Capt. and Dea. Simon STONE

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Name:
Born in Groton, Middlesex County, Mass., 1 Aug. 1686, was given that portion of his father's lands which lay in the part of Groton which in 1732 was set off as the new town of Harvard in Worcester Co., Mass. Like his father, grandfather and great-grandfather, he became a prosperous, successful yeoman and influential member of the community, succeeded them in the office of deacon in the church, was commissioned captain of the Harvard military company and for several years was a selectman of that town. On 3 mar 1723/4, Simon Stone and his wife Sarah, were admitted to the Groton Church, and on 14 Sept. 1733, were dismissed to the new church in Harvard, Mass.

On 29 June 1732, the Massachusetts General Court passed the act incorporating the town of Harvard, Mass., and ordered that "Simon Stone, one of the Principal Inhabitants of the Town of Harvard, be and hereby is fully impowered to Assimble and Convene the Inhabitants of said Town to Chuse Town Officers to Stand untill their Anniversary Meeting in march next." On 3 July 1732 Simon Stone issued his warrant for the first town meeting of Harvard at which he was chosen moderator and first selectman; he held the latter office also in 1735, 1735, 1738-1740 and 1746. Capt. and Dea. Simon Stone died in Harvard, 22 Oct. 1746, aged sixty years.

Capt. Simon Stone married about 1712, Sarah ?, born about 1689, whose parentage or family name are known; she died in Harvard, Mass., 30 May 1767, aged seventy-eight years, according to her gravestone there.

Simon married Sarah ? about 1712. Sarah was born about 1689; died on 30 May 1767 in Harvard, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Simon STONE was born on 10 Sep 1714 in Groton, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts.
2. Ephraim STONE was born on 2 Jan 1715/6 in Groton, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts; died on 16 Jun 1734 in Harvard, Massachusetts.
3. Ensign Oliver STONE was born on 20 Jan 1719/20 in Groton, Massachusetts; died on 21 Jan 1761.
4. Sarah STONE was born on 27 Jan 1721/2 in Groton, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts; died on 1 Jul 1809.

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Dea. Simon Stone was born on the Stone homestead at Mount Auburn in Watertown, Mass., 8 Sep. 1656 and lived in that town until after he became of age. When he was nineteen years old, the sanguinary contest with the New England Indians, known as King Philip's War, broke out, in which Simon stone rendered active service. During the autumn of 1675 and the winter of 1675/6, he was in the garrison houses at Mendon and Groton, Mass., on 20 Dec. 1675, being credited with 10s. for service in the former and on 25 Jan. 1675/6, being credited with L3-18-0 for service in the latter. He also served in the spring and summer of 1676 in Capt. Joseph Scyll's company on an expedition against the Indians in central and western Massachusetts; credits for same L3-11-0. He was one of the claimants for rights in the Narragansett Townships granted by the Province of Massachusetts in 1735 to the soldiers (or their heirs) in King Philip's War; and on 24 June 1735 drew Lot 15 in Narragansett Township No. 6, which became Templeton, Massachusetts (Bodge's "Soldiers in King Philip's War," pp. 363, 360, 273 and 436).

A few years after King Philip's War, Simon Stone, settled in Groton, Mass., on land given to him by his father, who was one of the early proprietors of that town. Here he became a prosperous farmer, held various town offices, was representative to the Massachusetts General Court in 1706, and like his father and grandfather, was also a deacon in the church, being elected such at Groton, 22 Apr. 1715, an office indicating that he was held in esteem by the community. During his lifetime he settled his estate upon his children, so at his death he left no will and no administration was taken out on his estate. Surviving to the ripe old age of eighty-five years he died in Groton, 19 Dec. 1741. His gravestone in the old Groton Cemetery bears the following inscription:

HERE LIES BURIED
YE BODY OF DEAC
SIMON STONE
WHO DEPARTED
THIS LIFE
DECEMB YE 19TH
A.D. 1741
AGE 85 YEARS
3 M.& 11D.

Simon married Sarah FARNSWORTH about 1685. Sarah was born about 1663 in Groton, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts; died on 16 Sep 1731 in Groton, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Daughter of Matthias Farnsworth and Mary Farr

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Between 1678 and 1679, Representative

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Dea. Simon Stone, born in Boxted, co. Essex, England, about 1630, was brought to New England by his parents in 1635. He was brought up as a farmer on the paternal homestead at Mount Auburn in Watertown, Mass., to which he succeeded on his father's death in 1665. In 1662 he became a proprietor of lands in Groton, Mass., totaling eighty-eight acres which were recorded 17 Feb. 1670/1; these lands he eventually settled on his two eldest sons, Simon and JohnStone who located there. But Dea. Simon Stone always resided on the homestead in Watertown and became more prominent in local public affairs than his father had been. From 1672 to 1679 (inclusive) and 1681 to 1686 (inclusive) he was elected a selectman; in 1672, 1673, 1676, 1677, 1679, 1681, 1682, 1684, 1687 and 1690 he was chosen town clerk, and from 1678 to 1684 (inclusive) and in 1686, 1689 and 1690 he was deputy for Watertown to the Massachusetts General Court. In his later yeas he was a deacon of the Watertown Church.

On 3 Feb. 1668/9, Simon Stone, farmer, and wife Mary, convey to Simon Coolidge a farm in Watertown (now Weston), late of the widow and heirs of Henry Greene, clerk, deceased containing fifty-five acres, bounded east by Benjamin Wellington, south by Nathaniel Coolidge, west by Robert Jennison, and north by Samuel Hyde, Sen. (Middlesex County Deeds, vol. 3, fl. 336).

During his lifetime, Dea. Simon Stone divided all his property, both real and personal, among his large family of children, giving the homestead at Mount Auburn to his youngest child Ens. Jonathan Stone and a hundred acre farm adjoining on the west to another son David Stone; so at his death he left no will and no administration was taken out on his estate. He died in Watertown, 27 Feb. 177/8 and was buried in the Old Watertown Cemetery where his gravestone remains with the following inscription:

HERE LYES YE
BODY OF SIMON
STONE, DIED FEBRY
YE 27TH 1708
AETALIS SUAE 77
THE MEMORY OF
THE JUST IS BLESSED

Dea. Simon Stone married about 1655 Mary Whipple, born in Bocking, co. Essex, England, about 1634, daughter of Elder John and Susanna Whipple, and when a child brought to New England by her parents.

Simon married Mary WHIPPLE. Mary was born about 1634 in Bocking, co. Essex, England; died on 02 Jun 1720 in Watertown, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Daughter of Elder John and Susanna Whipple

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: 1634, Came over on the Increase
• Fact: 25 May 1636, Took the freeman's oath

Notes:

Name:
Dea. Simon Stone was born in the parish of Great Bromley, co. Essex, England, and baptized there 9 Feb 1585/6, the eighth of the eleven children of David Stone and the eldest by the latter's second wife Ursula. For at least three centuries his ancestors bearing the family name tone had resided in and around Great Bromley, tilling as yeomen lands they leased from the lords of various manors.

Simon Stone seems to have been brought up in the ancestral occupation of farming and to have resided in his native parish of Great Bromley until about 1622 when he removed to Boxted, co. Essex, a parish about six miles north-west of Great Bromley and on the south side of the River Stour which separates it from Nayland, co. Suffolk; in this latter parish Dea. Gregory Stone, the youngest bother of Dea. Simon Stone, had located about five years earlier. The parish registers of Boxted sho no mention of Simon Stone and his family, as the registers from 1617 to 1662 are lost; but two mentions of him there have been discovered, first as a witness to the will of Barnaby Rogers of Boxted, dated 22 Apr. 1627, and secondly as assessed on a subsidy roll of 4 Charles I (1628), for property in Boxted. (Wills in Archdeaconry of Colchester, 1627; also Subsidy Roll for Essex, 4 Charles I)

Apparently Simon Stone continued in Boxted until the spring of 1635 when he joined in a large Puritan emigration that year from Suffolk and Essex to New England.

This exodus had become so extensive that early in this year an order was passed requiring registration of emigrants; and among these lists of passengers preserved a the Public record Office in London, naming many of the founders of New England, is that of the ship 'Increase' of London, Capt. Robert Lea, commander, in April 1635. This list names one hundred and seventeen passengers embarking at London for New England, among them: Symon Stone, husbandman, aged 50, Joan Stone his wife aged 38, and their children Frances Stone aged 16, Ann Stone aged 11, Symon Stone aged 4, Marie Stone aged 3, and johnStone aged 5 weeks, who were registered on 15 Apr. 1635. (Exchequer Documents, King's Remembrancer, Licenses to Pass Beyond Seas, No. 20, fol. 29, Public Record Office, London; printed in Hotten's "original Lists" of Emigrants to America 1600-1700, p. 66.) At that period the passenger ships to New England were on an average of about two hundred tons and the voyage from London to Boston required about eleven weeks; so Simon Stone and his family arrived at Boston early in July 1635, and soon located in Watertown, Mass., a town originally settled by families nearly all of whom came from Suffolk and Essex Counties, England. Watertown originally included also the present towns of Weston, Waltham, and Belmont, of which the first named was set off in 1713, the second in 1738, and the last in 1859. Also in 1754 that part of Watertown east of SimonStone's farm was set off to Cambridge.

The earliest mention of Simon Stone in Watertown is the recording on 15 Aug. 1635 of the birth of his son John Stone, who however, was then about five months old as he is recorded on the shipping list of 15 Apr. 1635, above given, as then five weeks of age...

Soon after Simon Stone settled in Watertown he must have joined the church there, as on 25 May 1636 he was admitted a freeman (or citizen) of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; at that period church membership was requisite for admission as a freeman, and only freemen could vote and hold public office. That he was held in esteem by the community is apparent from the fact that he was soon called to hold office, both civil and ecclesiastical. The Watertown Records show that he was chosen a selectman in 1636, 1640, 1641, 1650, and 1655, and previous to 1640 he was elected a deacon in the Watertown Church, which office he held until his death. He also served on numerous committees for town affairs.

Dea. Simon Stone died in Watertown, 22 Sept. 1665, in his eightieth year, and was buried in the Old Watertown Cemetery located at the corner of the present Mount Auburn and Arlington Streets, about three-quarters of a mile north-west of his homestead. In one section of this cemetery are the gravestones of over a score of the descendants of Dea. Simon Stone.

A fortnight before his decease, Dea. Simon Stone made his will....

Dea. Simon Stone married first, at Great Bromley, co. Essex, England, 5 Aug. 1616, JOANE CLARK, born about 1596, daughter of William Clark; she accompanied her husband and children to New England in 1635 and died before 1654, having had at least seven children.

He married secondly, in New England, about 1655, an acquaintance of old England, MRS. SARAH (BAKER) LUMPKIN, widow of Richard Lumpkin of Ipswich, Mass. He was baptized at Boxted, co. Essex, England, 16 Dec. 1582, son of Richard Lumpkin, and married there, 20 Oct. 1614, Sarah Baker; they emigrated to New England about 167 and settled in Ipswich, Mass., where he died without issue in 1642, his inventory of L296-19-6 being taken 23 Nov. 1642. (Ipswich Deeds, vol. 1, fol. 7) A Sarah Baker, a relative (probably aunt) of Mrs. Lumpkin also settled with them in Ipswich, Mass., as on 30 Sept. 1651, Sarah Lumpkin was made administratrix of the estate of her "kinswoman" Sarah Baker of Ipswich, deceased. (Ipswich Court records, vol. 1, p. 26.) Mrs. Lumpkin also had a sister Abigail Baker, who married in England about 1613, William Warner of Boxted, England, and they emigrated to New England in 1635 with their children Abigail (wife of Thomas Wells), John and Daniel Warner, and also settled in Ipswich, Mass.

By his second wife, Sarah (Baker) (Lumpkin) Stone, Dea. Simon Stone had no children, and she died in July 1663. At the time of this marriage a contract was made by which it was agreed she should have the disposal of part of her estate which she effected by the following will:

I, Sarah Stone, wife of Simon Stone of Watertown in New England, and the relict of Richard Lumpkin, deceased, sometime of Boxstead in the County of Essex, England, and last of Ipswich in New England, make this last will, etc. The marriage covenant mad with my husband Simon Stone to be made good to him and I give to him L30 above what I am engaged, to be abated of what he owes me. Whereas my late husband Richard Lumkin, deceased, did will to his friends L160, my will is that the same be honestly paid. to my kinsman (nephew) John Warner L60 in goods, and the residue of my estate to be equally divided among my kinsmen (nephews) John Warner and Daniel Warner and Thomas Wells. Rev. William Hubbard, minister at Ipswich, and Thomas Bishop to be overseers, and my kinsmen John Warner, Daniel Warner and Thomas Wells to be executors, Dated 25 Mar. 1663. Witnesses: Samuel Hosier, Nathaniel Green. Proved 6 Oct. 1663. (Middlesex County Probate Records, vol. 2, p. 228.)

Simon married Joanne CLARK on 5 Aug 1616 in Great Bromley, co. Essex, England. Joanne was born about 1596 in England; died before 1654 in Watertown, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]