I think that other than our Rhode Island folks, Benjamin Albee is the earliest Baptist I've found. But I'm getting ahead of the story.
Like so many of our ancestors, we have no record of when Benjamin Albee came to Massachusetts Bay Colony. He must have been here by 1639, because he married Hannah Miller there on July 26, 1639, in Braintree. That is what is known of the first roughly 25 years of his life. We don't know where he was from, nor the names of his parents. It would be interesting to know who they were, and what they believed, and whether in any way they influenced Benjamin's religious beliefs. Apparently Hannah, whose background and origin are also not known, agreed with him enough to become his wife.
We know that he was in Braintree when ater he lived in Milfhe became a freeman in 1642. Working back, he may have been an indentured servant when he arrived in, say, 1638, since four years was the typical length of time to earn an indentured servant his freedom. If he was a servant, he would have needed his master's permission to marry. Also if he was a servant, this may have been where he learned his carpentry skills. (The only known facts in this paragraph are the date of his being made a freeman, and the fact that he was a carpenter. All else is speculation, mine.)
The Albees were to have at least six children. There were Hannah, who married Samuel Wight, Lydia, who married Alexander Lovell, Prudence, who married Thomas Barnes, John, who married Jane Holbrook, James, who married Hannah Cooke, and Sarah, who married John Medbury. Jane Holbrook's ancestors were ours, and Hannah Cooke's parents were our ancestors also. Another fun facte is that Benjamin was an ancestor to President William Howard Taft, so there's another presidential connection for us!
Another fact that causes speculation is that the Albees moved frequently. They were in Braintree, and then in 1649 in Medfield, and then in Milford, where he built the first water powered grain mill there. Later they lived in Swansea, where he helped establish the Baptist church, and then in Medfield and finally Mendon. Those facts are known. What isn't known is why he moved so frequently. Was it purely because of the work he did as a carpenter and a land surveyor, and he moved because that's where the work was? Or, was he a speck in the eyes of the Puritan church, and encouraged to leave because of his religious beliefs? It must have been difficult to have beliefs that isolated him from the society of Puritans, and therefore probably left him out of the equivalent of the "Old Boys Club".
An additional difficult part of Benjamin's life occurred during King Philip's War. In 1675, he and his family had to flee to Swansea. Both Mendon, where he was living at the time, and Swansea, the town he had lived in previously, were burned by the native Americans. Not only that, but Benjamin's son John died in battle in 1675. I can't imagine the pain of losing a home and presumably many of their household goods, but also a son at the same time. No, life was not easy for the Albee family.
Benjamin is believed to have died in 1686. I show Hannah with a death date of 1655, but that's not correct since the Swansea Baptist church wasn't founded until 1667 and their names are both in the church documents. We don't know anything about Benjamin's education but the fact that he could build a mill, do land surveying, and apparently build pretty much anything that was needed surely means that he was an intelligent man. It would be interesting to know the value of his estate. He'd only had about 10 years to build it back up after losing everything, so one would expect that it would be relatively low. It would be nice, however, to find answers to some ofe these questions, to confirm or disprove our speculations, and especially, to learn more about his origins.
The line of descent is:
Benjamin Albee-Hannah Miller
Hannah Albee-Samuel Wight
Hannah Wight-John Thompson
Joseph Thompson-Mary Holbrook
Alice Thompson-Joseph Rockwood
Levi Rockwood-Deborah Lazell
Susannah Rockwood-Nahum Holbrook
Joseph Holbrook-Mary Elizabeth Whittemore
Fremont Holbrook-Phoebe Brown
Loren Holbrook-Etta Stanard
Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen
Their descendants
Interesting comments. Some suggest Ben was brother of 3rd Baron of Willoughby Parthan? Do you have any new information since this old post?
ReplyDeleteI've not seen the theory you mentioned. It's interesting, but I've learned to be suspicious of claims to ties of nobility unless a recognized genealogist presents them. Do you have a reference I could look at? I don't have any additional information at this time but that could change in a heartbeat. At any rate, thanks for reading this post!
ReplyDelete