Person:Benedict Pulsifer (1)

The following note is taken from the web page at: http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/p/u/l/CINDY-C-PULCIFERLEUTZ/GENE7 -0001. html

Benedict was born in England about 1635. We know he was in America by 1659; but possibly could have arrived a few years before. Around the year 1661, he married his first wife. Unfortunately her name has been lost to history. In 1663 we have a record of Benedict buying a home and a son born to him. He bought a residence with outhouse, orchards, etc. from Moses Pengry of Ipswich, one of the town deacons; who had obtained the land in 1652 from Richard Schofield, leather dresser for 17 pounds. The home was situated on the intersection of East Street and Hovey Lane. Across from his lot lay what had been the home of John Winthrop Jr.; son of the founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Ownership of this property entitled Benedict to the right of pasturage in the domain beyond the "common fence", but the felling of timber or cultivation of the common land was prohibited. In the mid 1600's these lands were held by all householders in common. This system was a vestigial relic of the ancient system of land holding in England and Germany and was naturally reverted to in the necessities of primitive colonial life. By 1664, the idea of permanent individual ownership had gained enough acceptance that the town voted that Plum Island, Hogg Island and Castle Neck be divided among those who had rights of commonage, based upon the amount of personal and property tax paid by each individual determined by lot. This right belonged to 203 individuals including Benedict. Benedict's first wife died at Ipswich, Jul. 16, 1673. It was a common English practice to name the first born daughter after the wife. If this being the case here, then it is likely his first wife's name was Elizabeth. No way of proving this however. Benedict marries 2nd to Susanna Waters 1674. His children gave him a good deal of frustration and embarrassment. He had to defend them in court and even took one son to court for some wrong committed to him by his son. During the 1690's the notorious Salem witch trials occurred. We can only guess how Benedict reacted to such goings-on. His wife, Susanna, was from Salem, so certainly they were aware of the trials. In 1700 Benedict was assigned a place on "one of ye short seats" among the elderly in the Ipswich Meeting House and referred to as "Goodman". On Aug. 1, 1709, Benedict conveyed his property to his son, Capt. Joseph Pulcifer, of Boston. Benedict died the following year.

! BOOK: "THE EARLY PULSIPHER FAMILY HISTORY", Research and Arranging by Adah Mackleprang Wood..... "Much of the history about the early ancestors of the Pulsipher famiy has been obtained from the history of Gloucester, Massachusetts, the town records of Ipswich, Massachusetts. David Pulsipher who was formerly an embossing clerk in the Secretary of State's office in Boston; James A. Pulsipher of Auburn, Maine, the official publication intitled, "Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution, " Volume 12: the excellent paper by Charles Louis Pulsipher of Auburn, New York; the Poland, Maine, town records, "History of Poland," published in 1890, a careful study of the Pulsipher family by the writer's sister, Mrs. Camille M. Tilton; and many other sources."

 History of Newton, Massachusetts, says that Benedict bought land in Ipswich,

Mass. in 1655. So, if he bought land in Massachusetts in 1655, he must have come soon after Charles 1st. was beheaded at Whitehall, England.

 It has been claimed by some that Benedict changed his name when he reached

America from Pulford, a well-known English family name, to Pulsephar, according to his spelling, in order to escape the emissaries of Charles II, whom it was thought Benedict feared, as Benedict was a Puritan in England and was perhaps connected with Cromwell's army that was responsible for the beheading of Charles I.

 Every authority consulted agrees that Benedict or Benedictus, the first of

the name in America, was the founder of the family in this country who settled in Ipswich, Massachusetts, in or before 1659.

 According to Savage's Genealogical Dictionary, Benedict was known to be in New

England in 1662.

! NAME MEANING: There existed in ancient times in Florence, Italy, a family bearing the name of Pulci (pronounced Pulchee), undoubtedly derived from the Latin word, "Pulcher" meaning beautiful. This family included merchants, artisans, and sailors, as well as literary men, of the latter of whom the famous Lugigi Pulci was the most renouned example.

 During the great spread of Forentine commerce, a member of this family, at

about the time of the Norman conquest, either for commerical reasons or because attracted as other learned me nof foreign birth were by the brilliant court of William, settled in England.

 Bearing in mind the Latin meaning of the Florentine name of Pulci, our

ancestor being especially distinguished for good looks, his friends and

acquaintances called him Pulci-vir--"handsome man". The middle syllable of his name was speedily Anglicized, methathosis took place respecting the "vir" for euphony, and so in due course of time, the name "Pulcifer", or "Pulsipher" (handsome man) was handed down as a very euphonious and descriptive famiy name. The same authority says: "If we assume that the name is of Anglo-Saxon verb `pullian' from which our verb`pull' is derived, and from the obsolete Anglo-Saxon preposition or adverb `infere', which means `together'."

! PATRIOTIC CITIZENS: It has been said that fifteen Pulsifers served in the War of the Revolution, but prior to that time Benedict II (Benedict Pulsipher Jr.) served in Captain Abrahom Tilton's Company which took part in the expedition of Quebec in 1690. Several Pulsiphers served in the War of 1812 and the Mexican War, and a large number served in the War of the Rebellion (Civil War between the North and the South).

! BIRTH: His grandson, Zera Pulsipher states in his journal, "we are supposed to be descended from Ireland".

! Benedict Pulsifer had settled in Ipswich, Massachusetts, according to his own statement, by 1659. At a Court held in Ipswich, September 24, 1678, Bendedict Pulsephar, as he spelled his name, deposed that he had been in the town of Ipswich nineteen years. There is, so far, no record of his first marriage or of the birth of his first two sons, Benedict II and John, but his daughter, Elizabeth's birth is recorded in the town records of Ipswich. His first wife, who's maiden name is not known, died at Ipswich 16, July 1673.

 Late in 1663, or early in 1664, he bought a dwelling house with outhouse,

orchard, gardens, etc. of Moses Pingry of Ipswich, Massachusetts, which

property Pigry had acquired in 1652 of Richard Scofield, who came to Nee England in 1635. This estate was situated on the north of the "Tom River". It's site is now occupied by a factory. The original deed to this property was either lost or "casually" burned, and on February 7, 1667, Pingry made a

supplementary deed of the property which he gave Benedict Pulsipher. Benedict was then styled a "planter".

 He added to his estate in 1664.  In the same year, 1664, the town of Ipswich

granted him a share (N0, 55) in the town lands on Plumb Island, Castle Neck, and Hogg Island. He continued to reside at Ipswich, pursuing his occupation as planter or farmer for many years.

 His wife, name unknown, died July 16, 1673 in Ipswich, Massachusetts.

    Children: Benedict Pulsipher Junior
              John Pulsipher
              Elizabeth Pulsipher, born 1669 in Ipswich, Massachusetts.
 Married his second wife, Susana A. Waters of Salem, Massachusetts, Feburary

1673/1674.

 The records show the children (Ipswich records) show the children of Benedict

and Susan Pulsipher to be as follows:

    Richard Pulsipher, born May 31, 1675
    William Henry Pulsipher, born December 12, 1676
    Susannah Pulsipher, born September 5, 1678 - died young
    Joseph Pulsipher, born November 13, 1680     Benjamin Pulsipher, May 19, 1683
    David Pulsipher, born September 27, 1685
    Jonathan Pulsipher, born September 25, 1687 - twin
    Johanna Pulsipher, born September 25, 1687  - twin
    Susanna Pulsipher, born about 1689
    Elizabeth, born 1690
    Margaret, born February 14, 1693

" A COMPENDIOUS HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND" by Morse and Parrish, page 246.

....

 "After the death of his first wife Benedict, Sr. married in the succeeding

February (1674), Susana A. Waters of Salem, Mass., who was the fifth daughter of Richard and Joyce Waters. She was born at Salem, Mass. February 1, 1649. Benedict Pulsephar, Sr., brought his young wife to Ipswich immediately after his marriage and entered upon what might be termed the second period of his career. The records show that his young wife was rather vain. She like to adorn herself. She, among others, braved the laws in 1675 by appearing in the meeting house with a silk hood and scarf. She and the others were arrested, tried, and fined ten shillings each for yielding to their vanity."

 Benedict Pulsifer was a man of some means.  He was also, "a man of

considerable education in a period when educated Englishmen were rare."

!ABOVE DATA ALSO FOUND IN: "Family Exaltation" by Archibald F. Bennett,

published in 1957. This manual was used in The Sunday Schools in a Genealogy class. Chapter 24...pages 137-139.

!DATA FROM JOHN M. HOUCHLEL - MAY 22, 1992 "Subject mentioned in the book "Genealogical Gleanings in England" by Henry F. Waters, Vol. 2, (1907), with spelling of name Benedict Pulsifer". The name has had various spellings over time including: Pulsipher, Pulsepher, Pulsypher, Pulsever and Pullsifer. Death date taken: 1710 in Ipswitch, Mass.

1.   May have died in 1710.