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    Page 4 of 10

RICHARDSON HISTORY

Copyright © 2006 Bruce Richardson

 

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

1. Generation 4  (Continued)

     Samuel Richardson, b. 22 Dec 1603 Westmill, England 

 

2. Endnotes   

  

Children of Samuel & Joanna:

 

Samuel Richardson b. 3 Jul 1633 England, d. young in England

Elizabeth Richardson b. 22 May 1635 Woburn, MA, d. 16 Aug 1685

Mary Richardson b. 25 Feb 1637 Charlestown , MA, d. 13 Sep 1677

   Charlestown, MA age 40

      m. Thomas Mousall

John Richardson Lieut. b. 12 Dec 1639 Charlestown, MA, d. 01 Jan 1697

   Woburn, MA age 56, buried Woburn First Burial Ground, Gravestone: "Here

   lyes ye body of Lieutenant John Richardson, aged 58 years, died the 1 of January 1696-7"

 

                           

 

   John was a yeoman; constable, 1675 ; a soldier in Philip's War, 1675-6; freeman, 1678; selectman 1690, 1692

      m. 22 Oct 1658 Elizabeth Bacon b. 04 Jan 1641

      m. 28 Oct 1673 Mary Pierson b. 10 Apr 1652

      m. 25 Jun 1689 Margaret Willing d. 28 Oct 1726 Woburn, MA

Hannah Richardson b. 08 Mar 1642 Woburn, MA, d. 08 Apr 1642 Woburn,

   MA, age 1 (Hannah was the first death in the town of Woburn)

Joseph Richardson b. 27 Jul 1643 Woburn, MA, d. 05 Mar 1718 age 74

   m. 05 Nov 1666 Hannah Green b. ~1647, d. 20 May 1721 age 74

Joseph Richardson dwelt in Woburn; was admitted freeman of the colony, May 15, 1672, and was therefore a member of the church. He was one of Major Samuel Appleton's soldiers, and was engaged in the fierce assault on the Narraganset Fort, Dec. 19, 1675 [King Philip's War]. In that severe encounter six brave captains fell, and eighty privates were killed. He was a selectman of Woburn, 1693, 1694, and 1702.

He died in Woburn, March 5, 1718. His will is dated June 24, 1717; proved April 22, 1718; recorded Midd. Prob. Rec., xv. 143. He provides very carefully and liberally for his "well beloved wife Hannah," and, among other things, that his son "Joseph shall find her a horse, and keep the same for her use, and a man or himself to ride before her on Sabbath days, or where she shall have occasion to go, all during her natural life, if she remains my widow.[25]

Samuel Richardson b. 22 May 1646 Woburn, MA, d. 29 Apr 1712 Woburn,

   MA age 65, buried Woburn First Burial Ground, Gravestone: "Here Lyes ye

   body of M'r. Samuel Richardson Aged 66 Years.  Died April ye 29th 1712."

 

                            

 

      m1. 05 Nov 1670 Martha d. 20 Dec 1673 died giving birth

      m2. 30 Sep 1674 Hannah Kingsley d. 10 Apr 1676 Hannah and two children,

              including the infant Hannah, were slain by Indians

      m3. 07 Nov 1676 Phebe Baldwin b. 07 Sep 1654, d. 20 Oct 1679 age 25

      m4. 08 Sept 1680 Sarah Hayward b. 1655, d. 14 Oct 1717 age 62

Samuel Richardson lived upon what has recently been called the Miller farm, on Richardson's Row, less than a mile north of the present village of Winchester. He was a soldier in "Philip's war," 1675. In the afternoon of April 10, 1676, he was employed in carting manure into his field, accompanied. by his son Samuel, a boy between five and six years old. Looking toward his house, he was surprised at seeing feathers flying about it and other tokens of mischief within. He also heard the screams of his wife. Apprehending that Indians might be there, he hastened home with his gun, and there found two of his family murdered, viz., his wife Hannah, who had lately been confined, and his son Thomas, twin brother to him who had been with him in the field.

 

On further search, it was found that the infant, only a week old, had been slain by the same ruthless hands. The nurse, it appeared, had snatched it up in her arms upon the alarm of danger, and was making her escape to a garrison house in the vicinity; but so closely was she pursued by the savages, that, finding she could not save herself and the babe too, she let the babe drop, and the Indians dispatched it at once. Mr. Richardson now rallied some of his neighbors, who went with him in pursuit of the enemy. Following them some time, they espied three Indians sitting on a rock, fired at them, killed one, and drove the others away.[26]

 

 

1675-1676 - King Philip's War erupts in New England between colonists and Native Americans as a result of tensions over colonist's expansionist activities. The bloody war rages up and down the Connecticut River valley in Massachusetts and in the Plymouth and Rhode Island colonies, eventually resulting in 600 English colonials being killed and 3,000 Native Americans, including women and children on both sides. King Philip (the colonist's nickname for Metacomet, chief of the Wampanoags) is hunted down and killed on August 12, 1676, in a swamp in Rhode Island, ending the war in southern New England and ending the independent power of Native Americans there. In New Hampshire and Maine, the Saco Indians continue to raid settlements for another year and a half.

 An engraving of King Philip by Paul Revere, who in addition to a Revolutionary War Hero, was a master silversmith and engraver.

 

                           King Philip                                                     

 

 

 

                  Paul Revere

 

                         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vinton's The Richardson Memorial gives an ominous account of the war:

During this war, [King Philip's War] which lasted from June, 1675, to August, 1676, the whole country was in continual fear and alarm. No man was safe in his own dwelling. Asleep or awake, at home or abroad, they were in constant jeopardy. The movements of the Indians were secret and unobserved; they lurked about in small parties, often of only two or three, as in the instance just referred to, and came upon the people unawares. They concealed themselves behind fences, crept into barns and other outhouses; they lay in wait in the night before a man's door, ready to shoot him as soon as he appeared in the morning. No age or sex was spared. Twelve or thirteen towns in Massachusetts, Plymouth Colony, and Rhode Island were utterly destroyed, and the inhabitants slaughtered or driven away. Other towns were greatly damaged. About six hundred dwelling houses were consumed by fire. About six hundred of the inhabitants, in great part the flower and strength of the land, either fell in battle or were ruthlessly murdered. Such a dark day, New England never saw before or since.[27]

Children of Samuel & Joanna continued:

 

{Stephen Richardson} b. 15 Aug 1649 Woburn, MA, d. 22 Mar 1718

   Woburn, MA age 68

      m. 02 Jan 1675 Abigail Wyman b. ~1659 Woburn, MA, d. 17 Sep 1720

         Woburn, MA age 61.

Thomas Richardson b. 31 Dec 1651 Woburn, MA, d. 27 Sep 1657 Woburn,

MA age 5

 

 

1660 - The restoration of Charles II to the throne of England. Puritans lost the privilege of freedom of worship, and it was declared illegal to conduct divine service except in accordance with the forms of the Church of England. John Bunyan was a Puritan pastor who was imprisoned for non-conformist worship practice. In 1678 he wrote his masterpiece Pilgrim's Progress, an allegory of the pilgrimage of a soul in search of salvation, which became the most widely read book in the English language after the Bible.

1662 - The Day of Doom is published.

The first books published in the New World were Puritan, published in Cambridge and Boston. The very first of these was The Whole Book of Psalms. Another best seller, published in 1662 and reprinted many times thereafter, was The Day of Doom, Or a Poetical Description of the Great and Last Judgment, written by Michael Wigglesworth, a Puritan minister. Two of its 224 dreary stanzas are presented here as an example of how graphically and grisly it describes the eternal punishment of the damned and marvelously epitomizes the heavy Puritan emphasis on law and judgment:

Whom having brought, as they were taught,

unto the brink of Hell,

(That dismal place far from Christ's face

where Death and Darkness dwell;

Where God's firece ire kindleth the fire,

and vengeance feeds the flame

With piles of Wood, and Brimstone flood,

that none can quench the same,)

With Iron bands they bind their hands

and cursed feet together,

And cast them all, both great and small,

into that Lake forever,

Where day and night, without respite,

they wail, and cry, and howl

For tort'ring pain, which they sustain

in Body and in Soul.

1688 - In December, King James II of England flees to France after being deposed by influential English leaders.

1689 - In February, William and Mary of Orange become King and Queen of England.

1692 - In May, hysteria grips the village of Salem, Massachusetts, as witchcraft suspects are arrested and imprisoned. A special court is then set up by the Governor of Massachusetts. Between June and September, 150 persons are accused, with 20 persons, including 14 women, being executed. By October, the hysteria subsides, remaining prisoners are released and the special court is dissolved.

1702 - In March, Queen Anne ascends the English throne. In May, England declares war on France after the death of the King of Spain, Charles II, to stop the union of France and Spain. This War of the Spanish Succession is called Queen Anne's War in the colonies, where the English and American colonists will battle the French, their Native American allies, and the Spanish for the next eleven years.

1707 - England, Scotland and Wales are combined into the United Kingdom of Great Britain.

1714 - In August, King George I ascends to the English throne, succeeding Queen

Anne.

 

 

Thus concludes a cursory glimpse of the very first Richardsons to become Puritan pilgrims and colonists in burgeoning America. Their descendants go on to become an illustrious heritage--Richardsons of repute, others of reproach; our kith and kin, one and all.

 

"To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain

always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is

woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?"

--- Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43 B.C.

Copyright © 2006 Bruce H. Richardson. This data file may not be copied except for small quotations used with citation of source.

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