Thomas Hett

• General Notes
  • ORIGIN: Folkingham, Lincolnshire
    MIGRATION: 1635
    FIRST RESIDENCE: Cambridge
    REMOVES: Hingham 1637, Rehoboth 1645, Hull 1647, Malden 1653, Charlestown 1658
    OCCUPATION: Cooper.
    CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: Admission to a Massachusetts Bay church (presumably Hingham) prior to 14 September 1642 implied by freemanship. (This date is just five weeks after his wife was excommunicated from Boston church.)
    FREEMAN: 14 September 1642 (as "Thom[as] Het") [MBCR 2:292]. "Thomas Hitt" was propounded for Plymouth Colony freemanship on 4 June 1645 [PCR 2:84].
    EDUCATION: His inventory included "two books ... and two Bibles 10s."
    ESTATE: On 20 August 1635 "Tho[mas] Heate" received a proportional share of one in Cambridge meadow land [CaTR 13].
       In the Cambridge land inventory "Thomas Heate" on 5 September 1635 held three parcels of land: "in the town one house with backside"; two acres in the Great Marsh; and two acres on Small Lot Hill [CaBOP 16]. (These three lots were acquired by Thomas Marriot [CaBOP 52].)
       In 1637 his land in Hingham abutted land of Thomas Barnes [NEHGR 143:50]. On 1 September 1640 "Thomas Hett of Hingham, cooper," purchased five acres in Hingham from Thomas Shave, planter, late of Hingham [Lechford 82, 84]. On 8 August 1664 he sold three acres in Hingham to Daniel Lincoln [SLR 4:55].
       On 25 January 1659[/60] John Cutler of Charlestown sold to Thomas Hett of Charlestown "one dwelling house with a garden plot adjoining ... in Charlestown ... formerly in the possession of Mr. Richard Russell" [MLR 2:167-69]. On 16 January 1660[/1] William Clough of Charlestown sold to Thomas Hett of Charlestown a parcel of land in Charlestown "formerly in the possession of Mr. Joseph Hills" [MLR 2:169-70]. On 3 December 1666 Francis Willoughby of Charlestown, merchant, sold to Thomas Hett of Charlestown, cooper, sixty poles of land in Charlestown [MLR 3:246-47].
       Administration on the estate of Thomas Hett of Charlestown was granted on 16 June 1668 to "Eliphelett Hett & Thomas Hett sons" of the deceased [MPR Case 3:10]. The inventory of the estate of "Thomas Hett of Charlestowne deceased" was taken 10 June 1668 and totalled £547 2s. 11d., including real estate valued at £383: "the dwelling house he lived in and the ground belonging to it," £200; the ground thereunto belonging, £170; "a piece of ground lying in the marsh," £7; "one woodlot on Mistickside," £3; and twenty acres, £3 [MPR Case #11201]. The long list of debts totalled £188 3s. 10d. [MPR Case #11201].
       On 10 September 1669 Eliphalet Hett of Boston, cooper, sold to John Hayman of Charlestown, ropemaker, "a small piece ... of marsh ground ... sometimes possessed by his father Thomas Hett deceased, purchased of Samuel Adams and to him granted by the selectmen of Charlestown" [MLR 5:16]. In 1677 (day and month not stated) Thomas Hett of Charlestown "with the good liking of my dear mother widow Hett, and the consent of Dorothy my wife," sold to William Everton of Charlestown, innkeeper, part of his backyard; signed by Ann Hett, Thomas Hett and Dorothy Hett, and acknowledged by them on 5 November 1677 [MLR 6:96].
       On 22 September 1681 "Anna Hett, widow of Tho[mas] Hett Senior, Thomas Hett, Hannah Hurry & Mary Frothingham, heirs of the aforesaid Thomas Hett Sr. & of Anna the abovesaid widow, all of Charlestown," sold to William Everton of Charlestown a parcel of land in Charlestown, "part of the garden of us Anna Hett & Thomas Hett &c." [MLR 8:398].
       On 8 July 1692 Hannah Hurry of Charlestown, spinster, Mehetable Turner of New Cambridge, spinster, and Mary Frothingham of Charlestown, spinster, "daughters and coheirs of Anna Hett late of Charlestown deceased, and Dorothy Hett, relict widow of Thomas Hett late of Charlestown aforesaid, son of the said Anna Hett, on behalf of herself and her children," sold to Funnell Everton of Charlestown "one half part of a dwelling house and one half part of all the land lying beside the said house" in Charlestown "sometime the possession of Thomas Hett deceased andfrom him divided unto the abovesaid Anna Hett, [our] mother, by an instrument under his hand and seal" [MLR 11:132].
    BIRTH: By about 1612 based on estimated date of marriage. He was son of Ann (_____) Hett of Folkingham, Lincolnshire, and was under twenty-one on 10 May 1624 when his mother named him in her will [NEHGR 64:239-40].
    DEATH: Charlestown 6 June 1668 (as "Thomas Hett Senior of Charlstown, cooper") [ChVR 1:57].
    MARRIAGE: By 1637 ANNE NEEDHAM (see her sketch). She was admitted to Boston church as member #100 in the winter of 1630/1 [BChR 14]. After being cast out and restored to the Boston church, she was dismissed on 6 April 1653 to the church in Malden [BChR 54], and on 22 January 1670/1 (as "Anne Hitt an ancient widow") she was admitted to the church in Charlestown [NEHGR 23:435]. She died at Charlestown on 30 November 1688, "aged woman" [ChVR 1:140]. (Wyman gives her age at death as seventy-five, without giving his authority [Wyman 496].)
    CHILDREN:
        i   HANNAH, b. by 5 August 1637 when mother Anne threw her child into a well, but someone nearby saved her [WJ 1:282]; m. by about 1662 William Hurry [Wyman 534; MLR 8:398, 11:132].
    
        ii   ELIPHALET, bp. Boston 26 May 1639 [BChR 284]; m. Boston 1 September 1660 Ann Douglas, daughter of Henry Douglas [BVR 76; TAG 27:95-97].
    
        iii   THOMAS, b. about 1644 (drowned by falling out of a canoe 11 June 1692, aged forty-eight [ChVR 1:153]); m. Charlestown 8 January 1666/7 Dorothy Edmunds [ChVR 1:24].
    
        iv   MEHITABLE, bp. Boston 23 April 1648 [BChR 310]; m. Charlestown 3 October 1673 Increase Turner [ChVR 1:88].
    
        v   MARY, bp. Boston 15 July 1649 [BChR 316]; m. Charlestown 6 December 1667 Nathaniel Frothingham [ChVR 1:25], son of WILLIAM FROTHINGHAM.
    
        vi   ISRAEL, b. Malden March 1654; no further record.
    
     
    
    COMMENTS: Thomas Hett is not recorded in New England before 1635, but his wife, ANNE NEEDHAM, was a member of the Boston church in late 1630 or early 1631 [BChR 14]. (In a list dated 7 January 1632/3 "Thomas Heate" was responsible for maintaining two rods of fence, but this list was actually compiled at a later, uncertain date [CaTR 5], and so does not place him in New England in 1632 as has been claimed.)
       On 10 September 1647 "Tho[mas] Hett of Hull, cooper, late of Stockingham in Lincolnshire," made a letter of attorney to Ephraim Child of Watertown, to receive all rents and arrearages for a house of his in Stockingham leased to Henry Taylor [Aspinwall 85]. (From other evidence we know that Thomas Hett was from Folkingham in Lincolnshire, and no parish of Stockingham exists; a scribal or transcriptional error has been made in Aspinwall.)
       On 5 May 1646 Plymouth Court ordered "the constable of Rehoboth, to attach the body of Thomas Hitt, to find sureties for his appearance at the next General Court, &c., to answer for having a hand in the said affray made upon Ussamequin, &c.; and also for his contempt in not appearing this Court" [PCR 2:99]. On 2 June 1646 "Thomas Hitt, of Rehoboth, for taking part with Cheeseborrow in the affray made upon Ussamequin and his men, is fined twenty shillings, & for his contempt" [PCR 2:103].
    BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE: In her survey of early settlers of Hull, Massachusetts, Ethel Smith prepared a brief treatment of the family of Thomas Hett [NEHGR 143:50-51].
    
    
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    ORIGIN: Folkingham, Lincolnshire