CHAPTER IX.

THE FIRST BURGESSES

We now come to the Burgess family and its occupancy of the house from 1801 to 1959. This family has an extensive and well recorded genealogy and history and I would like to tell you about them and point out some interesting factors. In a sense, such a family mirrors in part the settlement and growth of this part of Massachusetts.[13]

The name Burgess is of ancient origin, signifying an inhabitant of a borough, a freeman, a citizen. It has been spelled Burge, Burges, in early Plymouth documents. The first was said to be Stephen de Burg who came to England with William the Conqueror in 1066.

Thomas Burgess, called Burge, came to these shores in 1630, supposedly to escape the Stuart persecution, to Salem, Mass. He resided in Lynn, Mass. briefly. In 1637 land was assigned him in Duxbury. The next year in 1638 he settled in Sandwich, Mass. at the beginning of Cape Cod. He became a large land owner and with advancing age was called Goodman Burgess, an archaic form of the word “mister.” He held many town offices and was deputy to the General Court in Plymouth Colony for several years before it ceased in 1691 and became part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

He had more than six children. The property assigned to him in Sandwich remained in the family 220 years. The house which no longer exists bore the marks of a British cannon from the war of 1812.

The house in Sandwich, built in 1638, became known as the Thomas Tupper house. Jacob, a son of the first Thomas, in 1660 married Mary Nye, the granddaughter of Thomas Tupper. The Nye family descended from Lave Nye, a figure in the royal house of Sweden in the fourteenth century.

Their son, Ebenezer, b. 1672, had a grandson, Seth, 1736-1795, who removed to Nova Scotia in 1760. He kept a farm and general store in Kingsport, near Canning. With him he brought his father Benjamin’s account book, dated 1742, showing him to be a man of diligent habits. To Ebenezer has been attributed ancestry of Henry L. Dawes, vice president at the time of Calvin Coolidge. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was twice descended from the first Thomas Burgess through the marriage of Ebenezer Burgess to the great granddaughter of Richard Warren, a _Mayflower_ passenger. A Patience Burgess married Malachi Delano. Thornton W. Burgess, a well known author of children’s books was descended from the first Thomas Burgess of Sandwich.

The second Thomas Burgess, born about 1627 in England, came to the new world at the age of three with his father. In 1643, at 16 years of age, he was enrolled to bear arms. In 1661 he left Sandwich in the Plymouth Colony for Newport, R. I. He was admitted as freeman in Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and served as a grand juror in 1667. In 1648 he married Elizabeth Bassett. After her death he married Lydia Gaunt. This union produced one child, the third Thomas, 1668-1743, born at Little Compton, Rhode Island.

The third Thomas has thirteen children by three wives. He married Esther in 1691, and had Edward, Deborah, Esther, and Lydia. In 1707 he married Martha Clossen and had Joseph, John (the first John), Mary, Thomas (the fourth Thomas), and Jacob. In 1721 he married Patience Doty and had Mercy, Rebecca, Martha and Nathaniel. This last child was the father of John Burgess who became the owner of the Pond homestead.

Nathaniel, May 1729-January 1, 1793, was born at Little Compton, R. I. He removed to Plymouth and later to Saquish Neck in the outer harbor. In keeping with his prolific father, he had twelve children. He married Ruth Chandler of Plymouth. Their children were Jacob, Nathaniel, Patience, who married Malachi Delano, Thomas (the fifth Thomas), Lucy, William, John, Mercy, Nathan, Rebecca, Zerviah.[14]

Nathaniel’s will, #3389, was probated in 1789 and administered by his son, Jacob. The inventory of his estate showed a value of $1241.46, not inconsiderable at that time. He had lived and farmed on Saquish Neck on the Plymouth-Duxbury outer shore. Principal access to Plymouth would be by boat.