Person:Henry Bodwell (1)

Family Traditions

Perley provides two stories about Henry. The first "that he (Henry¹) was a Scotch school boy named Bothwell, and that he ran away from home. He came to Newbury, Mass., and was befriended by Rev. James Noyes."^S2
The second concerns the birth of his grandson (Henry³). "The family tradition is that the fine old elm which stands in front of the house was planted on the morning of July 26, 1729, when Henry Bodwell³ was born, by an Indian, who was rewarded for his services with a gallon of rum."^S2
Little, provides a third, "(h)e is said to have shot an Indian on the opposite side of the Merrimac, when the enemy, deeming himself out of range, was making insulting gestures."^S1

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Burrage, Henry Sweetser; Albert Roscoe Stubbs; and George Thomas Little. Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine. (New York, New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, c1909)
   2:777.

   Henry Bodwell, immigrant ancestor, was born in England in 1654. He was a soldier in the Ling Philip's war in 1676> He was pressed into the service August 1676, and took part in the battle of Bloody Brook. His left arm was broken by a musket ball and he was surrounded by Indians, but seizing his gun in his right hand and swinging it about him he mowed a swath through the savages and escaped. He was admitted a freeman in 1678. He resided in Newbury a short time, and his eldest child was born there in 1682, He removed to Andover, where he was living in 1685, and finally to Haverhill, where in 1693 his father-in-law, John Emery, of Newbury, gave him and his wife one hundred acres of land.

2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 Henry Bodwell, in Perley, Sidney. Bodwell Genealogy. (The Essex Antiquarian, Salem, Mass., 9 (1905), 171-176)
   9:171.

   Henry Bodwell, the progenitor of the Bodwell family in Essex County, was born about 1651, and lived in Newbury in 1675. He was a member of Capt. Thomas Lathrop's company in King Philip's war, and was severely wounded at the battle of Bloody brook, Sept. 18, 1675. He was a yeoman, and married Miss Bethiah Emery of Newbury May 4, 1681. He lived in Newbury until 1683, when he moved to Andover, where he lived until about 1683, when he removed across the Merrimack river to what was then a part of Haverhill.. [which later became Methuen in 1725, and in 1852, Lawrence, Mass.]. Mrs. Bodwell was living in 1716; and Mr. Bodwell died June 1, 1745, in his ninety-fourth year.

3. ↑ Henery Bodwell, in Methuen, Essex, Massachusetts, United States. Vital Records of Methuen, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849. (Topsfield, Massachusetts: Topsfield Historical Society, 1909)
   2:299.

   Bodwell, Henery, [died] June 1, 1745, in his 94th y.