Holbrook line: John Tidd about 1625-1703

 The facts about this John Tidd have been intermingled with those of his father, John Tidd, who was married to Margaret (probably Greenleaf) and who died in 1656.  Knowing that his father died in 1656 and that our John's son John (John III) was born in 1655 helps us distinguish among the men.  But there is still a bit of date confusion that is difficult to sort out.

John Tidd came to New England in 1637 as a young man of about 19, as a servant to Samuel Greenfield, who was a weaver.  So far so good.  However, John's own testimony late in life as to his age was about eight years off, which seems to be off by more than the one or two years family historians tend to know about.  I haven't seen the original records and it's possible that "12" was misread and noted as "19", but that's just speculation.  Nevertheless, we have the will of John Tidd who died in 1656, and we know that this John was a 'proprietor" in 1646, so the connection is there whether the dates add up or not.  The 1625 birth date I've shown accords with John's own statement, and makes him 21 or older at the time he was a proprietor.  

John came to Massachusetts Bay Colony with his father, and likely he was a servant to Samuel Greenfield.  He has been identified as being a weaver, which would make sense, that he learned the trade from Greenfield and then eventually went out on his own.  By 1650, John was living in Woburn and he married Rebekah Wood, parents as yet unidentified there on April 14, 1650.  

The family lived in Woburn for something close to 30 years.  John is noted as being a constable there in 1677, but by 1680 he and Rebekah had moved a few miles to what would eventually become Lexington, but at the time was known as Cambridge Farms, just north of Cambridge itself.  His name is on a petition that the area be allowed to form a separate parish, and have their own church, which was initially denied but eventually granted by the authorities.  Lexington, however, didn't become a town until 1714.  

John and Rebekah had at least seven children together, with the last being born in 1665.  Rebekah was a busy mother, but this was not unusual for the time.  It doesn't appear that Woburn was badly impacted by King Philip's War in 1675-76, except that John's son John, also our ancestor, appears to have been a soldier during that conflict.  Of course, John and Rebekah would have worried about his safety and possibly contributed to whatever his needs were during that time.  

Other than a few court cases where John seems to have been a witness, there is little further record of John.  We do, however, have his will, which he wrote August 7, 1701.  His date of death is given as April 13, 1703, and he is buried at the Old Burying Ground in Lexington, with his stone still visible.  

His will doesn't list his wife by name but we know that Rebekah died in 1717.  His will directs payments to five pounds each to his grandchildren whose parent had already died, and lesser amounts to his other grandchildren.  His wife was to have the use of all of the personal property, and then it was to go to their daughters.  This leads me to think, although I have not researched this, that he had probably given his children gifts of land or money earlier, as most of the bequests skipped a generation.  Unfortunately, we don't have an inventory as that could have told us more about how he lived.

This is a brief summary for a man who lived 78 years and who was an immigrant.  John contributed to his communities and his church, raised a family, sent at least one son off to war, and cared enough about his grandchildren to leave them each a remembrance.  He had his eye on the future.  

Fun fact, maybe: There was a John Tidd of Lexington who was wounded on April 19, 1775, at Lexington, in the first real skirmish of the Revolutionary War.  He was likely a descendant of our John, and thus a cousin.   Several other Tidds from Lexington were also soldiers during the Revolution.  I think John would have been proud!

The line of descent is;

John Tidd-Rebekah Wood

John Tidd-Elizabeth Fifield

Elizabeth Tidd-Joseph Stevens

Elizabeth Stephens-William Snow

Lucy Snow-Josiah Whittemore

Josiah Whittemore-Betsy Foster

Mary Elizzabeth Whittemore-Joseph Holbrook

Fremont Holbrook-Phoebe Brown

Loren Holbrook-Etta Stanard

Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen

Their descendants