George Watson, of the Plymouth Colony

Not the son of Robert Watson & Elizabeth Watson

http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tmetrvlr/bio22.html

Excellent chronology of his life, well sourced and documented.

GEORGE WATSON

ORIGIN: Unknown

MIGRATION: 1631

FIRST RESIDENCE: Penobscot

REMOVES: Plymouth by 1634

OCCUPATION: Mariner. Impressed with the barque of which he was master, 3 May 1653 [PCR 3:29].

FREEMAN: In "1633" Plymouth list of freemen between those admitted 1 January 1633/4 and those admitted 1 January 1634/5 [PCR 1:4]. He is in the 7 March 1636/7 list of freemen [PCR 1:52], and in the Plymouth section of the 1639, 1658, 29 May 1670 and 1 [blank] 1683/4 Plymouth Colony lists of freemen [PCR 5:274, 8:174, 197, 202].

EDUCATION: He signed the coroner's inquest into the death of James Glasse [PCR 3:16] and other documents. His inventory included "books" valued at 13s.

OFFICES: Grand jury, 4 June 1639 [PCR 1:126]. Jury on highways, 1 February 1640/1 [PCR 2:7]. Arbiter, 5 March 1643/4, 6 October 1659, 29 October 1667 [PCR 2:69, 3:174, 7:139-40, 142]. Jury, 2 January 1637/8, 1 September 1640, 1 September 1640, 2 March 1646/7, 8 June 1654, 6 March 1654/5, 5 March 1655/6, 7 March 1659/60, 6 March 1661/2, 2 October 1662, 3 March 1662/3, 5 March 1666/7, 1 March 1669/70, 7 June 1670, 29 October 1670, 29 October 1673 [PCR 2:111-12, 3:75, 5:42, 7:7, 17, 18, 70, 77, 95-6, 102, 105, 108, 136, 159, 163, 186]. Coroner's jury on the body of James Glasse, 26 July 1652, 5 June 1678 on the body of Samuell Drew, 8 March 1678/9 on the body of Thomas Lucase of Plymouth and 28 October 1684 on the bodies of Joseph Truwant and Israell Holmes of Marshfield [PCR 3:16, 5:263, 6:8, 148].

Plymouth selectman, 5 February 1665[/6], 13 October 1667 [PTR 1:82, 91]. Constable, 6 June 1660, 5 June 1666, 5 June 1672 [PCR 3:187, 4:124, 5:90]. Overseer of surveying, 7 January 1638/9, 10 January 1661[/2] [PCR 1:109, PTR 1:45]. Manager of exchange of Plymouth land, 21 February 1663[/4] [PTR 1:60].

In Plymouth section of 1643 Plymouth Colony list of men able to bear arms [PCR 8:188].

ESTATE: In 1635 he purchased a house and garden in Plymouth from John Jenny [PCR 12:51]. On 14 March 1635/6 he was allowed the rest of the meadow at Island Creek with Mr. Hicks and the next year it was allowed again [PCR 1:40, 56]. On 5 February 1637/8 he was granted four acres [PCR 1:76]. On 7 May 1638 with others he petitioned for land towards the Six Mile Brook [PCR 1:83]. He purchased three acres from William Bradford in 1639 [PCR 12:51]. He was granted six acres of marsh meadow in Greens Harbor 20 November 1640 [PCR 1:167]. On March 1651 George Watson was one of those with interest in the town's land at Punckateesett over against Rhode Island [PTR 1:37]. On 17 March 1654 Goodman Watson was granted "a little slip of meadow above the bridge ... at the South meadows" [PTR 1:208]. On 24 May 1662 George Watson's request for land at Mannomett Ponds caused Plymouth to select men to take charge of disposing of lands [PTR 1:47]. On 27 October 1662 he was on a list of men requesting meadow at the lower south meadow [PTR 1:49]. On the same day he was granted fifty acres of upland at Mannomett Ponds [PTR 1:51]. On 22 March 1663 George Watson shared lot twenty-two at Puncateesett Neck with John Shaw Sr. [PTR 1:67]. On 14 April 1664 the six acres belonging to George Watson, which he bought of George Bonum, was acknowledged to him and an exchange of three acres for two acres was ordered [PTR 1:75].

On 14 March 1663 "Gyles Gilbert of Taunton," yeoman, sold to George Watson of Plymouth, yeoman, the land that had been bequeathed to him by his father Mr. John Gilbert [MD 34:23, citing PCLR 3:1:19]. James Davis, sometimes of Plymouth, seaman, sold to George Watson of Plymouth, seaman, "five acres of upland ground lying on the south side of the town of Plymouth"; Mr. Nathaniel Souther, yeoman, sometimes of Plymouth, sold to George Watson of Plymouth, seaman, half an acre of marsh meadow in Plymouth; these two instruments were recorded on 18 November 1664 [MD 34:22, citing PCPR 3:1:18].

In a deed acknowledged on 29 October 1670 "Nathaniell Masterson living at York in New England" resigned to George Watson of Plymouth "all my right of a house and garden which was my father's at Plymouth" [PCLR 3:181].

On 22 August 1681 George Watson of Plymouth, seaman, sold to Joseph Bartlett Sr. of Plymouth, yeoman, a parcel of land at Mannomett Ponds in Plymouth being one-third of a tract granted by the town to George Watson, William Harlow Sr. and Nathaniel Morton Sr. [PCLR 5:158] On 9 December 1681 George Watson of Plymouth, mariner, deeded to "Elkanah Watson my dear and natural son" the seventh lot in the Freeman's Land [PCLR 5:108].

On 28 October 1681 George Watson of Plymouth acknowledged that he had exchanged land with Mr. Edward Gray [PCR 6:76].

The inventory of George Watson, taken 2 February 1688[/9], was untotalled and included no real estate [PPR 1:37; Gen Adv 1:43].

BIRTH: About 1602 based on age at death (but this is probably exaggerated by about five years).

DEATH: Plymouth 31 January 1688/9, "being 87 years of age" [PChR 1:262].

MARRIAGE: About 1635 Phoebe Hicks, baptized St. Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey, Surrey, 15 March 1614/5, daughter of ROBERT HICKS of Plymouth; she died at Plymouth on 22 May 1663 [PCR 8:23].

CHILDREN:

i JOHN, b. say 1636; living in 1660 [PCR 3:186]; no further record.

ii PHOEBE, b. say 1638; m. Plymouth 22 January 1657[/8?] Jonathan Shaw [PCR 8:17], son of JOHN SHAW.

iii MARY, b. say 1642; m. Plymouth 21 August 1662 Thomas Leonard [PCR 8:23].

iv SAMUEL (twin), b. Plymouth 18 January 1648[/9] [PCR 8:5]; d. 20 August 1649 [PCR 8:8].

v ELIZABETH (twin), b. Plymouth 18 January 1648[/9] [PCR 8:5]; m. Plymouth 28 November 1667 Joseph Williams [PCR 8:31].

vi JONATHAN, b. Plymouth 9 March 1652 [PCR 8:13]; no further record.

vii ELKANAH, b. Plymouth 25 February 1656 [PCR 8:16]; perhaps m. Mercy Hedge, daughter of WILLIAM HEDGE.

ASSOCIATIONS: George Watson was not son of Robert Watson of Plymouth and Windsor, since there was no such person (see ROBERT WATSON in Phantom File).

COMMENTS: On 19 July 1631 George Watson testified regarding the activities of EDWARD ASHLEY at Penobscot [MHSP 45:495].

George Watson appears in the list of freemen immediately preceding the court of 1 January 1632/3, but it is likely that he was actually admitted freeman in early 1634. The names immediately preceding his were admitted at the court of 1 January 1633/4. There then begins a column of names headed by "The rest admitted afterwards," which starts off with five men for whom there is no record of admission, and then seven who were admitted on 1 January 1634/5 (James Cudworth through Henry Rowley). Since in both Plymouth and Massachusetts colonies men were made freemen at or immediately before a meeting of the court, we can assume that George Watson and his four cohorts were admitted at some court between 1 January 1633/4 and 1 January 1634/5. The only courts recorded during this interval were held in late March of 1634, and this is very likely the time when George Watson was admitted. The other four men surrounding him on the list of freemen, and probably admitted at the same time, are all known to have been in Plymouth in 1633 or earlier. Since George Watson was not in either of the tax lists of 1632 or 1633, and married about 1635, it may be that he had just finished a term of servitude in the winter of 1633/4 and did not yet have any property. This would further suggest that he may have come to Plymouth as a servant of one of the families which arrived in 1629.

On 6 February 1636/7 George Watson and others were fined for trading with the Indians for corn [PCR 1:50].

On returning home with a load of wood, George Watson and his servant John Bond went to unload the wood, but Bond bumped the mare and she ran away with him on the cart, and he leapt from the cart in front of the wheel and was crushed, as the coroner's jury ruled 23 July 1661 [PCR 3:223].

On 3 May 1664, George Watson and others complained that the whole town of Taunton suffered as a result of James Walker neglecting to leave a sufficient passage for the herrings to go up river [PCR 4:57].

On 1 May 1660 George Watson petitioned the court in behalf of "his son John Watson and his nephew John Banges" that Samuel Hickes was entered in error as the purchaser of their land, when Mr. Robert Hickes should have been entered [PCR 3:186].

Phoebe and Mary are included as daughters of George Watson because there was no other Watson family in Plymouth at this time, the chronology is right, and Phoebe would have been named for her mother.

On 6 March 1665/6 George Watson was granted administration on the estate of Mrs. Margarett Hickes, deceased [PCR 4:117].

The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-33, Robert Charles Anderson. [database-on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2000.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=11266013

Birth: 1602

Death: Jan. 31, 1689 - Plymouth, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, USA

Children:

• 1. John Watson,
• 2. Phebe Watson Shaw,
• 3. Mary Watson Leonard,
• 4. Samuel Watson,
• 5. Elizabeth Watson Williams,
• 6. Jonathan Watson, and
• 7. Elkanah Watson.

Family links:

Children:

• John Watson (1636 - ____)*
• Phebe Watson Shaw (1637 - 1683)*
• Mary Watson Leonard (1642 - 1723)*
• Elizabeth Watson Williams (1647 - 1723)*
• Jonathan Watson (1652 - ____)*
• Elkanah Watson (1656 - 1690)*

Spouse:

• Phebe Hicks Watson (1614 - 1663)

Burial: Burial Hill, Plymouth, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, USA

Maintained by: Kevin Avery Originally Created by: Anonymous Record added: Jun 30, 2005 Find A Grave Memorial# 11266013

Note: On 22 March 1663/64 George Watson and John Shaw, Sr. were granted a lot on Puncateesett Necke (Ply. Town Recs. 1:67).

On 6 February 1636/37 he, John Jenney, and George Watson were fined for trading with the Indians for corn (PCR 1:50).

Source: Plymouth Colony: Its History and People 1620-169, Part Three: Biographical Sketches

Children: John Watson, Phebe Watson Shaw, Mary Watson Leonard, Samuel Watson, Elizabeth Watson Williams, Jonathan Watson, and Elkanah Watson.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=11266013

• Immigration: 1631
• Immigration: 1633 - Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States
• Residence: Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States - 1633
  • Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Sep 28 2018, 3:34:08 UTC

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GEDCOM Source

@R900883306@ Family Data Collection - Individual Records Edmund West, comp. Ancestry.com Operations Inc 1,4725::0 Birth year: 1602; Birth city: Plymouth; Birth state: MA 1,4725::5046112

GEDCOM Source

@R900883306@ Family Data Collection - Individual Records Edmund West, comp. Ancestry.com Operations Inc 1,4725::0 Birth year: 1602; Birth city: Plymouth; Birth state: MA 1,4725::5046112

GEDCOM Source

@R900883306@ Family Data Collection - Individual Records Edmund West, comp. Ancestry.com Operations Inc 1,4725::0 Birth year: 1602; Birth city: Plymouth; Birth state: MA 1,4725::5046112

GEDCOM Source

@R900883306@ Ancestry Family Trees Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members. Ancestry Family Tree http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=116071904&pi...

GEDCOM Note

Disputed Origins==There are many publications and family trees which definitively state that a Robert Watson, immigrant of 1632, was father to George and brother of John Watson of Roxbury. According to Robert Charles Anderson's "Phantom File", "this family construct should be rejected totally." An assignment of a servant by 'Elizabeth Watson, widow, … unto Thomas Watson, on 8 Nov 1638 [PCR 1:102], is cited in partial support of this claim; but this record says nothing about a Robert, nor does itconnect to records of other Watson immigrants."<ref>Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III. Boston, MA: New England Historical and GenealogicalSociety, 1995. By Subscription Page 2103.</ref>

Biography

Origin ===According to Robert Charles Anderson's authoritative research on the Great Migration, George Watson's birth location, date, and parents are unknown.<ref name="GMB">Anderson, Robert Charles, "George Watson," Featured Name (Vol I-III, Page 1944) The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III. (Online database accessed April 16, 2015: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2010)</ref> George was born about 1602 (based on age at death, though Anderson suspects this was probably "exaggerated by about 5 years").<ref name="GMB"/>

Immigration ===The first record of George Watson's presence in New England is a deposition he gave on July 19, 1631 wherein George refers to himself and "fellowe servaunts."<ref>Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol. 45, 1911-1912. Boston, MA: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1912. Page 527.</ref> They were interviewed regarding illegal trading of guns and munitions to the Natives at the Castine/Macchabiticus (Penobscot) trading post in Maine where they were employed. Trader Edward Ashley was found guilty and returned to England where he was imprisoned.<ref>Plymouth Ancestors Website."https://www.plimoth.org/sites/default/files/media/pdf/ashley_edward..." Plimoth.org accessed 8 Sep 2020.</ref>

The Maine trading post was ceded to the French in 1635.<ref>Spencer, Wilbur Daniel. Pioneers on the Maine Rivers with Lists to 1651. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing, 1935. Page 385.</ref> By that time George was already a Freeman at Plymouth (possibly becausehe had served out his indenture) likely in March of 1634.<ref>Anderson, 1995. By Subscription. Page 1547</ref>

Family ===George married c. 1635 to Phebe Hicks, daughter of RobertHicks. They had seven known children, all born in Plymouth. <ref name="GMB"/> Phebe died at Plymouth in 1663.<ref>Shurtleff, Nathaniel B. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth of New England. Miscellaneous Records 1633-1689. Boston, MA: Legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1857. Page 23.</ref>

Children:

1. John Watson; b ca 1636
2. Phoebe Watson b ca 1638; m Jonathan Shaw
3. Mary Watson b ca 1642; m Thomas Leonard# Samuel Watson b 18 Jan 1648;<ref name=Shurtleff>Shurtleff, 1857. Page 5</ref> d Aug 1649<ref>Shurtleff, 1857. Page 8.</ref># Elizabeth Watson twin;<ref name=Shurtleff/> m Joseph Williams# Jonathan Watson b 9 Mar 1652<ref>Shurtleff, 1857. Page 13</ref># Elkanah Watson b 25 Feb 1656<ref>Shurtleff, 1857. Page 16.</ref>

Not mentioned by Anderson and not proven as George's child: William Watson

Life in Plymouth===In 1635 George purchased a home and garden, the first of roughly twenty transactions acquiring and trading land throughout his life. He wasentrusted with many civic duties, including serving on a grand jury, coroner's juries, and as arbiter. He held various offices, including selectman and constable.

George's profession was mariner; he owned at least a partial interest in and was master of a barque.In May of 1653 a "counsel of warr" made preparations to launch an expedition against Holland if necessary. George, his vessel and his mates were "pressed to attend the expedition."<ref>Shurtleff, Nathaniel B. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth of New England, Court Orders Vol.III 1651-1661. Boston, MA: Legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1855. Page 29.</ref>
George died on January 31, 1688/9 "being 87 yeares of age.<ref> Plymouth Church Records, 1620-1689, Part 1. Boston, MA: The Colonial Societyof Massachusetts, 1920. Page 262.</ref> His son Elkanah administered the estate.<ref>Plymouth County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1686-1881.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives.) By Subscription.Page 22233.4</ref>

Sources

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