Holbrook line: Thomas Wight 1607-1674 Immigrant

It's been a while since I found a very early immigrant that I've not written about.  But here he is, with all his mysteries.  Thomas is attributed to two sets of parents, but the ones I've seen most commonly and the one that seems to make geographical sense is that he was born to Robert and Elizabeth Fulshaw Wight about December 6, 1607 at Hareby, Lincolnshire, England.  Robert definitely had a son named Thomas, per his will.  However, Exeter, New Hampshire also claims this Thomas Wight so it is possible that more records need to be found in order to establish with certainty his origins.  Another argument that might point toward a different parentage is that Thomas doesn't seem to have named a son Robert. 

It also has not been determined for certain the name of his first wife, the mother of his children.  He was married when he arrived in Massachusetts Bay Colony about 1637, and his wife named Alice died prior to 1665, when he married Lydia Eliot Penniman, sister to the Apostle to the Indians, John Eliot.  Tradition and not much else says that her name was Alice Roundy.  Tradition also says they were married about 1630 on the Isle of Wight, but records to support these statements are lacking. 

Thomas and Alice settled first in Dedham, or at least were among the first settlers in Dedham.  The village of Dedham started forming in 1635 although it was a few years later before it became a town.  His name is found on a list of freemen who were in Dedham before 1647.  Thomas was a selectman in Dedham, and also a church deacon. 

Then he somehow shows up in Medfield.  The two towns are about 10 miles apart, so it is possible that he never moved from his original location but that his land was included in the new area.  That would be a fun thing to research at some point.  In Medfield, he again was a deacon.  I've not found anything about the town government yet, so I don't know if he served in some capacity there.  He married for the second time in Medfield, and that's where his wife died, so he was there for at least a few years, anyway. 

Thomas died March 17, 1674 in Medfield.  His will indicates that he and Lydia had a contract before marriage, and he then disposes of his land, house, household goods and clothing.  His son Ephraim seems to get the lion's share of the estate, so perhaps he had been caring for his father.  The inventory is interesting because it breaks out each item, room by room, so you can almost walk through the house and the out buildings with the appraisers.   He had books valued at one pound and 10 shillings, and a pike and a musket, as well as the usual kind of household goods (probably more than the average man, I would guess), farm implements, a spinning wheel, cattle, sheep, and swine but no horses.  The total value of his inventory was just over 465 pounds.

I of course would like to know more about Thomas, especially when he moved (if he did) and why.  Why did he come to America?  He lived more or less on the frontier.  What experiences did he have with the native Americans?  With John Eliot as a brother in law, he surely must have heard stories,  As a deacon, did he visit with some of them regularly?  Did he know some of their language?  There are questions that may never have answers, but we do know this much about his life, and I think we owe him respect. 

The line of descent is:

Thomas Wight-Alice

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

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