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.
Middlesex County, Massachusetts was created on May 10, 1643. The county originally included Charlestown, Cambridge, Watertown, Sudbury, Concord, Woburn, Medford, Wayland, and Reading.
William Powers was born in 1661 in Littleton, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. He was the oldest son of Walter Powers and Trial Shepard.
He married Mary Bank (Banke, Banks, Bunk) about 1688. Mary was born on January 7, 1669/70 in Littleton. She was the daughter of John Bank and Hannah Jenkins of Chelmsford.
Their children inluded:
John Powers (1689),
William Powers (1691, married Lydia Perham),
Experience Powers (1693),
Mary Powers (1698),
Samuel Powers (died as an infant),
Samuel Powers (1701)
Lemuel Powers (1703),
Ephraim Powers (1705, married Lucy Powers, daughter of Isaac Powers & Mary Poulter),
Walter Powers (1708), and
Benjamin Powers (1711).
He inherited his family home along with the sawmill.
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.
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
A sawmill was an important developmental step in a community. Before sawmills, boards could only be sawn by two men with a whipsaw. In a sawmill, the circular motion of a water wheel was changed to the back-and-forth motion of the saw blade with a pitman arm.
Chelmsford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts was incorporated in May, 1655
Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine by George Thomas Little, Henry Sweetser Burrage and Albert Roscoe Stubbs, Lewis Historical Pub. Co., 1909.
William [Powers], born 1661, married Mary, daughter of John and Hannah Bunk (or Bank), of Chelmsford, and died March 16, 1710. As the eldest son, he inherited the home place with saw mill and undoubtedly found burial in the family plot, the stones marking the graves having however been destroyed.
