Holbrook line: Zerubbabel Snow 1672-1733

One good thing about researching this ancestor:  With a name like his, there weren't many of the same name to try to sort out!  Zerubbabel is a Biblical name; he led the Hebrew people back to Jerusalem from their Babylonian captivity and helped rebuild the Temple after it's destruction.   I have seen a few other people with that name, but it wasn't wildly popular.  I wonder what kind of nickname the man had?

Zerubbabel, born on May 14, 1672, was the son of John and Mary Greene Snow, and was the grandson of the immigrant Richard Snow.  His grandfather was a founder of Woburn, Massachusetts and his father lived his whole life in that settlement, as did Zerubbabel.  He grew up in a household that included six children.  John was an important man in town but it's hard to find many records of Zerubbabel.  

He married Jemima Cutler, daughter of James and Phoebe Page Cutler, on September 22, 1697 and the couple had nine children, six of whom were included in the estate settlement.  At least two of the other three children had died young.  

For a while, I was a bit despondent because this is as much information as I could find about our ancestor.  Then, I found his estate papers, which tell us more about him and his life than we would otherwise know. 
He died November 20, 1733, without a will.  The first indication that there might be a bit of a story here is that his executors were required to post a bond of 500 pounds, which was higher than many I've seen (a more typical amount would have been 200 pounds, from what I've seen of other ancestors in this time period).  So perhaps he was a man of some degree of prosperity.  

It was not until early in 1735 that six men were appointed to appraise the real estate, to set off one third as dower for the widow Jemima, and to divide the rest of the real estate among the children, with preference being given to the sons.  There's an interesting itemization in the estate of the taxes that had been paid by Zerubbabel or his widow from the years 1731 to 1735.  None of the rates were as high as 1 pound individually, but some years the taxes did approach a total of one pound.  Sadly, I have nothing to compare this to, so I don't know whether this was an average amount, or more or less than average for the town and the time.

At the time of his death, he owned several plots of land, mostly less than 30 acres, and it took 5 men 4 days to appraise them, so they may have been widely scattered.  Or the men may have been less than diligent, or perhaps there was some difficulty in surveying them as required by the probate judge. The land and dwelling house were appraised, in total, at 714 pounds.  One interesting decision made by the appraisers was to give the widow a third of several pieces of land and part of the dwelling house, rather than trying to keep her third to one or two more manageable properties.  Zerubabbel's son of the same name received a double portion of the estate, and the rest was divided among the couple's other five children, with money that had been advanced to John and to Jemima being deducted from their share.  Most of the children received 48 pounds, 19 shillings, and 11 pence. I'm not sure how the money was raised, whether the land was sold or other arrangements were made.  I did not locate a personal property inventory, which was a bit surprising.  

The only possible clue to Zerubbabel's occupation that I found was that his namesake son was a housewright.  This could mean that was our ancestor's occupation also, since one of the properties mentioned a "shop".  The only church in Woburn was Puritan, and with a name like Zerubabbel's, it's probably safe to assume that he was a part of the congregation.  I did not locate his name on any list of militia or colonial soldiers, but that doesn't rule out the possibility.  We also don't know his cause of death at the age of 61.

But we do know that he must have been a hard worker, to acquire so many pieces of land, and to support his wife and family.  For that, we can be grateful.

The line of descent is:

Zerubbabel Snow-Jemima Cutler

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