decease, Pennakennit is the chief. Their teacher is John Thomas, a sober and pious man. His father was murdered by the Maquas in a secret manner, as he was fishing for eels at his weare, some years since during the war. He was a pious and useful person; and that place sustained a great loss in him.”

In “An Historical Sketch of the Town of Littleton”, author Herbert Joseph Harwood discusses the origin of the Indian Town of Nashobah, which once occupied the greater part of the territory now known as Littleton:

“[This town] is traceable directly to Rev. John Eliot, the apostle to the Indians and the translator of the Bible into the Indian language. He began to preach to the Indians in 1646 at Nonantum, a part of Newton. Many became converted to Christianity and expressed a desire to become civilized and to live more like white people.” Further, Harwood indicates, “…he [Eliot] advised that they live apart from the white people, and accordingly obtained from the General Court a grant of territory at Natick, where the “praying Indians”, as they were called, formed their first town in 1651.”

The land purchased by Caleb has a documented history of having been originally owned by Daniel Powers. The Proprietors’ Record Book and the Town Records include a recital of an act of the Legislature dated November 2, 1714 in which the property owners formed a town as follows:

“To all Christian People before whome these presents shall Come Greeting Know yee y we whose names are underwritten having obtained General Courts grant of a certain tract or parcel of Land commonly cald Nashoba which was long since purchased of ye Indian Proprietors of sd Land, by our selves & predisessors as may appear by our several Deeds. Do by these presents mutually agree to throw all in Comon for ye good of ye Town … Note that ye lands cald Powerses farm is not by this instrument included… Daniel Powers [et al]”

While the fact of Caleb’s marriage to Mary Witt (perhaps around 1710 or so) is recorded, we have no specific wedding date available. Mary Witt was apparently born in 1681 in Essex County in the town of Lynn, which is about 10 miles up the Massachusetts Bay coastline from Revere Beach.

If Mary married Caleb around 1710, she would have been 29 and he 20 years of age - - an unusually large difference. (But her gravestone supports this age difference.) Given that some history has been written mentioning the Witt family at that time, it is possible that Mary brought some assets into the marriage (although there is currently no indication one way or the other). Caleb’s son, Caleb, married into the wealthy Shattuck family for whom much was also written about at the time.

In 1714, the first of Caleb and Mary’s six children was born.

In 1720, an incident occurred which made quite a sensation in town at the time. An accusation of witchcraft was made which might have caused even more of a sensation had the person accused not died. Three young daughters had begun to act in a very strange and “unaccountable” way. One daughter would swoon, tell strange stories, perform sleight-of-hand tricks, tell fortunes, and say she had flown to the top of the tree in which she had been found. Unfortunately, she accused Mrs. Dudley, wife of the town clerk Samuel Dudley, of bewitching her. A few days after the death of Mrs. Dudley, the strange acts of two of the girls ceased. It took eight years for the girls to confess to Rev. Mr. Turell, minister of Medford, that their stories were all false and their mischief had been continued because they were ashamed to own up to their actions. [Ref-17]

At some point, Vital Records of Brookfield, Worcester County refer to Caleb as Deacon Caleb Taylor. The title is also inscribed on Caleb’s tombstone.

A church in Littleton was completed in 1723. In assigning the family pews, it was decided to first do so first in respect to age, and then to one having the highest income to have choice, and so on. Deacon Caleb Taylor was assigned the pew at the left of the east door. Those without family pews were assigned based on sex (men on one side, women on the other) or race (the rear seats were assigned to Negroes by vote of the town in 1760).

In 1725, a public school was built in Littleton and Deacon Caleb Taylor was chosen the following January with Lieutenant Lawrence and Walter Powers to hire the school master. Over the next several years, Caleb’s children must have found it difficult to get an education. The school was operated out of private homes, usually moving three times over a four month school year. In 1732 it was voted to keep the school in one location for the whole year. It wasn’t until 1796 when the first dedicated building was erected for the purpose of providing a school house.

Caleb lived for 40 years after the birth of his first child, passing away in July 1762 at age 72. Caleb was buried in the Old Burying Ground in Littleton. Mary followed Caleb in death eight years later in 1770 at age 90 and is buried next to him.

Sources

1. ↑ Vital Records of Sudbury, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850, NEHGS, Boston, MA, 1903, pp 140-141
2. ↑ Case Number: 22230: p. 1-7: Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives.)

• Jay R. Taylor, "Taylor Family History"
• “Vital Records of Sudbury, MA to 1850,” 1903, Henry Ernest Woods (editor), books.google.com (5.4 megabytes); downloaded 3 February 2008, Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society. Alphabetical by surname, grouped by births (pp 12-161), marriages (pp162-294, deaths (pp 296-332). (Page 140 for his birth)
• Records of Littleton, Massachusetts ... births and deaths, from the earliest records in the town books begun in 1715. Warning: includes genealogical notes of Samuel Smith from manuscript in the Reuben Hoar Library: p. 398-594 (which are full of errors). (page 370 for his death)