Person:John Gee (1)

"The first appearance of John Gee at Great Harbor, as far as the records show, was on Dec. 23, 1661, when he submitted to the Patentee's government, but it is probable that he had been here some time before. The Boston records contain the birth of a son to him and his wife in May, 1662, so that we may conclude his residence here had lately begun and that the family remained at the former residence. Two years later he was granted land as follows on Aug. 20, 1663: —

Voted by this town that John Gee shall have that lot and commonage which was given to Thomas Trapp: itt forfeited: which lot is ten acres upon the line and half a commonage and he to build and inhabit according to the order in fifty two [Edgartown Records, I, 140].

He participated in the divisions of Felix Neck and Machemys Field the next year, and on March 12, 1665, was chosen "to divide the fish" caught at the town weir [Edgartown Records, I, 113]. This seemed to be his occupation for some time, as on May 11, 1667, the town voted that "John Gee is to have three thousand of fish for orderly dividing of the towns fish every morning." [Edgartown Records, I, 140] He was one of the five men chosen by Chief Magistrate Thomas Mayhew, in 1667, to dispossess Francis Usselton from Homes Hole Neck, and received as compensation one-sixth part of the land there which remained a part of his estate, undivided, for sixty years. Gee was "lost at sea," and is marked as deceased in the town records, Dec. 27, 1669 [Edgartown Records, I, 41]. He left a widow bearing the extraordinary name of Hazelelponah, which is a scriptural name according to Webster. She was living at the Vineyard in June, 1670, but had removed to Boston the next year, when she was received for baptism at the First Church in that town [Sup. Jud. Court Files, No. 971; comp., Records 1st Church, Boston]. There she remained for a number of years, until Obadiah Woods, a widower and a baker of Ipswich, met her, proposed, and they mere married. William Harris of Ipswich testified that he "well remembers Obadiah Woods intermarrage with the widdow Hazelelepony Gee … that sd Wood brought her from Boston, that it was the Taulk of the Times when she came to Dwell at Ipswich." [Dukes Deeds, VI, 235]. It does not appear what caused this "Taulk of the Times," but it may be surmised that her name was enough to excite village gossip. The late Hon. James Savage, whose monumental work on the dictionary of the early settlers of New England gave him unusual opportunities of meeting with strange names, confessed that it was unique in his experience. As might be expected, the various records spell it in a number of ways, and in later generations it was clipped to Purney! She survived her second husband, and died at Ipswich, where a stone records the last resting place of "Haselelpony Wood widow of Obadiah Wood, died Novem'r the 27, 1714 Aged 78 years." Hence she was born about 1636, and was first a widow when thirty-three years old. John Gee had the following children by her: I, Mary b. about 1660; m. Thomas Pickering of Newington, N. H., about 1679 and d. before 1730. One daughter was named Hazelponi. II, John, b. May 27, 1662 (Boston). Ill, Anna, b. 1664; m. Samuel Hodgkins of Gloucester, Mass.; she d. July 28, 1724. IV, Martha, m. Thomas Cotes "in his life time was an Inhabitant of the Island of Marthas Vineyard"; d. before 1730. He left no known descendants on the Vineyard."^[1]

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} John Gee, in Banks, Charles Edward. The history of Martha's Vineyard, Dukes County, Massachusetts. (Boston: G H Dean, 1911)
   2:70-72.