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An American Family History

Jacob Estey

 

Various spellings of Estey
Easte, Este, Estee, Estes, Estey, Esty

 

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.

Many factors led to the witchcraft accusations in Salem.

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.

Jacob Estey was born January 24, 1674/75 in Topsfield, Essex County, Massachusetts. His parents were Isaac Estey and Mary Towne. He was a bricklayer. 

When he was 18, in 1692, his mother, Mary Towne Estey, became a victim of the Salem hysteria and was executed for witchcraft.

He was appointed by his father in 1710 to take the petition to court for damages in his mother’s death.

He married Lydia Elliott on March 25, 1710. Lydia was born about 1688. Many reseachers believe she was the daughter of John and Naomi Elliot, but she does not appear in lists of their children.

Jacob and Lydia's children included:
Jacob Estey (1711, married Dorcas Hovey),
Lydia Estey Towne (1713, married Isaac Towne, son of William, Edmund),
Isaac Estey (1715, married Sarah Gould),
Anna Estey (1719, died young), and
Mary Estey (1720/21, died young).

When his father died in 1712, he inherited the Estey homestead. That included the house, barn, other buildings, orchards, fields, pastures and meadows. It also included farming and barrel making tools and the road.

As for my son Jacob, my will is yt he & his heirs forever have my now dwelling house, together with barn, and other buildings with my orchards, plow lands pasture lands and meadows not already otherwise disposed of together with all my Implements of husbandry, weaving or Copering also my will is yt my son Jacob have ye whole of my movable estate yt shall be left at my decease he taking off & discharging my funeral expenses whom I do appoint sole Executor of this my last will . . . also my son Jacob and his heirs forever shall have all my right in cart or drift way as expressed by deeds.

He was selectman in 1725.

Jacob died in 1732.

After he died Lydia moved to Vermont with her son, Isaac.

His aged mother came to town with him, rode in a chaise which it required several men to steady and help over the obstructions of the way, and was the first adult female that died in Royalston.

Children of Isaac Estey
and Mary Towne
  • Isaac Estey, Jr.
  • Joseph Estey
  • Sarah Estey Gill Ireland
  • John Estey
  • Hannah Estey Abbott
  • Benjamin Estey
  • Samuel Estey
  • Jacob Estey
  • Joshua Estey
  • 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.

    Three daughters of William Towne and Joanna Blessing were wrongly accused of practicing witchcraft in Salem. Rebecca Towne Nurse, Mary Towne Estey, and Sarah Towne Bridges Cloyes were persecuted in 1692. The children of people in the line below are all descendants of Mary Estey.

    William Towne,
    Mary Towne Estey,
    Isaac Estey,
    Aaron Estey
    ,
    Mary Estey Dwinnell
    ,
    Israel Dwinnell,
    Isaac Davis Dwinnell, Sr.,
    Isaac Davis Dwinnell, Jr.
    ,
    Victoria Zellena Dwinnell
    ,
    Robert Wilson Miller, Sr
    .,
    Robert Wilson Miller, Jr.
    ye is an archaic spelling of "the."

    In early New England towns policy was set by a board of 3 to 5 selectmen. They oversaw public responsibilities such as the policing, roads, and fences.

    Essex County, Massachusetts was created on May 10, 1643 by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, when it ordered "that the whole plantation within this jurisdiction be divided into four sheires."
     

    divider

     
    A Trainband (or training band) was the basic tactical unit of the colonial militia. Men were required to join the local trainband. In wartime, military units were formed by selecting men from the trainband.

    from Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine, Volume 1  by Henry Sweetser Burrage, Albert Roscoe Stubbs

    John [Eliot], son and only child of Edmund and Sarah (Haddon) Eliot, was born in Salisbury, New-town, Massachusetts Bay Colony, September 25, 1660. He followed the occupation of his father, and is so described as a "yeoman" at the time he took the oath of fidelity and allegiance to the government in 1677, on arriving at military age, and before reaching his majority he was made a member of the trainband in 1680. His will was dated on February 22, 1733, and probated the following March, which would indicate that it was made on his sickbed and probably deathbed. One record of his death names February 27, 1633, which no doubt is not exactly correct.

    He married, 1685, Naomi, daughter of Henry Tuxbury, born in Newbury, January 18, 1667, and survived her husband, as she is mentioned in his will. The children of John and Naomi (Tuxbury) Eliot were born at the Eliot homestead in Amesbury, Massachusetts, as follows:
    1. Edmund, July 30, 1686 (q. v.).
    2. Sarah, October 10, 1688. married Sylvanus Carr, December 7, 1738.
    3. Elizabeth, November 11, 1691, married Jacob Colby, December 20, 1724.
    4. John, December 25, 1693, married Sarah Colby, December 20, 1721, and had children: Mary, born September 23, 1722; and John, born September 19, 1724.
    5. Thomas, November 26, 1696, married Judith Worthen, December 21, 1721, and had children: Thomas, born February 14, 1724; and Ephraim, born February 24, 1725 CO.
    6. Mary, August 4, 1699, married Ezekiel Colby, December 24, 1724.
    7. Hannah, October 7, 1702, married Robert Corn, March 16, 1732.
    8. David, June 12, 1705, married Mary Carter, January 2, 1728, and late in life removed to Newton, New Hampshire.
    9. Naomi, May 13, 1709, married John Calfe, October 31, 1739.

    Mary Towne Estey was a victim of the Salem witch delusion on September 22, 1692.
     
     
    New Hampshire was first settled by Europeans in 1623. It was separated from Massachusetts in 1679.

    Genealogical and Family History of the State of Vermont edited by Hiram Carleton

    The progenitor of the family in America was Jeffrey Estey, who was one of the original inhabitants of Salem in 1651. His wife's name was supposed to be Elizabeth Esticke. Isaac Estey, said to have been a son of Jeffrey Estey, was united in marriage to Miss Mary Town, daughter of William Town, of Topsfield;

    Jacob Estey, fifth son of Isaac and Mary Estey, was united in marriage to Miss Lydia Eliott;

    Isaac Estey, second son of Jacob and Lydia Estey, settled the first place west of the common, near the foot of Jacob's hill. He was one of the eight persons who "embodied" with the First Baptist church of Royalston, Massachusetts, in 1768, and became its first deacon. He was a man of considerable property and a highly respected citizen. His aged mother came to town with him, rode in a chaise which it required several men to steady and help over the obstructions of the way, and was the first adult female that died in Royalston.

    Baptist churches were found in early colonial settlements and grew out of the English Separatist movement and the doctrine of John Smyth who rejected infant baptism.
         
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    New Jersey Baptists
     
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    Watauga Settlement
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    Jewish Immigrants

    ©Roberta Tuller 2023
    tuller.roberta@gmail.com
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