Samuel Gaskill, Sr.

Research Note

Note that Find A Grave Memorial# 37524466 for "Samuel Gaskill, Sr.," does not have a photo of a gravestone and states that the whereabouts of the grave is unknown, although it also states that he died on 6 Oct 1720 at Shelter Island, Suffolk, New York (no source given).

Since Provided "Gasskell" evidently died in Salem on 4 Feb 1727/8 ("4: 12 m: 1727-8"), based on the Collins Diary in the possession of the Essex Institute, and on the Vital Records of Salem[4][5] it may be that Samuel died there, as well. If he had been a mariner, he might have died on a voyage; the Salem and Boston records, however, apparently indicate that he was a storekeeper and constable.[6] If, as some reports suggest (see above), he died at Shelter Island, New York -- off Long Island -- he may have had reason to visit there because it was both a gathering-place for Quakers, and the site of the deaths of his wife's parents -- Quakers Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick -- within a three-day span in the spring of 1660.

It is certain that the Samuel of this profile died after 18 November, 1718 -- when his name (as "Samuel Gascoyne"; then aged about 79) appears among those of the trustees of the old Salem Friends' meetinghouse[7] -- and in fact, as noted above, there is proof he was alive as late as 23 September 1720; we also know he died prior to the first of September, 1725, when his son Samuel drew up a will in which he refers to himself as "Samuell Gaskill Sr. of Salem".[8]

Notes for Samuel GASKILL:

Samuel was baptised at First Church, Salem, 6m 7d (07 Aug) 1639.

Source: Perley, Sidney, A History of Salem, MA, Volume 1, p 391

Samuel had shared with Provided, and at least four other members of the Southwick family, the sadistic brutality of the Puritan lash. It apparently solidified their determination to dissent from First Church bigotry, and follow Quaker beliefs.

Samuel was a yeoman farmer. In 1666 they were given the house and a one and a half acre plot by Edward which he aquired from Ralph Tompkins about 1658. This property was occupied by Samuel and Provided for most of their lives. It was then home to their son, Samuel Jr., and family. Samuel Jr. willed the place to his sons, Samuel and Jonathan. The brothers sold it when they moved to Mendon, MA in the 1730's ending nearly 100 years of Gaskill presence in the Town of Salem.

With the abeyance of Quaker persecution, Samuel became active in civic affairs. An indication of the offical change in attitude towards Quakers in Salem was a vote in 1667 by a town meeting to exempt them from an assessment to raise 200 pounds for the minister of First Church of Salem, from which they had withdrawn. Samuel and other Quakers began receiving appointments as highway and fence surveyors in the Northfield and Glasshouse field areas. He bought and sold land and joined other owners to protect their right to ownership of common land.

Samuel was a pillar in the Quaker organization. In 1690 Samuel with Daniel and Josiah Southwick were trustees for the Salem Monthly Meeting in conveyance of the first Quaker Meeting House on the six acre tract in Salem on Essex Street. In 1718, at age 79, he was one of the surviving grantees who deeded the property back to the builder, Thomas Maule, when they moved into a new Meeting House. Those joining in this transaction were: Daniel Southwick, Samuel Gascoyne, Caleb Buffum and Samuel Collins. Samuel served as constable in Salem. There is no record of the date of Samuel's death.

Samuel Jr. drafted a will on 01 Sep 1725 assuring care to his " aged mother, Provided Gaskill". No mention was made of Samuel Sr. which suggests he passed away between 1718 and 1725 at the age of about 80. Provided would have been about 87 when she died in 1727.

Source: "The Ancestors of Charles Clement Heacock", by Roger Lee Heacock, 1950, p 109

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References

1. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=37524466&ref=...
2. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Gaskill-48
3. Nora E. Snow (1939). The Snow-Estes ancestry / Nora E. Snow, author and publisher ; compiled by Myrtle M. Jillson. Reference pages 67-71. < Archive.Org >