Sampson Mason

• General Notes
  • Sampson Mason
    October 27, 1676
    Plymouth Colony Wills 3(2):50-51
    #P287
    
    The Inventory of Sampson Mason
    
    An Inventory of the estate of Sampson Mason [...MS torn...] tuenty seauenth of October 1676
    
    L s d
    
    Impr: his wearing apparrell; one blacke Cloth suite [...MS torn...]
    
    Item 1 homemade suite briches and dublitt [...MS torn...]
    
    Item 1 Cloth Coate and wastcoate and a paire of trousers [...MS torn...]
    
    Item 1 Red wastcoate a paire of briches & old Coate 00 1[MS torn]
    
    Item 2 hatts and two paire of drawers 00 10 00
    
    Item 3 shirts three Capps and 9 bands and two handkercheiffes 00 13 00
    
    Item 2 paire of Gloues a paire of Mittens and a tobacco box 00 06 00
    
    Item 7 paire of stockens an apron and smale boxes 00 18 00
    
    Item a paire of shooes and a lether apron 00 03 00
    
    Item 5 pillows a bolster Couerlidd a paire of sheets & a blankett 03 00 00
    
    Item a Flocke bed 2 bolsters a sheet a blankett and a Rugg 02 10 00
    
    Item a bed 2 bolsters a paire of sheets Couerlid & bedstead 03 15 00
    
    Item a bed bedstead a bed matt & Coard 02 10 00
    
    Item 2 blanketts a sheepskin Rugg 2 a Couerlidd & a bolster 02 05 00
    
    Item a bed stead & Coard and a paire of sheets & a paire of
    
    pillow bears 01 10 00
    
    Item 2 smale peeces of New holland and a TableCloth 00 07 00
    
    Item 3 towells & 4 yards of New Penistone 01 00 00
    
    Item 2 yards 4 a halfe of homade Cloth & 4 yards of kersey 01 15 00
    
    Item 6 yards of serge 5 shillings per yard 01 10 00
    
    Item a paire of stockens and 14 yards of New Cloth 03 00 00
    
    Item 4 yards of homemad Cloth 00 16 00
    
    Item a bearing blankett and a Childs Coate 00 12 00
    
    Item 9 yards of homadecloth 01 10 00
    
    Item 2 blanketts and 12 pound of Cotten yerne 03 10 00
    
    Item 2 Guns 2 L a harquebusse 15s 02 15 00
    
    Item 2 Cuttleaxes powder and bulletts 01 12 00
    
    Item 1 blankett & a knapsacke 00 12 00
    
    Item 80 pound of sheeps woole 20 pound of Cotten woole & Flax 03 00 00
    
    Item 3 Chests a bow and a Case with 12 bottles 01 06 00
    
    Item 5 pewter platters & 8 peeces of pewter & 8 spoones 02 05 00
    
    Item earthen ware & wooden ware & trenchers 01 00 00
    
    Item 2 stone Iuggs and 2 pichers and a glass bottle 00 07 00
    
    Item a warming pan and 2 frying pans 00 15 00
    
    Item a Great brasse kettle and 2 skilletts 01 00 00
    
    Item 4 Iron potts and an Iron kettle 02 10 00
    
    Item a smale brase kettle a spitt a box Iron & a Gridiron 01 05 00
    
    Item a paire of Andirons & 2 pott hangers 00 15 00
    
    Item a looking Glasse and an houre Glass & 3 lampes 00 10 00
    
    Item a Great Gratter and a wooden bottle and other small things 00 04 00
    
    Item 4 spining Wheeles & 4 Chaires 01 02 00
    
    Item a Great bible Mr Baxters euerlasting Rest & other books 01 00 00
    
    Item 13 or 14 Iarrs and six barrells and 2 tubbs 02 02 00
    
    Item 2 meate tubbs [2?] Great hogsheds & other wooden lumber 01 10 00
    
    Item a Cradle 2 pailes and a pecke 2 Cherns 2 Cheesefatts 00 17 00
    
    Item a warming pan lead a brush 4 paire of Cards 00 08 00
    
    Item 2 tables 2 stooles 1 seiue and three basketts 00 10 00
    
    Item shoomakers tooles viz: lasts kniues and all other shoomakors
    
    Inatruments and alsoe Currying kniues 10 00 00
    
    Item in sole lether and vper Lether 08 00 00
    
    Item 2 Chaires a paire of Fetters & 3 hoes & 2 beetle Ringes and 3
    
    wedges and a stubb sythe a pitch fork and pickaxe 02 00 00
    
    Item in mony 14s pins a pursse & Combe 00 16 00
    
    Item 2 paire of plow Irons 3 Narrow axes 02 00 00
    
    Item 3 sythes with Nibbs 4 Rakes with a Gindstone 01 05 00
    
    Item a Cart and wheels boxes hoopes and Cart Ropes and yoakes and a plow 03 00 00
    
    Item 2 saddles 2 bridls and a pannell 01 15 00
    
    Item Ioyners tooles 01 05 00
    
    [The following two items are written in the left hand margin:]
    
    more linnin and woollen yerne 00 15 00
    
    3 sheets a Case for a bolster and 3 pillowbers 01 15 00
    
    [51]
    
    [...MS torn...]okes and hingges bill hookes & hatchell 01 05 00
    
    [...MS torn...] hookes a peece of a spade & drawing kniffe 00 05 00
    
    [...MS torn...]mp braked & vnbraked and Flax 02 10 00
    
    [...Ms torn...] about 50 bushells of Indian Corne 05 00 00
    
    Item about 15 bushells of Rye 02 10 00
    
    Item 2 oxen 08 10 00
    
    Item 3 Cowes and 2 Calues 09 00 00
    
    Item one 4 yeer old steer & 5 yeerlings 10 00 00
    
    Item 1 horse and mare 03 00 00
    
    Item 7 younge swine 03 10 00
    
    Item 10 sheep 03 00 00
    
    Item 15 load of hay 07 00 00
    
    Item 6 baggs bandeleers powder hornes 00 14 06
    
    Item 1 trusse 00 02 06
    
    Item 8 Gallans of traine oyle 01 00 00
    
    Item 2 trusse Irons tarr and Rosen 00 06 00
    
    Item 4 hiues of bees 01 16 00
    
    ---------------
    
    sume totall 155 19 00
    
    Aprissed by vs the day and yeer before specifyed
    
    Phillip Walker
    
    Daniell Smith
    
    Forgotten 7 peckes of salt 2 Goat skins dressed 4 sheep skins 3 bushells of wheat 4 bee hiues 3 or 4 pound of feathers
    
    Mary Mason the Relict of the deceased Sampson Mason tooke her oath to the truth of this Inventory the 17th of Nouember 1676 before mee Iames Browne Assistant.
    
    Plymouth Colony Wills, Vol. III, part 2, f. 50-51.
    
    3 of 3
    
    Sampson Mason
    
    Sampson Mason was at Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1649 according to the town records.  In a history of the Baptist Church in New England, it is stated that he had been a soldier in Cromwell's Army, and upon a turn of events, came to New England, where he then settled in Rehoboth, Massachusetts.  It is unlikely that he was actually in Cromwell’s army, as times, dates and facts tend to tell otherwise.  It’s believed today that the Cromwell story was fabricated by a descendant to put their ancestor in a better light.
    
    Sampson was a shoemaker by trade, a valuable member of the new colony where men with skills were considered an asset to any town trying to set out and flourish.  Besides being a shoemaker, Sampson was a land speculator as well, hoping to make money or if lucky enough, a fortune off land.  Sampson would be married to Mary Butterworth, daughter of John and Mary (Lanbotham) Butterworth.
    
    Around1650 he purchased land in Rehoboth.  Records indicate that he also sold some land there around this time.  In 1657, he and his wife and three children were living in Rehoboth.  Records show the children had been born there.  Sampson was engaged in extensive land speculation at this time.  He owned land in the Rehoboth North Purchase, which later became Attleborough.  He was one of the original Proprietors of Swansea at the town's incorporation in 1668.  In 1669, the birth of his 11th child was recorded in the Rehoboth Records as "born near Providence Ferry". It is probable that the family was then living on a tract of land at Watchemoket Neck, now East Providence, Rhode Island.
    
    Sampson was an original Proprietor of Swansea.  Swansea was founded as a Baptist town, despite the objections from the orthodox faith of the New England Puritans.  The followers of Elder John Myles organized the town as a Baptist settlement.  The Elder Myles had been a pastor in the town of Swansea, Wales, and had been deprived of his church in Wales at the time of the Restoration.
    
    He and several of his followers had left Wales to seek religious freedom.  The new Swansea settlement finally won the approval of the Massachusetts Bay Colony on March 5th of 1668 and the "the Town of Swansey, Township of Wannamoisett and the parts adjacent were established".  It was at this time Sampson Mason was converted to the Baptist faith by Elder Myles. Mr. Mason was then allotted 12 acres in the town.
    
    Sampson Mason died in 1676. His burial was recorded in Rehoboth on September 15th of 1676.  At his death he left a considerable personal estate consisting of several hundred acres.  His widow, Mary, spent the rest of her years with her daughter, Mary, who married Elder Ephraim Wheaton, then pastor of the First Baptist Church of Swansea.
    
    In his will he left ninety five acres of land at Watchemoket, and a smaller parcel of eight acres with a house near the ferry.  It is very possible the family occupied one of these houses for a short time.  The family homestead was located farther inland, within the present town of Seekonk, Massachusetts.  From the will he left and a list of possessions at the time of his passing, it can see he did quite well in life, most likely from the land speculation he took part in.