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An American Family History

Rebecca Estey Tucker Puffer

Suffolk County, Massachusetts was created by the Massachusetts General Court on May 10, 1643. It initially contained Boston, Roxbury, Dorchester, Dedham, Braintree, Weymouth.
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."

Rebecca Estey Tucker Puffer was born on August 8 1709 in Topsfield, Essex County, Massachusetts. Her parents were Isaac Estey, Jr. and Abigail Kimball.

She married Preserved (Preservit) Tucker on November 12, 1729 in Topsfield, Massachusetts. Preserved was born in 1704 in Milton, Norfork County, Massachusetts. His parents were Joseph Tucker and Judith Clapp.

Rebecca and Preserved children may have included:
Judith Tucker Johnson (1730, married Caleb Johnson),
Uriah Tucker (1733, married Eunice Dayton),
Joseph Tucker 1736), and
Preservit Tucker (1739).

Preserved died before 1742 when she married Matthias Puffer on April 7, 1743 in Stoughton, Norfolk County, Massachusetts. He was born on February 5, 1715/16 in Dorchester, Suffolk County, Massachusetts. He was the son of Eleazer Puffer and Elizabeth Talbot. 

Rebecca and Matthias' children may have included:
Matthias Puffer (1743/44),
Mary Puffer,
Rebecca Puffer(1745)
Abigail Puffer Oliver (married Russell Oliver),
Isaac Puffer, and
Benjamin Puffer (1750).

mother
First printed in Boston 1745

Children of Isaac Estey
and Abigail Kimball
  • Mary Estey Perkins
  • Abigail Estey Cummings
  • Sarah Estey Cummings
  • Isaac Estey
  • Aaron Estey
  • Jacob Estey
  • Hannah Estey Cummings
  • Richard Estey
  • Rebecca Estey Tucker Puffer
  • Moses Estey
  • 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.

    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.

     

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    Historic Homes and Places and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Middlesex County, Massachusetts by William Richard Cutter published by Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1908

    Deed of Preserved Tucker of Stoughton, yeoman, to John Peirce, Jr., of Watertown, weaver, dated March 4, 1731, Suffolk Registry of Deeds Book 45, folio 216, consideration £75.

    A certain piece or parcel of upland and swamp or meadow bottom in Stoughton aforesaid, containing by estimation twenty-seven acres more or less, beginning at an old stump and heap of stones on the north side of Marshapog brook below the bridge by Leonard's works so called, and from thence to a great rock, and then bounded westerly on Leonard's laud until it comes to a heap of stones which is the corner bound of said land on the northwest part, from thence easterly to a black oak tree marked with a heap of stones at the bottom, then running easterly to a heap of stones by a small walnut tree, then running easterly until it comes to a white oak tree with a heap of stones at the bottom, then turning southerly to a heap of stones on the rock mountaneous so called, then running southerly to a heap of stones on the north side of Modesley's land, till it comes to Mr. Danforth's land, and westerly on Mr. Danforth's land and Daniel Pettingill's land, until it comes to a great white oak tree marked by the Brickyard being the northerly bound of said Pettingill's land, thence bounded southerly on Pettingill's land till it comes to the bounds first mentioned, excepting two acres of land In the Clay Swamp a xxxxx sold Daniel Pettinglll on the southwesterly part thereof and one quarter of an acre to my honored father Joseph Tucker, as also the one-half of the remaining part of said swamp to myself and my heirs forever to be divided between said Tucker and Peirce.

    A yeoman was a man who owned and cultivated a small farm. He belonged to the class below the gentry or land owners. A husbandman was a free tenant farmer. The social status of a husbandman was below that of a yeoman.

     
     
    The indigenous population in the United States before the arrival of Europeans included many distinct tribes and languages

    Alcohol played a significant role in the daily lives of colonists; even children. They feared polluted water and believed in alcohol's nourishing and medicinal properties.

    History of the Town of Canton, Norfolk County, Massachusettsby Daniel Thomas Vose Huntoon

    Joseph Tucker, the son of Joseph Tucker, one of the garrison at the fort in Ponkapoag in 1675, was born at Milton, Jan. 11, 1679. In 1703 he purchased land in the "Twelve Divisions," in what is now South Canton on Washington Street. He took from the Indians, on the northerly side, a lease of the land on the east side of Washington Street, extending from the Massapoag House to beyond the residence of Charles Endicott. He ran the old saw-mill, cultivated his farm, and kept an inn. As early as 1711 he was appointed surveyor of highways. With his first wife, Judith Clapp, to whom he was married May 27, 1701, he joined Mr. Morse's church, June 29, 1717.

    For his second wife he married, Nov. 3, 1730, Mary Jordan, who died Dec. 14, 1738, aged sixty-three.

    He was a prominent man in the affairs of church and town, holding at one time the office of deacon, and was the first town clerk of ancient Stoughton.

    Deacon Tucker, like the rest of mankind, had his troubles. In 1742 the gossips declared that he had been "overcome and disguised with drink," and that this had happened in a very public manner, and that his associate and companion at the time was no less a person than Parson Dunbar. Of course, in those days such matters could only be settled by the church; and on the 10th of September Deacon Tucker made a speech to the church members in which he strongly denied the charge. He attributed his behavior, which he owned was like that of a drunken man, to an injury he received by the stumbling of his horse; but after the witnesses had given their testimony, he confessed that the last time he went to Boston he took many "drams," besides some "mixed drinks," and he might have taken more than he was aware of. The church continued him in communion, but deprived him of the office of deacon.

    Sept. 20, 1742, he married for his third wife Susanna, daughter of Robert and Rebecca (Crehore) Pelton, who survived him, and married for her second husband Richard Stickney, who died May 24, 1769. This woman was a connecting link between the first settlers and the present century. In 1801 the Widow Stickney stated that she was ninety-five years of age. She was then living in a poor and leaky house on a site between the present Crane schoolhouse and the Vulcan engine-house. She only received annually ten bushels of corn and one ton of English hay, and had a right to get firewood out of her wood-lot, and apples out of her orchard for family use, the whole of which would not equal fifty dollars a year. She had maintained an excellent character for many years. Jonathan Leonard thought it was a disgrace to any civilized society that one so aged and helpless should be suffering from cold and hunger, and did all in his power to alleviate her sufferings. She died March 11, 1803, in the ninety-seventh year of her age, just one hundred and twenty-seven years after her first husband was born. Deacon Tucker passed from earth in due time. The following inscription on his gravestone in the old cemetery tytles him "Deacon," but Mr. Dunbar's records read, "once a deacon of this church."

    Here lie the remains of
    DEACON JOSEPH TUCKER,
    Who died September, ye 25th 1745,
    in ye 66th year of his age.

    ye is an archaic spelling of "the."

    The town clerk was one of the first offices in colonial America. The clerk recorded births, marriages, and deaths.

     
     
     

    The New England Historical & Genealogical Register, 1867

    Eleazer Puffer [son of Matthias who was son of George] married at Dorchester, 27 November, 1713, Elizabeth Talbot, and had:
    Elizabeth, b. 24 August, 1714 ; m. 3 August, 1748, Samuel Rouson of Stoughton.
    Mathias, b. 5 February, 1716 ; m. 7 April, 1743, Rebecca [Estey] Tucker of Stoughton.
    Benjamin, b. in 1718, bapt. at Milton.
    James, b. 26 February, 1723.
    Dorothy,b. in 1726, bapt. at Milton.
    Lazarus, b. 1 June, 1729.
    He lived in that part of Dorchester, which in 1726 was incorporated as Stoughton, and the births of some of his children are there recorded. He died there 14 January, 1747, aged 64.

     
     

    Deacons played a respected and important role in early New England churches. They sat in a raised pew near the pulpit and had special duties during communion.

     
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    ©Roberta Tuller 2023
    tuller.roberta@gmail.com
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