General Notes

RFN821
BIOGRAPHY
Samuel Abbe, second son of John Abbe, husbandman, was made freeman
October 3, 1680. He married Mary Knowlton, in Wenham, October 12,
167 2; and lived first in Wenham, removing to Salem Village, now
Danvers, in 1682. He returned to Wenham in 1697, where he died in
1698. His wife, Mary, survive d him and married Abraham Mitchell.
. SAMUEL2 ABBE, son of John1 Abbe, born pr obably at Wenham, Mass.,
about 1646, or soon after his father's settlement the re; died in
Windham, Conn., March, 1697-8. His name first appears in the Wenha m
records at the time of his marriage. "Samuel Abby and Mary Knowlton
maryed the 12th October 1672."
He received a grant of ten acres of land in Wenham, an d land to
set his house upon, from his father, John Abbey, and wife, Mary, Apr il
3, 1675, his brethren to have the refusal of the place if he should
sell ( Essex Deeds, 15:150). Samuel and his wife, Mary, were
communicants of the chur ch in Wenham in 1674. He was a land surveyor
in 1676 and appears upon the town records as a      husbandman, made
freeman, October 3, 1680 (Massachusetts Re cords, 5:540).  He was named
in his father's will, 1683.
A map of Salem dwell ings in 1692, published in Volume I of
Upham's Salem Witchcraft, shows the loc ation of Samuel Abbey's house,
number 114 on a plot in the south-west part, ea st of Bald Hill, within
the 500 acres laid out to Robert Goodell in 1652 and i ts subsequent
additions.
On November 1, 1682, Samuel Abbey bought of Lott Kil lam and wife,
Hannah, of Salem, he being then of Wenham, 6 acres in Salem on
Norrice's Brook (12:112), and also bought of James Stimpson and wife,
Priscill a, who had been the widow of Isaac Goodell, at the same place,
some land in 16 84 (12:113). On April 3, 1697, he and his wife, Mary,
sold those lands describ ed as a dwelling house, two orchards, and
seventeen acres in Salem, bounding A nthony Needham, John Walcott,
Isaac Goodale, Samuel Goodale, Abraham Smith, Ab el Gardner, Joseph
Flint, and also six acres on Norrice's Brook, and two
acre s bought of James Stimpson, to Zachariah White of Lynn, all for

130 (12:147). The above James Stimpson was of Reading and had married
the widow of the elde r Isaac Goodell. At the time of Goodell's death
in 1680, the widow was adminis tratrix and Samuel Abbey was one of her
sureties. He was then probably of Sale m or possibly Topsfield.
He was admitted freeman of Salem Village, March 22, 1 689-90. He
and his wife were dismissed from the Salem Church September 15, 168 9,
to unite in forming one at Salem Village; the date of its formation
being November 15, 1689. Salem Village is now Danvers. On July 1,
1690, he was taxed at Salem Village, and again, January 18, 1694-5, he
and his son were taxed th ere.
Samuel Abbey of Salem bought of Benjamin Howard of Windham,
Conn., for
22. 10s. current money, half an allotment of land (500
acres), being number 2 at the Center, at or near the locality known
later as Bricktop. He probably re moved to Windham about that time as
he was admitted an inhabitant of that town December 21, 1697, and died
there March of the following year.
His estate wa s settled in 1699. The inventory, taken May 9, 1698,
gives as legatees, the fo llowing: wife, Mary; daughter, Mary, aged 25;
son, Samuel, aged 23; son, Thoma s, aged 20; Eleazer, aged 18 (the land
records prove that this is a mistake fo r Elizabeth); Ebenezer, aged
16; Merey, aged 14; Sarah, aged 13; Hepsibah, age d 10; Abigail, aged
8; John, aged 7; Benjamin, aged 6; Jonathan, aged 2. One r ecord says
he left a son, Eleazer, and a daughter, Abigail, each 8 years old a t
his death. This is doubtless an attempt to rectify the error noted
above.
Samuel Abbe was living in Salem during the days of witchcraft and
was one of t hose opposed to its fanaticisms. One Rebecca Nourse, on
trial as a witch, prod uced a paper signed by several "respectable
inhabitants" of Salem, among whom was Samuel Abbe. This document as to
her good ch