General Notes

[Joanne's Tree.1 GED.GED]

2  SOUR S332582
3  DATA
4  TEXT Date of Import: 14 Jan 2004


[daveanthes.FTW]

Ancestral File Number:<AFN> 83QH-3B
George came to America on the Mayflower.

Family of George SOULE (1) <RR01_001.htm> & Mary BUCKETT OR BECKET
2. John SOULE, Son, M. Born abt 1623 in Plymouth C, Plymouth C, MA.<../RR_SRC.htm> John died in Duxbury, Plymouth, MA on 14 Nov 1707, he was 84.<../RR_SRC.htm> Buried in Their gravestones are standing in the old Duxbury cemetery, leaning and weather-beaten.<../RR_SRC.htm><../RR_SRC.htm>MIDDLEBOROUGH was first settled in 1632 by the people from Plymouth. Twelve years had elapsed since the first settlement by the Pilgrims and as their number had greatly increased by emigration larger allotments of land were required by the inhabitants and gradually the boundaries of the bay were occupied. Evidently there were families settled in Duxbury before 1630-1631; but they returned to Plymouth in the winter for privileges of public worship as well as because of their exposed position which might invite an attack from the Indians at such a remote distance from the possibility of immediate assistance. Among the first settlers in Duxbury were seven of the signers of the civil compact in the cabin of the Mayflower in November, 1620,one of them being George Soule who sat down beside his old friend Capt. Myles Standish, the blood of the two so soon to commingle; and the name applied to the town was derived from Duxbury Hall, the English seat of the Standish family. This territory was incorporated as a town June 7, 1637. The Indian name of Duxbury was "Mattakeesett;" but the north-western section, now Pembroke. The oldest records of Middleborough were kept in pigskin-covered volume which was notnumbered, but labelled "Early Records." Some of the leaves in this old book are in a bad condition through age and much handling and require careful repairs for the preservation of their contents. This old Register contains the earliestProprietors' Records, many municipal records and a few pages of the vital records. On the outside of the front cover is written, "John Soule built his house in ye year 1700." The records of the families of the early inhabitants were fairly well kept--their births, marriages and deaths-- in the later Town Books as well as in the old Church Registers. The old Middleborough burying ground contains many inscribed monuments to mark the places "where the fathers of the hamlet sleep." These early fathers were neighbors and walked to the house of God in company while they lived and it was fitting that they should be companionable when laid down to rest.<../RR_SRC.htm>John Soule (1), eldest son of George (1) and Mary (Beckett) Soule, was born in Plymouth, Mass., about 1623. The author will follow the reasoning of the late Rev. Francis A. Soule, a man who had accessto all of the known original records and had spent several years in a study ofthe subject. By some writers Zachariah was made the eldest son of the Pilgrim and John the fifth child. If this be correct, then the first four children wereall daughters and the last four sons, which is not at all probable. And if this theory is true the father must have been married as early as 1622-3. As George Soule stated in his will that John was his oldest son, we shall allow his name to stand in that position. If Zachariah had been the oldest and born before 1627, then it must have been four or five years earlier to make John the fifth child. The statement of George Soule in his will made Aug. 11, 1677, and foundin Duxbury Jan. 23, 1679, probably soon after his death, reads as follows: "Myeldest son who hath in my extreme old age and weakness ben tender and careful of mee and very helpful to mee and likely to be, while it shall please God to continue my life heer; therefore I give and bequeath unto my said son John Souleall the remainder of my housing whatsoever." John Soule was twice married but did not marry Esther Delano as has been repeatedly published, on the authority that she was the only woman in the colony at th