Holbrook line: Thomas Wight, Immigrant

It's a joy to write about Thomas Wight, even though as is often the case we don't really know who his parents are or where he was born.  On my tree, I show Robert and Elizabeth Fulshaw Wight as his parents, but I don't have any documentation.  In researching for this post I find another somewhat likely couple but I haven't done the work to see if it can be documented so I'm not about to muddy the waters now.  Family tradition says that he was from the Isle of Wight but tradition is sometimes suspect, too. 

So what we know is that Thomas arrived in about 1636, and is first found in Dedham, Massachusetts where he was listed as one of the first twelve inhabitants of that town.  On the Dedham Compact, he is listed as number 37 to sign but it's quite possible that either there was a large group of men to sign the compact, or he may have been away from town for some reason when the compact was first signed.

We know that he had a family when he arrived in Dedham because he was given 12 acres for a house lot, which was the amount given married men at the time.  His wife's name was Alice and is believed to be Alice Roundy, but again documentation for when and where has not been located.  It appears that there were probably three children with them when they came to America, and the couple had three more children here.Some lists show two additional children but that seems unlikely.  Thomas later received grants of planting ground, meadows, and marsh, and his land was on a brook so fishing was a likely source of food, also.  It was probably a fun place to grow up, for the children, if Puritans were allowed to have fun. 

Thomas, it appears, was wealthy, at least by the standards of the day.  He was a selectman for six years in Dedham, meaning he helped govern the town, and generally selectmen were persons of wealth and influence. He was also a member of the church, accepted into membership in 1640.

In 1649, the town of Medfield was formed and Thomas was one of seven men chosen to take charge of the "erecting, disposeing, and government of the said village". Thomas moved to Medfield permanently in 1652 and for 20 years served as a selectman there.  He is said to have had no formal education (the basis for that, I don't know) but the townspeople respected him greatly, it appears.

Thomas's wife Alice died in 1665 and that same year he married Lydia Eliot Penniman.  She was the sister of John Eliot, known as "The Apostle", and she was Thomas's widow when he died March 17, 1673/74.  I didn't find a copy of Thomas's will but I did find a copy of the inventory and it gives us a clear peek into his home as it was when he died.  The inventory is separated into several rooms or buildings, listed as "The parlor", "The little bedroom", "the hall", "the buttery", "in the garrett". some other categories I can't decipher, and a long list of lands.  His estate was valued at over 460 pounds, which, together with the number and quality of the items listed, indicate wealth.  The very first item that was listed, in the parlor, was books, so perhaps he had an education, after all.

Much of the information in this post comes from a book I found on line, "The Wight Family: Memoir of Thomas Wight of Dedham, Massachusetts' written by Danforth Phipps Wight and published in 1840.  (Another reason to love the internet!)

I would of course love to know more about Thomas, especially about his ancestral families and why he came to America.  Since he married a sister to John Eliot, he must have been a godly Puritan, and I'd like to know more about his religious beliefs.  I'd like to know what decisions he may have had a part in, in the two towns he was most closely associated with.  And I'd like to give him my honor and respect.

The line of descent is:

Thomas Wight-Alice Roundy
Samuel Wight-Hannah Albee
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