John Holbrook

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. A housewright by trade: “the Will of John Holbrooke late of Weymouth … Housewright deceased” (probate, 14 Dec 1699). Bodge, who printed his war papers, wrote: “Capt. Holbrooke was 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).

Freeman 13 May 1640; selectman 1648; lieutenant of the Weymouth company by 1664 and captain by 1676. Weymouth’s 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). In 1664, as lieutenant, he was chosen to serve under Capt. Hudson, “but his wife and family being sick at the time,” another man went in his place (Bodge p. 280). He had owned some 600 acres of the Braintree Iron Works tract, taken for debt in 1653 (Vinton). 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.”

King Philip’s War. Weymouth itself was raided three times in early 1676: several houses burned on 12 February, seven houses and barns burned in March, and Sgt. Thomas Pratt killed on 19 April (Nash pp. 37-39). The town’s anxious petitions for its men to be sent home were signed by Capt. William Torrey for the militia committee; no record found puts Capt. Holbrook in those fights. On 27 April 1676 the colony raised “three [companies] of foot under Capts. Sill, Cutler and Holbrook” to range toward Hassanamesit. His letter from Concord, 29 April 1676: “this Day have mustered my Company … which are but very Small which is a great Discouragement to me … I have neither Drume nor Collors.” His certificate says he was “ordered to take 82 men under my Command together with 28 horses & 14 men to tend them,” drawn from Boston, Roxbury, Dorchester, Dedham, Braintree, Weymouth and Hingham, and is signed “John Holbrooke Capt” (Mass. Archives 68:239, 69:12, printed in Bodge pp. 270, 280-282). Vinton (1858) says he brought thirty men to Concord in June 1676; Bodge’s documents date his Concord muster to 29 April, and a second march in June is possible but undocumented. In 1678 he was one of three sent to Plymouth “to assist in the sale of the concquest lands” after the war (Mass. Bay Records 5:204).

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), read on FamilySearch (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,” and salt meadow in Kingman’s neck “that was formerly my Father Thomas Holbrooke[’s].” “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.” Vinton’s abstract also mentions houses and land in Weymouth, Scituate and Braintree and “a house in Boston.” 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.” So he held a Native man, Anthony, in servitude. No record of Anthony’s origin has been found. For context only: after King Philip’s War many Native captives were shipped out of New England as slaves, and others, including children, were bound to English households for long terms of service (Margaret Ellen Newell, Brethren by Nature, 2015). A promise of freedom twelve years after the master’s death fits that pattern of long, bound service, but Anthony could have come into the household some other way (inferred).

“Phisical” meant medicinal, so the “Phisical Spring” was probably a spring valued for health. Its spot in Weymouth has not been identified, and neither has Kingman’s neck or the street of the Boston house (inferred).

Open questions

• Which of his wives was the mother of his son John (b. c. 1650)? By the dates, Elizabeth Stream (married about 1645, died 1688), and the Mollie review traces the line through her; no record names John’s mother.
• Baptism 6 Apr (Weaver) or 10 Apr 1618 (FamilySearch index)? Read the image.
• Did he march a second time to Concord in June 1676, with thirty men, as Vinton says, or is that Vinton’s version of the April muster?
• His deposition of 9 July 1685 at Boston: the record reference is still to be attached.
• Who was Anthony, and how did he come into the household?