Elisha Holbrook
Deacon Elisha Holbrook, a mariner of Wellfleet, Barnstable County, probably born at Scituate as the son of John Holbrook. He married Sarah Mayo at Eastham in 1742 and later Priscilla Newcomb, who administered his estate after he died intestate; only about two pounds remained after debts. Probably the father of Gideon Holbrook.
Life
- 1716Born25 May 1716, Scituate, Massachusetts
"Elisha, s. Jo[h]n Jr. and Sarah, May 25, 1716" (Scituate VR).
documentedproven - 1742Married Sarah Mayo13 May 1742, Eastham, Massachusetts
Intention 1 Apr 1742, as Sarah May. The marriage itself is transcribed as Annah Mayo (MD 20:156), an error in the record or the reading; Anna was about 13.
documentedproven - 1771Married Priscilla Newcomb19 Nov 1771, Wellfleet, Massachusetts
Newcomb Genealogy, no. 692, which calls him "Dea. Elisha Holbrook."
compiledprobable - bef. 1779Diedbefore 11 June 1779, Wellfleet, Massachusetts
Intestate. The FamilySearch tree's "before 7 Feb 1779" is not supported.
documentedproven
Family
- Father
- John Holbrook
The birth is documented; the inference is that the Eastham Elisha is the Scituate-born one.
inferredprobable≈95%Sources
- Vital Records of Scituate, Massachusetts, to 1850
- Suffolk and Bristol County court records naming John Holbrook of Scituate and Eastham
- Administration on the estate of Capt. John Holbrook late of Eastham, Gent.
- Will of Daniel Mayo Sr. of Eastham, yeoman
- Reasoning:
research/holbrook/Holbrook-Master-Family-Tree.md
Other claim · Davis 1899; Mollie's typescriptEliphalet Holbrook, son of Peter✕disprovenThe only Eliphalet son of Peter lived and died in Bellingham.
- Mother
- Sarah Chittendendocumentedproven
- Spouse 1
- Sarah Mayodocumentedproven
- Spouse 2
- Priscilla Newcombdocumentedproven
Pedigree
Notes
Born at Scituate, he married Sarah Mayo at Eastham in 1742 and spent his life at Wellfleet, then still the North Precinct of Eastham. “Elisha Holbrook of Wellfleet in the County of Barnstable, Mariner” in a Middlesex County suit of December 1766.
He was a deacon of the church at Wellfleet, gathered in 1730 as the North Precinct of Eastham, and for decades the only church in town. The precinct records call him plain “Elisha Holbrooks” in 1747 and 1760 and “Mr” in 1762, while giving other deacons their title, and the Newcomb genealogy calls him “Dea. Elisha Holbrook” at his second marriage in 1771. So he was probably chosen deacon between 1763 and 1771 (inferred).
On 20 Aug 1747, with his father-in-law Daniel Mayo as moderator, the precinct chose “Zoheth Smith and Elisha Holbrooks agents to petition the General Court to abate our part of the province tax … more Especially by reason of the present Spreading of the Small pox amongst us” (MD 11:75-76). He looked after the meeting house: in 1760 the precinct “voated that Elisha Holbrooks Should have four Pounds old Tennor for Sweeping and Looking after the Meeting house this year,” and again the next year (MD 13:212-214). When it was enlarged with a porch and steeple in 1765, he contracted “to provide all the bricks, lime and other materials, to underpin and pave round the house, for £16” (Pratt; Freeman 2:662). In 1762 he was on the school committee and on the committee of seven that helped Capt. Elisha Doane get the North Precinct set off as the District of Wellfleet, incorporated in 1763 (MD 13:216-217).
An Elisha Holbrook of Wellfleet served in Capt. Winslow Lewis’s company at Cambridge in 1775-76 and as a gunner and bombardier in Crafts’s artillery regiment in 1776-77 (Mass. Soldiers and Sailors 8:76-77). The deacon would have been about 60, so this is probably his son Elisha, born about 1748 (inferred). His estate (1779-1780) was administered by his widow Priscilla. The creditors’ accounts call him “Deacon Elisha Holbrook late of Wellfleet,” and Priscilla complained that his son Eliphalet was holding five bushels of salt and other goods of the estate. On 11-18 June 1779 she was made guardian of the minor children Daniel, Sarah, Joseph and Ezekiel, and Eliphalet Holbrook of Wellfleet, yeoman, of the youngest, Jeremiah. Only about two pounds remained after debts.
No guardianship was found for Gideon, who would have been about 13 or 14 in 1779.
Mollie’s typescript (pp. 1-17) runs the line Thomas of Braintree > Peter (m. Alice Godfrey) > Eliphalet (m. Hannah Rockwood) > Elisha, and gives Elisha a wife “Mary Mayhew.” The records place Elisha as the son of Capt. John Holbrook and Sarah Chittenden of Scituate, and his first wife as Sarah Mayo. The Leland, Godfrey, Rockwood, Mayhew, Skiff, Newcomb, Bayes and Wetherell lines in her Books 1-3 are therefore not ancestral.
Open questions
- Records that might name Gideon as his son and close the Elisha-to-Gideon step (about 80-85%): The Mayflower Descendant 29:13 (an index entry for Elisha and Sarah Holbrook) and the Holbrook entries in vols. 26-34, which are not on archive.org; the Wellfleet First Congregational Church records, 1730-1786, and the Wellfleet book of births from 1763; and Eastham and Wellfleet deed copies naming his heirs (the county’s own deed books burned in 1827).
Mollie's typescript
Mollie's chart makes him a son of Eliphalet Holbrook and gives his wife as "Mary Mayhew" and his sons as Gideon, Eliphalet and Jonathan; the records make him a son of Capt. John Holbrook of Scituate and his first wife Sarah Mayo.
ELISHA(5) Eliphalet 4, Peter 3, Thomas 2, Thomas 1) B. D Married Mary Mayhew b. 1742 Children: 1 Gideon 2 Eliphalet 3 Jonathan
p. 2 →
Checked against the records
- DisprovenEliphalet of Mendon and Bellingham fathered Naaman, Elisha and six more
His dates fit Peter's son Eliphalet (b. 27 Feb 1691/2, d. Bellingham 1775), but that man's children were born at Mendon and Bellingham in 1717-1736, and nothing places him or them on Cape Cod. These are Wellfleet Holbrooks: Ezekiel was Elisha's brother, and David, Gideon, Jonathan, Eliphalet and Mary were Elisha's own children.
Read it in the book, p. 2 → - DisprovenElisha was a son of Eliphalet and grandson of Peter
Mollie follows Davis's Ancient Landmarks of Plymouth (1899). The Scituate records give "Elisha, s. Jo[h]n Jr. and Sarah, May 25, 1716": John Holbrook and Sarah Chittenden. John moved to Eastham, where Elisha married, and died there by 1749; that this is the same Elisha is about 95% sure. Peter's son Eliphalet lived and died at Bellingham.
Read it in the book, p. 2 → - DisprovenElisha married Mary Mayhew, born 1742
His wife was Sarah Mayo, daughter of Daniel Mayo of Eastham. Their intention of 1 Apr 1742 names "Sarah May", and Daniel's will (1754) names "Sarah the wife of Elisha Holbrook"; her sister Martha married Elisha's brother Ezekiel. Elisha's eldest son Eliphalet was born about 1745, when a Mary Mayhew born in 1742 would have been three.
Read it in the book, p. 2 → - PossibleCapt. Gideon, born 1766, was a son of Elisha
Probable, not proven: no record names his father. Davis (1899) and Radasch (1973) say so, and he was born at Wellfleet about 1765, went into ships at Plymouth with Elisha's son Eliphalet, and named sons Elisha and Eliphalet. He died on 23 Jan 1842 aged 76 (his stone at Manomet); the pencilled 1847 is a death in his nephew's family.
Read it in the book, p. 2 → - DisprovenPeter Holbrook's wife Alice was a daughter of Francis Godfrey
Not ancestral, because Peter is not in the direct line: Elisha's father was John Holbrook of Scituate and Eastham. Mollie offers the Godfrey parentage herself only as an assumption "until proved", resting on a will she remembered but could not find again.
Read it in the book, p. 13 → - DisprovenHannah Rockwood, Eliphalet's wife, brings in the Rockwood line
Not ancestral. Her husband Eliphalet lived and died at Bellingham and was not Elisha's father, who was John Holbrook of Scituate and Eastham. Her Rockwood family, with the tale of the page who won a manor from Henry VIII at chess, belongs to another branch.
Read it in the book, p. 15 → - DisprovenThe Mayhews of Dinton and Martha's Vineyard are ancestors
Not ancestral. The line hangs on Elisha's wife being Mary Mayhew; she was Sarah Mayo of Eastham. The Mayhews drop out, with the Skiff, Bayes and Newcomb lines that come through them. Sarah, very probably Gideon's mother, brings Mayo, Howes, Prence, Mulford and Bassett instead. The Vineyard Mayhews themselves are real and well recorded.
Read it in the book, p. 18 → - DisprovenMary Mayhew (b. 22 Apr 1742, d. 1812) married Elisha Holbrook
Her dates belong to a real Plymouth girl: "Mary Mayhew, Born April 22nd 1742. Deceasd Feb 9th 1812", daughter of Thomas Mayhew and his wife Mary (Wethrell) (Plymouth records, MD 19:90). Nothing shows she married a Holbrook. Elisha married Sarah Mayo at Eastham on 13 May 1742, three weeks after this Mary was born.
Read it in the book, p. 20 → - DisprovenThe Skiffs, Bayeses and Newcombs are ancestors through the Mayhews
Not ancestral. These lines (pp. 30A-34A) come in through Mollie's "Mary Mayhew", wife of Elisha Holbrook. Elisha's wife was Sarah Mayo of Eastham, named as "Sarah the wife of Elisha Holbrook" in her father's will (1754), and probably Gideon's mother. So the Skiffs, Bayeses and Newcombs, like the Mayhews, are unrelated.
Read it in the book, p. 30A →
Connections
- Notable ancestor
- Mariner and deacon of the Wellfleet church
Elisha Holbrook is the 3x great-grandfather of the centre of this tree. Founders, magistrates and ministers.
- In his ancestry
- 10 notable connections →
Every notable ancestor and famous relative that Elisha's own ancestors lead to, with the lines drawn down to him.