Holbrook line: John Whittemore 1685-1748

What fun!  Most of our ancestors were good folks, either farmers or pastors, and sometimes it's hard to find something new to say about their lives.  But every once in a while, someone steps out of the box and does something entirely different, and perhaps is entirely different, from our norm.  John Whittemore just may be one of those men.

John Whittemore was born February 23, 1685 in Charlestown, Massachusetts, the son of John and Elizabeth Annable Whittemore, and he's one in a succession of four men named John Whittemore, each of whom is our ancestor.  Confusion reigns, but I think I have this man figured out. 

At some point in his life, John left Charlestown and settled in Boston.  He married Elizabeth Lloyd, the daughter of Edward and Hannah Griffin Lloyd.  The Lloyds were a Charleston family who had moved to Boston also.  I'm wondering if John was maybe an apprentice or some sort of shipworker there, because the marriage took place in Boston.  John and Elizabeth had at least five children together, including our John born 1714. 

I'm still trying to pull together John's story as far as his adult life goes.  I know that he was a mariner and a retailer, perhaps not at the same time or perhaps at the same time.  His father in law had died with a good supply of "rhum" and spirits, and John may have inherited or purchased that, as he also sold strong spirits.  So, basically he ran a tavern or a liquor store.  He must have been somewhat successful because he built a new home in 1733,   We know that because he was granted liberty to dig a frain from his new house, which was apparently on Sheaf St.  It looks like this would have been just blocks from what we know as the Old North Church, in the north end of Boston.  It was also near Copp's Hill Burying Ground

, which is where he was buried. 

Elizabeth died August 13, 1746 and John died April 21, 1748,  In his will, he left 100 pounds to his oldest son, John and 150 pounds (old tenor, not the new fangled money the colony had printed) to son Edward.  He also left each of them 1/4 of his "moveable estate".  Three grandsons, including another of our Johns, were to share 100 pounds.  To Elizabeth, his daughter, he left his house and land, and all his liquors.  One can speculate that the two sons were set up in life already but that Elizabeth would need some source of income.  I wonder what the city fathers thought of that. 

The only reference I found to a possible religion for John was that his son John was baptized at "Second Church", which is now known as Old North Church.  Increase Mather was the pastor at the time.  There doesn't seem to be any record of the other children's baptism.  Perhaps John was away so much that he wasn't often there to see that the children were baptized, or perhaps Elizabeth had enough to do to take care of her family.

I would love to find his inventory, to learn whether he was well to do or not.  I'd also love to learn more about his story as a mariner, and I do have a few new sources to look at for that.  If I find anything interesting, I'll do an update.  And of course, I'm wondering how involved he was in the slave trade, and whether he had one or more slaves.  That would be more than possible if he was importing rum, also. But for now, we at least have a sense that John lived in one of the (to me) most interesting places in the world, and had a fascinating career.  That's pretty cool.

The line of descent is:

John Whittemore-Elizabeth Lloyd
John Whittemore-Lydia Clough
Josiah Whittemore-Lucy Snow
Josiah Whittemore-Betsy Foster
Mary Elizabeth Whittemore=Joseph Holbrook
Fremont Holbrook-Phoebe Brown
Loren Holbrook-Etta Stanard
Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen
Their descendants