Person:John Tidd (1)

Origins

Spelling variations included TEAD, TEED, TED

"John Dane's Relation" (a sort of tract giving an account of Dane's spiritual and temporal experience during his lifetime) mentions incidentally a John Tidd, a tailor, from Hartford, Old England, who may be the same. The quotation from "Dane's Narrative" is, in part, as follows: "I now being at Hartford (Hetrford, Hartford?) I then wrought with Mr. Tead that (now) lives at Charlestown (Charlestown, Massachusetts). He was a young man then. He and I was going," etc. Dane died at Ipswich, September 29, 1684, and wrote his "Narrative" in 1682. This leaves it still uncertain whether the John Tidd then of Charlestown was the John Tidd who settled in Woburn and died there in 1657.

Life in New England

John Tidd, the tailor (as he is identified in his will), was probably in Charlestown by 1637. Savage, Sewall and others state that John embarked, 12 May, 1637, at Yarmouth, England, aged 19, as servant of Samuel Greenfield, of Norwich; but as Mrs. Ferris^[3] points out, no man of 19 would have daughters marrying in 1641, 1643 and 1645 as John did. (Most likely it is another John TEED who was at Salem and Ipswich, MA and removed to Exeter, NH, where he signed a petition in 1643, together with Samuel GREENFIELD.)

As stated in Historic Homes, it is difficult "to decide what is true or what is false in much that has been stated by different writers concerning the early history of the first John Tidd who came an immigrant undoubtedly from England and settled in this country after 1630. The difficulty seems to arise from the different spellings of this short name of four letters. For example, there is Tead, Teed, Tedd. and Todd, items- concerning different individuals of these names being easily confounded with Tidd or with names of similar lengths or likeness. We are willing to accept the fact that this John Tidd came to Charlestown where he was an inhabitant in 1637, admitted to the church there 1639, and soon afterwards a resident of Woburn."

On April 23, 1638, the Charlestown proprietors had land laid out to them "on Mystic side" toward what later became Malden and at that time John Tidd received lot No. 86 while Joshua Tidd, (a presumed brother), had lot No. 74, but neither of them removed to that locality. As time went on, John acquired at least seven pieces of Charlestown land and probably eight as well as one and three-quarters cow commons having purchased the three-quarters portion. John must have been fairly prosperous for when Thomas Moulton was removing to Mystic Side, John was able to purchase his Charlestown home and at another time he was allowed to sell all or a part of his holdings to Nathaniel Hadlock, probably preparatory to the removal to Woburn of John himself.

• 1637: Found in Charlestown
• 1638: bought then sold Thomas Moulton's old house in Charlestown. He owned eight lots in Charlestown limits, according to Book of Possessions, 1638, the sixth of which was twenty-five acres at Waterfield, or in the part now Woburn. He also owned twenty acres in West Rockfiled, also in present Woburn.
• 1639: admitted to church 10 (1) - Charlestown
• In May, 1640, Charlestown petitioned the General Court for additional land which was granted, and on December 18, 1640, thirty-two men who planned to settle on it signed the "Town Orders" as original proprietors of what in 1642 was

named Woburn. John Tidd and his son-in-law Francis Kendall, were among the signers and they very soon removed to this new location.

• After 1640, removed to Woburn; Sergt. John TIDD, first man of Woburn, MA to bear a military title.

In Woburn there was a lot near the common called the Tidd lot, which received its name from him.

• 1640: John Tidd had the task of "ringing the bell" for church and doubtless for town meetings and the town owed him for the service.
• 1643: Affiliation Of John with some church (probably Woburn) occurred before May 10, when he applied for freemanship.
• 1645: He was taxed for the Country rate (colony tax) on September 8 (the earliest extant tax list);
• 1646: John was sergeant of the military contingent of Woburn, the first citizen of Woburn named by military title

in the records.

• 1646: was chosen surveyor of fences
• 1647: elected selectman.

• 1648: Dawes states that "There was an episode in the life of JOHN which intrigues the imagination because of its incompleteness. It has to do primarily with an investment or "adventure" in the Massachusetts Bay Colony- about 1628 by a man named Richard Young, cooper of London.' And twenty years later John Tidd in some way acquired a right to one hundred acres through this investment of Young's. Either by his own wish or at Young's suggestion, JOHN had petitioned the General Court as to the desired location of this tract but on May 10, 1648, 'the court replied that it did "thinke it not convenient to alter the ordinary course of satisfaction for adventurers [investors], but that John TED shall take his 100 acres in consideration of the adven­ture of Mr Richard Yonge, where it may be layd out for reasonable conveniency ..."

• 1651: Wife Margaret died.
• 1653: John Tidd in common with twenty-eight other** Woburn men 17 showed his mettle and courage by signing a petition to the General Court which dared to express an opinion entirely divergent from a late ruling by that court (see Snow, p. 552). That petition has throughout the years been called the "Woburn Memorial for Christian Liberty" and they who signed it are dubbed "the bold petitioners".17

• 1655: Served on a committee to collect the Country rates and served as com­missioner for the country.

Between the death of his first wife, and his own death, he married second Alice ____. She survived him and married at Cambridge June 11, 1657, William Mann.

Legacy

He died 24 Apr 1656/7. Will will, dated on April 9, 1656, gave to wife Alice "the house I now dwell in for life or six years after her next marriage". The will also mentioned his son John who had removed to Lexington and had doubtless received his portion earlier, made bequests to his four Savell grandchildren, to the daughter of his deceased son Samuel, to his grandsons, Thomas Fuller and John Kendall, and made his daughters, Mary and Elizabeth the executrixes. His will was proved on 10 Nov 1656.

Will of John Tidd

"I Jno Tid seinr of Woburne Towne in the Country of Middlesex, Taylor, being in good & perfect memory, make this my last Will and testamt in forme and manner following renouncing all formr Wills by me made. Dated the 9th of the 2d mo 1656

Item. I Will & bequeath Allice my beloved Wife the house wherein I now dwell together with all the land and orchard thereunto belonging as also one Cow and twelve bushels of Wheate Rie and Indian, of each a like proporccon provided shee shall enjoy the house and land until the day of her death or Six years after her next mariage, provided it be kept in good repaire, and then to come and remaine to my 3 grand children, Benjamin Savell, Hannah Savell and my Sonne Samuels Daughter equal between them, as also I give my wife all my household stuffe shee brought with her.

It. I give to my two grand Children Jno & Samuel Savel, Twenty shillings to either of them.

It. I ordaine my two Daughters Mary and Elizabeth to be the Executours of this my last Will and testament.

It. I give to my beloved wife Allice one hog of a yeare old, & one bedstead, & shred Coverlett

Edward Johnson Witness Jno Tid

Memr I the above named Jno Tid Senior do give to my son John the vallue of five pounds to be payed within two years after my decease by my Executrixes, and further that my Executrixes shal bestow forty shillings on the most needful repairs of my now dwelling house and further my Will is that my Sonne Savell shall keep the porcons bequeathed to my GrandChildren till they come of age assuming my son Samuels Daughters [sic], as his owne. It. I give to my two Grand Children Thomas ffuller and Jno Kendall Sixteen accrs of land lately purchased of Thomas Chamberline equally to be divided between them, and one parcell of meadow lying in step Rocke to be divided between them also. And my further Will is the parcell of meadow lying in Maple meadow shall go with my house.

Witness Edward Johnson John Tid

Richard Snow his marke (R.)

This Will is testified upon the oath of Richard Snow to be the last Will & testamt of Jno Tid of Woburne before us. John Endecott Govr Humph Attherton

Children

1. John; b. in Eng. m. 14 Apr. 1650, Rebecca Wood, had Hannah, b. 21 Sept. 1652; John, 26 Feb 1655; Mary, 13 Nov 1656; Samuel, 16 Jan 1659; Joseph, 19 Jan 1661, d. in 2 wks; Joseph again perhaps, but not cert.
2. Samuel, died 1651, married Sarah ____; had daughter, Eliza, born May 1642;
3. Elizabeth, married June 13, 1642, Thomas Fuller, of Woburn.
4. Mary, married December 24, 1644, Francis Kendall, of Woburn.
5. Hannah, married William Savell, of Braintree.

Additional Sources

(Incorporate into Sources)

1. James Savage, Gen. Dictionary of New England Settlers, Volume 4, p. 265, 300
2. Frothingham, p. 88
3. Mass. Hist. Coll. I. 101, and Geneal. Reg. XIV. 328.
4. Colonial Families in the U.S, p. 5181
5. Historic Homes and Places and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to Middlesex, MA; p. 607
6. History of Woburn - Sewall, Samuel
7. Historic Homes...of Middlesex - Google Books

1. ↑ Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England: Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May, 1692, on the Basis of Farmer's Register. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1860-1862).
2.   NEHGR
   Volume 131, page 211, 1977.

   CHARLESTOWN'S INHABITANTS, Ralph J. Crandall and Ralph J. Coffman
   Name, Literacy, Occupation, English Origin, Church Member, Freeman, Offices, Acres 1638, Chas., Residence(s), Other
   
   Tidd, John, y M. will 22580, tailor,, ?, 1643,, 22, 1637, Woburn 1641

3. ↑ Ferris, Mary Walton. Dawes-Gates Ancestral Lines: A Memorial Volume Containing the American Ancestry of Rufus R. Dawes; and A Memorial Volume Containing the American Ancestry of Mary Beman (Gates) Dawes. (Milwaukee, WI: Cuneo Press, 1931-1943)
   I:595-598.

   link

4.   Cutter, William Richard (ed.). Historic Homes and Places and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Middlesex County, Massachusetts. (New York, New York : Lewis Historical Pub. Co., 1908).
5. ↑ Holman, Mary Lovering; Winifred Lovering Holman; and Helen Pendleton Winston Pillsbury. Ancestry of Colonel John Harrington Stevens and his wife, Frances Helen Miller: Compiled for Helen Pendleton (Winston) Pillsbury. (Concord, New Hampshire: Rumford Press, 1948, 1952)
   1:125-27.

   link