Robert Jones

“Robert was a child when he accompanied his family to Hingham. Later he spent a few years at Rehoboth, returning to Hingham until his marriage, when he apparently moved to Hull. On 28 October 1651, Anne Bibble, then of age and single, signed a petition requesting that the Reverend Marmaduke Matthews remain as minister at Malden; she and Robert probably married soon after that date. Records show that they cared for Anne’s parents until the death of her father at Hull on 21 July 1653 when they and their son John inherited from him. After the birth of their second child, Robert moved his family back to Rehoboth, where he bought land from Robert Titus 23 March 1653/4 and was settled by September of that year. On 24 January 1666 they were at Swansea, Massachusetts, formerly part of Rehoboth; on that date ‘Robert Jones propounded and in the declaration of his faith & experiences gave full satisfaction and is to be admitted to comunion with us the next sabbath...’ (Swansea Church Records, Register, 139[1985]:25).

   “King Philip’s War brought great tragedy to this family. The Hingham home of Robert’s brother Joseph was burned by Indians. On 24 June 1675 there was a skirmish at Swansea, during which Robert Jones, his son John, and his son-in-law Joseph Lewis were all killed and scalped by Indians (TAG, 31:97). In 1679 Robert was granted posthumous membership in the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company (Oliver Ayer Roberts, Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts, 1 [1895], 234,256).”

Ethel Farrington Smith, “Seventeenth Century Hull, Massachusetts, and Her People,” New Eng. Hist. Gen. Reg. 142 (1988): 107-125, 269-280, 350-360; 143 (1989): 40-51, 121-140, 247-255, 332-349.