Thomas Curtis, of Scituate & York

THOMAS CURTIS, one of four brothers who came from Kent, England, to Scituate, Plymouth County, MA about 1638.

Thomas,bp. 2 Nov. 1619, s. of Thos. of Ash, Kent, bur. 11 Dec. 1631, and Richardene, who m. 2d Thos. Chambers(2).

In company with others, bought land of Gorges in York in 1645. He removed to Scituate, Mass., and back to York in 1663. His wife was Elizabeth (???); it appears he had a second wife named Abigail. His will, made 19 April 1680, was probated in 1706.

"Thomas Curtis, (brother of Richard, William, and John), was in Scituate 1649. He had previously lived at Georgiana, and is called of York, in our records. He returned to York, where he was living in 1684, at which date he gave a deed to his son Samuel, of lands on Curtis or Buttonwood hill, where Samuel and several generations of his family lived.

Will dated 19 April, 1680, prob. 1 Oct. 1706, beq. to sons Joseph, Dodivah and Job, daus. Abigail, Lydia, Sarah, Rebecca and Anne Curtis and Hannah Jynkins; had already given portions to sons Benjamin and Samuel C. "in a farm at Scituate."

His will dated 19 Apr. 1680 was not proved until aft. his s. Joseph's death, but he was app. a vict. of the York massacre (1692)

notes

From Plymouth Colony Records, vol 6, pages 39–40 1 June 1680

In reference vnto the dispose of the estate of John Curtice, of Scittuate, late deceased, the Court haue ordered, that it shalbe deuided into fiue partes, wherof two partes therof is disposed vnto his eldest brother, Thomas Curtice, liueinf att Yorke, in the Province of Maine, and the other three partes vnto Richard Curtice, and William Curtice, and Elizabeth the wife of Jacob Bumpas, onely the said woman is to haue her parte out of the mouables of the said estate, and not to haue any parte of the lands.

It is possible some of the children listed are by the 2nd wife Abigail, but the Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire (page 177) ascribes all children to w. Eliz. rec. 1694-1703

• http://genforum.genealogy.com/curtis/messages/2159.html
• https://archive.org/stream/genealogyofcurti00incurt#page/n39/mode/2up
• http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/gen/report/rr02/rr02_258.html#P11649
• http://www.rnward.com/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I1084&tree=B...
• New England Marriages Prior to 1700  By Clarence Almon Torrey, Elizabeth Petty Bentley. Page 199. "CURTIS, Thomas (1619-1706?) & 1/wf Elizabeth ?; b 1644; Scituate/ York, ME. "CURTIS, Thomas (1619-1706?) & 2/wf Abigail ?."
• pioneers of Massachusetts a descriptive list, drawn from records of the colonies, towns and churches and other contemporaneous documents. By Charles Henry Pope ...Published 1900 by C.H. Pope in Boston . Written in English. Page 93.
• A genealogy of the Curtiss family: being a record of the descendants of widow Elizabeth Curtiss, who settled in Stratford, Conn., 1639-1640 by Frederic Haines Curtiss. Published 1903 by Rockwell and Churchill Press in Boston . Written in English.  Page 38-39

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This Thomas Curtis immigrated, to what would become America, as a young man with his mother Richardine or Richardene (maiden name unknown who had married 1st. Thomas Curtis "of Ash, Kent, England. The elder Thomas died in Kent 1631), with her 2nd husband Thomas Chambers (who she married 25 Jun 1632 in Ash), into Scituate, Massachusetts in 1638. Son Thomas (with step-father's help) bought land in York, York, Maine in 1642. Thomas Curtis (1619) proven a pioneer for 'The Order of the First Families of Maine' (OFFME) by me, Nancy.

Thomas Curtis "of Scituate, Massachusetts and York, Maine" married 1. Elizabeth (maiden name unkinown), Banns 1644 and marriage before 1649. They had 2 children: Ellzabeth Curtis christened 19 Aug 1649 in Scituate, Plymouth Co., Massachusetts - 2nd church of Scituate which later became the 1st Unitarian Church Parish of Norwell, Plymouth, Mass., and Joseph Curtis, Esquire born 1651 in York, York, Maine. Thomas Curtis married 2nd. Abigail (maiden name unknown), we believe about 1651 before Abigail was born circa 1653. They had 11 children, I descend from child #4 (of Thomas & Abigail), Samuel Curtis who married Elizabeth Tilden daughter of Deacon Joseph Tilden (1615-1670) and Elizabeth "Ellice" or Alice Twisden (b. 1633 Frittenden, Kent, England -1694) daughter of John Twisden (1592 of Denton Court (near Dover), Kent, England and Susanna Stuppell, daughter of Thomas Stuppell and mary Shrimpton.

See website for Curtis-Curiss Family Society www.curtis-curtiss.org Nancy Purchase, Secretary Curtis/s Fam. Soc.

Thomas Curtis killed By Indians in Candelmas Day Massacre

The Raid on York (also known as the Candlemas Massacre) took place in 24 January 1692 during King William's War, when Chief Madockawando and Father Louis-Pierre Thury led 200-300 natives into the town of York (then in the District of Maine and part of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, now in the state of Maine), killing about 100 of the English settlers and burning down buildings, taking another estimated 80 villagers hostage. The villagers were forced to walk to Canada, New France, where they were ransomed by Capt. John Alden Jr. of Boston (son of John Alden and Priscilla Mullins of the Plymouth Colony). One of those taken Captive was a young Jeremiah Moulton, who would later gain notoriety during the Father Rale's War. Capt. Floyd wrote that "the houses are all burned and rifled except the half dozen or thereabout"...later in the same letter he adds: "there is about seventeen or eighteen houses burned". Forty-eight people were buried by Capt. Floyd, and the remaining number were young children whose names never appeared on the existing town records. Amongst those killed was Reverend Shubael Dummer, the Congregational church minister; Dummer was shot at his own front door, while Dummer's wife, Lydia and their son, were carried away captive where "through snows and hardships among those dragons of the desert she also quickly died"; nothing further was heard of the boy.[8] The Indians set fire to all undefended houses on the north side of the York River, the principal route for trade and around which the town had grown. After the settlement was reduced to ashes, however, it was rebuilt on higher ground at what is today York Village. Capt. John Flood, who had come with the militia from Portsmouth, found on his arrival that "the greatest part of the whole town was burned and robbed," with nearly 50 killed and another 100 captured. He reported that Rev. Dummer was "barbarously murthered, stript naked, cut and mangled by these sons of Beliall." Today the event is commemorated annually in York, with historical re-enactments and lectures, events presented by the Old York Historical Society and sponsored in part by the Maine Humanities Council. There is a memorial plaque in York on a large stone where, according to the plaque, Abenaki Indians left their snowshoes before creeping into York and attacking the settlers.