Job Whitcomb (abt. 1638 - 1683)

Born about 1638 in Dorchester, Massachusetts Bay [uncertain]

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 8 Nov 1683 at about age 45 in Wetherfield, Connecticut

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Vic Watt [send private message] and Cathy Carpentier-Alting [send private message]

Biography

Job Whitcomb, son of John Whitcomb and Frances Coggan was born about 1638^[1] probably in Dorchester MA. He married by 1671 to Hannah ______.

The biography below is from a history of the Whitcomb family, published in 1904.^[2] Some of it is INCORRECT ... proceed with caution...

JOB WHITCOMB may have been born in Dorchester, Mass., or perhaps was the youngest born in England of Immigrant John's sons. This deduction is made from the fact that Josiah, who was born in Dorchester in 1638, is said to have been the youngest son, and Mr. Nourse, in his early records of Lancaster, classes the two brothers. Job and Josiah, together as "the youngest sons." Job was doubtless a surveyor, as Marvin's history of Lancaster (p. 17) records: "In surveying the boundaries of Lancaster, Job Whitcomb to carry the chain. It is stated also elsewhere that Job Whitcomb was instructed by the town of Lancaster in 1659 "to assist with Goodman Prescott. young Job Farrar to carry the chain," etc.

Job was married May 19, 1669, to Mary ______. Several authorities say this Mary was a daughter of Rev. Joseph Rowlandson, but as Mary Rowlandson was but three years old at the time of Job's marriage and as she died at the age of thirteen years, she could not have been the Mary.

The town of Lancaster during the winter of 1675-6 was a scene of alarm, violence and death because of the depredations of the savages, and on February 10, of this season, the house of the pastor, Rev. Joseph Rowlandson, was attacked, whereupon he left the town and later settled in Wethersfield, Conn. Lancaster being considered untenable, troops were sent up with carts and the people and all their movable property were conveyed to the Eastern towns, where they found homes with their friends. The Indians immediately descended upon the luckless town and "burned every house except the house of God and one other." (See Marvin's Lancaster, pp. 111-112.)

Job Whitcomb's name was signed with those of his brothers, John and Jonathan, to a petition to governor and council for aid after this raid; but he did not return to Lancaster at the re-settlement of the town but followed the Rev. Joseph Rowlandson to Wethersfield, (See Nourse's Early Records, p. 266), and settled there, probably subsequent to 1678, as the birth of his daughter, Jemima, is recorded in Cambridge in that year. According to Probate Court files he owned land in Wethersfield in 1680 on a proposed six-rod highway to Rocky Hill, then a part of Wethersfield. He died in 1683. His will, drawn October 27, 1683, mentions four children, and his brothers, Jonathan and Josiah, are named in the will as trustees.

CHILDREN:

• MARY, born December 10, 1671, Lancaster, Mass.
• JOB, born ____, 1674, Lancaster, Mass.
• JEMIMA, born January 30, 1678, Cambridge. Mass.; was married April 15, 1697 to Ebenezer Loomis of Windsor, Mass. She died December 10, 1712; four children.
• JOHN, born ____, 1680, Wethersfield, Connecticut.

Will

Job left a Will, dated 27 Oct 1680, which was proved on 6 Dec 1683.^[3]

In his Will, he mentioned:

• Wife: Mary
• Children: Job, Mary, Jemima, and John
• Overseers: brethren Jonathan & Josiah
• Witnesses: Samuel Talcott, JOB WHITCOMBE

"Page 150-1.

"Whitcombe, Job, Wethersfield. Died 8 November, 1683. Invt. £27-17-00. Taken by Samuel Talcott & James Treat. The children: Mary Whitcombe 12 years of age, Job 9, Jemima 6, John 4 years old. Will dated 27 October, 1680.

"I Job Whitcombe, being in perfect memory, do ordain, constitute and appoint this Writing to be my last Will & Testament : I do give unto my wife Mary Whitcombe all my Estate, either in House or Land or other things to be at her Dispose for her own good and the Good of my Children, excepting what Legacies are hereafter expressed, which by my Will are given to my Children ; and if any of the sd. Estate shall remain in her hands at the day of her decease, or if she marry, then the sd. Estate to be equally divided amongst my 4 children when they shall come to age, that is, when my two sons attain the age of 21 years, and my two daughters the age of 18 years. I give unto my son Job my Musket and Back Sword and Belt, at the age of 16 years. I do give unto my son John my Fowling peice,[sic] Rapier & Belt, when he shall attain the age of 16 years. I do give unto my daughter Mary my warming pan, after my wive's decease. I do give to my daughter Jemima my Iron Kettle, after the decease of my wife Mary. My Desire is that all my Children be disposed of where they may have suitable education. My Desire also is that my brethren Jonathan & Josiah be Overseers to this my Will. Witness: Samuel Talcott, JOB WHITCOMBE. Ls.

"Mary X Whitcombe.

"Court Record, Page 76 — Will Proven & Invt. Exhibit approved. — 6 December, 1683."

Sources

1. ↑ Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration, Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Vol. VII: T-Y. Boston: NEHGS, 2011, pp. 326-331. AmericanAncestors.org($).
2. ↑ Whitcomb, Charlotte,. The Whitcomb family in America : a biographical genealogy with a chapter on our English forbears by the name of Whetcombe. Minneapolis, Minn.: C. Whitcomb?, c1904, pages 351 & 352.
3. ↑ Manwaring, Charles William A digest of the early Connecticut probate records Vol. 1. Hartford, Conn., Peck & co., printers, 1904-06. Page 384, citing Page 151-1. Accessed on 6 Aug 2020 at HathiTrust.org. Will Digest