Person:John Seaman (3)

Source:The Seaman family in America, as descended from Captain John Seaman of Hempstead, Long Island, p. 26:

Will of "John Seaman the Elder of Hempstead", dated 25 Aug 1694, proved 20 Mar 1695, mentions "my eldest son John Seaman", "my son in Law Nathaniel Pearsall", "my Eight sons to witt John, Jonathan, Benjamin, Solomon, Thomas, Samuell, Nathaniell and Richard Seamans","my well beloved Wife Martha Seamans", my five daughters namely Martha Pearsall, Hannah Carman, Mary Pearsall, Sarah Mott and Deborah Kirk", "my loving wife Martha Seamans my sons Benajmain and Tho: Seamans to be my Sole Executors of this my last will as also requesting my two loving friends Tho: Powell & John Townsend Senior to be overseers".

From Adam and Anne Mott, by Thomas C. Cornell, pg 296: "John Seaman, or Symonds, or Simmons, as the name is variously written, was born in England, but was one of the early settlers in Hempstead. He was twice married. His first wife, the mother of four sons and one daughter, was a daughter of John Strictland, an original settler of Charlestown, Massachusetts, but who came early to Hempstead. His second wife was Martha More, a daughter of Thomas More, of Southold, and Martha Youngs, his wife, baptised in Salem, Massachusetts, on 21st October, 1639. She had four sons and seven daughters, of whom Martha, named after her mother, was the third. Of these 16 children, all but one daughter married and raised families, and he had at least 95 grandchildren, and his descendants are very numerous.

John Seaman (Symonds) had land at Salem, Massachusetts, in 1643 but removed to Hempstead about 1647, and bore an active part in its affairs for nearly half a century."

[pg 298:] "For a dozen years or more from this date Captain Seaman was often in the service of the public, and seems to have been always trusted in questions about town boundaries, and in laying out town lots. In 1676 he, with others, was appointed to lay out Cowneck, on the north side, and later, with Mr. Ferdiham and Nathaniel Pearsall, to lay out the Common Meadows, and in 1677 he was defending the interest of the town before the Governor and Council. In 1678 the laying out of the Common Meadows was continued. In 1682, the town, by a full vote, appointed Captain Seaman and Mr. William Nichols, of New York, Attorneys to act for Cowneck, and the following month, and also again in December, he was head of a Commission to go before the Governor in support of town interests. In 1684 he represented the town in controversies at Jamaica, and also in questions with Flushing and Oysterbay, and in September before the Governor, in New York, to get a new patent for the town, "one as good as they can get." And in October, with another Commission, in which were Adam Mott Senior, Nathaniel Pearsall, and others, again to go before the Governor about the patents: and again in December, about the patent and to try to get a settlement of the Jamaica dispute. Similar services were continued through the year 1685 and to November, 1686, after which his age probably exempted him from further public service. But before this he had become a member of the Society of Friends. In 1679 Mr Richard Gildersleeve, who had been associated with him as Magistrate, complained that on the 26th of May Captain Seaman had entertained a great Quaker Meeting at his house. But John Seaman was a man of too much weight to be molested.

Charles R Moore, in his account of Captain John Seaman, printed in the New York Genealogical Record, October, 1880, when speaking of this meeting at Captain Seaman's own house, says, "In this Mr. Seaman took an exact line which he could defend: for a man has a right to use his house as his castle, and could not legally be deprived of this use, even for public accommodation, without just compensation. He could have all his children at home, and hear one of them read or speak. He was not bowed to exclude visitors, but had a right to exclude spies. There was no indication of religious adherence by him to "Friends" before this. He declared his own right in protecting them from wrong."

There is no earlier account of his sympathy with Friends. But an old Court record of 3d December, 1679, quotes the testimony of Captain Seaman, that a certain event occurred "one First day in the afternoon." He could hardly have been a Friend, when, on the 1st of April, 1678, he had been appointed a Committee to agree with Joseph Carpenter to build a Meeting house for the town, in which the Rev. Jeremy Hobart might preach. The Church was built. But the town was dilatory in providing the minister with a house for his own residence, and in paying his salary of 70 pounds a year, and in December, 1686, Mr. Hobart appealed to the Governor. The town appointed Captain Seaman and Mr. Searing to answer before the Governor. Whatever may have been Captain Seaman's answer to Mr. Hobart, it did not prevent the distraining a few months later the goods of Edmond Titus and Henry Willis and other Friends to satisfy demands for "building the priest's house" and also "for the priest's wages."

Captain John Seaman died early in 1695. His will is dated 25th August, 1694. He is called John Seaman, the Elder of Hempstead. It was proved 25th March, 1695. He was a man of wealth for his time. He apportions among his children many horses and oxen, and neat cattle and sheep and swine and other property, and a great deal of land. About a thousand acres are specified in various places, and in addition many necks and meadows, and undivided lands which would at least make as much more. He made his wife and his sons Benjamin and Thomas his executors, and his "two loving friends Thomas Powell and John Townsend, Sr." overseers."

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Seaman, Mary Thomas. The Seaman family in America as descended from Captain John Seaman of Hempstead, Long Island. (New York: T.A. Wright, 1928)
   13.

   Capt. John Seaman, b. Essex, England bet. 1603-1610, came to New England in the Winthrop Fleet, will dated 5 Aug 1694, proved 20 Mar 1695.

The Winthrop Fleet (1630)

The Winthrop Fleet brought over 700 colonists to establish a new colony at Massachusetts Bay. The fleet consisted of eleven ships: the Arbella flagship with Capt Peter Milburne, the Ambrose, the Charles, the Mayflower, the Jewel, the Hopewell, The Success, the Trial, the Whale, the Talbot and the William and Francis.   Sailed: April and May 1630 from Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, England   Arrived: June and July 1630 at Salem, Massachusetts   Previous Settlers: The Higginson Fleet (1629)   Passengers: Winthrop wrote to his wife just before they set sail that there were seven hundred passengers. Six months after their arrival, Thomas Dudley wrote to Bridget Fiennes, Countess of Lincoln and mother of Lady Arbella and Charles Fiennes, that over two hundred passengers had died between their landing April 30 and the following December, 1630.   Selected leaders and prominent settlers: Gov. John Winthrop - Richard Saltonstall - Isaac Johnson - Gov. Thomas Dudley - Gov. William Coddington - William Pynchon - William Vassall - John Revell - Robert Seely - Edward Convers - Gov. Simon Bradstreet - John Underhill - William Phelps   Resources: The Winthrop Society - The Winthrop Fleet (Wikipedia) - Anderson's Winthrop Fleet