Holbrook line: Medad Pomeroy 1638-1716

My last blog post was about Thomas Noble, an ancestor on our Allen side.  In it, I mentioned that his widow, Hannah Warriner, had married Medad Pomeroy.  I recognized that name so looked for the blog post I must have written about him, but there was nothing to be found.  So, here it is.  Medad Pomeroy is an ancestor on our Holbrook side.  He was first married to Experience Woodward, from whom we descend.  He was later married to Abigail Strong, who would be a sibling of our ancestor Thomas Strong, also on the Holbrook side.  And finally, he was married to Hannah Warriner Noble, the Allen connection.  We have quite a connection to this man, and it's time that I wrote about him. 

Medad Pomeroy was born August 19, 1638 in Windsor, Hartford Connecticut, to Eltweed and Mary Rockett/Rockwood Pomeroy.  The elder Pomeroys were with the very first settlers in 1633, when the settlement was first called Dorchester.  Eltweed had some prominence in the town, and is noted to be the founding father of the Pomeroy family in America.  Medad was one of at least eight children born to the couple.  Eltweed was a fuller, but perhaps he provided his children with an apprenticeship, for Medad was a blacksmith and a gunsmith. It's unclear why Medad left Windsor to go to Northampton, Massachusetts (north of Springfield), but once there, he may have been taught by John Webb, who was the first blacksmith in Northampton but not necessarily a businessman. (One source says he arrived in Northampton in 1659 and was welcomed because of his blacksmithing skills.  I've used a history of Northampton for most of the information in this post.)  Medad eventually took over Webb's shop location, perhaps with Webb's approval.  Medad also must have been given a decent education for the time.  Although he didn't attend college, the positions he held in the town would have required reading, writing, and arithmetic skills. 

As mentioned, Medad married three times.  He married Experience Woodward, daughter of Henry and Elizabeth Mather Woodward, on March 21, 1661 in Northampton, not long after his arrival in Northampton.  (Henry was one of the first settlers of the town.)  Medad and Experience had 11 children together, before she died, possibly in childbirth, at the age of 43.  Medad next married Abigail Strong, and they had one son together.  When Abigail died in 1704, he waited just a few months before marrying Hannah Warriner Noble.  By this time, he was about 67 years old and Hannah was also in her 60's, so there were no children from this marriage. 

Medad had one of the longest periods of public service to his town of any ancestor I've yet found.  He was chosen selectman of the town 28 times, deputy to the general court seven times, treasurer from 1698 onward, and some years held as many as six elected offices at the same time.  It was a small town, but he was still one of the prominent men in town.  He was also clerk, responsible for keeping town records, for most of the period from 1665 until shortly before his death. 

As if that was not enough honor, and work, he was also a deacon in the church, and a member of the militia who was involved in the Falls Fight, serving under Captain Turner.  This fight involved the massacre of a native American village so is not necessarily something to be proud of, but it was part of his life and he would have lived with that knowledge for another 40 plus years.  I wonder if he ever had nightmares, or whether he felt it was his duty to participate?  His son Ebenezer was granted land in 1736 in reward for his father's service during this battle. 

Medad wrote his will in 1708 but lived until December 30, 1716.  There must have been some kind of prenuptial agreement because he left Hannah her choice of a cow, everything she had brought with her, and instructions that she was to draw from the estate anything that she needed.  He left his sons and daughters anywhere from 20 to 80 pounds apiece, except that by the time he died, the estate was not worth nearly as much as he had expected.  Perhaps in the interim, he had sold assets and given the proceeds to the children, but it's hard to know.  His estate was valued at just 41 pounds, unless there were more pages to the inventory that didn't get filmed. 

There is more to be told about Medad than I've included in this brief sketch.  He was involved in at least one town controversy, and there were a couple of business ventures that don't seem to have gotten off the ground.  But Medad seems to have been well-respected, an extremely hard worker, and an important part of the town he served so well.  While recognizing that he had shortcomings, we can still respect this man, part of our past and part of our family.

The line of descent is:

Medad Pomeroy-Hannah Warriner
Joseph Pomeroy-Hannah Seymour
Medad Pomeroy-Hannah Trumbull
Medad Pomeroy-Eunice Southwell
Eunice Pomeroy-Libbeus Stannard
Libbeus Stanard-Luceba Fay
Hiram Stanard-Susan Eddy
Louis Stanard-Mary Alice Hetrick
Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook
Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen
Their descendants