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An American Family History

Nathan and Susanna Fiske

 
Watertown, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
 
Estate inventories give us a glance into the home life of Colonial Americans.

Nathan Fiske and his wife Susanna were in Watertown by 1642.

Nathan bought land there on October 7, 1643. In the third inventory of estates taken in Watertown about 1644, Nathan Fiske was the proprietor of a lot of nine acres of upland.

Their children were listed in Pioneers of Massachusetts. Nathan Fiske, Jr. was born on August 17, 1642. David Fiske was born on February 29, 1652. Nathaniel Fiske was born on May 12, 1653 or July 12, 1653. Sarah Fiske Gale was born in 1656. 

Nathan, Sr. died in 1676.
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.

Watertown was settled in 1630 by English Puritans in Middlesex County, Massachusetts.

Lush forests in Colonial America allowed settlers to build wooden homes.

 

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The Massachusetts Bay Company was a trading company chartered in 1629 to settle an English colony in New England. Puritan leaders saw it as a religious and political refuge. About  900 colonists arrived in 1630.
Spellings of Jennings: Gennings, Jennens, Jennings, Jenyns

Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Worcester County, Massachusetts: With a History of Worcester Society of Antiquity, by Ellery Bicknell Crane, published by The Lewis Publishing Company, 1907

Lieutenant Nathan Fiske, son of Nathan Fiske, the immigrant, and grandson of Nathaniel and Dorothy (Symonds) Fiske, was born in Watertown, Massachusetts Bay Colony, October 17, 1642.

He married Elizabeth Fry. He purchased from Thomas and Magdalen Underwood, lands allotted to or purchased by his uncle and aunt, Martin and Martha (Fiske) Underwood, and inherited by Thomas Underwood, to the extent of two hundred and twenty acres, paying therefor the sum of £10.

He was selectman of Watertown 1684, 1688 and 1691. He died October 11, 1694, and his widow Elizabeth was administrator of his estate, being appointed by the general court December 10, 1694, and the estate was divided November 23, 1696, his widow having died May 15, 1696.

The children of Lieutenant Nathan and Elizabeth (Fry) Fiske were:
Nathan, born February 9, 1665, died in 1668:
Elizabeth, born January 19, 1667, married James Ball (1670-1729) Weaver, January 16, 1693;
Martha, born January 12, 1670, married, March 13, 1694, Edward Park (1661);
Nathan, born January 3, 1672;
Susanna, born April 7, 1674, died unmarried, 1752;
Abigail, born February 18, 1675, married John Mixer, August 15, 1695;
William, born December 5, 1677, died same year;
William, born November 10, 1678, married Eunace Jennings;
Anna, died young.

American colonists continued to use British monetary units, namely the pound, shilling and pence for which £1 (or li) equalled 20s and 1s equalled 12d. In 1792 the dollar was established as the basic unit of currency.
map
1677 Map of New England
click to enlarge

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.

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©Roberta Tuller 2023
tuller.roberta@gmail.com
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