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4 TEXT Date of Import: 14 Jan 2004
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John Heard was listed as one of the planters who founded
Piscattaqua Plantation, later incorporated as Kittery,
according to Underhill. He appears in the Kittery area records
by 1640, where he was punished for entertaining Quakers. His
son's name was James, according to GDMNH.
John and his family were residents of Sturgeon Creek, a part
of Kittery previously known as Piscataqua, Maine. He was
persuaded to settle in Kittery by John Treworgy in 1646. A
deposition by John Witt states that:
"This deponent John Whitt doeth saye that Mr. Treworgy
did solicit Jon Heard divers times, for to come live at the
marsh, and told him that if he would sett down a howse ther hee
should have what marsh hee would and convenient upland to his
howse: and upon that Jon Heard and his wife came up to Kittery,
and she did keepe John Treworgy howse while that her husband
did build his howse at the creek."[:ITAL]
In 1653 the town of Kittery authorized John Heard and others
to build a meeting house:
" it is ordered that Charles Frost, James Neal, James
Emery, W. Chadbourne, Icho:Plaisted, John Heard, have ye
authoritee to select a lott yett undisposed and build thereon a
meeting house as they shalle judge meets for ye goode of ye
inhabitants."[:ITAL]
There is evidence of two men by the name of John Heard who
lived in the Kittery area in the mid 1600s. The other John
Heard was likely John Heard (1620-1688) who came from Batcombe,
Somerset, England. He immigrated to New England in 1635 in the
group led by the dissident Anglican minister, Rev. Joseph Hull,
and was most likely was a servant. He married Rev. Hull's
daughter, Elizabeth and became a master carpenter. One source
lists this second family as also having a son, James. GDMNH
notes that this John Heard was sometimes distinguished from the
other by spelling his name "Hurd". The similarity of names --
two John Heards, each with a son, James, and wives named Eliza
and Elizabeth, respectively, makes it difficult to identify a
given reference to John Heard as belonging to one man or the
other.
Copyright 2001 by J.C.Bryan. All Rights Reserved.
Information on this person may be used for private, non-commercial research only. No part may be copied or reproduced in ANY format for profit.