GEORGE WATSON
Source: Ancestry.com
Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-33
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GEORGE
WATSON
ORIGIN:
Unknown
MIGRATION:
1631
FIRST RESIDENCE:
Penobscot
REMOVES:
Plymouth by 1634
OCCUPATION:
Mariner. Impressed with the barque of which he was master, 3 May
1653 [PCR 3:29].
FREEMAN:
In "1633" Plymouth list of freemen
between those admitted 1 January 1633/4 and those admitted 1
January 1634/5 [PCR 1:4]. He is in the 7 March 1636/7 list of
freemen [PCR 1:52], and in the Plymouth section of the 1639,
1658, 29 May 1670 and 1 [blank] 1683/4 Plymouth Colony lists of
freemen [PCR 5:274, 8:174, 197, 202].
EDUCATION:
He signed the coroner's inquest into the death of James Glasse
[PCR 3:16] and other documents. His inventory included
"books" valued at 13s.
OFFICES:
Grand jury, 4 June 1639 [PCR 1:126]. Jury on highways, 1 February
1640/1 [PCR 2:7]. Arbiter, 5 March 1643/4, 6 October 1659, 29
October 1667 [PCR 2:69, 3:174, 7:139-40, 142]. Jury, 2 January
1637/8, 1 September 1640, 1 September 1640, 2 March 1646/7, 8
June 1654, 6 March 1654/5, 5 March 1655/6, 7 March 1659/60, 6
March 1661/2, 2 October 1662, 3 March 1662/3, 5 March 1666/7, 1
March 1669/70, 7 June 1670, 29 October 1670, 29 October 1673 [PCR
2:111-12, 3:75, 5:42, 7:7, 17, 18, 70, 77, 95-6, 102, 105, 108,
136, 159, 163, 186]. Coroner's jury on the body of James Glasse,
26 July 1652, 5 June 1678 on the body of Samuell Drew, 8 March
1678/9 on the body of Thomas Lucase of Plymouth and 28 October
1684 on the bodies of Joseph Truwant and Israell Holmes of
Marshfield [PCR 3:16, 5:263, 6:8, 148].
Plymouth
selectman, 5 February 1665[/6], 13 October 1667 [PTR 1:82, 91].
Constable, 6 June 1660, 5 June 1666, 5 June 1672 [PCR 3:187,
4:124, 5:90]. Overseer of surveying, 7 January 1638/9, 10 January
1661[/2] [PCR 1:109, PTR 1:45]. Manager of exchange of Plymouth
land, 21 February 1663[/4] [PTR 1:60].
In Plymouth section of 1643 Plymouth Colony list of
men able to bear arms [PCR 8:188].
ESTATE:
In 1635 he purchased a house and garden in Plymouth from John
Jenny [PCR 12:51]. On 14 March 1635/6 he was allowed the rest of
the meadow at Island Creek with Mr. Hicks and the next year it
was allowed again [PCR 1:40, 56]. On 5 February 1637/8 he was
granted four acres [PCR 1:76]. On 7 May 1638 with others he
petitioned for land towards the Six Mile Brook [PCR 1:83]. He
purchased three acres from William Bradford in 1639 [PCR 12:51].
He was granted six acres of marsh meadow in Greens Harbor 20
November 1640 [PCR 1:167].
On March 1651 George Watson was one of those with interest in the
town's land at Punckateesett over against Rhode Island [PTR
1:37]. On 17 March 1654 Goodman Watson was granted "a little
slip of meadow above the bridge ... at the South meadows"
[PTR 1:208]. On 24 May 1662 George Watson's request for land at
Mannomett Ponds caused Plymouth to select men to take charge of
disposing of lands [PTR 1:47]. On 27 October 1662 he was on a
list of men requesting meadow at the lower south meadow [PTR
1:49].
On the same day he was granted fifty acres of upland at Mannomett
Ponds [PTR 1:51]. On 22 March 1663 George Watson shared lot
twenty-two at Puncateesett Neck with John Shaw Sr. [PTR 1:67]. On
14 April 1664 the six acres belonging to George Watson, which he
bought of George Bonum, was acknowledged to him and an exchange
of three acres for two acres was ordered [PTR 1:75].
On 14 March 1663 "Gyles Gilbert of
Taunton," yeoman, sold to George Watson of Plymouth, yeoman,
the land that had been bequeathed to him by his father Mr. John
Gilbert [MD 34:23, citing PCLR 3:1:19]. James Davis, sometimes of
Plymouth, seaman, sold to George Watson of Plymouth, seaman,
"five acres of upland ground lying on the south side of the
town of Plymouth"; Mr. Nathaniel Souther, yeoman, sometimes
of Plymouth, sold to George Watson of Plymouth, seaman, half an
acre of marsh meadow in Plymouth; these two instruments were
recorded on 18 November 1664 [MD 34:22, citing PCPR 3:1:18].
In a deed acknowledged on 29 October 1670
"Nathaniell Masterson living at York in New England"
resigned to George Watson of Plymouth "all my right of a
house and garden which was my father's at Plymouth" [PCLR
3:181].
On 22 August 1681 George Watson of Plymouth, seaman,
sold to Joseph Bartlett Sr. of Plymouth, yeoman, a parcel of land
at Mannomett Ponds in Plymouth being one-third of a tract granted
by the town to George Watson, William Harlow Sr. and Nathaniel
Morton Sr. [PCLR 5:158] On 9 December 1681 George Watson of
Plymouth, mariner, deeded to "Elkanah Watson my dear and
natural son" the seventh lot in the Freeman's Land [PCLR
5:108].
On 28 October 1681 George Watson of Plymouth
acknowledged that he had exchanged land with Mr. Edward Gray [PCR
6:76].
The inventory of George Watson, taken 2 February 1688[/9],
was untotalled and included no real estate [PPR 1:37; Gen Adv
1:43].
BIRTH:
About 1602 based on age at death (but this is probably
exaggerated by about five years).
DEATH:
Plymouth 31 January 1688/9, "being 87 years of age"
[PChR 1:262].
MARRIAGE:
About 1635 Phoebe Hicks, baptized St. Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey,
Surrey, 15 March 1614/5, daughter of ROBERT HICKS of Plymouth;
she died at Plymouth on 22 May 1663 [PCR 8:23].
CHILDREN:
i JOHN, b. say 1636; living in 1660 [PCR
3:186]; no further record.
ii PHOEBE, b. say 1638; m. Plymouth 22
January 1657[/8?] Jonathan Shaw [PCR 8:17], son of JOHN SHAW.
iii MARY, b. say 1642; m. Plymouth 21
August 1662 Thomas Leonard [PCR 8:23].
iv SAMUEL (twin), b. Plymouth 18 January
1648[/9] [PCR 8:5]; d. 20 August 1649 [PCR 8:8].
v ELIZABETH (twin), b. Plymouth 18
January 1648[/9] [PCR 8:5]; m. Plymouth 28 November 1667 Joseph
Williams [PCR 8:31].
vi JONATHAN, b. Plymouth 9 March 1652
[PCR 8:13]; no further record.
vii ELKANAH, b. Plymouth 25 February
1656 [PCR 8:16]; perhaps m. Mercy Hedge, daughter of WILLIAM
HEDGE.
ASSOCIATIONS:
George Watson was not son of Robert Watson of Plymouth and
Windsor, since there was no such person (see ROBERT
WATSON in Phantom File).
COMMENTS:
On 19 July 1631 George Watson testified regarding the activities
of EDWARD ASHLEY at Penobscot [MHSP 45:495].
George Watson appears in the list of freemen immediately
preceding the court of 1 January 1632/3, but it is likely that he
was actually admitted freeman in early 1634. The names
immediately preceding his were admitted at the court of 1 January
1633/4. There then begins a column of names headed by "The
rest admitted afterwards," which starts off with five men
for whom there is no record of admission, and then seven who were
admitted on 1 January 1634/5 (James Cudworth through Henry
Rowley).
Since in both Plymouth and Massachusetts colonies men were made
freemen at or immediately before a meeting of the court, we can
assume that George Watson and his four cohorts were admitted at
some court between 1 January 1633/4 and 1 January 1634/5. The
only courts recorded during this interval were held in late March
of 1634, and this is very likely the time when George Watson was
admitted. The other four men surrounding him on the list of
freemen, and probably admitted at the same time, are all known to
have been in Plymouth in 1633 or earlier. Since George Watson was
not in either of the tax lists of 1632 or 1633, and married about
1635, it may be that he had just finished a term of servitude in
the winter of 1633/4 and did not yet have any property. This
would further suggest that he may have come to Plymouth as a
servant of one of the families which arrived in 1629.
On 6 February 1636/7 George Watson and others were
fined for trading with the Indians for corn [PCR 1:50].
On returning home with a load of wood, George Watson
and his servant John Bond went to unload the wood, but Bond
bumped the mare and she ran away with him on the cart, and he
leapt from the cart in front of the wheel and was crushed, as the
coroner's jury ruled 23 July 1661 [PCR 3:223].
On 3 May 1664, George Watson and others complained
that the whole town of Taunton suffered as a result of James
Walker neglecting to leave a sufficient passage for the herrings
to go up river [PCR 4:57].
On 1 May 1660 George Watson petitioned the court in
behalf of "his son John Watson and his nephew John
Banges" that Samuel Hickes was entered in error as the
purchaser of their land, when Mr. Robert Hickes should have been
entered [PCR 3:186].
Phoebe and Mary are included as daughters of George
Watson because there was no other Watson family in Plymouth at
this time, the chronology is right, and Phoebe would have been
named for her mother.
On 6 March 1665/6 George Watson was granted
administration on the estate of Mrs. Margarett Hickes, deceased
[PCR 4:117].