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THE FIFTH GENERATION

93. NATHANIEL REYNOLDS, “Esqr.": (3 Nathaniels; Robert1) b. March 19, 1717-18, on the original home-lot of Robert and Mary Reynolds in Boston; he d. Sidney, Maine, Nov. 26, 1807. He was the fourth of seven consecutive Nathaniels. Mentioned as "yeoman" in deeds at Plymouth, Mass. When het was about three, his widowed mother came back from Boston to her father's home in Bridgewater (called West Bridgewater since 1822), Mass.; and in 1722 she married again, to David Ames who died in 1726, leaving her with three Ames children as well.

In Bridgewater she lived on what is now the Williams Farm. Nathaniel and his younger Reynolds brother, Thomas, lived in the West Shares of Bridgewater (near Stoughton) in their youth. Thomas remained in what is now Brockton, but our Nathaniel, after marrying twice and having thirteen children in Brockton, sold his farm in West Shares, Bridgewater, 1779, and removed to Sidney (then part of Vassalboro), Maine, in what was at that time wild frontier country. In Bridgewater, Nathaniel became one of the first Justices of the Peace, commissioned June 14, 1776, hence the title "Esquire" which always stuck to him. Country store-keeper and farmer, he represented Bridgewater in the Mass. Legislature ("General Court") 1776-7, during the Revolution; delegate to Plymouth County Congress, 1774. He was one of the useful, patriotic old Revolutionary townsmen who loaned their money to the Continental Congress and sent all their boys into the War. His official Revolutionary record‡ runs:

"Loaned money to Government during the Revolution. His sons enlisted from North Bridgewater."

Of these sons, Philip was in the French and Indian War, but died before the Revolution; Jonas, Timothy, Nathaniel fifth, David, and Jonathan were Revolutionary soldiers. The Sidney Town Records mention him frequently.

1785: Esqr. Rennels, sworn in surveyor of highways. 1787, April 2: Selectman and assessor, sworn in.

1787, April 13: "personally appeared Nathaniel Reynolds, Esq., chosen selectman and assessor for the ensuing year and took the oath of allegiance to the United States before me. Flint Barton, Town Clerk." Also Selectman, Dec. 20, 1787. 1787, Dec. 15, David and Jonathan Reynolds sign petition to selectmen for representative to meet at Boston.

tAuthorities: Isaac N. Reynolds, Judge John Post Reynolds, Mass. Vital Records, Kingman's Hist. of Bridgewater, Cary's Old Fams. of Bridgewater, Hartwell Genealogy, Vassalboro and Sidney Town Records, etc.

Reynolds Fam. Assn. Annual, 1916, p. 93; also Mass. Solds. & Sails. of the Rev.

1789, April 27, Nathaniel on committee to divide Vassalboro into school districts on either side of the River.

1790, March 15, Nathaniel elected "tithing man."

1791, April 4, chosen warden and surveyor of highways.

Tax list, 1790: Nathaniel Reynolds, Esq. exempt from poll tax, real estate tax £3-17-0; personal £2-7; total £6-4-0.

His sons Timothy, Nathaniel fifth, David and Jonathan removed to Sidney (Vassalboro), Maine, with him in 1779; Philip", who had served in the French and Indian War, had died in 1775; and Jonas remained in Bridgewater, perhaps because his father-in-law had made it worth his while.

We do not know that Squire Nathaniel and his Sidney neighbors ever had any trouble with the Maine Indians, but the old Indian blockhouse, Ft. Halifax, built in 1754 and still standing, was maintained by them as a refuge from possible attacks. Squire Nathaniel's nephew Thomas, Jr., also moved up to Winslow, Maine, about 1795, a few miles from his uncle and cousins. That was about the time Thomas", Senior, died. All Maine was then, and until 1820, considered part of Massachusetts. There are many of the stock still in Vassalboro, Sidney, Winslow and Waterville, Maine. In the Census† of 1790 we find Squire Nathaniel, "himself, 2 sons over 16, 2 females" given in Vassalboro, where the total population was about 1250. His son Timothy cannot be found in the Census-perhaps had died and his children were with their grandfather as above. Squire Nathaniel married twice. 1st: Hannah Hartwell, Dec. 12, 1739 (when he was 21), dau. Samuel and Hannah Hartwell. See Hartwell Genealogy. She was b. Dec. 20, 1719; d. Aug. 12, 1842, W. Bridgewater, Mass. Nathaniel and Hannah lived where Edwin Packard lived in 1917 in Brockton, Mass. He m. 2nd: Mary Tolman, June 14, 1744, dau. Thomas and Mary Tolmant. Born Nov. 4, 1724; m. by Rev. Saml. Dunbar, Canton, Mass.

301. PHILIP, b. Sept. 19, 1740; d. Jany. 3. 1775; m. Hannah Packard, 1765. French & Indian War.

*302. JONAS, b. Jany. 28, 1741-2; d. Aug. 5, 1795; m. Anna Perkins, 1768. Lived in Bridgewater. Revolutionary War.

303. BILLY (Wm.), b. March 10, 1744-5; baptzd. March 27, 1745; d. April 27, 1753.

tReynolds Family Assn. Annual, 1921, p. 67, No. 8.

THOMAS TOLMAN, son of Thomas1, b. 1633, m. Elizab. Johnson, dau. Richard of Lynn, Mass. She b. 1638. Thomas d. Sept. 12, 1718, aet. 85; she d. Dec. 4, 1720, aged 82. Probably old cem. Canton, Mass. Among others they had son Thomas, b. about 1660; m. Experience Adams, dau. Henry & Mary (Pittee) Adams of Boston, she b. Nov. 9, 1663. Their home, Dorchester, now Canton, Mass., one-time Stoughton. He d. Nov. 6, 1738; she d. May 15, 1762, in her 99th year. Thomas and Experience had among others, Thomas' b. about 1689; m. about 1715, Mary He d. Feby. 3, 1725. They had: Thomas b. Aug. 28, 1716, d. Dec. 22, 1716; Thomas b. Dec. 14, 1718, m. 1750 Hannah Shepard; Isaiah, b. May 28, 1721, m. 1745, Hannah Fuller; Mary' b. Nov. 4, 1724, m. Nathaniel Reynolds, 2nd wife. Mary Tolman's mother, maiden name unknown, m. 2nd, Dec. 8, 1725, Deacon Joseph Hartwell of Canton. See N. E. Hist. Gen. Reg.; Boston Transcript geneal. articles; Registers of Probate and Deeds, Mass. Vital records, etc. Above by Isaac N. Reynolds.

304. TIMOTHY, b. Oct. 29, 1746; d. after 1780; m. Rebecca Tolman, 1769. Descendants in Sidney, Waterville, Me. Revolutionary War.

305. SIHON, b. April 19, 1748; baptized June 19, 1748; d. March 23, 1753.

306. HANNAH, b. March 4, 1749-50; baptzd. May 20, 1750; m. Lieut. Wm. Packard, 1769.

307. MARY, 1st, b. Sept. 30, 1751; baptzd. July 26, 1752; d. April 1, 1753.

308. MARY, 2nd, b. March 23, 1754; baptzd. Aug. 11, 1754; m. Deacon Ebenezer Packard, March 31, 1774.

*309. NATHANIEL, 5th, b. April 26, 1757; d. 1828; m. 1st: Bethiah Keith. 2nd Mary Adams. Revolutionary War. Lived in Sidney, Me.

*310. DAVID, b. March 9, 1759; d. July 23, 1842; m. Mary Bisbee. Lived Vassalboro, Me. Revolution War.

311. SILENCE, b. Oct. 30, 1760; probably died young, no more known.

312. JONATHAN, b. May 17, 1764; d. Jany. 19, 1804; m. Anna Thayer, 1794, Sidney, Me.

313. CYNTHIA, b. Oct. 9, 1769; baptzd. April 29, 1770; m. William Snell in Sidney, Me., or Vassalboro, Me., intention filed Feby. 12, 1792.

94. THOMAS REYNOLDS; (Nathaniel1; Nathaniel3; Captain Nathaniel2; Robert1)son of Nathaniel and Mary (Snell) Reynolds of Boston, was b. Boston, Mass., Feby. 25, 1719-20; d. North Bridgewater, Mass. (called Brockton since 1874), in 1795 (about October). The tradition of his death is that he caught cold running down street in his shirt-sleeves to see the crowd burn the then unpopular John Jay, our Minister to France, in effigy, and quickly died of pneumonia. His father Nathaniel' had died Oct. 29, 1719, “aet. 26", in Boston on the old home-lot of our immigrant Robert & Mary Reynolds; so that Thomas was apparently born four months after his father's death. His widowed mother was Mary (Snell) Reynolds of the Bridgewater Snell Family, so that it was logical that she should go back there upon the death of her husband. The widow Mary Reynolds took her two infant sons-Nathaniel' and Thomas-the only children, back to West Bridgewater about 1720. In 1722 she married David Ames of that place, and, although he died in 1726, two infant Ames half-brothers and a half-sister were left to grow up with our two Reynolds boys. In 1725 Mary sold the last of Robert's home-lot in Boston to John Fosdick, her late husband's uncle by marriage. Now, Nathaniel and Thomas spent most of their boyhood on David Ames' Bridgewater farm. This place in 1886 was owned by Charles Williams and was on West Center St., a little way east of Cochessett Village in W. Bridgewater. Thomas and Nathaniel eventually settled in the North Parish of Bridgewater some time previous to 1744.

Thomas built a two-story house on the spot where John D. Thayer recently lived. It was about opposite West Street on Pleasant Street. He and Nathaniel had three-quarters of a square mile of land, whether by grant, gift or purchase we do not know. It was covered with wild forest and Thomas had to cut the trees to clear the spot upon which he erected his house. At the time of his marriage he had only finished one room; but the rest was completed afterward. A bear was occasionally to be seen in the clearing; foxes were plentiful among the corn-shocks and pumpkins in his field, and venison was not at all hard to get. Indians occasionally wandered into town, though by this time the smallpox, firewater, and incursions of the white man had begun to make the Indians scarce. Thomas' home was about a mile and a quarter west of the business center of Brockton. Nathaniel built farther west on what is now Pleasant Street, about two miles from the center. Both Thomas and Nathaniel followed the family tradition and made shoes, by going from house to house, taking measurements, tanning their own leather, and making up the shoes at home. However, they undoubtedly combined farming with this family trade. Their twice-widowed mother was considered quite well-to-do and at her death March 27, 1757, left her Reynolds and Ames children quite comfortable legacies, as we have already read in this genealogy.

All of the sons of military age of both Nathaniel and Thomas served in the Revolution. Their Bridgewater descendants multiplied rapidly and many of them still live in Brockton, as shoe manufacturers or shoe operatives. In 1779 Nathaniel and most of his children removed to Sidney and Vassalboro, Maine. Just after the Revolution, Thomas Jr., son of our Thomas, removed to Winslow, Me., which is quite near the homesteads of his uncle Nathaniel5 and his sons. The family is still numerous there. Other descendants of Thomas from 1810-1820 went to Canton, Hartford, Caribou, Winthrop, and other Maine towns. However, the growing shoe industry in Brockton in the middle part of last century attracted many of their children back to Brockton, because these later generations still stuck to the family trade of shoe-making. North Bridgewater was re-named Brockton in 1874.

We haven't the exact date of death of Thomas"; but he and his wife Elizabeth deeded to their son Thomas on Jany. 41, 1794, a piece of Bridgewater land. Thomas' speaks of himself as "yeoman" in his will date March 23, 1795 (proved at Plymouth, Mass., the county seat, on Nov. 21, 1795, where the original is still filed. Thomas died in that interval, probably a month before the proving of the will. Yeoman then meant "one of the commonalty of the first, or most respectable, class." The value of his Estate, $2,352.26, was not a mean sum in those days. The will reads:

"Last Will & Testam"."

(Nov. 1795. Recorded Book 35: folio 329, &c.)

"In the Name of God, Amen. I, Thomas Reynolds of Bridgewater in the County of Plymouth, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Yeoman; do make and ordain this my last will and Testiment in order following, that is to say. I give and Recommend my Soule into the hands of Almighty God that gave it and my body I recommend to the earth to be decently intered at the discretion of my executor, hereafter named. And touching Such worldly estate which it hath pleased God to Bless me with I will and bequeath in the following manner and form

"I bequeath unto my well-beloved wife Elisabeth Reynolds the improvement of all my real Estate (Except what is hereafter Disposed of) During hir natural life also half of my indoor movables with two cows which she likes best and my wareing apparil and half of my Swine and all the rest of my estate of what name or nature not otherways Disposed of. And I do hereby constitute and appoint my beloved wife and Oliver Howard joint Executors of this my last will and testament who are to pay my Just Debts and funerael charges with the legacies hereafter named out of my personal estate, and if that should be found insufficient to sell so much of my real estate as will do it. And if the improvement of my real estate be not sufficient for hir comfortable support my will is that she sell so much as will answer that purpos.

"I give unto my Son Joseph Reynolds & his wife Jemima Reynolds the improvement of about fourteen acres of land whare their Hous stands and Six acres of pastor and wood Land that he now improves to the use of the longest liver of either of them. "I give unto my sons Joseph, Thomas & Josiah Reynolds my right in the sawmill and all that pertains theirunto.

"I give unto my Daughter Elizabeth Reynolds one half of my indoor movables with the privilege of living in my house with the family. And have one cow kept winter and summer and eight bushels of Indian corn & two bushels of rice with fifty wait of pork and fifty wait of beef a year as long as she lives in an unmarried state with one-fourth part of the fruit of the orchard, but if she should marry she must be fixed for hous keeping equil with hir other sisters with the household stuff already given and quit all right to my estate. Also my will is that what Real Estate is left at my wife's Deceas be Devided equilly amongst my son Joseph Reynolds' Sons and that improved by Joseph and wife Devided in the same manner after their Deceas.

"And I do hereby utterly Disallow revoke & Disanul all and every other former Testaments and wills before named Ratifying and confirming this and no other to be my last will and testament. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this twenty-third day of March one thousand seven hundred and ninety-five."

Thomas Reynold

Signed, sealed, published and pronounced by the said Thomas Reynolds as his last will and testament in the presents of us who in his presents and in the presents of each other have hereunto subscribed our names.

Zadock Perkins

Daniel Packard, 3rd
Jesse Perkins."

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