Person:Matthew Noble (1)

Matthew was the first white man who came to reside in Sheffield, Mass. He was from Westfield and....spent the first winter here with no other human associates [other] than the Indians, living in an erected wigwam.

"The first English settler to cross the "hideous howling wilderness" into Berkshire County was Matthew Noble of Westfield who arrived in 1725. The following spring he returned to Westfield and brought his sixteen year old daughter, Hannah, to keep house for him. The township had been purchased from Chief Konkapot and other Stockbridge Indians in 1724. Purchase price was 460 Pounds, three barrels of cider and thirty quarts of rum. It covered an area 18 miles by 12 miles centered on the Housatonic River. Proprietor's records and a survey were taken by Captain John Ashley, Ebenezer Pomeroy and Thomas Ingersoll. This Committee was to advance the settlement of the town by selecting persons who would become permanent residents. Home lots were drawn in three divisions, and the town was incorporated in 1733." Source: [1]

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} Boltwood, Lucius M. History and Genealogy of the Family of Thomas Noble of Westfield, Massachusetts: With Genealogical Notes of Other Families by the Name of Noble. (Hartford, Conn.: Privately Printed, 1878)
   367-372.

   Matthew Noble, s/o Thomas, b. abt. 1668, d. Sheffield abt. 1744, m 10 Dec 1690 Hannah Dewey. Hampshire Probate 3:249: 12 Feb 1744/45, administration on estate of "Matthew Noble, late of Sheffield, in the County of Hampshire Dec'd" granted to Elisha Noble of Sheffield. Inventory taken 5 Mar 1744/45 by Japheth Bush, Josiah Westover, James Robb.

2. ↑ Taylor, Charles J. History of Great Barrington (Berkshire County), Massachusetts. (Great Barrington, Mass.: Clark W. Bryan & Co., 1882)
   Ch.X p.102.

   CHAPTER X. EARLY SETTLERS—THElR FAMILIES AND LOCATIONS.
   
   To Matthew Noble, of Westfield,—as we believe,­ belongs the credit of having been the first permanent white settler in Berkshire County, as he apparently came to Sheffield in the autumn of 1725, and remained through the following winter.
   
   In the History of Berkshire, the Rev. James Brad­ford writes: “Mr. Obadiah Noble was the first white man that came to reside in Sheffield. He was from Westfield, and came and spent the first winter here with no other human associates than the Indians. In the spring he went back to Westfield ; and in June his daughter, afterwards the wife of Deacon Daniel Kel­logg, returned here with him. She was the first white woman that came into the town. She traveled from Westfield, when about sixteen years of age, on horse­back, bringing a bed with her, and lodged one night in the wilderness, in what is now the east part of Tyring­ham,"
   
   This statement, though in the main correct, is nev­ertheless, open to criticism. The writer has been in­formed, as he believes truly, that it was Matthew No­ble——not Obadiah— who first came to Sheffield. Mat­thew was the father of Obadiah, and also of Hannah, born October 11, 1707,—who became the wife of Deacon Daniel Kellogg, May 13th, 1731. Obadiah was at that time—1726—under twenty-one years of age, un­married, and, consequently, not the father of a sixteen years old daughter. And if the pioneer who spent the winter of 1725-6 amongst the Indians, was the father of the young woman mentioned, he certainly was Matthew—not Obadiah——Noble. This Matthew Noble, who was about fifty-seven years of age when he came to Sheffield, had a family of six sons and three daughters, all of whom appear to have removed with him from Westfield. Of his sons, Joseph,—the eldest,­ settled in Great Barrington; Hezekiah, Matthew, Sol­omon, Elisha, and Obadiah all located in Sheffield. Of his daughters, Hannah married Deacon Daniel Kellogg of Sheffield ; Hester married Moses King of Great Barrington; Rhoda married Ebenezer Smith of Sheffield.