The family of Thomas Holbrook 1624-1697

 The last post I wrote turned out to be superfluous in that I haven't at this point been planning to write posts about the families of siblings of my ancestor.  But it was great news because it pointed out an error I had in my tree and lets me continue looking for the first wife of Alexander Balcom.  

I have every reason to believe that this post will be mostly correct and connected, as I write about the family of Thomas Holbrook, Jr.  I learned in preparing for this post that Thomas served in King Phillip's War under Captain Isaac Johnson, and that his heirs received land in Bedford, Hillsborough, New Hampshire in 1733, as a result of his service.  There's always something new to learn.  

To recount the basics, Thomas was born in 1624 or early 1625 at Glastonbury, Somerset, England, the son of Thomas and Jane Holbrook Powyes.  He arrived with his parents and siblings in 1635 in New England and his family settled in Weymouth, part of Massachusetts Bay Colony.  There Thomas observed his father and learned good lessons of citizenship and stewardship.  Either in Weymouth or in Braintree he married Joanna Kingman, daughter of Henry and Joanna Drake Kingman, about 1650.  

Thomas and Joanna (also seen as Joan) settled in Braintree and there they had at least seven children.  Records seem to be missing which would give us the exact date of birth for the children, and there are several different lists out there. This seems to be the most reliable but I will comment on other possibilities later in this post.

Mary is usually listed as the first born, but her first known marriage wasn't until 1687 so she may be incorrectly placed in the family.  Her marriage was to Joseph Colburn.  Joseph was born in 1663, the son of Nathaniel and Priscilla Clark Colburn.  Mary's date of death is given as 1738. Mary and Joseph had just one child, a son.

John Holbrook was born October 15, 1653 in Braintree and died December 25, 1678, at the age of 25.  He is not known to have married.

Peter, the son who took care of his grandparents in their old age, was born September 6, 1655 and died May 3, 1713 in Mendon.  I have written a separate blog post about him, as this is our direct ancestor in this group. He married Alice Godfrey and they are the parents of at least 10 children.

Thomas Holbrook is usually listed as a child of Thomas and Joanna, is reported to have been born in 1651 and died in 1728. He may have married a Deborah Damon, and definitely married Mary or Marah White, daughter of Thomas and perhaps Mary Pratt White.  Thomas and Mary had at least six children.

Joanna was born October 30, 1656, in either Weymouth or Braintree, and married Uriah Clark, son of Hugh and Elizabeth Clark. They had at least three children, and she died on February 28, 1682, at Roxbury.  She was just 25.

Susanna was born October 3, 1658 and married Andrew Willet, son of Thomas and Mary Brown Willet.  They had at least seven children.  She may have died about 1705.

Joseph Holbrook was born April 10, 1660 and died before 1695.  I have not been able to locate anything additional about Joseph, so he may have died young.  

There are some who believe that Thomas and Joanna had at least two additional daughters, Anne and Elizabeth.  Some also believe that there was a son William.  All of these are assigned "about" birth dates of from 1646-1650.  This would mean that either the Thomas-Joanna marriage was earlier than is thought, or that Thomas had a previous relationship, whether marriage or not.  It is also possible that these were not his children, and as I can find no supporting information, I am merely mentioning this as a possibility.  

When Thomas died, he left a healthy estate, but only four living children.  There were at least 27 grandchildren, but I've not yet followed them to note their stories and life spans.  Thomas continued the line of Holbrooks, and that is what is pertinent to this post.