Capt. John Gould, of Topsfield

John Gould

• Birth: Jun. 21, 1635 Great Missenden Buckinghamshire, England
• Death: Jan. 26, 1710 Topsfield Essex County Massachusetts
• Parents: Zaccheus Gould & Phebe Deacon
• Married: Sarah Baker (daughter of John Baker & his wife Elizabeth)

Extensive bio:

http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/n_woodhead/Zaccheus_Gould_1.html

From The Family of Zaccheus Gould of Topsfield by Benjamin Apthorp Gould. Thos. P. Nichols, 1895 - 351 pages.  Page 47 

JOHN’ GOULD, born 1635 June 10-21, only son of Zaccheus; m. 1660 Oct. 14 SARAH, dau. of John Baker. She was born 1641 Mar. 9, and died 1708-9 Jan. 20. He d. 1709-10 Jan 26.

Children :

1. John‘, b. 1662 Dec. 1; m. 1684 Phebe French; d. 1724.
2. Sarah‘, b. 1664 Dec.1‘8; m. 1682 Joseph Bixby, jam; d. 1723.
3. Thomas‘, b. 1666 Feb. 14; m. 1) 1700 Mary Yates; 2) 1728-9 wid. Mary Stanley; d. 1752.
4. Samuel‘, b. 1669-70 Mar. 9; m. 1697 Margaret Stone; d. 1724.
5. Zaccheus‘, b. 1672 Mar. 26; m. 1702 Elizabeth Curtice; d. 1739.
6. Priscilla‘, b. 1674 Nov. 2; m. 1695 John Curtice, jun. ; d. 1715.
7. Joseph‘, b. 1677 Aug. 24 ; nn. 1712-3 Priscilla Perkins ; d. 1753.
8. Mary‘, b. 1681 June 16; d. 1689 May 11.

Each of these five sons of Capt. John’ Gould was the founder of a numerous family or tribe, and it may be convenient to keep these distinct from one another in our record.

notes

Added by Elwin C. Nickerson about this Great Grandfather:

John Gould was born in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, England. In the town was an abbey and a register of the convent dates its foundation to 1133. A court book of a manor there says it was founded by the Doyleys and augmented by the Missendens pursuant to a vow. Sir William de Missenden gave the manor to the abbey and much later it became the House of Brudenells. Family tradition says an Uncle of John's was Master of the House of Brudenells, possibly Henry. A letter dated March 3, 1678, says "Mrs. Mary Gould is yet living and remains single still. Henry Gould is dead almost a year since."

In 1638, John and his parents arrived in Charlestown, Massachusetts. He married Sarah Baker October 14, 1660 and they had eight children, John, Sarah, Thomas, Samuel, Zaccheus, Priscilla, Joseph, and Mary. About 1668, John became a stockholder in an iron foundry and eventually became a prominent resident of Topsfield, Massachusetts. Prior to the Salem Witch Trials, his nephew, John Wilde, wrongly accused him of treason.

John was known to be a very outspoken patriot against the oppression of King Charles II. He was jailed by the colonial governor in Boston for his disloyalty to the crown, but was later released.

In 1675-1676, John served during King Phillip's War, in the "Three-County Troop" under the command of Captain Hutchinson and later Captain Wheeler. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant and put in command of the Topsfield Company of militia.

John is buried beside his father, Zaccheus Gould, at the Pine Grove Cemetery. Some descendents of the Gould family erected a monument at the cemetery commemorating John and Zaccheus. The Topsfield Historical Society commemorated John in the essay "John Gould – Patriot" /ECN/

Baker family

"Baker Genealogy" The Essex Antiquarian, Volume 5. edited by Sidney Perley.  Page 158

BAKER GENEALOGY.

The principal family of Bakers in Essex county is that which originated in this country with JOHN BAKER1 of Ipswich. He was born in 1598, and April 9, 1616, was apprenticed to a grocer in Norwich, England, for twelve years, to learn that business. In 1628 he was a citizen of Norwich, and engaged as a grocer. He married Elizabeth ___, who was born about 1606, and in 1637 came to New England, intending ....

• Children: --
  • 2-i. ELIZABETH2, bapt. Aug. 18, 1633, at St. Peter's, Mancroft, Norwich, England; and came to New England.
  • 3-ii. JOHN2, bapt. Nov. 30, 1634, in St. Peters. See below (3).
  • 4-iii. THOMAS2, b. Sept. 13, 1636, in Norwich, England. See below (4).
  • 5-iv. MARY2, b. about 1638; m. Joseph Stafford March 6, 1660.
  • ' 6-v. SARAH2, b. March 9, 1640-1; m. Capt. John Gould of Topsfield Oct. 14, 1660; and d. Jan. 20, 1708-9.
  • 7-vi. MARTHA2, b. about 1643; m., first, Obadiah Antrim of Salem, a mariner, who was lost at sea in 1664; and she m., second, Thomas Andrews of Boxford June 22, 1670.

The Gould Family, Salem, MA 1692

Salem, MA was the site of the most infamous witch hunt in Colonial America. It was a terrible time, and many innocent people were involved. People were accused for monetary gain, political gain, through social pressures, and some just out of spite. Many at the accusations came from the their family members, the very people who were supposed to be closest and most caring. Such is the case of the Gould family.

Zaccheus Gould & his wife, Phoebe Deacon, brought their 5 children - Phoebe, Mary, Martha, JOHN & Priscilla to Massachusetts. Priscilla married Capt. John Wildes, and they had 8 children together. She died the 16th of Apr 1663, at the age of 33, leaving John with at least 4 children under the age of 10, the youngest 4month old Nathan. John remarried, to Sarah Averill, 23 November 1663. They had one child, Ephraim.

It appears that the Gould family feathers were ruffled when John Wildes remarried so soon after Priscilla's death. (Keep in mind that this is a man with 8 children). But the serious nature of the problems between John Wildes & the siblings of his first wife, Priscilla, - Lt. John Gould & Mary (Gould) Redington - began in the mid-1680s.

There was a property dispute between the people of Salem Village & Topsfield. John Gould was from Salem, while John Wildes was from Topsfield. Then in 1686 John Wilded testified agains John Gold when treason was charged. Oddly enough, John Wildes had previously agreed with everything that John Gould was being charged with.

After that Mary (Gould) Redington began to spread rumours about Sarah (Averill) Wildes, John's 2nd wife. John Wildes threatened to file slander charges against John Redington (men were responsible for their wives' actions at the time). Mary (Gould) Redington readily admitted that she had made up the stories.

But the rumour mill had begun to grind, and Sarah (Averill) Wildes was to be a victim.

When the trials began in 1692, John Gould testified that his poor deceased sister, Mary (Gould) Redington had at one time been pulled off a horse by Sarah Wildes "in spirit form". He also stated that hens that Sarah had gifted to Mary had "moped around until they died". He also stated that one time while he and his nephew Zaccheus Perkins, son of Phoebe (Gould) Perkins, were filling a hayrick in a hurry, or else his Aunt Wildes would be mad. The hay then slid off the hayrick, and John Gould felt that it was because of witchcraft. == Mary (Gould) Redington's words had been "taken back" but Mary had died by 1692, and the people to whom she spoke carried them forward beyond her life. Her minister, John Hale, to whom she had shared her "griefs" stated that Mary had told him that she was bewitched & afflicted by Sarah Wildes. Even John Wildes, Jr, the son of Priscilla - who was about 15 when she died - stated that he believed that his stepmother was a witch.

Sarah's son, Ephraim Wildes, testified for Sarah. One of the people to accuse Sarah was Deliverance Hobbs. As Ephraim was the Salem constable, he was charged with bringing Deliverance to jail when she had been accused of witchcraft herself. He claimed that Elizabeth Symonds, another woman who had signed a disposition against Sarah did so because Ephraim had broken a marriage contract with her daughter a few years before. When Ephraim asked Elizabeth Symonds why she though Sarah was a witch, Elizabeth said it was because Mary Redington told her it was true. Ephraim reminded the court that when Mary (Gould) Redington had been accussed of slander, that Mary had readily confessed that Sunday in church, saying that Sarah was a "fine Christian woman whom had never been involved with the devil". Ephraim stated that his mother had always raised him in the Christian way.

Unfortunately, Sarah was found guilty, and executed 19 July 1692. On that day, 5 women - Rebecca Nurse, Goody Good, Elizabeth Howe, Suzanna Martin, & Sarah - were hanged while standing in a cart on Gallows Hill. All of the people who had testified against Sarah eventually confessed in church that they had lied.

John Wildes married a 3rd time, to the widow Mary Jacobs. Her husband, George Jacobs, aged 72 and an invalid, had been hanged August 1692 in the witch trials.

http://www.geocities.ws/mercier_beaucoup/witchhunt2.html

____________________

A bond, given by John Gould (1635-1710) in 1664, before his father’s death, promising to pay £24 to each of the five daughters of his sister Priscilla (Wildes) upon their attaining the age of 21 years. Priscilla had died nearly fourteen months before, and Wildes was married again to

the unfortunate Sarah Averill. The bond is witnessed by John and Thomas Baker, brothers-in-law of John Gould.  Upon the reverse of the same paper is a receipt by Timothy Day for the share of his wife Phebe see media for copy of bond.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Gould-257

John Gould

Born 21 Jun 1635 in Great Missenden, County Buckingham, England

Son of Zaccheus Gould and Phebe (Deacon) Gould

Brother of Phebe (Gould) Perkins, Mary (Gould) Redington, Martha (Gould) Newmarch and Priscilla (Gould) Wildes

Husband of Sarah (Baker) Gould — married 14 Oct 1660 [location unknown]

Father of Mary Gould, John Gould, Sarah (Gould) Bixby, Thomas Gould, Samuel Gould, Zaccheus Gould, Priscilla (Gould) Curtis and Joseph Gould

Died 26 Jan 1710 in Topsfield, Essex County, Massachusetts

Profile last modified 29 Jan 2019 | Created 21 Sep 2010

John Gould migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1620-1640).

Biography

John Gould was born about 1635 probably in Great Missenden, County Buckingham, England. He died 26 JAN 1709/10 in Topsfield, Essex County, Massachusetts.[1]

"He was the greatest landowner and the most prominent citizen in Topsfield in his day. In the local foot-company he became an ensign in 1674, lieutenant in 1686 and captain in 1694. He was town clerk from 1681/2 through 1684/5 and on his assuming that office he and Lieutenant Peabody were entrusted with transcribing the old town book into a new book. He was selectman from 1677/8 to 1686/7 and again in 1692. Finally in 1690 he was a deputy to the General Court. He was an active promoter of the iron works in Rowley Village, afterward Boxford, which venture was not successful and was abandoned about 1680. In the unhappy scandal over the conduct of Mr. Thomas Gilbert, the Topsfield parson, in 1671, Sarah Gould was the principal witness against him, and there is much local color in the testimony. To the present-day reader of the testimony it would seem that Gilbert was a sick man rather than an alcoholic, but the court, although somewhat doubtful, ruled against him. Captain Gould was an ardent defender of the Massachusetts Charter when it was abrogated in 1686, and an outspoken critic of the new government of President Dudley. Some of his Topsfield neighbors, regrettably including his brother-in-law John Wild, informed against him and he was accused of treason and lodged in Boston jail. He petitioned for pardon and was released upon the payment of a fine of £50, costs of £10, and provided a bond of £100 for good behavior. He must have had mental reservations, however, and there was ill will between him and the Topsfield informers until the church intervened. From Captain Gould's five sons there is a multitude of descendants."[2] The church intervention took the form of a meeting in the parlor of Rev. Joseph Capen's house. According to Capen's diary, on Jun 13th 1692, he met with Gould, Jacob Towne and John How. Less than month later Towne's sister Mary Estey and How's sister-in-law Elizabeth How would be hanged in Salem.

Captain Gould served in the Pequot War, as well as King Philip's War serving in Lt. William Hasey's Three County Troop. He ranked an ensign in 1679, lieutenant in 1674, and captain in 1693. [3]

Sources

↑ Walter Goodwin Davis, Massachusetts and Maine Families in the Ancestry of Walter Goodwin Davis (1885-1966): A reprinting in alphabetical order by surname of the sixteen multi-ancestor compedia, Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc. (1996), Volume 2, Page 57 ↑ Davis, page 57 ↑ Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois, Volume 2 By Newton Bateman, Paul Selby, Josiah Seymour Currey. On Google Books See also:

Benjamin Apthorp Gould, The Family of Zaccheus Gould of Topsfield, Lynn, MA: Thos. P. Nichols (1895), starting on page 36.

Acknowledgements

Restricted Hunter

GEDCOM Note

Ancestors of Stewart Russel, Family Tree Maker homepage, 22 July
1998.

Craig Beeman, post to gould-lmissouri.edu with corrections and additions.

Original individual () merged with ()

A bond, given by John Gould (1635-1710) in 1664, before his father’s death, promising to pay £24 to each of the five daughters of his sister Priscilla (Wildes) upon their attaining the age of 21 years. Priscilla had died nearly fourteen months before, and Wildes was married again to the unfortunate Sarah Averill. The bond is witnessed by John and Thomas Baker, brothers-in-law of John Gould. Upon the reverse of the same paper is a receipt by Timothy Day for the share of his wife Phebe. See Bond copy in media: