Tag Archives: Abraham Jones

A Brief History of Raynham, Bristol County, Massachusetts and its First Congregational Church

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Raynham, Massachusetts was incorporated April 2, 1731, having been taken from the eastern precinct of Taunton, Massachusetts in Bristol County.  Taunton was first settled by English emigrants in about 1637-39.  Settlements in the area that was to become Raynham were made about 1652 by James and Henry Leonard and Ralph Russell, who had come from Wales, and established in Raynham the first iron forge on the continent.  By a free town vote they were given the liberty to “build and set up this work, and that they shall have the woods on the other side of the Two-Mile river, wheresoever it is common on that side of the river, to cut for their cord-wood to make coals; and also to dig and take mine or ore at Two-Mile Meadows, or in any of the commons appertaining to the town where it is not proprietary.”  The iron forge was held by the Leonard family and their descendants for a century, during which time the iron works were enlarged by adding more furnaces and eventually being converted into an anchor forge, and providing a livelihood for the inhabitants of the area for about 200 years.

Abraham Jones, who was born about 1659 in Hull, Massachusetts and died March 18, 1734/35 in Raynham, appears to have been the major voice in petitioning for separation from Taunton; his name appears first on each of the petition’s. The separation does not seem to have been from any political difference but rather from a convenience of the people as most of the inhabitants were too far from Taunton to attend public worship.  Three petitions to separate were presented to the Massachusetts General Court before the Court declared that it was “competently filled with inhabitants” to be set off into a distinct township.  The first petition, dated December 8, 1726, sought exemption from charges for the new meeting house in Taunton, and to be set off as a separate town from Taunton; the second petition dated October 17, 1728 asked that Taunton be erected into three separate and distinct districts; the third petition dated April 16, 1729 made the request to be set into a separate precinct from Taunton. The General Court, on the third petition, set off Raynham as a distinct township.  There were 30 families living in Raynham at the time that it was incorporated on April 2, 1731.

The inhabitants of Raynham, in anticipation of separation from Taunton had already erected and partially finished a meeting house two years before incorporation.  This first meeting house, according to “The History of Raynham, Mass.” stood a fourth of a mile east of the forge, on the north side of the road leading to Squawbetty.  On the website for the First Congregational Church of Raynham UCC, it is more clearly defined that the first meeting house was located along Richmond Street, not far from the Iron Forge.

The first town meeting for selecting officers was held April 22, 1731.  Samuel Leonard, Jr., was chosen town clerk, and John Staples, Samuel Leonard and Ebenezer Robinson, selectman.  In 1732 John White was chosen as clerk of the market and Elijah Dean and Thomas Baker were elected tithing-men. At a meeting on May 10, 1731, Mr. John Wales, who had already been preaching in Raynham for a year and a half, was chosen minister. The church was officially established on October 19, 1731 and the Rev. Mr. Wales was ordained as the pastor the following day. Mr. Wales continued as the minster of the Raynham church for another 34 years. He died February 23, 1765.  About two years after the death of Mr. Wales, Perez Fobes, of Bridgewater. was chosen pastor of the church, and served for 45 years.

On October 7, 1731 at a church meeting at the public meeting house in Taunton, 15 men and 17 women, all living in Raynham, and all brethren and sisters in full communion with the Taunton church, requested to be dismissed from the church in order to enter into a church state by themselves, and have the ordinances of the gospel administered among them. The church voted that they be dismissed accordingly.

It is every family historian’s desire to obtain primary source documents.  The following is the list of original members of the Church in Raynham, taken from page 129 of the Raynham Church Records, Vol. 1 (Old Colony Historical Society, Taunton, Massachusetts).

The Original Members of the Church in Raynham
Men (15) Women (17)
Abraham Jones Hannah White
John Staple Mary Hacket
John Leonard Kathrine Leonard
Samuel Hacket Hannah Campbell
Joseph Jones Susannah White
Samuel Leonard Hannah Staple
Seth Leonard Mehetable White
Samuel White Ruth Crane
Ebenezer Campbell Elizabeth Shaw
John White Mary Jones
Gabriel Crossman Joanna Leonard
Jonathan Hall Abigail Hall
Thomas Baker Lydia Brettun
Samuel Hacket 2d Patience Hacket
Henry Crane Sarah Hall
Rebecca Leonard
Abigail Baker

Three Halls appear on the list of original members of the church: Jonathan, Abigail and Sarah Hall. Abigail Hall was the widow of Samuel Hall, he being the first of this family to settle in this area; Jonathan was the son of Abigail [and Samuel], and Sarah was Jonathan’s second wife, Sarah Smith.

The second meeting house was built sometime during the 1760’s to early 1770’s by Israel Washburn, on the present lot of the church today, in Raynham Center. The land upon which it was erected belonged to Amariah Hall (nephew of Jonathan Hall).    A steeple was added later as a tower attached to the side of the house. When the church decided to replace this building, the town expressed an interest in it as they had been using it for town meetings and had no place else to meet.  Some of the church people were not fond of this idea and one night the tower was severed from the building.  In the morning the tower lay upon the ground, extending across the street with the spire projecting into the orchard of Amos Hall (son of Jonathan Hall).   Subsequently, no serious objection was made by the town to remove the dismembered building.

The third meeting house was built on the corner in Raynham Center.  It stood until July 22, 1913 when a fire in a shed belonging to a nearby blacksmith spread and the church was completely destroyed.  When the church members rebuilt their house of worship, they decided to use a stone exterior for better fire protection.  The Stone Church, as it is commonly known, was dedicated on April 1, 1915 and remains active today.

Sources
1. Raynham Church Records, Vol. 1, Old Colony Historical Society, Taunton, Massachusetts.
2. History of Raynham, Mass. From its First Settlement to the Present time, by Rev. Enoch Sanford, A.M., Providence, 1870.
3. First Congregational Church of Raynham UCC, (web site).
4. A Brief History of Raynham, Massachusetts, Town of Raynham (web site).
5. Descendants of Thomas Jones of Hingham, Hull, and Manchester, Mass., compiled by Claude W. Barlow, NEHGR, vol. 113, 47-48, 1959.

Children of Samuel2 and Abigail (Pratt) Hall

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Edward1 Hall of Rehoboth, Massachusetts
Samuel2 Hall
Jonathan3 Hall, Samuel3 Hall, Esther3 Hall, Hannah3 Hall

As previously written, Samuel and Abigail (Pratt) Hall had four known children with Jonathan Hall, born August 22, 1686 being the eldest son and Samuel Hall, born 1688, being the youngest son. Jonathan’s birth is documented in the Taunton Proprietor’s Records, while Samuel’s birth year is taken from David B. Hall’s 1883 publication, The Halls of New England, p. 578, in which no documentation is offered; and, I have yet to find any actual documentation of his birth. So unless or until that documentation can be found, I use 1688 as the tentative birth year for Samuel. Esther Hall was the eldest daughter, date of birth unknown, while Hannah is the younger daughter, as confirmed by the Last Will and Testament of Samuel Hall. Hannah was born circa 1700.

Before treating the children of Samuel and Abigail Hall, I think it would be beneficial to give you some background for further understanding of this Hall family. I’d like to take a few minutes to talk about a few published genealogy books (secondary sources) that had been the source of, or continued to contribute to, the confusion of the Samuel Halls in Taunton and Raynham, and their wives and children.

While The Halls of New England is a large, and for the most part, impressive effort to bring together the genealogies of multiple Hall families in early New England, it is not without mistakes and some are just outright huge glaring errors. This book has a fair amount of good information on Abigail (Pratt) Hall and her children, however, David B. Hall makes a huge mistake when he attaches Abigail and her children to the wrong Hall family! He places Abigail and her children, as well as their descendants into the chapter on the “Halls of Taunton” with Abigail as the wife of Samuel Hall, son of Samuel Hall, son of George Hall. This is wrong. Probate documents along with deeds have proven it so, not to mention the new ultimate tool of documentation that goes along with a good paper trail…DNA testing. A descendant of George Hall of Taunton through his son Samuel and his son Samuel, who married Elizabeth Bourne has recently perfectly matched another proven descendant of George Hall of Taunton. See George Hall and Edward Hall DNA.

Abigail and her children instead should have been placed into the chapter on the “Halls of Rehoboth”, with Abigail as the wife of Samuel Hall, son of Edward Hall, where she and her children and their descendants properly belong. This error has been perpetuated time after time in other published genealogies, The Nicholas White Family 1643-1900, compiled by Thomas J. Lothrop, 1902, for one, and unfortunately, has much more recently been reaffirmed in the 1998 publication by Robert Leo Hall, George Hall and His Descendants (1603-1669), when the author cites the work of David B. Hall in his presentation of the Samuel and Abigail (Pratt) Hall line. This will all be discussed a bit more in-depth in a future post.

In addition to the huge error mentioned above, David B. Hall, in his The Halls of New England made other errors in his narrative about the children when he stated that Samuel Hall (1688) left a will (p. 578) and that Hannah Hall married Silas King (p. 572). Samuel Hall (1688) actually died intestate and Hannah Hall married Barnabas Crossman. Unfortunately these errors have also carried over into other publications and genealogies.

Continuing with the children….

Jonathan3 Hall married first Sarah Ockington and second, Sarah Smith. Jonathan Hall and his family will be treated fully in a future post.

Samuel3 Hall, born 1688, married Mercy Willis, born circa 1690, of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, April 15, 1718 (Bridgewater Vital Records). It has been speculated that her parents were Comfort and Hannah Willis, however, absolutely no documentation has been found to prove this. Samuel inherited his father’s homestead in that part of Taunton that became Raynham on the road leading to Taunton from Bridgewater.

Samuel3 and Mercy (Willis) Hall had four children:

  1. Hannah4 Hall, born abt. 1718/19, married Joseph Alden (1716-1787), son of John Alden and Hannah White. She died July 1, 1766 and is buried in the Purchade Cemetery, Middleboro, Massachusetts. Their children were Ebenezer5, Amariah5, Moses5, Phebe5, Hannah5, Joseph5, Fear5, Eunice5, Lois5, Abner5, and Eliab5 Alden. Note: Fear5 Alden married her second cousin, Lewis Hall5, son of Amos4 and Abigail (Blake) Hall; Lois5 Alden married first Samuel Padelford, and second Reuben Hall5, son of Amariah4 and Hannah (White) Hall.
  2. Amariah4 Hall, born 1723/24, married November 27, 1747, Hannah White, dau. of Samuel White and Susanna Goodspeed. He died April 22, 1775 and is buried in the Town Cemetery at Raynham Center, Massachusetts. Their children were Reuben5, Susannah5, Prudence5, Samuel5, Amariah Jr.5, Hannah5, Zilpah5, Philena5, Pamelia5, and Asa5 Hall.
  3. Mercy4 Hall, born 1728/29, married her first cousin, Mason4 Hall (son of Jonathan3 Hall, Sr. and Sarah Ockington), in Raynham, January 16, 1748/49. She died July 9, 1792. Their children were Patience5, Sarah5, Mercy5 and Mason Jr.5 Hall.
  4. Patience4 Hall, born abt. 1731, married Abraham Jones February 6, 1755 in either Raynham or East Bridgewater (marriage is recorded in both the Raynham Church Records and the East Bridgewater VRs). She died September 13, 1775. Their children were Sarah5, Abraham5, Israel5, Eliakim5, and Joel5 Jones. It is possible that it is this Abraham Jones who *might* have married second, Waitstill Lee of Bridgewater on May 28, 1777, however this has not been documented.

Samuel3 Hall died 1736/37 and he did not leave a will. His estate was administered in 1741 and an order issued for the division of his property in 1743. The division names his widow, Mercy Hall, Amariah Hall, his only son, Hannah Hall his eldest daughter, Mercy Hall his second daughter, and Patience Hall, the youngest daughter. The burial location of Samuel Hall has not been determined.

Samuel’s sisters, Esther3 Hall and Hannah3 Hall are further identified in the above mentioned administration papers by their husbands’ names, when a legacy is paid from Samuel’s estate: “To said Blake [Samuel] and wife and to Barnabas Crossman and wife of Middleborough (by ye last will of said deceased’s father see Will), a Legacy – one of them from the share of the deceased. Paid Ten Pounds”.

Nothing further has been found on Esther3 Hall and her husband, Samuel Blake.

Hannah3 Hall married Barnabas Crossman about 1728. Their children were Elisha4, Hannah4, Barnabas4, Elkanah4, Abigail4, Samuel4, and Theophilus4 Crossman. Barnabas died October 1, 1744, in Middleborough, Massachusetts. It is possible that it was the widow Hannah Crossman who married Thomas Baker in Raynham on June 27, 1751, however, this information comes from the Mahurin Genealogy (Hugh Mahurin of Taunton, Massachusetts, NEHGR 136:20) and is not documented, and no further research has been done. If this is correct in the Mahurin Genealogy, Hannah, died December 14, 1754 in Raynham, Massachusetts. However, the Mahurin Genealogy became of interest to me because it has that Hannah Mahurin, not Hannah Hall, married Barnabas Crossman so in-depth research and documentation would need to be done to determine if the widow Hannah Crossman remarried and her death date. The fact that it was Hannah Hall and not Hannah Mahurin that married Barnabas Crossman is documented by probate records.

Addendum to Post, February 13, 2010. A review of the Mahurin Genealogy finds that the author stated that his information that Barnabas Crossman married Hannah Mahurin came from the Bassett Genealogy as well as private correspondence and that he, unfortunately, had yet to find a primary reference source to fully confirm this identity. We now know that he could not find the primary reference source because it was Hannah Hall, not Hannah Mahurin who married Barnabas Crossman, as identified by Bristol County Probate records.

Sources for the marriage (2 records) and death of Hannah (Hall) Crossman Baker are:

June 1, 1751, Thomas Baker of Rainham and the Widdo Hannah Crossman of Middleborough (Middleborough, Massachusetts Vital Records, Vol. 2, p. 46).

June 27, 1751, Thomas Baker and Hannah Crossman (First Book of Raynham Records).

December 14, 1754, Hannah Baker died in Raynham (Raynham Congregational Church Records, vol. 1).