Holbrook line: John Snow 1638ish-1706

There are at least two John Snows who were in eastern Massachusetts at the same time.  One John Snow is associated with Eastham/Barnstable in Plymouth Colony, and his wife is a Mayflower descendant.  That is not our John Snow.  Ours is the one who is mostly in hiding, mostly in Woburn, mostlly staying out of any kind of spotlight.  This is a sad thing for someone who wants to write about him!

Among the few facts that are known about John are these:  His parents are Richard and Avis Barratt (Barrett) Snow.  He was most likely born in England, but it's barely possible he was born in Massachusetts Bay Colony.  His father was in Woburn by 1645, just a few years after the town was founded, and there are a few records for him.  He is not listed in Anderson's Great Migrations Directory, so the inference is that he arrived in Massachusetts Bay Colony between 1636 and 1645.  There is wiggle room here, for John to have been born in either of these two areas.  He was not, however, born in Woburn as Woburn was not yet a community.  

We know nothing about John's early life, other than he was likely raised as a Puritan, or at least the family attended church services as required.  He probably learned to read and write, and may have learned a trade of some sort.  He had at least four brothers and a sister, according to his father's will.  (Richard died in 1677 and left John at least two parcels of land; his wife Avis or Annis was still alive).  

We catch two brief glimpses of him during his lifetime.  In 1667, he married Mary Green, daughter of William and Hannah Carter Green, in Charlestown.  Woburn and Charlestown were about 10 miles apart, and Hannah was from Woburn prior to the death of her parents.  Perhaps she had gone to live with relatives, or to work in someone's household during the years after her parents' deaths.  She would have been about 14 when her father died, so was, by the standards of the time, quite old enough to be hired out to someone.  Also, we know that John and Mary had at least 6 children, all mentioned at the time of John's death. 

The other record we have is that he was made a freeman of Woburn on May 27, 1674, indicating church membership and some property.  Regarding the church, I found a suggestion that this was a less strict Puritan church than some of the others, and at some point I'd like to learn more about the distinctions between the different churches.  

Then we know nothing of John until his death on November 25, 1706, still in Woburn.  There is record of an agreement, although I haven't seen the actual agreement, on April 14, 1707 between Mary Snow (widow), John Snow, John Cuttler, Zerubabbel, Timothy, Nathaniel, and Mary Snow.  Perhaps this indicates that he died without a will, and that the family came up with their own division for his property, which would have mostly conformed to the widow getting one third and the oldest son getting a double portion, most likely.   

What we don't have is any mention of military service, not even during King Philip's War.  (His brother Zachariah was one of those from the town wounded in battle, but I've found no record for John.)  He was probably too old to be active in the later military conflicts.  We don't have an inventory.  We don't have any mention of any kind of civic service.  

It's hard to draw a picture in our minds of this ancestor, who was here in the early life of Massachusetts Bay Colony and by definition had to have been a hard worker.  I need to keep looking for more tidbits, to help us make him into a real person rather than the rather bland man I've written about here.

The line of descent is:

John Snow-Mary Green

Zerubabbel Snow-Jemima Cutler

William Snow-Elizabeth Stevens

Lucy Snow-Josiah Whittemore

Josiah Whittemore-Betsy Foster

Mary Elizabeth Whittemore-Joseph R Holbrook

Fremont Holbrook-Phoebe Brown

Loren Holbrook-Etta Stanard

Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen

Their descendants