Person:Thomas Carter (13)

Be sure to review Carter in Massachusetts for an overview and distinction of four Thomas Carters of Massachusetts during this time period.

Origins

A clue to his origins may be found in the following will:

"English Wills," NEHGR 31:413:

"James Carter, of Hinderclay, Suffolk, in his nuncupative will, dated 8 Sept., 1655, mentions the "children of my brother Thomas Carter who now is in the New England;" proved in 1655.

But a later NEHGR "Genealogical Gleanings in England" article (39:335) believes this could just as easily be referring to a Thomas Carter of Sudbury, MA who died in 1659. See notes for Rev. Thomas Carter.

While no documented evidence of relatedness to Thomas Carter, reverend of Woburn, it is of interest that the children and grandchildren of (Rev. Thomas Carter of Woburn) bore names identical with those borne by the descendants of (Charlestown) Thomas.

Life in New England

(Extracted from Dawes-Gates):

Thomas Carter, blacksmith, with his wife Mary and six children, almost or quite adult, emigrated from England and settled at Charlestown not later than the summer or fall of 1636... on January 8, 1636-7, Thomas joined the church; on September 2 1639, his daughter Hannah did so; on October 24, 1639, his daughter Mary and on November 4, 1643, his wife Mary became members; and sons Samuel and Thomas followed suite in 1645 and 1646-7. The fact that at nearby Woburn the minister was also a Thomas Carter and with a wife Mary... [caused] our Thomas to be identified by the term "blacksmith".

On March 9, 1636-7, he was made a freeman, implying that he had applied for that privilege at least six months earlier or in September, 1636. Of his sons, John was made a freeman on May 29, 1644, while Thomas and Samuel acquired that status on May 26, 1647.

In September 1639, with the approval and signature of a blacksmith in Roxbury, he submitted a petition to the General Court that read:

"The humble peticon of Isaacke Morrell & Thomas Carter blacksmithes in the behalfe of themselves & the rest of the blacksmiters within this Colony. Shewing & informing this Court that whereas heretofore Coles have been in this Country sold them for 30s a chaldron now of late they are raysed to 4 L lacking but 2s chaldron and moreover that they are forced speedily to buy the m at that great price or els they can not be gotten for money but are bought up & sent away into other parts of this Continent, ... and yor peticoners conceive that unless some speedy remedy be found out to help & prevent these mischeifes their trade will be much hurt and the common wealth deeply prejudiced.

Therefore yor peticoners in this case humbly crave the Advice & help of this Court shal dayly as their duty is pray for yor health & prosperity & the publicke."

No recorded evidence is seen of acquiescence to this request, but an entry of September 1642 calls the attention of the governor and magistrates to "Goodman Morrell's petition" which may have been the one quoted.

On March 2, 1640-1, Thomas Carter and Edward Jones were chosen constables and took the oath of office, but official life does not seem to have run smoothly for Thomas and he must have been very careless or forgetful for on September 7, 1641, he was fined six shillings eight pence "for warning the jury men too late & for a rong day, wch was two dayes too late". No other evidence is seen of official activity on the part of Thomas... Thomas retained his [blacksmith] shop and probably operated it until his death.

He is recorded as owning nine tracts of varying size in Charlestown on two of which houses stood. What appears to have been his home (listed as "houes, barn and garden") lay between present Monument Avenue and Pleasant Street, north of "WindMill Hill" or Town Hill. In May 1640, when Charlestown asked for a grant of land for an outlying settlement-- which in 1642 was formally named Woburn-- Thomas acquired a share or lot and purchased an equivalent adjoining tract, making a total of one hundred and thirty-five acres. In 1647 he made a deed of gift of one half of this property to his son-in-law William Green and in 1649-50 he gave the other half to his son John Carter.

He appears to have donated a gift of L1-2-0 to Harvard College in 1652, shortly before his death.

Legacy

The will of Thomas, dated May 5, 1652, made careful provision for his wife Mary during her life; made bequests of land to his sons Thomas, Samuel and Joseph, as well as to his daughters Hannah and Mary; gave a cow and heifers to John and made bequests to four grandsons, Caleb and Joseph Carter (sons repectively of Samuel and Joseph) to John Greene and to John Brinsmeade. The inventory of his estate taken June 25, 1652 included his tools, iron, steel, etc. and a L14 value in the services of his "servant Matthew Scotchman," whose cost of emigration Thomas had evidently paid. Thomas died between May 5 and June 25, 1652, and on September 10, 1653, widow Mary and her sons Samuel and Joseph asked the advice of the General Court about the disposal of the bequests the deceased had made to his four grandsons, suggesting that the L10 legacies be delivered to the respective parents with the additional proportionate shares from the sale of certain property, the said parents giving security to the executors to protect the widow's life rights in the property as well as their own children's rights. The court gave its approve to this plan.

Subsequently the three brothers, Thomas, Joseph and Samuel had filed another petition with that court and received the ruling on November 12, 1659, that the case should be settled in the Middlesex County Court. The next move was made on April 3, 1660, when the last named court "impowered Thomas, Samuel and ensign John Carter, as trustees to improve the estate appteyning to children of their brother William Greene, deceased, and in order thereto they are impowered to demand and receive the same where or in whose hands soever they shall find any part thereof." As a consequence, these trustees proceded legally against Michael Bacon.

In 1656-7, widow Mary was recorded as holding the right to pasture, on the town commons, four and one-quarter cows-- which doubtless would have been interpreted as four cows and either a sheep or a calf. She lived on until March 6, 1664-5, being recorded as "Mother of the Carters in town."

Son John Carter was identified as "brother" on William Green's will; he was also overseer of and witness to the same will.

In 1658-9, a division of common land in Charlestown was made to "Widow [Mary] Cartar" as well as to her sons Thomas and Samuel.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6} 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)
   1:142-45.
2.   First Church (Charlestown, Massachusetts), and James Frothingham, ed. Hunnewell. Records of the First Church in Charlestown, 1632-1789. (Boston, Mass, 1880).