Holbrook line: Robert Robinson 1628-1689

Oh, my goodness.  Robert Robinson might be Robert Robertson.  He might be from Scotland or he might be from Newbury, Berkshire, England.  He might have been born in 1628 or he might have been born in 1638.  He might have sailed here in 1635 (highly doubtful) or he might have come in 1663, according to his own testimony. And I might be able to write a better blog post, if I were able to read what his will and inventory say .

The good news is that we do have a will and inventory, so we know approximately when he died (between May and October o 1689).  That gives us names for his children, and some sense of how he lived.  Much of this blog post will be written based on these documents (found on AmericanAncestors.org from the Essex County, Massachusetts Probate FIle Papers number 23914), if someone reading this blog post has not yet seen these papers).

So, let's back up to what is known.  We know that he arrived in Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts in 1663 because he gave deposition in 1675 that he had come to Newbury 12 years before and agreed on land to settle on.  He married Mary Silver there on October 26, 1664 and stayed in Newbury the rest of his life, as far as we know  Newbury was established in 1635, so Robert would not be considered an early settler there. (Among other settlers there was Jonathan Singletary Dunham, who is my children's ancestor on their Beeks side of the family. I always think it's cool when I can find connections like this!)

From names in his will, it appears that Robert and Mary had at least the following children: Daniel, John, Mary, (all seem to be adults) and Thomas, Sarah, Hannah, Robert who were all identified as being under age 21.  The widow was to have full custody of the younger children as well as much of the estate, as long as she remained a widow.  Part of the will is torn away (the last of each line) but I think this is what someone would write if they were doing an abstract of the will.  It was dated May 18, 1689 and signed by mark, not signature.

The inventory was taken on May 22, 1989 so he must have died shortly after writing the will, and it was filed on November 11, 1689.  Although the writing is clear, it also has many flourishes and I'm not sure of a lot of the words.  I do know that it appears to be the inventory for a farmer who had quite a few animals-nine cows, three steers (I think) one heifer, four yearlings, eight calves, a bull, 26 sheep, four oxen, hogs, and what might be horses, not numbered.  He had the required gun and sword, and some farm implements, and several items I can't decipher.  I hope someone else can do this and will be able to transcribe it.  The appraisal was for 166 pounds, which, along with the number of animals he was raising, seems to indicate a life above the poverty level 

There are notes regarding the will that it was never probated, or possibly that the records for that event have been lost. Perhaps the problem was that Mary was also ill, as she died shortly before March 11,1690/91.  There are guardianship papers for Hannah Robinson and Robert Robinson, appointing William Moody as their guardian in 1694, and it looks like final settlement of Mary's estate was made then.  Hannah and Robert, the two youngest of the children of Robert and Mary, may have now been of an age to be trained for a trade.  It was common for orphaned children to be apprenticed out of the household, and that may have happened here.  This is pure speculation at this point.

In this case, most of our limited knowledge of Robert comes from his inventory and his will.  I don't know what church he attended (if he was from Scotland, was he a Presbyterian?), or what his education may have been.  I don't know who his parents were.  I don't know if he ever was called to protect his community from native Americans, or his home and land from wild animals. I don't know how, if at all, William Moody was related to the family. I would love to know all of these things.  But we do know that he raised a family, that he died earlier than he would have liked, and that he is one of the reasons we, his descendants, are here.  Thank you, sir!

The line of descent is:

Robert Robinson-Mary Silver
Mary Robinson-Abraham Foster
Nathan Foster-Hannah Standish
Nathan Foster-Elizabeth Lansford
Jude Foster-Lydia M
Betsy Foster-Josiah Whittemore
Mary Elizabeth Whittemore-Joseph R Holbrook
Fremont Holbrook-Phoebe Brown
Loren Holbrook-Etta Stanard
Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen
Their descendants