Essex County, Massachusetts Biographies ADAM HAWKES OF SAUGUS, MASS 1605-1672 Compiled by Ethel Farrington Smith Contributed to Genealogy Trails by Mrs. Carole Dick 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. ©2006 K. Torp Genealogy Trails