A Report Of The Record Commissioners Containing Charlestown Land Records 1638 1

Reprint of the original, first published in 1883.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1883.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1883.

The purpose of this research paper is to provide a comprehensive biography about the author’s 8th great-grandfather, Nicholas Davis, which includes “new research discoveries” about his life in America, and about his wife, Sarah (Ewer) Blossom Davis. Quaker Nicholas Davis, sometimes of Barnstable, Massachusetts and sometimes of Newport, Rhode Island is an interesting and notable American historical figure for several reasons: As the first Barnstable, Plymouth Colony resident to adopt the Quaker faith in 1659 CE, Nicholas “survived” severe persecutions legislated by both Plymouth Colony and Massachusetts Bay Colony governments. He was imprisoned twice with other Quakers who were later hanged to death in Boston because of their faith. Despite these hardships, and the tragic, sudden death of his 2-year-old-son, Nicholas was able to “thrive” in New England. According to Quakerism’s founder, George Fox, Davis had a “great family” comprised of his wife, Sarah, and six children. Nicholas Davis served as a “role model” for his neighbors, showing them how to treat the local “Wampanoag” Native Americans with utmost respect. In 1660 CE, the Wampanoag “Chief” John Yanno “gifted” Nicholas a valuable parcel of land that later became “Hyannis”, Massachusetts; and From 1643 CE until his death in 1672 CE, Nicholas was an international “merchant mariner” who traded goods with people, some of differing nationalities, throughout America and England. In an era filled with unscrupulous businessmen, Nicholas Davis maintained his good reputation by “dealing honestly” with all persons, and for donating some of his time and money “for the public interest”.

Charlestown is one of the oldest towns in Massachusetts and at one time contained in part or whole the towns of Woburn, Burlington, Stoneham, Malden, Somerville, Reading, Medford, Cambridge and West Cambridge. Under penalty of law, all land transactions conducted between citizens of Charlestown had to be officially registered in the "Towne Booke," later contained in the Charlestown Book of Possessions. Responding to public concern over the deterioration of these folios and the possible loss of this valuable historical resource, the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston began a project to transcribe and reorganize the Book of Possessions and other early Massachusetts records. This volume makes available the second revised edition of the report on public land records of Charlestown as published by the Record Commissioners in 1883. Some 300 entries describing land holdings, transactions and disputes appear as in the original folios, with a short introduction and preforatory note from the Commissioners detailing the organization and production of the report. All extraneous material not related to Charlestown lands has been excised and an extensive index of full names, estates, and pertinent subject matter has been appended. An excellent addition to any genealogical research collection.

England's seventeenth-century colonial empire in North America and the Caribbean was created by migration. The quickening pace of this essential migration is captured in the London port register of 1635, the largest extant port register for any single year in the colonial period and unique in its record of migration to America and to the European continent. Alison Games analyzes the 7,500 people who traveled from London in that year, recreating individual careers, exploring colonial societies at a time of emerging viability, and delineating a world sustained and defined by migration. The colonial travelers were bound for the major regions of English settlement -- New England, the Chesapeake, the West Indies, and Bermuda -- and included ministers, governors, soldiers, planters, merchants, and members of some major colonial dynasties -- Winthrops, Saltonstalls, and Eliots. Many of these passengers were indentured servants. Games shows that however much they tried, the travelers from London were unable to recreate England in their overseas outposts. They dwelled in chaotic, precarious, and hybrid societies where New World exigencies overpowered the force of custom. Patterns of repeat and return migration cemented these inchoate colonial outposts into a larger Atlantic community. Together, the migrants' stories offer a new social history of the seventeenth century. For the origins and integration of the English Atlantic world, Games illustrates the primary importance of the first half of the seventeenth century.