Person:Thomas Clark (191)

This Thomas Clark is know to genealogist as "Thomas Clark of Boston and Dorchester" (to contrast him to the unrelated family of the older Thomas Clark. Sr of Boston who had no relationship to this Thomas Clark and no relationship to Dorchester). He was Capt. of Artillery Company, Major of the Boston Regiment and a merchant in high credit who first arrived in Dorchester and an ancestor of President FDR.

1.   Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Directory. (Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, Jun 2015)
   68.

   Clark, Thomas: [Origin] Unknown; [Arrival by] 1638; [First residence] Dorchester, [Removed to] Boston [Sources][DTR 1:37; NEHGR 5:98; Lechford 243; DChR 4; MBCR 1:375; BChR 49; SPR Case #1274; GDMNH 148-49; TW 222-24]

2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 Noyes, Sybil; Charles Thornton Libby; and Walter Goodwin Davis. Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire. (Portland, Maine: Southworth Press, 1928-1939)
   148-49.

   THOMAS CLARK, Major, Dorchester and Boston, deposed aged ±48 in 1655, Commissioner to Maine, senior part, in Clarke & Lake, York town granted 50 acres. in New Mill Creek in 1658, Deputy (voted against hanging Quakers), Speaker, Assist., Capt. of Artillery Company, Major of Boston Regiment; was a merchant in high credit here and in England. Most of his honors were by Savage given to an older man, earlier in Boston in error. The other Sergeant-Lieut.-Capt Thomas Clark was a shopkeeper, whose son Thomas and wife Hannah was inconspicuous. Major Clark’s wife was Mary in 1640, 1662, by will 15 Aug. 1679; and he d. 13 Mar. 1683. (In contrast wife of the other Thomas Clark, shopkeeper was Elizabeth in 1646, and later Ann in 1678 and he d. 28 July 1678.) Children, b. in Dorchester: Mehitable, m. 1st Edmund Downe (1); 2d Humphrey Warren, Councilor. Elizabeth, b. 22 May 1642, m. 28 May 1661 John Freak; 2d Elisha Hutchinson.

3.   Lechford, Thomas, and James Hammond Trumbull. Note-book kept by Thomas Lechford, Esq.,: lawyer in Boston, Massachusetts Bay, from June 27, 1638 to July 29, 1641. (Cambridge [Massachusetts]: John Wilson and Son, 1885)
   243.

   link
   "John Hanset sells an house in Boston & a garden plot[4] of halfe an acre or thereabout lying next to Ralfe Mason on the south & Mr Flints house on the north to Thomas Paynter & he conveys it to Thomas Clarkc 25! 4t [2s.]" This lot of land was not the one spoken of above (p 138) as may be seen by noticing the abutters. It was on the west side of Washington Street, north of West Street. It is in the Book of Possessions under the name Thomas Clarke. I do not know exactly who this John Johnson may have been, though I suppose him to have been one of the "four Yorkshiremen" (ante p 1)...
   
   [The parish of Welton mentioned in his will below could be one of either three parishes in Lincolnshire, in Yorkshire, or Northamptonsh1re but given he was given here as a Yorkshire man we assume he is of Welton, Yorkshire but registers there have not been examined].

4. ↑ Probate indices, Suffolk Co., Mass, 1636-1894. (Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1941)
   Thomas Clarke 22 Mar 1682/3 Will volume 6, part 2, page 404 (by new pagination, p. 649).

   The will of THOMAS CLARK, dated 15 Aug 1679, proved 22 Mar 1682/3 to daughters MEHITABLE WARREN, ELIZABETH HUTCHESON; to my wife 80 pounds a year, and the use of my orchard at Dorchester; to my son WARREN; to the eldest son of daughter MEHITABLE; to son ELISHA HUTCHESON; to brother JOHN CLARKE of Welton; to sister ANN HARES; to Dorothy Muscote and to JANE Smith; to sister STOUGHTON; to cozen THOMAS SMITH; large sum of money given to build a good hospital; overseers: honored kinsman William Stoughton, Capt. John Richards, Cozen MR. WILLIAM TAILER, THOMAS SMITH; witnesses: Silvanus Davis, Jabez Salter, John Moore.

5.   Massachusetts. Massachusetts, Land Records, 1620-1986
   Suffolk, Massachusetts, Book 4, p. 275.

   dated 17 May XIV Charles II; Capt. THOMAS CLARK of Boston, merchant, stands firmly bound unto Edward Grant, of Boston, ship carpenter, £ 30; Capt. THOMAS CLARK has sold to Edward Grant and his wife Sarah, a piece of ground in Boston which was contracted for between William Ware of Boston, deed., and CLARK, money paid by Edward Grant and his wife Sarah daughter of the said Ware; MARY CLARK the now wife of THOMAS CLARK released dower; rec. 31 Mar 1665.

6. ↑ 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)
   1:401-402.

   Thomas, Boston, called jr. but thought born in England, he may not be the son of the Hon. Thomas, yet he lived probably some time, earlier or later, at Dorchester, was of artillery Company 1644, more than once its capt. rep. 1673-6 and d. 13 Mar 1683. He was one of the wealthiest merchants of Boston and by his will of 15 Aug 1679, anew delcared 22 May 1680,. pro. 22 Mar 1683, it is judged that only two children were then living. Mehitable Warren, and Elizabeth who had married 28 May 1661 Mr. John Freake and was then w. of Elisha Hutchison. To his widow Elizabeth ... It is not easy to discriminate between this Thomas and the first of the name, who was the speaker.

7.   The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society)
   124:166.

   Thomas Kemble had bought property on Moon Street from Thomas Clarke before 1676, but the deed was burned in a fire that destroyed the house in 1676. Kemble's widow, Elizabeth, was given a quitclaim, dated 29 Jan 1689, by Thomas Clarke's two daughters, Mrs. Mehitable Warren and Mrs. Elizabeth Hutchinson.

8. ↑ "New England Chronology", in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society)
   Vol. 8, p. 19.

   [From volume of interleaved Almanacks which belonged to Judge Sewall]
   Mar. 13. 1683. Major [Thomas] Clerke Esq. dyed.
   [Note: first entry of 1683 so 1682/83.]