John Holbrook

John came over at about seventeen with his parents in 1635, in the Rev. Joseph Hull's company from Weymouth, Dorset, and grew into one of Weymouth's leading men. He was a housewright by trade, "the Will of John Holbrooke late of Weymouth ... Housewright deceased" (probate, 14 Dec 1699), and "a very enterprising man of business, and his real estate operations were quite extensive for his day. He was also prominent in military affairs" (Soldiers in King Philip's War, 1906, p. 280).

He was made freeman on 13 May 1640 and selectman in 1648. He had owned some 600 acres of the Braintree Iron Works tract, taken for debt in 1653 (Vinton). Weymouth sent him as its deputy to the General Court in eleven years: 1651, 1664, 1669, 1671, 1672, 1673, 1680, 1680/1, 1681, 1683 and 1685-86 (Records of Massachusetts Bay). By 1664 he was lieutenant of the Weymouth company, and that year he was chosen to serve under Capt. Hudson, probably William Hudson of Boston, Humphrey Atherton's partner in the Narragansett purchases, at whose Wading River farm Capt. Hopestill Foster met Philip in 1670 (Potter, pp. 65, 235); "but his wife and family being sick at the time," another man went in his place (Bodge p. 280).

King Philip's War. When the war began he was still Weymouth's lieutenant, "Left John Holbrooke" in May 1675 (Mass. Bay Records 5:35) and "Weymouth. — John Holbrook, Lieut." on the Suffolk Regiment's roster, which names no captain for the town (Bodge p. 473): "In the time of Philip's war he was in command of the local company" (p. 280). He took the field as captain in the spring of 1676, probably for that expedition alone; at home he was lieutenant until about 1680 (5:204, 266, 300).

The war came to Weymouth that winter. "This night the Indians fired seven Houses and Barns in Weymouth," Increase Mather wrote under 25 Feb 1675/6 (A Brief History of the Warr, Drake's ed. p. 121). On 19 April "The Indians killed a man at Weymouth, and another at Hingham" (Mather pp. 134-135): Sgt. Thomas Pratt at Weymouth (Nash p. 39).

On 27 April 1676 the Council sent out "the Foot under the Command of Capt. Sill, Capt. Cutler, Capt. Holbrook; the Horse under the Command of Capt. Brattle, Capt. Prentice, Capt. Henchman, Commanders in Chief ... to range the Woods towards Hassanamesit" (Hubbard, Narrative, Drake's ed. 1:224-225). He wrote from Concord on 29 April: "this Day have mustered my Company ... which are but very Small which is a great Discouragement to me ... I have neither Drume nor Collors." By Major Clarke's order he was "to take 82 men under my Command together with 28 horses & 14 men to tend them": 39 from Boston, 9 each from Roxbury and Dorchester, 6 from Dedham, 7 from Braintree and 6 each from Weymouth and Hingham. Some never came: "From Dorchester non-appearance. Consider Atherton, Henry Wedarton [Withington], Ebezar Clape. From Waymouth, Zachary Gorney. From Hingham, Jn° Feres & Arthur Sherman. p me John Holbrooke Cap" (Mass. Archives 68:239, 69:12; Bodge pp. 280-281). Consider Atherton was probably a brother of Elizabeth (Atherton) Mather. Weymouth's six were very probably the "six able men" that Capt. William Torrey's committee of militia protested it had just been ordered to impress, with "ten men out already ... four killed by the enemy, already": "Just at this instant saw appearing of fire and smoke about the Town" (Mass. Archives 68:233, printed by Nash p. 39 n.).

On 6 May the force met "a considerable Party of the Enemy," first found by the Natick scouts "pursuing a Bear"; the horse "killed and took of the Enemy about sixteen ... although it was confessed by the Enemy, that they lost twenty." Back at their quarters at Medfield the men saw "two hundred Fires in the Night" but could not bring the enemy to fight, and with "an epidemical Cold" going through the country they were released "May the tenth" (Hubbard 1:225-226). Capt. Joseph Sill, who led the sister company, married in 1677/8 Sarah (Clark) Marvin, widow of Lt. Reinold Marvin of Lyme; and Capt. Thomas Brattle's troop, which rode with them, had Elisha Foster of Dorchester among its men.

Men were credited "under Capt. John Holbrooke" on 24 June, 24 Aug and 23 Sept 1676, among them a "John Ellenworth," perhaps John Ellinwood of Beverly, and "John Holbrooke, Capt." himself £16 1s 3d (Bodge pp. 281-282). Perhaps he went out again when "the same forces" were called out on 30 May and joined the Connecticut army at Hadley on 14 June (p. 270). Vinton's story of his coming to Concord on 22 June 1676 "with a company of thirty men from Old Norfolk" seems to belong to another officer, since men of Old Norfolk, north of the Merrimack, were not his (Vinton, p. 331).

After the war, on 7 Oct 1678, the General Court, hearing of "a comittee of the seuerall colonjes met at Plymouth March next to assist in the sale of the concquest lands," appointed "Capt Daniel Fisher, Mr Thomas Weld, & Leift Jn° Holbrooke to attend the same" (5:204). The conquest lands were the Wampanoag country taken in the war; Plymouth voted that "all such lands as are belonging to the country, or conquest lands, except Mount Hope, be put to sale" (Records of the Colony of New Plymouth 6:19). Weymouth's schoolhouse (1681) and meeting house (1682) were built on land "bought of Capt. John Holbrook" (Nash). On 9 July 1685, at Boston, he deposed as "Capt John Holbrook aged about 66 years."

His will (12 July 1699, when he was "weak of body"; signed "The marke of John Holbrooke & a Seal"; witnesses John Pratt, Ephraim Burell and Joseph Drake; proved 14 Dec 1699; Suffolk Probate 14:111-113) names wife Mary, son John "who has a wife Abigail" with John's daughters and son John, the children of his late son Samuel, son Ichabod (who has the homestead), and many grandchildren. He gives "my Son John Holbrooke all my housing and Lands in the Township of Situate," with his silver tankard, his wearing apparel and his best feather bed; the Weymouth homestead of 40 to 50 acres goes to Ichabod. He leaves half a dwelling house in Boston, land "near the Phisical Spring in Weymouth," probably a spring valued for health, and salt meadow in Kingman's neck "that was formerly my Father Thomas Holbrooke['s]"; he had land at Braintree too (Vinton). "I give unto the Reverend Mr Samuel Torrey Pastor of the Church of Weymouth Five pounds," and "I give unto the Foot Company in Weymouth three pounds in money," the militia company he had led. His wife Mary was to have £50, or else "my contract with her before Marriage to be made good to her in every respect." His overseers were John Rogers, Joseph Dyer and "my brother Stephen French." His son John refused to act as executor, so administration went to his son Ichabod and Ephraim Hunt, Esq.

The will also says: "if my Indian Servant Anthony doth behave himself well, that he have his Freedom in twelve years after my decease." He held a Native man, Anthony, in servitude. After King Philip's War many Native captives were shipped out of New England as slaves, and others were bound to English households: Plymouth let its magistrates put out the children of those who had come in "vntill such children shall attaine the age of twenty foure or twenty fiue yeers" (PCR 5:207), and Massachusetts bound surrendered children to twenty-four (Fisher, 2017; Newell, Brethren by Nature). Anthony's term, to about 1711, was perhaps that of a child bound in the 1680s or 1690s, or of a man held under a court sentence for debt or crime.

Open questions

• The mother of his son John (b. c. 1650): by the dates, Elizabeth Stream.
• His baptism, 6 Apr (Weaver) or 10 Apr 1618 (FamilySearch index): read the register image.
• Vinton's "thirty men from Old Norfolk": awaiting a ruling (Questions to decide, item 8).
• Whether he went out again in June 1676.
• Whether he attended the conquest-lands meeting at Plymouth in March 1678/9 (Plymouth Colony Records vol. 6; the Acts of the Commissioners of the United Colonies).
• Read his letter and certificate (Mass. Archives 68:239, 69:12) and the Weymouth petition (68:233) in the originals.
• The record reference for his deposition of 9 July 1685 at Boston.
• Who Anthony was, and how he came into the household.