Holbrook line: William Snow 1708-1774

After struggling with the last couple of blog posts I wrote, it's a great pleasure to find someone who is well-researched and who has something of a story to tell.  For most of the information in this post, I'm relying on facts from "Snow-Estes Ancestry" by Nora Emma Snow, published in 1939.  She did a wonderful job of researching, collecting and organizing information, and relating it in a readable fashion. I have fact checked dates for birth, marriage, and death, and a couple of other items so I feel confident that this is probably as accurate as it is ever going to be.

William Snow was born in Woburn, Massachusetts on January 25, 1708, the son of Zerubabbel and Jemima Cutler Snow.  He was one of at least nine children, the next to the youngest son.  He was raised a Puritan so he would likely have learned to read and write, but as a younger son he received a small inheritance from his father at Zerubabbel's death in 1733.  It appears that this wasn't distributed until at least 1735, and amounted to almost 49 pounds.  (There are 33 pages in his father's estate papers which I haven't yet read in totality, but there were some complications along the way.  I'll be writing a post about Zerubabbel at some point.)

December 10, 1730 was an important date in William's life, for that is when he married Elizabeth Stevens (Stephens in the record), daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Tidd Stevens.  She was born July 27, 1709, in Woburn, so the two would have grown up knowing each other, and each other's family.  Their first of ten children, Phoebe, was born in 1731 in Woburn but the other children, at least nine more, were born in Lunenburg, so the move took place sometime between August 1731 and November of 1733. William and Elizabeth were to spend the rest of their lives in Lunenburg, which is about 45 miles from Woburn.  

I did find a brief mention of their being in, or at least owning land in, Winchendon, which is another 20 miles or so north and west of Lunenburg.  I am still investigating this.  In 1737, however, William was in Lunenburg, where he was selected as a "tithing man" for the town, somewhat like a church deacon, even though he and Elizabeth weren't admitted to full communion of the Lunenburg church until 1744. He held various offices for the town pretty much from that time forward, and was especially active in overseeing construction and operation of schools.  There were at least four schools in town in 1750, and later mention is made of a "Grammar school" in Lunenburg, which would be a step up from primary grade education.  He was selectman in 1752, indicating he had status in the town, and later moderator of the town meeting, and later still one of two town wardens.  It appears this would be similar to a mayor, responsible for the day to day operations of the town although of course this wouldn't have been a full-time job.  

His inventory indicates that he was a farmer, and that when he died on June 3, 1774 his sixty acres of land was valued at 266 pounds.  His household furnishings show that he was probably a frugal person, as there is no evidence of luxury.  I did not see (although some words were hard for me to read, so I could have missed it) any mention of books, or of guns and ammunition.  Perhaps he had already disposed of these items, if he owned them.  

In his will, he makes it clear that his wife is to receive only what is due her by law (1/3 of the estate) and, basically, not a penny more.  He also made sure that his son Silas received just half of the amount the other children would receive, because of what he had already given to Silas.  Silas was the oldest son and would ordinarily have received a double share, so the amount he had received must have been significant. Elizabeth lived until October 31, 1780, also dying in Lunenburg. 

Of course there are remaining questions about William.  There always are.  I have been unable to place him in a military unit, although it seems likely that he would have served in some capacity, as there were various wars going on throughout the time he would have been eligible for service.  The Lunenburg location would have been exposed to various incursions from the conflicts with native Americans and the French, so we can assume he would at least have helped guard his town during these times.  He was probably too old for the Canada expeditions.  (The William Snow found on a list of Colonial Soldiers was a different William Snow, one based in Plymouth and Eastham.)

It's been a pleasure to learn about William.  He apparently stayed out of trouble, contributed wisdom and abilities to his community, raised a family, and helped build our country.  We can be grateful for men like William.

The line of descent is:

William Snow-Elizabeth Stevens

Lucy Snow-Josiah Whittemore

Josiah Whittemore-Betsy Foster

Mary Elizabeth Whittemore-Joseph Holbrook

Fremont Holbrook-Phoebe Brown

Loren Holbrook-Etta Stanard

Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen

Their descendants