Person:Nathaniel Weare (2)

Deposed in Oct 1695 to the effect that in 1655, he and brother (in-law) Benjamin Swett had leased a farm from John Woodbridge in Newbury, MA. They lived there for about 7 years, until 1663 or so, when they moved to Hampton, NH with their families. ^[2]

In Hampton, Nathaniel first settled on land of his father-in-law Richard Swain in Old Hampton (now Seabrook.) Four of his brothers-in-law owned land in the area, but at least two of them accompanied Richard when he moved to Nantucket soon after 1660. (Nathaniel’s father was already in Nantucket as well.)^[3]

Appears on the Hampton tax list in 1709. ^[4]

A Swain website says this about Nathaniel: “Nathaniel Weare was a man of prominence and high regard, both as a person and in the political affairs of New England. He was sent to England twice by the people to lay petitions before the King for irregularities by the Colonial Governor. He was a member of the House of Representatives, Chief Justice of the Superior Court, and Councilor from 1685 to 1715. The sons of Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Swain) Weare were also equally prominent. A grandson, Mesheck Weare, was Justice of the Superior Court of Judicature, Representative and Speaker of the House of Representatives for 28 years, and Chief Justice for 6 years when he had to retire because of ill health.”

Nathaniel served as selectman periodically from 1667 to 1699 in Hampton. He was prominently involved, along with William Vaughan, Major Waldron and his son, Col. Richard Waldron, and Edward Gove, in opposition to the oppressive land-claims of Robert Mason, supported by the tyrannical royal governor, Edward Cranfield, from 1680 to 1686. As a large landowner, he was involved in the suits Mason brought in 1682-3 for payment of annual rent on their lands, under various grants from English corporations. Resolving these lawsuits was the cause of his first trip to London in 1684. The lawsuits were never really settled, but continued after Weare’s death in 1718.^[5]

Savage’s: WEARE, NATHANIEL, Newbury, s. perhaps of Peter of the same, b. in Eng. a. 1631, or more prob. 1635, as in Oct. 1695, he was se. to be only 60, m. 3 Dec. 1656, Elizabeth Swain, perhaps d. of Richard of Rowley, had Nathaniel, b. 5 Jan. 1658; Peter, 5 Nov. 1660; rem. a. 1662 to Hampton, there had six others, as Coffin says, and yet of not one is the proof accessib. was freem. of Mass. 1666, a rep. and bec. counsel. of N. H. aft. our new chart. 1692, and d. 13 May 1718, aged 83, wh. is in more than one book swell. to 87.^[6]

1. ↑ Presumably immigrated with father in 1637.
2. ↑ NEHGR 6:50
3. ↑ Sanborn, FB, “The Nathaniel Weares,” Granite Monthly, 1909, pp.157-166, Online at http://www.hampton.lib.nh.us/hampton/biog/nathanielweares.htm.
4. ↑ History Of The Town of Hampton Falls New Hampshire)
5. ↑ Sanborn
6. ↑ Source:Savage, James, A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England