In 1691-92, Mordecai Lincoln built the Lincoln Mills on Bound Brook - both grist and saw mills.
Mordecai died "suddenly of an apoplexy". Occupation: blacksmith.
"In his will of May 3, 1727, proved 27 March, 1728, provides liberally for w. Mary; gives 'to son Mordecai £110 in lawful bills of credit, to son Abraham £60 in money or good bills of credit; besides what he hath already received; to son Isaac the house he now dwells in in Hingham, mill property,' etc.; 'to son Jacob my homestead in Scituate, also land, mills, and other valuables;' 'to the eldest child of my sons Mordecai, and Abraham; to the two children of my deceased daughter Elizabeth Cole; to the eldest child of my daughter Sarah Tower; to Deborah Gannett, my wife's granddaughter; and to Mary Gannett, my wife's daughter.' Provision is also made for sending three of his gr. ch. to coll., should they desire a liberal education. Inv. £3099 14s. 8d. 'Blacksmith;'and the proprietor of iron-works, saw-mills, and grist-mills. Resided in the sec. pre., and at Scit. near Hing. line."
Thomas Mayhew Sr, known even to this day on Martha's Vineyard as "The Governor", immigrated to Massachusettes in 1631/2 as an agent for a London merchant. He quickly entered into prominance in the political and business life of the 'boom' years of Puritan immigration, the 1630's. In the 1640's he acquired the title to Martha's Vineyard and followed an advance settlement of that island by his son by several years. There he established a minor 'fiefdom' of his own, ruling the island with singular authority and nepotism. Following the death of his son Thomas in 1657, he continued the missionary work to the Indians begun by Thomas, establishing the basis for 5 generations of missionary work to the natives. He also entrenched his political authority on the Island when the lands of Martha's Vineyard were transferred to the Duke of York in 1663 by petitioning the Duke and once again being granted sole authority on the island. Surviving, at the age of 81, a rebellion against his autocratic rule by over half the population of the island in 1673, he left firmly established family control of Martha's Vineyard to his grandson, Matthew Mayhew.
Thomas Mayhew, an English merchant and a settler of Watertown, Massachusetts, not far from Boston, bought in October, 1641, from Lord Stirling and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, through their agent James Forcett, the islands of Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, and the Elizabeth Islands. Lord Stirling and Sir Gorges having received their right of ownership from the English Crown.
The same year, Mayhew sent his son Thomas, with a few families to settle on his new purchase. They landed at a place they called "Great Harbor," later named Edgartown. The place of landing is not definitely known but there is reason to believe that it was between Collins's wharf and Tower Hill. Young Mayhew compelled all his company to purchase their lands from the Indians. We can find in the old records at Edgartown where the first settlers had their grants of lands, for many of the deeds are written in the Indian as well as the English language. The following year, 1642, Governor Thomas Mayhew came to the Vineyard with other settlers. He brought domestic animals, tools, and many things which were needed to start a new colony.
Among the families that were here in 1650 we find the names of Butler, Bland, Smith, Burchard, Daggett, Folger, Bayes, Trapp, Norton, Pease, and Vinson.
[from the book MARTHA'S VINEYARD by Henry Franklin Norton. Copyright 1923 by Henry Franklin Norton and Robert Emmett Pyne, Publishers.]
OCCUPATION: Tanner (Vineyard)/ Innkeeper (Attlebrough)
Not really a lot is known about Thomas Daggett, even though he was the assistant deputy to his father in law in the governorship of Martha's Vineyard. For what little is known about him it would be important to see the biography of his wife, Hannah. Thomas evidently was born either in England or came to America in his mother's womb, for he is recorded as being born the same year that his father's family came to this country with Governor Wintrop. He evidently had strong connections with Reheboth and Attleborough falls, for he's recorded as buying 50 acres there from his brother John. Thomas' son John eventually left Martha's Vineyard to live in Attleborough Falls in 1712, where evidently a strong contingent of the extended family had settled.
Hannah was evidently quite a woman. When she turned 18 in 1653 she was the only woman on the list of lots of Martha's Vineyard divided up by the proprietors. As Dr. Charles Banks observed: "About four years later she surrendered her name to Thomas Daggett, but from subsequent views which we can obtain of her it was about the only thing she surrendered. It could be fairly stated that Thomas Daggett was merely the husband of Hannah Mayhew. She was the Governor's favorite daughter and she knew it."
She may have been a very early feminist. Over succeeding years 10 little Daggetts came along, but Hannah wasn't rocking the cradle all the time. Twenty real estate transactions are of record under her name and she did the business herself. This was unusual at the time and it appears to have caused some strain in a marriage where the woman refused to be known merely as the 'wife of Thomas Daggett.' Towards the end of the old Governor's life the son-in-law evidently attempted to exercise some control over his wife's business, forcing the Governor in 1679 to extract a "promise" from Thomas not to do so, referring to that promise in his will: "My son Daggett hath given a note under his hand not to meddle with aught (of Hannah's property)"That she was the 'Deputy Governor" of Martha's Vineyard it seems that she was bound and determined to maintain the control that her father had placed and maintained on the little island. Following about 1660 the Governor had increased resistance to his little autocracy, and his daughter. She evidently carried on the good fight for him, for in 1675, in a letter to the Governor of New York explaining some of the problems the people were having with Governor Mayhew Simon Athearn wrote "Thomas Dagget's wife, Mr. Mayhew's daughter (which woman the people of Martins Vineyard very generally call the deputy governor...". This was towards the end of the governor's life, he was still well in hand of the government of the island, but as Banks writes, "All this while Thomas Daggett had been holding the office of assistant to the Governor, and theoretically 'rulling the land' but no one can have any illusions as to the real 'power behind the throne'".
When the governor finally died and his grandson Matthew took over the duties of governor, Hannah's contributions to the life of Martha's Vineyard drop out of the record books. It's possible that she prudently stepped aside for a nephew who didn't want her meddling, or she continued to 'rule' behind the scenes. We'll never know. She remained a widow for 10 years after her husband's death in 1691 whereupon, at the age of 70, she remarried to Samuel Smith of Edgertown and lived another 10 years.
[Source: Banks, Dr. Charles E., 'The Deputy Governor of Martha's Vineyard', ( The Dukes County Intelligencer, pub. by Dukes County Historical Society, Inc., Edgartown, MA, August 1962, Vol. IV, No. 1, pp 14-16)[File 49b]
Occupation: cordwainer, yeoman
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