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An American Family History

Captain Isaac Powers

Littleton, Middlesex County, Massachusetts was first settled in 1686 by English settlers and was the the location of the Native American village called Nashoba Plantation

It was customary for the men and women to sit separately in meeting, and to choose a committee once a year to assign the seats to the congregation according to what each paid, considering also "age and dignity."

Captain Isaac Powers was born on April 9, 1665 in Littleton, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. His parents were Walter Powers and Trial Shepard. 

He was captain of the militia, petitioned for the incorporation of the town and moderated the first town meeting. He held various town offices for many years and was twice a member of the general court and was the colonial agent for conveying lands. He was also on the pew committee to convey pew-rights in the meeting house when completed in 1723.

He married the widow of Samuel Winship of Lexington, Mary Poulter Winship, on April 14, 1701. Mary was born in 1668. She was the daughter of John Poulter and Rachel Eliott. Mary's niece, Rachel Poulter. married Barnabas Davis.

Isaac and Mary's children were Isaac Powers, Jr. (August 26, 1701 to December 15, 1729), Jonathan Powers (February 20, 1703/04), Gideon Powers (December 31, 1706), Lucy Powers Powers (Luce—March 9, 1705, married Ephriam Powers son of William Powers and Mary Bank), Hannah Powers Davis (March 21, 1709, married Barnabas Davis), Tryphena Powers Laurence (May 22, 1711), Ephraim Powers, and Mary Powers Davis (1724).  The Powers Family by Amos Powers has both Mary the daughter of Joseph Powers and Hannah Whitcomb (p. 24) and Mary the daughter of Captain Isaac and Mary Poulter the wife of Simon Davis, Jr. (p. 15).

Isaac died in 1735. Mary died in 1743.
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.
Children of Walter Powers
and Trial Shepard
  • William Powers
  • Mary Powers Wheeler
  • Captain Isaac Powers
  • Thomas Powers
  • Lieutenant Daniel Powers
  • Increase Powers
  • Walter Powers, Jr.
  • Jacob Powers
  • Sarah Powers Barron
    		•
     

    From the tombstone of Isaac Powers
    (son of Captain Isaac Powers and Mary Poulter)

    Her lyeth the body of Isaac Powers,
    One of the sweet and pleasant flowers;
    Let this be a lesson unto the rest,
    When God doth take from us the best,
    Who was a pattern to us all.
    But God can give a louder call,
    And earthly parents now behold,
    The price of grace is more than gold;
    Prepare to meet your children first,
    At the resurrection of the just.

    		  
     

    Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, John W. Jordan, Edgar Moore Green, & George T. Ettinger, eds., 1905

    Samuel Winship, son of Lieutenant Edward and Elizabeth (Parks) Winship, born October 24, 1658, was a resident of Lexington all his life. He was selectman of the town, and subscriber to the meeting house and for the purchase of the common. He married, April 12, 1687, Mary Powers, of Medford. (He died June 18, 1696).

    		  
     

    from Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine, by George Thomas Little, Henry Sweetser Burrage, Albert Roscoe Stubbs, Lewis Historical Pub. Co., 1909

    Isaac [Powers], born 1665, married, April 14, 1701, Mary, daughter of John Poulter and widow of Samuel Winship Sr. Isaac Power was captain of the militia, a petitioner for the incorporation of the town, moderator of the first town meeting, held various town offices for many years, was twice a member of the general court and was colonial agent for conveying lands. With his brother, Walter, he was on the pew committee to convey pew-rights in the meeting house when completed in 1723. His wife and the wife of Benjamin Shattuck, the first settled minister of the town, were of the same family.

    		 
     

    John Poultner [Poulter], Billerica, 1658; from Rayleigh in Co. Essex, married, 1662, Rachel Eliot of Braintree, daughter of Francis; died at Cambridge, 1676, aged 41, as inscription on gravestone is given by Harris, Epit. 6. His widow married, 1677, John Whitmore...

    		  
     

    Genealogical and Personal Memoirs, Volume 2 edited by William Richard Cutter

    The Poulters were of German descent, although they came to this country from England. John Poulter was from Raleigh, Essex. In 1668 he bought an eight acre right in Billerica and lived there until the beginning of King Philip's war in 1675, when the family went to Medford, where John died, September 18, 1676.

    His first wife, whom he married December 29, 1662, was Rachel, daughter of Francis Elliot, of Braintree, Massachusetts.

    Their son Jonathan [Poulter], with his brother, John, (said to have been his twin brother), appeared at Cambridge farm in 1693, and he and his wife Elizabeth [Coolidge] were admitted to the church in Lexington in 1697.

    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.
     

     

         

    ©Roberta Tuller 2012
    tuller.roberta@gmail.com