Samuel Scripture of Cambridge

Samuel had an African servant named Margaret who married on 28 December 1741 Priamus Lew, a servant to Capt. Jonathan Boyden. They lived north of the road to Townsend, Massachusetts. Priamus (or Primus) Lew and his descendants are well known [Mayo 1993].

• from http://rjohara.net/gen/scripture/

Samuel2 Scripture, was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on 4 Oct. 1675 and died 1755, either in Groton, Massachusetts or Nelson, New Hampshire.

He was the son of Samuel Scripture of Groton & his wife Elizabeth Knapp.

Samuel married first in Concord, Massachusetts on 8 Feb. 1699/1700 to Mary Pierce widow Green, who died on 25 Sept. 1723. He married second to Elizabeth Lund widow Spaulding, b. Dunstable 29 Sept. 1684, d. 15 April 1781.

Samuel’s first wife and three of their children all died in late September 1723. There was apparently a widespread smallpox epidemic in the American colonies beginning in 1723.

During Queen Anne’s War (1702–1713) Groton was threatened by French and Indian raids from the north, and in early February 1706/7 Samuel was one of a troop of soldiers sent to patrol the Monadnock region. On 16 February he testified before a court martial that was investigating the “mutinous disorderly manner” in which some of the soldiers on this expedition allegedly abandoned their camp and returned home.

In Dummer’s War (1723–1726) the New England frontier was again threatened, and the remoter towns were ordered to form scouting parties to range through the woods and watch for possible invaders. Samuel Scripture’s name appears on a list of seventeen men from Groton, Dunstable, and Lancaster, Massachusetts, dated 2 December 1723, performing this duty under the command of Lieut. Jabez Fairbanks of Lancaster. Samuel’s name appears again on a roll of soldiers belonging to Lieut. Fairbank’s company, dated 18 June 1724, where he is credited £15 10s. for service from 25 November 1723 to 13 June 1724. These troops were employed “to range above the Towns to see what Discovery they could make” [Green 1883: 125–129].