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An American Family History

Deacon Ebenezer Fiske
Children of
Deacon William Fiske
and Sarah Kilham
  • William Fiske
  • Sarah Fiske Cook
  • Ruth Fiske
  • Samuel Fiske
  • Martha Fiske
  • Joseph Fiske
  • Samuel Fiske
  • Joseph Fiske
  • Benjamin Fiske
  • Theophilus Fiske
  • Ebenezer Fiske
  • Deacon Ebenezer Fiske
  • Jonathan Fiske
  • Elizabeth Fiske Foster
    		•

    Deacon Ebenezer Fiske was born on March 22, 1679 in Wenham, Essex County, Massachusetts. He was the son of William Fiske and Sarah Kilham.

    He was a farmer. He married Elizabeth Fuller on May 24, 1710 in Wenham. She was the daughter of Jacob Fuller and Mary Bacon of Salem. Elizabeth was born in 1686.

    Their children were Sarah Fiske Moulton (1711), Jonathan Fiske (1713), Ebenezer Fiske (1716), Elizabeth Fiske Bradstreet (1718), Jacob Fiske (1721), Mary Fiske Low (1723), William Fiske (1726), Mercy Fiske Perkins (1728, married David [Jonathan, Timothy, Thomas Perkins), and Lucy Fiske White (1732).

    In 1728, he was his father’s principal heir and legatee.

    Elizabeth died on August 25, 1732. He was elected deacon in 1739.

    His second wife was Mrs. Martha Kimball. They married on December 1, 1733.

    He died on September 30, 1771.
    Lady Day Before 1752 the year began on March 25th. Dates between January 1st and March 24th were at the end of the year, not the beginning.

    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.
     

    The Fiske Family vy Albert Augustus Fisk, 1867

    		  
     

    The maternal ancestors of Hon. William Fiske, in the paternal line from William, the first, of Wenham, were Susannah Batchelder, Elizabeth Fuller, and Sarah Kilham,—the wives respectively, of his father William, of Amherst, his grandfather Dea. Ebenezer, and great grandfather, Dea. William, of Wenham...

    KILHAM.—Austin Kilham, with his brother Daniel, emigrated from the Parish of Kilham, Yorkshire, England, the same year, and probably in company with the Fiskes. Both settled and were freemen in Wenham before 1645, and are presumed to be the ancestors of all New England families of that name.

    Austin, by wife Alice, had Lot, born in 1640, who settled and died in Enfield; and Sarah, born in 1642, who married deacon William Fiske, and died January 26. 1737, (as the record says,) aged 98." Her father, and probably his brother, followed Rev. John Fiske to Chelmsford, 1657. Her cousin, Daniel Kilham, Jr., figured conspicuously in town affairs for many year and his son, Hon. Daniel Kilham, (a democrat), was the formidable protagonist of Hon. Timothy Pickering in many a hotly contested campaign in Essex politics.,

    Joseph Batchelder, the first representative from Wenham (1644), emigrated in 1638, in company with his brothers Henry and Joshua, who went to Ipswich, and John, who settled with him at Salem. Joseph soon after removed to Wenham, and, according to Dr. Allen, his descendants continue there to this day. Among his children (probably) were Joseph, Mark, David, John, and Ebenezer. Ebenezer was constable in 1714, and Mark was one of the five drafted in King Philip's war and perished in the fierce assault upon the fort of the Narragansetts, 1675.

    In 1638, Thomas Fuller, who belonged to a family of high social standing in England, came over to this country on a tour of observation, not intending to stay. While in Cambridge he became a convert to Puritanism, under the eloquent preaching of Rev. Thomas Shepard, a famous Colonial divine, and at once resolved to cast in his lot with his brethren of that faith in the New World. He purchased a large tract of land in New Salem (afterward Middleton) and having married Elizabeth Tidd, of Woburn, he settled upon his handsome estate and died in 1698, leaving sons Thomas, Benjamin and Jacob, and several daughters.

    His youngest son, Jacob Fuller, born in 1655, married Mary Bacon and settled on the paternal homestead. Their five children were named Mary, Elizabeth, Edward, Sarah and Jacob. Two of these, Elizabeth and Sarah, married Fiskes, (Ebenezer and Daniel of Wenham). Their uncle, Benjamin Fuller, was the father of Rev. Daniel Fuller, of Gloucester, and also of Col. Archelaus Fuller, who commanded a section of the American forces at the battle of Bennington.
    King Philip’s war was a bloody and costly series of raids and skirmishes in 1675 and 1676 between the Native American people and the colonials. King Philip was the Native American leader Metacom.
     

    His sixth son, Ebenezer Fiske, appointed executor of his will, was born in Wenham, March 22, 1679, elected deacon in his place 1739, and married in 1710 to Miss Elizabeth, daughter of Jacob Fuller, Esq., of Salem, among others of whose posterity figures the somewhat celebrated Margaret Fuller. Deacon Ebenezer Fiske died September 30, 1771, in his ninety third year — a venerable and venerated patriarch of his church and town. To him and wife Elizabeth were born the following nine children:

    Sarah, born July 15, 1711.
    Ebenezer, born July 2, 1716.
    Jonathan, born Dec. 11, 1713.
    Mary, born Jan. 27, 1723-4.
    Elizabeth, born Oct. 12, 1718.
    Jacob, born Dec. 26, 1721.
    William, born Nov. 30, 1726.
    Mercy, born Mar. 9, 1728-9.
    Lucy, born April 22, 1732.

    Of the daughters of this family,
    Sarah married Samuel Moulton of Ipswich, in 1788;
    Elizabeth married John Bradstreet, of Topsfleld, in 1742;
    Mary married Nathaniel Low, of Wenham (probably),
    in 1742; Mercy married David Perkins [Jonathan, Timothy, Thomas], of Topsfield,
    In 1752; and Lucy married Thomas White, in 1757.

    All of the above sons daughters were legatees in their father's will, made 1765 and proved 1771, except Sarah, and of course were then living. A grandchild, Sarah Moulton, was also a legatee.

    The eldest of these sons died in his twenty fourth year, unmarried. The next in age, Ebenezer, married Dorcas Tyler, in Upton, about 1740, and ultimately settled in Shelburne, Mass., where, among his descendants bearing the name, were born seven who entered the Christian ministry, inclusive of Rev. Pliny Fisk, of the Syrian Mission, Rev. Dr. Ezra Fisk, of Goshen, New York, and Rev. Dr. D. T. Fiske, of Newburyport, Mass.

    A valuable cane, supposed to have been brought from England, and willed by the Deacon to his second son, has been inherited by a namesake in this family, in every generation since. . .

    William, the youngest son of Deacon Ebenezer Fiske, and executor of his last will and testament, was married, in November, 1749, to Susanna Batchelder, of Wenham, and resided on the ancient homestead . . .

    		  

     

         

    ©Roberta Tuller 2012
    tuller.roberta@gmail.com