EBENEZER 4 CURTIS, SON OF ISAAC 3 AND MEHITABEL (CRAFT) CURTIS, OF NEW BRAINTREE, ATHOL, AND WARWICK, MASSACHUSETTS By Steven T. Beckwith and H. Allen Curtis Martha, wife of Ebenezer Curtis, recently was established in her rightful place in the genealogical scheme of things, as the daughter of the Rev. Benjamin and Dorcas (Whiting) Ruggles. 1 Now, it is time for her husband, Ebenezer Curtis, to be established similarly. The literature has opposing views as to Ebenezer s parentage. One book states without proof that he was the son of Israel Curtis. 2 Another book also without proof presents Ebenezer as the son of Isaac and Mehitable (Craft) Curtis. 3 The intent of this article is to prove that Isaac and Mehitable were, indeed, Ebenezer s parents. Much is known about Martha Ruggles s husband, Ebenezer Curtis, but there is no adequate published evidence showing that his parents were Isaac 3 Curtis (Isaac 2, William 1 ) and Mehitabel (Craft). 4 The history of Ebenezer Curtis, the known son of Isaac and Mehitabel, begins with his birth in Roxbury, Massachusetts, on 29 January 1734. 5 Isaac and Mehitabel s children were as follows: Rebecca, born 29 May 1730, Isaac, born 4 November 1731, Ebenezer, born 29 January1734, Hannah, born 23 January 1735/6, Nathaniel, born 6 August 1738, Patience, born 28 May 1740, and John, born 23 November 1742, all in Roxbury. 6 1 Steven T. Beckwith and H. Allen Curtis, Martha (Ruggles) Curtis, Daughter of Benjamin and Dorcas (Whiting) Ruggles of New Braintree, Massachusetts, New England Historical and Genealogical Register [NEHGR] 157(2003):221-28. 2 Katherine E. Conlin, Wilma Burnham Paronto and Stella Vitty Henry, Chronicles of Windsor, 1761 1975 (Windsor, Vt, 1977), 8. 3 A Genealogy of the Descendants of William Curtis, Roxbury, Mass., compiled by Harold E. Curtis with the Assistance of Helen Fitch Emery, being an Extension of and Additions to Records of the Descendants of William Curtis of Roxbury, 1632, 2 pts., pt. 1 #189.5, typescript at New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, (hereafter cited as Curtis, Descendants of William Curtis ). (The earlier book, Samuel C. Clarke, Records of Some of the Descendants of William Curtis, Roxbury, 1632, was published at Boston in 1869.) 4 Steven T. Beckwith and H. Allen Curtis, Martha (Ruggles) Curtis, NEHGR 157(2003): 221-28. 5 Vital Records of Roxbury, Massachusetts, to the End of the year 1849, 2 vols. (Salem, Mass., 1925-26), 1:84 [birth], 2:99 [parents marriage] (hereafter cited as Roxbury VRs). 6 Roxbury VRs, 1:84-86. (There had also been two earlier sons named Isaac who had died in infancy, the 1st b. 26 April 1728 and d. 20 July 1728, the 2nd b. 1 May 1729 and d. 10 Oct. 1730.)
Isaac Curtis signed his will on 18 April 1748. 7 He bequeathed one-third of his estate to his well beloved wife Mehitabel during her lifetime. To his eldest son, when he reached the age of 21, Isaac bequeathed two full shares (a double portion). To each of his other sons he bequeathed one full share at the age of 21. To Mehitabel fell the responsibility of managing the estate until Isaac Jr., the eldest son, came of lawful age to enable her to provide for and bring up the children. On 23 May 1748, a little over a month after signing his will, Isaac Curtis died in Roxbury in his 63rd year. 8 Mehitable Curtis and Samuel Curtis [her brotherin-law], as executors, presented the will for probate to Judge Thomas Edward Hutchinson on 21 June 1748. 9 On 20 October 1748, Ebenezer s sister Rebecca married Joseph Ruggles in Roxbury. 10 The groom was the son of Captain Joseph Ruggles, a brother of the Rev. Benjamin Ruggles. 11 In other words, young Joseph Ruggles was Martha Ruggles s cousin. At the time of the wedding Benjamin Ruggles and his family were living in Middleborough, Massachusetts. 12 Also, at that time Martha Ruggles was 11 years old and Ebenezer was 14. If the Benjamin Ruggles family journeyed about thirty miles from Middleborough to Roxbury, then that is probably where Martha and Ebenezer first met. This marriage was not the first between the Curtis and Ruggles families. These families were intertwined for more than a century from when they were living in Nazeing, Essex, England. It was there that Thomas 1 Ruggles (greatgrand father of Benjamin Ruggles) married Mary Curtis on 1 November 1620. 13 Mary was the sister of William 1 Curtis who settled in Roxbury in 1632. 14 This means that Martha Ruggles and Ebenezer Curtis were third cousins once removed. On 30 March 1753, Ebenezer signed a letter of guardianship allowing his uncle, Jonathan Craft, to act in Ebenezer s name regarding financial matters. This agreement was to be in force until Ebenezer became 21 and received his inheritance. 15 Ebenezer s younger siblings (with the exception of John, who 7 Suffolk County, Mass., Probate, 41:244-45 [FHL Film #493,869]. 8 Roxbury VRs, 2:500 [death]. 9 Suffolk Co. Probate 41:245. 10 Roxbury VRs, 2:100. 11 Henry Stoddard Ruggles, The Ruggles Family... (n.p., 1892), 56. 12 Beckwith and Curtis, Martha (Ruggles) Curtis, NEHGR 157(2003):221. 13 Beckwith and Curtis, Martha (Ruggles) Curtis, NEHGR 157(2003):221 14 Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins, Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Vol. I, A-F (Boston, 1995), 499. 15 Suffolk Co. Probate 47:553, case #10372.
apparently had died) signed similar guardianship letters. 16 At this late date (almost five years after the death of Isaac Curtis), the signing of the guardianship letter may indicate that Ebenezer s mother, Mehitabel, sister of the guardian, Jonathan Craft, had died or remarried. Neither her death nor a marriage to a second husband is recorded in Roxbury. 17 Ebenezer Curtis, son of Isaac, may have remained in Roxbury until 1755 when he could collect his inheritance. There are no documents showing when he left Roxbury or where he moved. Hence, let us turn our attention to Martha Ruggles s husband Ebenezer Curtis. This Ebenezer s three New Braintree, Worcester County, Massachusetts, deeds will now be examined in detail. The first of these deeds shows that he was a resident of New Braintree and that he was a blacksmith. On 2 June 1756, he purchased New Braintree property from William Johnson, a blacksmith. One of the witnesses to the signing of the deed was Samuel Clark Paine, whose property, as described in the deed, abutted Ebenezer s newly acquired land. Of much importance is the fact that the other witness was an Isaac Curtis. Also, according to the deed another of Ebenezer s new neighbors was Caleb Benjamin. 18 On 2 May 1757, Ebenezer Curtis acquired a small addition to his earlier New Braintree property. 19 He purchased the land from the Barrets: Josiah, his wife Mary, and his sister Hannah. This land was also adjacent to land owned by Ebenezer s neighbor, Samuel Clark Paine. One of the witnesses of the deed signing was another neighbor, Caleb Benjamin. The second witness was Eleazer Warner, also a resident of New Braintree. 20 On 7 October 1760, Ebenezer Curtis and his wife, Martha, sold all of their New Braintree property, including their house and other buildings, to Wareham Warner, also of New Braintree. 21 Wareham was the son of Eleazer Warner. 22 The witnesses to the signing of the deed were Ebenezer s neighbors Caleb Benjamin and Caleb s wife, Martha. All three of Ebenezer s deeds were witnessed by New Braintree residents with the one exception, Isaac Curtis, for whom there is no 16 Suffolk Co. Probate 47:554-55, case #s #10373-75 (the bonds for Hannah and Nathaniel exist both in the files and in the record book, but the bond for Patience has survived only in the file). 17 Roxbury VRs does not include her death under Curtis or Craft and their spelling variations; William F. Crafts, The Crafts Family: A Genealogical and Biographical History of the Descendants of Griffin and Alice Craft of Roxbury, Mass., 1630-1890 (Northampton, Mass., 1893), 84 (hereafter cited as Crafts, Crafts Family). 18 Worcester Co., Mass., Deeds, 39:3. 19 Worcester Co. Deeds, 38:389. 20 Eleazer Warner d. in New Braintree on 28 Feb.1776 at the age of 90 (Vital Records of New Braintree, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850 [Boston, 1904], 157). 21 Worcester Co. Deeds, 52:55. 22 Wareham was born to Eleazer and Prudence Warner on 1 Nov. 1730 in Hardwick across the Ware River from New Braintree (Thomas W. Baldwin, comp., Vital Records of Hardwick, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850 [Boston, 1917], 117).
documentary evidence that he was a local resident. This Isaac was probably Ebenezer s older brother who may have accompanied him temporarily to New Braintree. Considered together, these three deeds support the conclusion that Martha Ruggles s husband Ebenezer was the son of Isaac and Mehitabel (Craft) Curtis. Another deed provides comparable evidence as to Ebenezer s parentage. Ebenezer and Martha lived a few years in Warwick, Massachusetts. In November of 1768, Ebenezer Curtis sold his Severance farm property to John White of Roxbury. 23 The deed more precisely says that Ebenezer sold the property to John White and his wife Esther. 24 John White married Esther Whitney in Roxbury on 8 March 1745; Esther was the daughter of Daniel and Susanna (Curtis) Whitney of Roxbury. 25 Susanna was the daughter of Isaac and Hannah (Poly) Curtis and the older sister of Isaac Curtis. 26 Isaac Curtis was born on 10 November 1685 in Roxbury and married Mehitabel Craft also in Roxbury on 13 April 1727. 27 Hence, Esther (Whitney) White was Ebenezer s first cousin. Onomastics also provide corroborating evidence: Ebenezer and Martha named their children John (after Ebenezer s youngest brother), Hannah (after his younger sister), Ebenezer Jr. (after himself), Lucy (after Martha s older sister), Nathaniel (after Ebenezer s younger brother), Sally (after Martha s aunt Sarah), and Joseph (probably after Martha s cousin and Ebenezer s brother-in-law). 28 More circumstantial evidence has to do with Ebenezer s learning his blacksmith trade. Ebenezer s mother, Mehitabel, was born in Roxbury on 14 October 1702 to Nathaniel and Patience (Topliffe) Craft. 29 A little over two years after Patience died, Nathaniel Craft married his second wife, a widow, Hannah (White) Davis, on 24 May 1722 in Roxbury. 30 Hannah s first husband, Ebenezer Davis, was a blacksmith who specified in his will that one of his three sons -- Ebenezer, Jr., Nehemiah and Aaron was also to be a blacksmith and would inherit his shop in Roxbury. 31 Ebenezer, Jr., Nehemiah and Aaron were 18, 14 and 13 years of age, respectively, when Nathaniel Craft became their stepfather. 32 Since the brothers died in Roxbury in 1774, 1785 and 1777, 33 respectively, they all would be in their prime of life from 1748 to 1755, the years that Ebenezer 23 Beckwith and Curtis, Martha (Ruggles) Curtis, NEHGR 157(2003):223. 24 Hampshire Co., Mass., Deeds 9:269. 25 Dr. L. M. Harris, A Branch of the Whitney Family, NEHGR 12(1858):216-17. 26 Curtis, Descendants of William Curtis, #189 27 Curtis, Descendants of William Curtis, 189-1. 28 Beckwith and Curtis, Martha (Ruggles) Curtis, NEHGR 157(2003):227-28. 29 Roxbury VRs, 1:78 [birth]; Crafts, Crafts Family, 52 [for Patience s surname]. 30 Roxbury VRs, 2:91; Crafts, Crafts Family, 52. 31 Samuel Forbes Rockwell, Davis Families of Early Roxbury and Boston, (North Andover, Mass., 1932), 39 (hereafter cited as Rockwell, Davis Families). 32 Rockwell, Davis Families, 122, 123. 33 Rockwell, Davis Families, 122, 123.
Curtis would have been an apprentice and then a journeyman blacksmith working in a Roxbury blacksmith shop. During those years Ebenezer s step-grandmother was alive and well; 34 she would have brought Ebenezer and her blacksmith son together as apprentice and teacher, respectively. The concluding circumstantial evidence is concerned with Ebenezer s possible thoughts of someday moving to Roxbury-Canada while he was a youth living in his hometown of Roxbury. Warwick had formerly been a plantation, indifferently called in the records Gardner s Canada and Roxbury Canada. 35 Both of those names were related to the tragic 1690 expedition to Canada in which all but one of the men, mostly from Roxbury and Brookline and led by Captain Andrew Gardner, were lost. 36 Second in command to Capt. Gardner was Lieutenant Samuel Craft. 37 Nathaniel Craft, (Mehitabel s father), was Lieutenant Craft s son. 38 On 4, June 1736, the House of Representatives of Massachusetts approved a grant of Roxbury-Canada land to Samuel Newell, the only survivor, and to the nearest surviving relative of each of the men lost in the 1690 expedition. 39 One of the grantees was Nathaniel Craft, the only surviving son of Samuel Craft. Nathaniel was awarded another grant since he was the only surviving brother of Joseph Craft. 40 It seems unlikely that Ebenezer would not have heard from his mother Mehitabel of the 1690 expedition to Canada and the part that his great grandfather Samuel Craft had taken in it. Recently there has come to light new, unpublished information about Ebenezer Curtis. Though not evidence concerned in proving his parentage, it is worthwhile reporting on the new discoveries in concluding this article. Ebenezer and Martha joined the Orthodox Church of Warwick, Massachusetts, as members 55 and 56, admitted by letter of dismission from their former church in Athol. 41 This Congregational Church was formed on 3 34 Rockwell, Davis Families, 53 35 Inventory of Town and City Archives of Massachusetts, No. 6, Franklin County (Boston: Mass, 1942), 5. 36 Theodore F. Jones, Roster of the Expedition of 1690 to Canada, NEHGR 99(1945):307-14. 37 Jones, Roster of the Expedition of 1690 to Canada, NEHGR 99(1945):308. 38 Crafts, Crafts Family, 52. 39 Jones, Roster of the Expedition of 1690 to Canada, NEHGR 99(1945):307. 40 Jones, Roster of the Expedition of 1690 to Canada, NEHGR 99(1945):308. 41 The Ledger of the Orthodox Church of Warwick, Massachusetts, 3. (Only three pages remain of membership records from the time the church was formed in 1760 to about 1764; missing are all pages up to the 1800s. In 1975 the safe in which the ledger was kept was stolen. Eventually, the ledger was recovered but with the loss of the aforementioned pages. The ledger is now in the capable hands of Mr. Charles Brown of Warwick.) [Editor s Note: The First Congregational Church of Warwick was founded in 1760; in 1834 the First Church became Unitarian. In the meantime, the Trinitarian Congregational Church was founded in 1829 in response to the growing Unitarian tendencies in the First Church. Apparently original records of the 1760 church that still existed eventually went to the Trinitarian or Orthodox Church. See Rev.
December 1760, the day its first minister, Rev. Lemuel Hedge was ordained. 42 According to the church ledger, twenty-six (thirteen men and their wives) signed the Covenant, but five of them (two men and three wives), not having their letters of dismission, were not yet considered to be members of the church. Members 57 and 58, Josiah Pomeroy and his wife, became the parents of a daughter, Olive, on 16 August 1763. 43 If the Pomeroys joined the church before that date to allow Olive to be baptized, Ebenezer and Martha Curtis may also have joined in 1763. The other discovery was made by a researcher friend: In 1768 Joseph Lawrence sold a piece of Athol, Worcester County, Massachusetts, land. The deed s description states that on the land is a farm, called Ruggles farm. 44 Then in 1770 Lawrence sold an adjoining piece of land whose deed description included the following: This Athol land was part of that which the General Court granted to the Rev d Mr. Ruggles, now minister of New Braintree. 45 These facts led the Joseph Lawrence researcher to look through all the deeds for which Benjamin Ruggles was the grantor. Surprisingly, it was in a deed written in 1778 that significant information about Joseph Lawrence s properties in Athol was found. In the description of the land that Benjamin Ruggles was selling to his grandson Samuel Ruggles, the former wrote that the land was a part of that granted to him by the General Court on 13 May 1752. He further said that he had sold 100 acres of the granted land to Ebenezer Curtis. 46 That is the exact size of the combined two Athol properties that Joseph Lawrence had owned. It is known that Ebenezer Curtis and family moved from New Braintree to Athol probably soon after selling their New Braintree land to Wareham Warner in late 1760. 47 Now, it has become further known that the Curtis family lived on the Ruggles farm in Athol. About the time they moved to Warwick, they apparently sold the Athol property to Joseph Lawrence. Ebenezer must have had two unrecorded Athol deeds, one in which he was the grantee and the other the grantor. Theophilus Packard Jr., A History of the Churches and Ministers,... in Franklin County, Mass... (Boston, 1854), 397-406; Harold Field Worthy, An Inventory of the Records of the Particular (Congregational) Churches of Massachusetts Gathered 1620-1805, Harvard Theological Studies, 25(Cambridge, Mass., 1970):642-43; and Richard H. Taylor, The Churches of Christ of the Congregational Way in New England (Boston Harbor, Mich., 1989), 123] 42 John Warner Barber, Historical Collections, Being a General Collection of Interesting Facts, Traditions, Biographical Sketches, &c., Relating to the History and Antiquities of Every Town in Massachusetts (Worcester, Mass., 1848), 274. 43 Copy of Records of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, in the town of Warwick, No. 1,*4 [FHL Film #1,888.692]. 44 Worcester Co. Deeds, 69:152. 45 Worcester Co. Deeds, 63:552. 46 Worcester Co. Deeds, 95:120. (The authors extend their sincere thanks to Tom Krakow of Chapel Hill, NC for sharing his discovery of Ebenezer Curtis s Athol homestead.) 47 Beckwith and Curtis, Martha (Ruggles) Curtis, NEHGR 157(2003):223.
Steven T. Beckwith <stevenbeckwith@oh.rr.com> of Bay Village, Ohio, and H. Allen Curtis <buncurtis@juno.com> of Williamsburg, Virginia, are both descended from Ebenezer Curtis. Mr. Beckwith, is a former president of the Greater Cleveland Genealogical Society