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ADAM HAWKES OF SAUGUS, MASS
1605-1672
On arrival in America Adam Hawkes first settled in Charlestown in
the Massachusetts Bay Colony, where he was a husbandman. There he
married Anne (Brown) Hutchinson, a widow with four sons and a daughter.
These children grew up in the household of Adam and Anne Hawkes, and all
were named in the settlement of Adam's estate following his death. Anne
may have been the sister of Nicholas Brown who settled first in Saugus
and later in Reading, Massachusetts, son of Edward and Jane Lide Brown
of Inkberrow, Worcestershire, England although no birth record has been
found for her in the parish records of Inkberrow. Or she may have been
related to one of the several people named Browne who came with the
Winthrop Fleet from Hawkdon, Suffolk, England. Anne's former husband,
although listed in Mormon records as William Hutchinson, may have been
Thomas Hutchinson listed by Banks as having come to Charlestown with the
Winthrop Fleet from London, who because a member of the church there
1630 and then marked "dead." Anne's children by her first husband,
surname Hutchinson were: Samuel b. cs 1617/18, ELIZABETH b. 1622 ( m.
1650 to Isaac Hart) Edward b. ca. 1624, Thomas b and Francis b ca
1630.
Prior to the fleet's arrival, preparations had been made
for the new settlers, and the beginnings of a town laid out. In the
summer of 1628 Ralph, Richard and William Sprague traveled 12 miles
through woods from Salem and found a hill on a small but heavily wooded
peninsula, between the Mystic and Charles Rivers were there were many
Indians called Aberginians, who chief, John Sagamore, was willing for
white settlers to come. One white man was already there: Thomas Walford,
a smith who had a thatched and pallisadoed house part way up the hill
near the Charles River. Then in June 1629 Mr. Thomas Graves, engineer,
came with 100 of the Company's servants; they built the Great House for
the Governor and laid out streets and two acres house lots; they started
to build houses and fences. When the fleet arrived a few of the leaders
were housed at the Great House, but most of the settlers set up "booth"
(huts) and tents of cloth, and slept on the ground. Many were sick on
arrival; others became ill; many died. Provisions were dwindling; the
water supply was limited and poor. However, they proceeded to found a
church and on July 30th the four founders, Governor Winthrop, Deputy
Governor Dudley, Mr. Isaac Johnson, and the Reverent John Wilson
subscribed to the Covenant. Nearly 100 men and women united with the
church, a small proportion of all the settlers, and Adam Hawkes' name is
not among them. The following month the first General Court was held and
church officials were chosen. Later the Governor and most of the people
moved across the river to what is now Boston because of the sickness,
deaths, and especially the poor water situation. Although there were
lakes and fresh water streams nearby, at that time it was believed that
drinking water must come from springs, and the only spring available to
them was under salt water at each high tide. So many went to settle in
Watertown, others to Dorchester, etc. Budington quotes Johnson's
Wondrous Works of Providence", Chapter 17: The grief of this people was
further increased by the sore sickness which befell amongst them, so
that in almost every family lamentation, mourning and woe was heard and
no fresh food was to be had to cherish them; it would surely have moved
the most locked up affections to tears, no doubt, had they passed from
on hut to another and beheld the piteous case these people were in." It
has been estimated that between April 1630 when they left England and
the December following, at least 200 died. Numerous artisans, yeomen and
merchants felt constrained to move off the peninsula also to improve
their status. The impetus to migrate can be attributed to a variety of
factors, not the least of which was connected with their exclusion from
the evolving oligarchy of the new town.
Adam Hawkes continued to
live in Charlestown until 1634, having married the widow Anne Hutchinson
about 1631. (She is not to be confused with the famous Anne Marbury
Hutchinson, her contemporary, who was banished from the Massachusetts
Bay Colony for religious reasons). He was a husbandman who held the town
offices of Cow Commissioner and Surveyor, and was called "Mister", a
term denoting status. There appears no record of his becoming a freeman
or a church member, although there is a record of Anne's admission to
church membership on September 2, 1634. Adam Hawkes needed land for his
increasing livestock and the little peninsula between the Charles and
the Mystic Rivers did not afford this. Also, their first child, John, b.
ca 1731 did not survive and health conditions were not conducive to the
survival of further progeny. In August 1633 the twins, John and Susanna
were born; later that year an epidemic of smallpox struck the
Aberginians on the peninsula, and December of that year their chief,
John Sagamore, died. On January 10, 1635/6 Adam sold his four acres of
planting ground at Charlestown to N. Easton and J. Sibley. The family is
next heard of in Saugus, an agricultural community about eight miles to
the north.
(References: Genealogies and Estates of Charles town, by
Wyman---Charlestown, MA First church records 1632 - 1789, Church history
by Budington 1845 -Founders of Early American Families 1607-1757 by
Meredith Colket 1975, New York Register, From Emigrants to Rulers; The
Charlestown Oligarchy in the Great Migration by Ralpoh J. Brandall and
Ralpoh J. Coffman. Charles< Mass, by Hunnewell 1888. Note: Many early
vital records of Charlestown are missing, due to fire there during the
Revolutionary War.
THE YEARS AT SAUGUS
It is not known
exactly when Adam left Charlestown for the more ample agricultural acres
of Saugus or whether the family made the journey by boat up the
meandering Saugus River or overland by ancient Indian trails or perhaps
a rough, newly laid road. Either way, it must have been a real
undertaking with his wife and two infants and five step children as well
as the livestock, the household goods, and the farm implements! He had
sold his property in Charlestown in 1635 and he received land in the
first division in Lynn in 1638. It seems probably that the move was
close to the earlier date. In 1930 a marker was placed by the
Massachusetts Bay Tercentenary Commission near the site of his first
habitation at the intersection of what is now the Newburyport Turnpike
and Walnut Street in North Saugus. It reads "Adam Hawkes, the first
white settler in Saugus built on this site about 1630. President John
Adams was his grandson." This legend must be evaluated in the light of
present day knowledge regarding his residence from 1630-1635 in
Charlestown; more clearly he was the first white man at the particular
site in North Saugus as there are others recorded earlier in Saugus,
which was in the beginning the name for all of Lynn. Further, John
Adams, President of the United States of America, may be more accurately
shown to be Adam's great great great grandson.
(Ref.: Commemoration
address 11872 Adam Hawkes Family Association by E. F. Smith,
Unpublished)
Adam chose a rocky knoll for the site of his first home
there, later to be known as Close Hill at Hawkes Corner as it had a
small field enclosed by a stone wall called a close. The Lynn Union of
27 October 1882 states, " Adam evidently had an eye to the beautiful as
well as the practical when he selected this beautiful part of the
country for his chosen home. The land was free from rocks, rich in soil
and easy of cultivation and his immediate successors and descendants
hold it still in the family name not withstanding more than two and half
centuries have passed since he first set foot on it." Another century
has passed and still a small part of the original home site remains in
the ownership of the Adam Hawkes Family Association and part of the old
stonewall remains. This site, though only about eight miles from the
former home in Charlestown was far up the winding Saugus River with
nothing beyond save the wigwams of the local Indians.
Traditions
die slowly. One of these as published in an undated, yellowed news
clipping says, " Adam Hawkes, founder of the family, settled on the spot
in 1729 after having been given 500 acres of land by the King of
England." It had been told that he was a soldier and performed some
special services for the king for which he was duly rewarded. No
documentary evidence has ever been produced to verify this or in fact
the several claims to different coats of arms. Contrary to this is
another story that Adam "filled up one of his mines on the supposition
that it contained silver." According to Colonial Law, a large percentage
of any silver discovered belonged automatically to the king. Historical
fact on the other hand tells us the following: On the 15th of November
1737, by record of the General Court, the name Saugus was changed to
Lynn in honor of the Reverend Samuel Whiting who came there from Old
Lynn in Norfolk, England. A town meeting was held and Daniel Howe,
Richard Walker and Henry Collins chosen a committee of three to divide
the lands. The land was laid out in those parts best adapted for
farming. Woodlands were reserved as common property and not divided
until 69 years later. In 1638 the committee completed its task, listing
proprietors and their allotments. The original book has been lost, but a
copy of the first three pages is preserved in the files of the Quarterly
Court at Salem, Mass. One page three is "Adam Hawkes, up land, 100
acres." Also noted on page one is the name of Nicholas Browne, 210
acres, and on page three, Samuel Hutchinson , 10 acres, Samuel was the
oldest of Adam's step children, just old enough to claim title to
property in his own right. The index to early deeds in Essex County does
not appear to include 17th century transactions of land; however, we
know from the probate records of Adam's estate that before his death he
had increased his holdings in Saugus to over 554 acres.
Compiled by Ethel Farrington
Smith
Contributed to Genealogy Trails by Mrs. Carole Dick
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