Deacon William Twining

William Twining (b. ca 1625 ; d. 4 Nov. 1703 in Newtown PA.) In Eastham he was a deacon in the Eastham Congregational Church. Around 1650, while still in Massachusetts, he married Elizabeth Deane, and they had numerous children:

Elizabeth, (m. John Rogers, 19 Aug. 1669), Anne ( m. 3 Oct 1672 (1) Thomas Bills and (2) David Kelley), Susanna (b. 25 Jan 1654; d. young), William (m. Ruth Cole), Mehitable (d. bef 1726) (m. Daniel doane [ Richard Milhouse Nixon descends form this line]), Joanna (b. 30 May 1657) and Stephen. The Deanes: The Connection to the Puritans on the Fortune; Source: Author: Twining, Thomas Jefferson, 1851- Title: Genealogy of the Twining family, descendants of William Twining, Sr. Who came from Wales or England, and died at Eastham, Massachusetts, 1659. With information of other Twinings in Great Britain and America. By Thos. J. Twining....Chicago, Pub. for the author, 1890. Description: 172, ix p. ports. 23 cm.

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William Twining was active in the community. In 1659 Eastham granted him three and one-half acres for a house lot adjoining William Twining, Sr. In 1662 he was admitted and sworn to the Grand Jury at Eastham, and again three times in 1671. He owned and sold land at Bound Brook, Namakassett, Poche, Billingate, etc. As late as 1681 he was "Deacon Twining." Sometime thereafter, he, his wife, and his son Stephen changed from the Congregational Church to the Society of Friends. From 1670 to 1700 there was a large migration from different parts of New England to Long Island, East NJ, and later PA, on account of persecution, especially of Quakers, but also some other "heretics". In 1695 he is on the Eastham records for the last time as a voter, and the same year he and his wife removed to Newtown PA., accompanied by his son Stephen, and his family. Their names appear in the Middletown Meeting records in 1699. His son William (the third) remained in Eastham and Congregational. -

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Both William and his father William were involved in land and civil transactions on Cape Cod. William Jr. was probably the one admitted to the grand jury at Plymouth in 1752 and three times more by 1671. His father was granted land nest to him at the head of Great Namskaket Bay on May 13, 1654. He was a deacon in the Eastham Congregational Church. In 1659, he was granted a house and 3.5 acres next to his father at Poche, on the east side of Town Cove. In 1662, he was sworn to the Grand Jury at Eastham. He received 10 acres from his step-father-in-law Josiah Cooke in 1664. There were other lands also received at Billingate (Wellfleet) and in Barnstable County. He deeded land at Bound Brook in Yarmouth to Peter Warden in 1669 and also 100 acres to Thomas Doggett in 1671, for 28 pounds. He served on the Grand Jury three times in 1671. In 1674, he deeded land at Princes Neck by River Sparrow, near Eastham, to John Yates, for 20 pounds. On May 5, 1693, he granted land at Poche to son-in-law Joseph Young. He was also deacon in the church in 1677 and 1681. The family moved to Newtown, Pennsylvania about 1695, after he appeared on the voter rolls of Eastham for the last time. Son Stephen had purchased 500 acres near Newtown, and became a Quaker. His will was made out in 1697 and proved in April of 1705. It refers to his children and land still held on Cape Cod. William converted from being a Congregationalist to being a Quaker. He moved to Pennsylvania to live in the Quaker commmunity. He left his Massachusetts property to his son William.

Source: Mark S. & Mariah Lawson GEDCOM midgard@@icx.net>

Sources:

1. Title: The Twining Family in the United States, Repository: Media: Book

2. Mark S. & Mariah Lawson GEDCOM

3. His will dated 26th day 4th month 1697. Mayflower Families Through 5 Generations Author: Twining, Thomas Jefferson, 1851-Title: The Twining family

4. LDS Ancestrial File

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William (2), son of William (1) Twining, was born probably in England, the son of the first wife of William. He died in Newtown, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, November 4, 1703. He was a deacon of the Eastham church as early as 1677. He owned land at Easton harbor, and had an interest in drift whales at the end of the cape. About 1695 he changed his religious views and united with the Society of Friends. He therefore removed to Pennsylvania, where he became a staunch Quaker and a fast friend of the Indians.

He married Elizabeth, daughter of Stephen Deane, of Plymouth, who came in the ship, "Fortune" in 1621 and built the first corn mill in New England in 1632. Children: Eliza; Annie, married, October 3, 1672, Thomas Bills; Susanna, born February 25, 1654, died young; Joanna, born May 30, 1657, married Thomas Bills; Mehitable; Stephen; William, born February 28, 1654, married Ruth Cole .

Source: Cutter, William Richard. Genealogical and Family History of the State of Connecticut: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation. New York, NY: Lewis Publishing Company, 1911.

The Twining family were Puritans who emigrated to New England about 1640 and settled first at Yarmouth, on Cape Cod. Settlement began in 1637 by emigrants who came directly from England and Wales. This was right at the end of the decade of heavy Puritan emigration as those who hoped to purify the Anglican church of all traces of Roman Catholicism were in dispair as Charles II and his Archbishop Laud seemed to be moving in the opposite direction. Then when civil war broke out between Royalist and Parliamentary factions, most Puritans chose to remain in England to support the cause. A fair number even returned from New England to join the struggle.

With the Britsh government too distracted to supervise its colonies, the New England colonies united under a constitution of their own making on 19 May 1643. One of its provisions was that each colony's commissioners would make a list of all men from the ages of 16 to 60 who were able to bear arms. William Twining 1was on the list for Yarmouth in 1643. Yarmouth had been incorporated in 1639, the third settlement in the Plymouth Colony, after Plymouth itself and Sandwich. Yarmouth is in the mid-part of Cape Cod. Its geology was mainly formed by glaciers during the last Ice Age. The low round hills on the north edge of town were caused by the leading edge of the glacier as it pushed up the land before it. The flat sandy southern part of town is the apron of sediment washed out of the glacial ice .

Generally the soils of Plymouth are sandy and relatively poor. This may have been a major motive in 1644 for the directors of the Plymouth Colony to send seven men to scout Eastham (originally Nauset or Nawsett), farther up Cape Cod, as a potential site for the center of government. In the end they decided not to move, but the seven men took their families and settled the town on 3 March 1644/5. There were cultural reasons why Massachusetts developed a lot of relatively small towns rather than increasing the size of the original ones. These involved the desire to limit land holdings and keep settlements compact. When the population got too large, lots laid out on the edges of town were deemed too far away. Also, older planters were unwilling to share commonage and other public property with newcomers. So new towns were established rather than enlarging the old ones. William Twining removed to what became Eastham in 1645. It was incorporated in 1646. The name was changed to Eastham in June 1651. The next year on June 3 William was admitted as a freeman. The new settlers were probably attracted by Eastham's several harbors and abundant shellfish. There were good stands of oak and pine, with salt marsh and sand being the remaining features of the terrain. [ 8]A deed was drawn up and signed with the mark of the local First Nation sachem (probably one named Quason) that he had received "all and every particular thing and things that I was to have for all and every part and parcel of lands". With the differences in understanding of "ownership" of land, it is doubtful that the two parties of the agreement fully understood one another

GEDCOM Note

Was in Eastham,MA in 1655 census. Other sources say he was born in 1625. About 1695 the family changed from the Congregational Church and became Quakers and moved to PA.