The settlement of New Meadows was incorporated as the Town of Topsfield in 1650. The church "gathered" on November 4, 1663. The third Meeting House was built in 1703 with Rev. Joseph Capen as pastor.
Joanna Dwinnell Hood was born on September 5, 1688 in Topsfield, Essex County, Massachusetts. Her parents were Michael and Mary Dwinnell.
Nathaniel was born on June 9, 1669 in Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts. His parents were Richard Hood and Mary Newhall.
They moved from Lynn to Topsfield in 1712 and settled in the northwest part of town by a pond which was named Hood's Pond (Pritchard's Lake). He was a member of the Society of Friends and so their children were not baptized.
Nathaniel and Joanna's children were all born in Topsfield.
Nathaniel Hood (1707),
Nathan Hood (1710),
Joseph Hood (1712),
Susanna Hood (1714, married Samuel Cummings, son of John Cummings),
Amos Hood (1716),
Richard Hood (1718),
Mercy Hood (1721/22),
Mary Hood (1721/22), and
John Hood (1723/24, married Elizabeth Redington).
Her father provided in his will “Joseph shall pay to my Daught . . . Johanna Five pounds."
Joanna died on March 1 1731/1732 when she was 47 and Nathaniel died on October 20, 1748 in Topsfield.
The Society of Friends (Quakers) began in England in the 1650s, when they broke away from the Puritans. Pennsylvania was founded by William Penn, as a safe place for Friends to live and practice their faith.
The Edict of Nantes (1598) granted the Huguenots substantial rights in Catholic France. The revocation in 1685 led to a Protestant exodus from France.
John Hood of Lynn, Massachusetts, and Some of his Descendants (1909)
Nathaniel Hood, born June 9, 1669, in Lynn, married Oct. 16, 1706, Joanna Dwinnell of Topsfield. They lived in Lynn for a few years and then removed to Topsfield and lived in the northwest part of the town adjoining Ipswich and Boxford on the farm owned in 1835 by Capt. Daniel Bixby. In 1746 Nathaniel Hood built a house by the pond which is now called "Hood's Pond." The house has always remained in the Hood family and in the Hood name and is now owned by Ralph D. Hood.
Nathaniel Hood died Oct. 30, 1748, at Topsfield, and his wife Joanna died Mar. 1, 1731-2. She was daughter of Michael Dwinell a French Huguenot who came to America after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, and settled in Topsfield.
Children of Nathaniel and Joanna:
28. Nathan.
29. Nathaniel.
30. Joseph, d. Sept. 6, 1745 at Newport, R. I.
Old Style Calendar
Before 1752 the year began on Lady Day, March 25th,. Dates between January 1st and March 24th were at the end of the year. Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) are used to indicate whether the year has been adjusted. Often both dates are used.
Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts was first settled by English Puritans in 1629 and was first incorporated in 1631 as Saugus.
from Historic Homes and Places and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Middlesex County, Massachusetts by William Richard Cutter
Nathaniel Hood, son of Richard Hood (3), was born in Lynn, June 9, 1669, and died at Topsfield, October 30, 1748. He married, October 16, 1706, Joanna Dwinnell, of Topsfield, and settled near Hood's Pond, named for this family, in Topsfield.
Children:
1. Nathaniel, born about 1710...
2. Nathan, married Elizabeth Palmer, of Rowley, March 6, 1731; died May 4. 1792, aged about eighty-seven.
3. John [Hood], born 1723, married (first) Elizabeth Redington; (second) Mary Kimball. Probably others.
Rowley, Essex County, Massachusetts was first settled in 1639.
Early European settlers in the American colonies were mostly farmers and craftsmen. They had to work hard to provide daily neccesities for themselves.
from Genealogy: A Weekly Journal of American Ancestry, Volumes 1-2 By Lyman Horace Weeks and William Montgomery Clemens
Richard Hood only son of John and Elizabeth Hood, was born in Lynn Regis, Norfolk county, England, about 1625 He was brought to America by his parents, with whom he was living in Lynn, Mass., before 1650. In Lynn he occupied a farm, under lease for several years, and in 1681 purchased the property for £100. He was admitted a freeman in 1691. His death occurred September 12, 1695.
He married Mary Newhall, daughter of Anthony Newhall. A Mary Hood who died in Lynn about February 14, 1728, may have been his widow. The children of this union were thirteen in number: Mary, Richard, Sara, Elizabeth, Ruth, Rebecca, John, Hanna, Samuel, Nathaniel, Anne, Joseph and Benjamin.
Mary Hood the eldest child of this family, married Michael Deriche. She was imprisoned as a witch, and was a widow in 1692. Sara Hood, born August 2, 1657, married October 25, 1675, William Bassett, Jr., husbandman. She was imprisoned as a witch in 1692. She had nine children, the seventh of whom, Joseph Bassett, was born when she was in prison. Elizabeth Hood, born in November, 1658, married December 6, 1682, Thomas Farrar, Jr.
Ruth Hood was born in July, 1660. Rebecca Hood, born February 7, 1662, married December 9, 1681, Hugh Alley of Lynn, weaver, and had seven sons and one daughter. Hanna Hood, born October 21, 1665, died September 28, 1740, married, March 15, 1703, Edmund Needham, and had one son and one daughter. Anne Hood, born February 13, 1672, married February 5, 1692, Samuel Breed of Lynn, husbandman and weaver, and had six sons and four daughters.
Any man entering a colony or becoming a a member the church, was not free. He was not forced to work, but his movements were carefully observed to see if they followed the Puritanical ideal. After this probationary period, he became a "freeman." Men then took the Oath of a Freeman where they vowed to defend the Commonwealth and not to overthrow the government.
Mary White Rowlandson,Talcot
was captured by Native Americans
during King Philip's War
(1675-1676).
In 1688, during the Glorious Revolution, the Protestant king and queen,William and Mary, took the English throne from Catholic King James II. The bloodless revolution profoundly impacted the American colonies.
King Charles I ruled England from
March 27,
1625 to 1649.
