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John ABBE-LCFX-9FX was born on 15 Oct 1613 in Norwich, Norfolk, Massachusetts. He died on 5 Sep 1672 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts. John married (MRIN:4999) Mary LORING-KNHS-QKD in 1635 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts.
BIOGRAPHY: Taken from "Abbe-Abbey Genealogy" by Cleveland Abbe and Josephine Nichols.
John Abbe, born in England about 1613; died in Salem, Mass., about1689-90. The place of birth of John Abbe, the founder of the Abbe and Abbey families, is unknown, but every indication points to one of the interior and central counties of England as the home of the ancestors of the emigrant. It is not improbable that he was connected with the Abbye family of Staverton, Northampton. The parish registers of Stoke Bruerne, Northampton, show that there were many marriages of Abbyes recorded there during the 16th and 17th centuries.
The birth place and parentage of John Abbe are not known, but current speculation suggests a connection with the Abbye family of Staverton, Northampton. He apparently came to New England in 1635 aboard the Bonaventure (Register of the names of all the passengers which passed from the Port of London for a whole year ending at Christmas 1635). In the records of Salem, his name appears first in January 1637 (Vol. I, p. 11): "John Abbie is received for inhabitant and is to have one acre lot for a house next beyond the Gunsmith's and three acres of planting ground where the Town hath appointed beyond Castle Hill." In 1638, in the division of the common marsh and meadow lands, the town of Salem granted John Abbe half an acre: at that time there were just three heads in his family (the size of the allocation related to the size of the family). In 1639, John received an additional grant of five acres "near to Mr. Trogmorton's hoghouse." In January 1643, John and several others each received ten-acre grants "to be laid out near to King's lot" near the Bass River, but the following month the town exchanged this ten-acre lot for ten acres at Enon, and subsequently granted the Bass River lot to Michael Sallows.
In 1642, Mr. Fiske organized a church at Enon; the following year the name of the settlement was changed to Wenham. On 24 August 1644, the new town granted John Abby "all that wasteground which lyeth between the end of the lott which he lives upon and the meadow which belongs to the town, leaving a poles bredth most convenient for a way. In January 1662, the town granted land to John Abbey, Sr. and Edward Waldron, to be divided equally between them. The following year, Abbey was chosen to assist the selectmen in making "the minister's rate" for the year. He served as constable of the town in 1669 and 1671. On 3 April 1675, John deeded ten acres of land to his son Samuel -- Thomas, John, and Mary Abbe witnessed the transaction.
John supported his son, Thomas, who lived with him and cared for him. In 1683, he dismissed Thomas on account of bad behavior and called upon his son John Jr. to take charge of his affairs. To seal this transaction, on 3 August 1683, John Sr. filed the following writ:
Know all men by these presents that I, John Abbey (Senior) of Wenham in the County of Essex, being sensible of my own and my wife's inability to carry on my affaires so as to provide for our Comfortable Livelihood by reason of our age and weakness of body ... do make Choice of and request my son John Abbey as my feoffee in trust to take into his hands my house and all my lands in Wenham together with what right I have in that land which was sometime Richard Gooldsmith's, to occupy and improve for my and his mutual benefit so long as my wife and I or either of us shall live, and for his encouragement to manage my affaires as abovesaid and he provide comfortably for my own and my wife's maintenance I do hereby give and bequeath to him my aforesaid feofee all my houses & lands forever except what I do hereby give out of it to the rest of my children, viz. Samuel, Sarah, Marah, Rebeca, Obadia, and Thomas, and to each of them as follows: viz. to Samuel, I having already given him ... land, I give him one shilling more, and to all the rest of my children above mentioned, viz. Sarah, Marah, Rebeca, Obadia, and Thomas two Shillings apiece or to so many of them as shall survive at the decease of my self and wife: and in case God shall take away my son John abovesaid before the decease of my self and wife, if his heirs shall continue to manage and carry on my affaires as my abovesaid feoffee ought to do, then they shall have the houses and lands abovesaid as therein ordered, and in confirmation of what is above written I have hereunto set to my hand & seal. Signed sealed and delivered August the 3, 1683, in the presence of Thos. Fiske, Sr. [and] Martha Fiske. John Abbey Sr. did acknowledge this writing above written to be his act and deed August the 3d, 1683, before me, Samuel Appleton, Assistant.
Apparently taking his new responsibilities seriously, John Jr. built a new house for his father early on, as the old one was unfit to live in. In 1696, after the death of his father (1690) and step-mother, John Jr. sold the lands in Wenham to Nathaniel Waldron and removed to Windham, Connecticut, where he died on 11 December 1700. Shortly thereafter, Thomas, then of Enfield, Hartford County, Connecticut, laid claim to his father's estate, naming his father-in-law, Walter Fairfield of Wenham, his attorney. His actions included a suit for trespass against one Peter Legro of Wenham. The court allowed Legro to substitute his landlord, Nathaniel Waldron, as defendant in this case.
For some reason (possibly because John Jr. failed to probate the will his father signed in 1683), the court determined that John Sr. had died intestate and granted administration of his estate to Thomas (December 1702). Richard Hutton and Joseph Fowler, whom Thomas commissioned to appraise the estate, valued the property -- twenty three acres of upland and meadow, the housing, fences and other appurtenances in Wenham, together with John Sr.'s right in the Common -- at £92: "We also being informed that the said deceased in his lifetime did, to accommodate his son Obadiah according to his desire with a trade for his future benefit when the said Obadiah was eighteen years old, give to Richard Goldsmith three years service of his said son Obadiah and until he was one and twenty years old to learn him to be a shoemaker, and all the said time his said father did find his said son meat and drink and clothes washing and lodging which we do judge to be worth thirty pounds. The account was settled between Thomas Abbe and his father's Estate by the Children of the said deceased in our presence..."
The heirs -- Thomas, Richard Kimball for himself and his wife Rebecca, and Mary Kilham -- allowed £32 "for several things for which our said father ... was indebted to his son Thomas Abbe" before his death. The heirs of John Jr., Samuel, and Sarah were apparently not represented in these proceedings; nor was Obadiah, unless he had given his commission to Thomas. We have yet to discover how Nathaniel Waldron fared.
As to the surname of John Sr.'s first wife (Loring), it was supplied by Frederick Orr Woodruff, who said the name had been found in Enfield records by one who made searches for him there. See Ancestors of the Bingham Family of Utah.
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