[WIP 6/16/2011 Hatte Blejer]

Thomas Goldthwaite of Roxbury, passenger on the Arbella

THE GOLDTHWAITE FAMILY OF BOSTON.

Thomas Goldthwaite, ancestor of all of this name in America, was born in England about 1610. The original home is supposed to be what is now Gowthwaite manor, three miles from Pateley Bridge, Yorkshire, West Riding.

He probably came with Governor Winthrop's fleet to America. His first appearance in the Boston records appeared June 14, 1631. Thomas Goldthwaite settled in Roxbury where his name appears as "Thomas Gouldthwaight'l in Rev. John EIiot's list of his church members, Eliot having begun his pastorate there in 1632. Thomas was made a freeman in Massachusetts, May 14, 1634. In 1636 he appears in Salem where, as an inhabitant he was granted ten acres of land. His first house lot has been located by some of the best antiquarian authority, as on the southwest corner of Essex and Flint Streets in Salem. In 1636 he married his first wife. Her death occurred some time before 1671 and he then married Rachel Leach, of Salem. He was called "Constable Gouldthwaight" at a meeting of the selectmen, December 14, 1659. Thomas died in March, 1683, at about the age of seventy-three, his wife Rachel surviving him. He left three children, Samuel, Mehitable, and Elizabeth.

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Samuel Goldthwaite, (of the second generation) like his father, was a cooper, and lived in Salem. For many years during his lifetime and that of his immediate descendants, four family homesteads lay side by side on the original Goldthwaite farm, opposite the site where the Peabody church afterwards was built. He died about the year 1718, leaving ten children and perhaps more.

Captain John Goldthwaite (of the third generation), son of the former, was born in Salem in 1677. By trade he was a mason and early settled in Boston where he married, March 13, 1701, Sarah Hopkins. They were married by the Rev. Cotton Mather of whose church John Goldthwaite was a member. After the death of Cotton Mather he was one of three who took inventory July 22, 1728. His home was in Boston until 1725, and the birthplace of all his children was on the north side of Charter Street, near Copp's Hill burying-ground, on the property given to his wife and her sisters by their uncle, Major Thomas Henchman. He sold this place May 17, 1725, and removed to another estate he had purchased on the southeast side of Mill pond. Here he passed the remainder of his life. His son Ezekiel inherited the estate after his father's death, ami sold it to Thomas Sherburn, his brother-in-law.

Sarah Goldthwaite died Oct. 31, 1715, at the age of thirty-five and is buried in Copp's Hill. John Goldthwaite married Mrs. Jane Halsey of Boston as his second wife. From 1708 to 1758 his name is often mentioned in Boston records. He is one of seventeen named as the founders of the New North church in 1714. His name appears in records of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery.Company, and in the town records with the title of captain, in 1741. In his old age he had a barbecue for descendants on North Square. It was held under a tent because they were too numerous to assemble in a house. He died June 25, 1766, and is probably buried in the tomb of his son Ezekiel on Copp's Hill. He had nine children by his first wife and five by his second.

Captain Joseph Goldthwaite (fourth generation) fourth child of John, was born November 11, 1706, in Boston. He married February 8, 1727, Martha Lewis, who was born in Boston and baptized in ihe second church, Feb. 29, 1707, the daughter of Martha (Burrell) and Philip Lewis. Joseph joined the Artillery Company in 1730 and in 1738 was First Sergeant. In 1745 he joined the Colonial army for the siege of Louisburg and according to records in the British war office, being commissioned adjutant in the first Massachusetts regiment, Honorable William Pepperell, colonel, March 12, i744-(5) and captain (brevet) March 20, i744-(5). After his return from the war he became a private citizen, and is seldom spoken of in records by his military title, being rather called esquire, or gentleman. In 1728 he appears as a goldsmith, and later as a merchant, licensed as a retailer at his store on Marlboro Street (part of Washington) in 1737 and again in 1742. He held several appointments and later became constable. His home in 1744 was on Fish, afterwards North Street. In 1773 he and his family retired to a farm purchased by him in western Massachusetts, July 10, 1773, ten acres and mansion house. Here Joseph Goldthwaite died March 1, 1780, aged seventy-two. His widow died October 26, 1783, aged seventy-five, and a double stone marks their graves in Weston. He had ten children.

Ezekiel Goldthwaite (fourth generation) son of John, born at Boston, July 9, 1710. Married Nov. 2, 1732, Elizabeth Lewis of Boston. For the greater part of his life he was Registrar of Deeds for the County of Suffolk. His first signature as registrar was Nov. 6, 1740. He was an Addressser of Hutchinson in 1774, and a protester against the Revolutionist the same year, although like many other loyalists he was one of the 58 Boston memorilists in 1760 who arrayed themselves against the Crown officials, and having sowed the seeds of sedition, afterwards became alarmed at its results, mob rule.

His last signature as registrar is said to have been written Jan. 17, 1776, two months before the evacuation of Boston. He died seven years later, Dec. 4th, 1782, in his 73rd year. His widow died Feb. 6. 1794. aged 80.

Colonel Thomas Goldthwaite (fourth generation) son of John, born in Boston Jan. 15, 1717, married August 26, 1742, Esther Sargent. He became an influential citizen of Chelsea, acting as selectman, moderator of town meetings, and from May, 1757, till his removal from the town, seven years in succession, was its deputy to the House of Representatives, where he was active in introducing important legislation.

He was given many important positions under the Colonial government. In 1763 he was appointe4 to the command of Fort Pownal, removing his family there from Chelsea. This was an important frontier post, commanding the entrance to the Penobscot River, and offered the advantage, also of a rich trade with Indians, then numerous in those parts. Not long after succeeding to this command in company with Francis Bernard, son of the Governor he purchased a large tract of land, 2,700 acres in the neighborhood of the fort, on condition of tiieir settling thereon thirty families, of building an Episcopal church, and employing a minister. The enterprise was interrupted by the Revolution, in which each side endeavored to get control of all the arms and ammunition possible, and to take into its possession, or render defenceless, such posts as could be held by the enemy. With such an object in view, in April, 1775, Capt. Mowatt, who afterwards burned Falmouth, now Portland, anchored before Fort Pownal, and a letter containing Governor Gage's orders having been delivered to Col. Goldthwaite he carried away the cannon belonging to the fort. The attitude taken by its commander in allowing the fort to be thus disarmed, was never forgiven by the Revolutionists, and he ever after was regarded as a Loyalist. His explanation of his conduct on that occasion is as follows:

"On the 27th of last month about 20 armed men arrived here from St. George's who came in the name, and as a committee from the people of St. George's, and others, who they say had assembled there to the amount of 250; and this party in their name demanded of me the reason of my delivering the cannon belonging to this fort to the King's forces. I went into the fort and got the Governor's letter to me, and it was read to them. I then informed them that this was the King's fort, and built at his expense, that the Governor was commander-in-chief of it; that I could not refuse to obey his orders."

Little is known of Col. Goldthwaite between the surrender of Fort Pownal in the spring of 1775 and his arrival in England early in 1780. Gov. Hutchinson mentions in his diary that, "T. Goldthwaite arrived at Portsmouth Feb. 15, 1780." In an entry of the previous Dec. 4, the Governor mentions a call from "young Goldthwaite, son of J. Goldthwaite now at New York." It must have been quite soon after his arrival that Colonel Goldthwaite settled at Walthamstow, Essex, a few miles north of London. Samuel Curwen in his-journal speaks of dining with him there July 29, 1782. His son Thomas married Mrs. Primatt, a lady of fortune, in the summer of 1780, and also lived in the town. The houses of both father and son are still there and easily identified, and are in excelent preservation. The Colonel's residence is of brick or stone covered with stucco, the main portion three stories high, and an entrance with Ionic pillars. The grounds are ample and handsomely laid out with well kept walks and planted with trees and shrubbery.

After a life of nearly twenty years spent in retirement in England, Col. Goldthwaite died Aug. 31, 1799, in his 82 year. Mrs. Catharine, his wife, died Dec. 16, 1796, aged 81. They lie buried in Walthamstow church vard.

Major Joseph Goldthwaite, (fifth generation), the eldest of Joseph's children, was born in Boston, October 5, 1730. He entered the Boston Latin school in 1738, and probably commenced his military career, which he afterwards followed near the commencement of the French and Indian war, when about twenty-five years old. He married October 5, 1730, Hannah Bridgham, said to have been of Barre, Massachusetts.

In 1759 he appears as Major in the regiment from Boston under the command of Col. John Phillips, January 1, 1760 to January 10, 1761, on the roll of field and staff officers in Colonel Baglcy's regiment in service at Louisburg, in which he acted also as paymaster. He served during the campaign of 1762 as Lieut. Colonel of the regiment commanded by Colonel Richard Saltonstall, roll dated Boston, Feb. 19, 1763, in which he is called "of Roxbury." He was addressed at that time as colonel.

October 5, 1768, Joseph Goldthwaite was appointed as Commissary to the British troops who had been quartered in Boston on account of the resistance the inhabitants had shown to the custom officials. In Massachusetts Historical Society's collections, Vol. X, p. 121, is printed a list of the different nations of Indians that met Sir William Johnson at Niagara, July, 1764, to make peace in behalf of their tribes which was "inclosed in a letter from Colonel Joseph Goldthwaite of Boston, to Dr. Stiles, A. D. 1766."*

Among the Goldthwaites who remained loyal to the crown, Major Joseph was one of the strongest. He was an Addresser of Hutchinson in 1775, and during the siege he passed the winter in Boston. At the evacuation he accompanied the British army to Halifax, and thence to Quebec. Nine days before his departure from Boston he wrote a letter to his uncle Ezekiel Goldthwaite, Esq., of Boston, acquainting him with his property and the household goods he had left behind. "In short, I leave behind me at least three thousand pounds sterling. You give the enclosed to my wife, if you can meet her. When I shall see her God only knows. Don't let her want for anything."**

Some experiences of Major Joseph's wife, Mrs. Hannah, while her husband was shut up in Boston with the British army, appear in the Journal of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.***

August 4, 1775, Mrs. Goldthwaite with her sister-in-law and a Mrs. Chamberlain, left Boston with a horse and chaise and crossed the Winnisimmet Ferry. She was arrested and taken under guard to the general court at Watertown. It appeared on her examination that her health was impaired, and an order was passed to allow her to visit Stafford for the benefit of the waters there, but under the care of the Selectmen, and afterwards to retire to the house of her brother Joseph Bridgham at Rehoboth, and to be under the committee of correspondence. It was Colonel Loammi Baldwin who had them arrested and taken to Watertown and

•Dr. Ezra Stiles, afterwards President of Tale College, and at this time a settled minister at Newport.

••Goldthwaite Genealogy complied and published by Charlotte Goldthwaite.

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Birth: 1610, England Death: Mar. 1, 1683 Salem Essex County Massachusetts, USA

New England, The Great Migration and The Great Migration Begins, 1620-1635 about Thomas Goldthwaite Name: Thomas Goldthwaite Source Information: Ancestry.com. New England, The Great Migration and The Great Migration Begins, 1620-1635 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. Original data: Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, Volumes 1-3; The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volumes 1-6. Boston: New England Historical and Genealogical Society, 1996-2011.

Title: Descendants of Thomas Goldthwaite, and early settler of Salem, Massachusetts : with some account of the Goldthwaite family in England Authors: Goldthwaite, Charlotte, b. 1832 (Main Author) Published: [Hartford, Conn.]: Hartford Press, Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co., 1899. 411 p., [9] leaves of plates. Thomas Goldthwaite (ca. 1610-1683) is believed to have arrived in New England from England in 1630. He was living at Roxbury in 1632 and at Salem in 1636. He and his wife, Elizabeth, had three children, 1637-1642. He died at Salem.

Proof of death and location have not been found.

Family links:

Spouse:

 Elizabeth Goldthwaite

Children:

 Samuel Goldthwaite (1637 - 1718)*

• Calculated relationship

Burial: Burying Point Cemetery Salem Essex County Massachusetts, USA

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Created by: Teeter Grosvenor Record added: Nov 25, 2013 Find A Grave Memorial# 120810701 http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=120810701

Married:

(1) By 1637 ____ _____; she died after 1642.(No contemporary record has been found which states the given name of this wife.)

(2) After 1661 and before 1678 Rachel (Leach) Sibley (deposed as "Rachel Goldthwait" 30 January 1677/8), widow of John Sibley of Manchester (who died in 1661) and daughter of LAWRENCE LEACH {1629, Salem}; living 5 March 1682/3 when her second husband made his will.

Source: Anderson's Winthrop Fleet.

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: May 3 2016, 19:55:07 UTC
• page 410 of Genealogical and Personal Memoirs: Relating to the Families of Boston and ...By William Richard Cutter
• Reference: FamilySearch Family Tree - SmartCopy: May 5 2016, 7:26:16 UTC

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GEDCOM Note

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