Samuel Varnum (abt. 1619 - aft. 1702)

Biography

Samuel Varnum immigrated to New England as a child during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640).

Samuel Varnum was born probably in England about 1619 (deposed 30 March 1668 "aged about forty-nine years";^[1] and deposed 25 Sept 1683 "aged sixty-four years").^[2] He was the son of George Varnum and his wife Hannah, whose maiden name is unknown. ^[2] His place of birth is not yet proven.

By 1635, he, his parents and sister immigrated to Massachusetts Bay Colony, and they settled in Ipswich.^[2] His father's name was mentioned on 20 April 1635 in the Ipswich town meeting as holding a neighboring lot to a houselot granted to a Mr. Foster.^[3]

He married about 1645-1656, Sarah Lancton, daughter of Roger Lancton of Ipswich and Haverhill.^[4][5][6][7] No record of their marriage has survived.

On 21 April 1649, Samuel was mentioned in his father's unsigned will, and he was named as one of two executors:

• The 21th of the 2th mounth 1649 - I George Varnam of Ipswich being in pfect memorye, doe ordayne this my last will and testament as followeth. first I Giue my house and barne & lands and goods and chattells to my wife for her life And after hir decease Two pts of all my estate to my sonne Samuell Varnum and the third pt to my daughter Hannah to be eqaually deuided. And my meaning is if my sonn dye without Issue, my whole estate is to returne to my daughter Hannah, and further soe long as she remayne vnmaried is to enioye a chamber in my house; and I doe apoynte Thomas Scott and my sonn Samuell to be my executors.^[8]

At least six sons and two daughters were born to Samuel and Sarah in Ipswich and Chelmsford. They moved to Chelmsford, on the south side of the Merrimack River which was garrisoned because of Indian attacks.^[5] It is said that Indians came in and assisted the mother when one of his sons was born.^[5]

On 18 March 1676, Indians killed his two oldest sons while crossing the river to milk the cows. He pastured his cattle on the north side of the Merrimack. One morning while crossing in a boat with his two sons and daughter to milk the cows, with a guard of soldiers, they were fired upon by Indians in ambush as the boat struck the shore. The two sons at the oars were killed, one of whom fell back into his sister Hannah's lap as she sat behind him. She was about 16 at the time. The soldiers were so much alarmed as not to fire until called on by the father, who tired, the oarsmen being both dead. The Indians fled. His sons were buried in Howard's field near the river.^[5]

There is no record of the death or burial place of Samuel, but his death did not occur until after 1702, when his name is found affixed to a petition for authority to lay out the town of Dracut.^[9] His cenotaph (meaning he died elsewhere) at Woodbine Cemetery in Lowell incorrectly says he died circa 1698.^[10][11]

Children of Samuel and Sarah (Lancton) Varnum born Ipswich and Chelmsford:^[12][13][6]

1. George b. bef. 1659, d. March, 1676 - killed by Indians
2. Samuel b. bef. 1659, d. March, 1676 - killed by Indians
3. Abraham b. 18 Oct 1659 Ipwich, d. young.
4. Sarah b. ca 1660 m. (1) John Hobson, (2) Philip Nelson.^[14]
5. Hannah b. 22 May 1661 Ipswich, m. Ezra Colburn
6. Thomas b. Nov 19, 1662 Ipswich, m. Joanna Jewett
7. John b. 15 Oct 1669 Chelmsford, m. Dorothy Prescott
8. Joseph b. 15 Mar 1672/3 Chelmsford, m. Ruth Jewett, Mary Barron

Land/deed records

• 1664, January 10 - A deed by John Evered alias Webb for "Drawcutt on Merrimack in the County of [old] Norfolk, to Richard Shatswell and Samuel Varnum of Ipsiwch for £400 paid for one half of the farm of Drawcutt, except the fields and the houses, barnes structures edifices and buildings and the garden, the field mentioned to be called the upper field and three acres of the lower field below the log fence next the barne, to containe 1100 acres. These "excepted" acres were purchased by Edward Colborne in 1668.^[9] Dracut was on the north side of the river. He lived on the Chelmsford side of the Merrimac for some time after his purchase of Drawcutt because the garrison allowed protection against the Indians.^[15]

• 1668, September 30, Samuel purchased a large tract of land on the Merrimack River from John Webb and his wife Mary for £1300.^[9]

• 14 Nov 1698, Deed of Conveyance: there appears in the Middlesex Records of Deed a conveyance of "all my visable estate lands and movables" to his sons, Thomas, John and Joseph in which his wife joins. He was then 79 years of age. He was a subscriber to the petition to the General Court in 1702 for authority to lay out the town of Dracutt, at which date he was 83.^[15]

Military

Samuel Varnan served under Manning as noted in an accounting on 24 April 1676^[16] in the Narragansett Campaign (King Phillip War). After a time, peace was made with the Indians and he settled on his land in Dracut, being the first settler in the place.^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ Essex County (Mass.). Quarterly Courts, Essex Institute, and George Francis Dow, [Institute, 1914), Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts (Salem, Mass. : Essex Institute, 1914). Vol. 4:3
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Great Migration 1634-1635, T-Y. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2012.) Originally published as: The Great Migration, Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume VII, T-Y, by Robert Charles Anderson. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2011. p. 172, George Varnum's profile citing EQC 9:104; ILR 5:14. (Link by $ubscription)
3. ↑ Ipswich (Mass. : Town) and George A. Schofield, The Ancient Records of the Town of Ipswich: Vol. 1- from 1634 to 1650 (Chronicle motor press, 1899). Unpaginated.
4. ↑ Anderson, Great Migration, Vol. VI, T-Y, p. 172, citing GM 2:4:228-30. (Link by $ubscription)
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4} Childs, Isaac. "An Account of the Varnum Family from their First Coming to America From England." NEHGR Vol. 5(1851):79-81. (Contains significant errors about their origins.)
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} Tingley, Raymon Meyers. [ Some ancestral lines : being a record of some of the ancestors of Guilford Solon Tingley and his wife, Martha Pamelia Meyers. Rutland, Vt. : Tuttle, 1935. Page 195.
7. ↑ Clarence A. Torrey, compiler, New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Boston, Mass. : New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Page 1568. (Link by $ubscription.)
   • • "by 1659, ca 1645/50?, say ca 1656" citing McIntire Anc. 267, 273, 277; Colburn-Coburn 18; Farnham 48; Varnum 9, 117; Tingley-Meyers 195; Reg. 5:79
8. ↑ Essex County Probate Records, Vol. 1, 1644-1673, Vol. 1, page 113, Will of George Varnam (1649) (transcription), Clerk of the Circuit Court, Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1 9.2} Coburn, Silas R. History of Dracut, Mass., (Lowell, MA: Courier-Citizen Co., 1922), p. 417-8, 425-6.
10. ↑ Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 07 August 2019), memorial page for Samuel Varnum (1619–1698), Find A Grave: Memorial #20214321, citing Woodbine Cemetery, Lowell, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA ; Maintained by Denise (contributor 46820671). (This memorial currently contains lot of inaccuracies. ~~~~)
11. ↑ Cemetery Transcriptions from the NEHGS Manuscript Collections, 1650-2000. LOCATION: Dracut, Middlesex, Massachusetts. CEMETERY NAME: Woodbine Cemetery. TEXT: Samuel Varnum Born 1619. Died about 1698.
12. ↑ VRs of Ipswich, Vol. 1:374
13. ↑ VRs of Chelmsford, p. 159.
14. ↑ Jewett, Frederic Clarke, History and Genealogy of the Jewetts of America, Volume I, The Grafton Press, New York, 1908. Page 52.
15. ↑ ^{15.0 15.1} Varnum, John Marshall, The Varnums of Dracutt (in Massachusetts) (Boston, Mass. : D. Clapp & Son, 1907) pp. 9-13. Archive.org.
16. ↑ Carole Doreski, Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and New England Historic Genealogical Society, Massachusetts Officers and Soldiers in the Seventeenth-Century Conflicts ([Boston, MA] : Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts : New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1982), p. 239.
    • "Varnan, Samuel, [Date of Accounting] 4/24/76, [Commanding Officer] Manning"

• Ellis, Mary Rebecca.The House of Mansur. Jefferson, Missouri: Hugh Stephens Press, 1926. Page 23.
• Sargent, Sharon, "Descendants of GEORGE (Varnham) Varnum and Hannah" (Link via Wayback machine, 20 Oct 2009 archive date, accessed 03 Aug 2022.) Essentially unsourced but provides clues and descendants for many generations. Note: suggests that this family originated in Lilibourne, Northamptonshire, England, but without source.