Gideon Holbrook

Born at Wellfleet about a decade before the Revolution, he went to sea and settled at Manomet Ponds in Plymouth, where he married Sally Clark in 1788. Plymouth mariner and shipmaster: master of the schooner Eagle in 1790 and 1791 and of the brigantine William in 1794; co-owner with Eliphalet Holbrook and Jesse Harlow of a Plymouth schooner in 1803-1804. He and Eliphalet, “both of Plymouth… Mariner[s],” sold “our Dwelling house” at Monument Ponds to Caleb Bartlett on 20 Nov 1795. A Gideon Holbrook was master and co-owner, with Eliphalet Holbrook, of the schooner Endeavour of Plymouth, 96 tons, built at Plymouth in 1808 and registered 20 May 1809 (Ship Registers of the District of Plymouth); the Holbrook master tree leaves open whether this was Capt. Gideon or his nephew Gideon. “Capt.” on the gravestones of his wife Sally and daughter Mary; “gentleman” at probate. No Revolutionary service was found for him; the Wellfleet Holbrooks in the muster rolls are Elisha, Eliphalet and Ezekiel (inferred).

Mollie’s typescript (p. 7) says he came to Manomet Ponds as a boy with his uncle Naaman and inherited Naaman’s house, built before 1714. That is not yet confirmed: Naaman Holbrook of Plymouth is in the records, but his relationship to Gideon is unknown.

His houses and land. Gideon Holbrook, mariner, held a bond from Thomas Davis of Boston and William Davis of Plymouth for “a Certain Dwelling House and the Land adjoining thereto” at Training Green, Plymouth; after Thomas Davis died, the court licensed his executors to convey it (1800; deeds 1805). In 1816/17 Gideon sold “my dwelling house & lot of land … on the easterly side of the training green” to John Burgess Jr., mariner, for $1,300. His first wife Sally died on 1 Mar 1818 and was buried at Manomet. On 6 Oct 1829 “I the said Gideon Holbrook and my wife Nancy” sold land to Joseph Sampson (Plymouth deeds, FamilySearch images).

Selectman? A Gideon Holbrook was a Plymouth selectman in 1817, 1818, 1819 and 1820 (Hurd, History of Plymouth County, 1884) and one of Plymouth’s representatives to the General Court in 1819-20 (Massachusetts Pocket Almanack for 1820). On 1 March 1819 “Gideon Holbrook, James Spooner, Wm P. Ripley, Selectmen of Plymouth” complained to the probate court that Edward Doten, sail maker, “by his excessive drinking” was wasting his estate, and asked that he be put under a guardian (Plymouth Probate). He signs without “Jr.”, which leans toward Capt. Gideon rather than his nephew, but does not settle it. In the 1820 census he is “Gideon Holbrook,” next to his nephew “Gideon Holbrook, Junior” (son of Eliphalet), which is why the selectman of 1817-1820 is hard to place. The sail maker was not the Mayflower passenger Edward Doty (d. 1655) but a descendant: the Doty-Doten genealogy (1897, entry 1274) makes him a Plymouth mariner, later a sailmaker, who died in 1828 (compiled). So the Doty family, which Mollie’s typescript wrongly brought into the line, turns up here only as a neighbour.

His will (18 June 1841, proved April 1842) gives his wife Nancy the use of the whole estate: “In order to enable my wife Nancy Holbrook to bring up those of my children who may be under the age of twenty one years, having entire confidence in her judgment & discretion I do give, devise & bequeath unto her my said wife the use, income & improvement of all my Estate.” If the income proved “insufficient for their comfortable support & education,” she might sell outlands “without the formality of a License or a sale at Auction.” The residue goes in nine equal shares to Lois Tribble, Martha Covington, Betsey Morton, Gideon, Richard B., Elisha, Polly and Eliphalet, and his granddaughter Jerusha, daughter of his late daughter Harriet Davie. Nancy was executor; the witnesses were Nathaniel Clark, Ezra Clark (Nancy’s son-in-law) and Luther Lucas.

His estate (probate papers). The inventory of Aug 1842, of “Gideon Holbrook late of Plymouth … deceased” (read from the machine transcription): the homestead “including about an acre of orchard”; meadow and village land; mowing and pasture “Joining the Parsonage Lot”; tillage land “at the point”; wood and pasture at Rocky Hill; land at the mill pond and at Beaverdam Swamp; dwelling house $500; barn $60; corn house; “One half of the Cider Mill house & half of the cider mill”; “Pew No 36 in the lower floor” of the meeting house; ox wagon, horse wagon, harness, harrows, plough, yokes and chains; a yoke of oxen ($50), steers ($45), three cows ($55), young cattle, two pigs, and 25 cords of cut wood. Total $3,991.50. Appraisers Ezra, Israel and Seth Clark. In 1842, as executrix, Nancy sold land to Luther Lucas ($250) and to her son Gideon ($40). In 1850 Nancy and the heirs petitioned for partition, and one third of the real estate was set off to “his Widow Nancy Holbrook for her use during her life.” In 1849 his son Elisha sold his ninth to David Clark, reserving his mother’s use of it for five years, and in 1855 Richard B. sold his share to Elisha.

His children, by Sally Clark: Lois (1788), Sally (1791), Martha (1793), Betsey (1795), Hannah (1797), Harriet (1799) and Mary (1801-1819); by Nancy Ellis: Gideon (c. 1819-1852), Richard B. (1821), named for Nancy’s first husband Richard Blackmer, Elisha (c. 1823-1887), Mary (1826-1899) and Eliphalet (1828-1920).

Not to be confused with his nephew Gideon Holbrook (1786-1868), son of Capt. Eliphalet. The 1847 death on the FamilySearch tree and the War of 1812 service belong to that family.

Open questions

• Was he the Gideon Holbrook who was a Plymouth selectman in 1817-1820 and representative in 1819-20, or was that his nephew?
• Was he the Gideon who was master and co-owner of the Endeavour in 1809, or was that his nephew? The colonial tree gives the Endeavour to Capt. Gideon without qualification; the page follows the Holbrook master tree, which leaves it open.
• Did he come to Manomet Ponds as a boy with his uncle Naaman, as Mollie says? Naaman Holbrook’s relationship to him is unknown.
• The Plymouth town meeting records, 1817-1820, should show which Gideon was chosen selectman and representative. A deed by Gideon as one of Deacon Elisha Holbrook’s heirs, or a sale of Wellfleet land after 1779, would settle his parentage.
• Find a Grave memorial 40957263 gives a birth of 1786, which belongs to his nephew; a correction (born about 1765, aged 76 at death) would stop it spreading.