Capt. John CUTTING

Abt 1593 - 1659  (~ 66 years)

• Name	John CUTTING
  Title	Capt.
  Birth	Abt 1593	Ipswich, Suffolk, England?
  Gender	Male
  AFN	8JG0-JK
  Occupation	Mariner
  Will	22 Oct 1659	Newbury, Essex County, MA
  Death	20 Nov 1659	Newbury, Essex County, MA
  Probate	27 Mar 1660	Essex County, MA
  Notes	(1) Davis, Walter Goodwin, The Ancestry of Abel Lunt, 1769-1806, of Newbury, Massachusetts, Portland, ME: Anthoensen Press, 1963, pp. 81-87: Cutting is a very rare English surname, found almost exclusively in co. Suffolk. "The Cuttings are at present (1890) at home in Ipswich and its neighborhood." The name is said to have originated as a "pet-form" of Cuthbert which was, after the Conquest, a common given name in the north of England and the lowlands of Scotland. JOHN CUTTING was born about 1593, possibly in Ipswich, co. Suffolk. He gave his age as 63 in April, 1656. He married, probably about 1615, in England, Mary -. "Mr. Cutting" died in Newbury on November 20, 1659. Sometime before May, 1662, his widow, Mary Cutting, married John Miller. Mrs. Mary Miller died in Newbury on March 6, 1663/4. The identity of John Miller will be discussed later. Cutting was a master mariner, and our first record of him shows him in command of the ship Francis of Ipswich, England, "bound for New England the last of Aprill, 1634." She sailed from Ipswich with some eighty passengers on board. At about the same time, "the last of April," the Elizabeth of Ipswich left her home port carrying over a hundred passengers, among whom were Richard Cutting, aged 11, traveling with his mother, Susan Kimball, wife of Henry Kimball, whom she had married in 1628 after the death of her first husband, Richard Cutting of Great Bromley, co. Suffolk. Also on the list, but not entered with the Kimballs, was William Cutting, aged 26. Judge Savage says that the Francis and the Elizabeth sailed on the same day and reached Boston on the same day. What became of William Cutting is not known, but young Richard grew up, married and had a family in Watertown. Capt. Cutting, although he continued to follow the sea, decided to make New England his home, and brought over his wife and children, settling them in Watertown where between July 25, 1636, and June 26, 1637, he had three grants of land, the first being 60 acres in the First Division, the second 10 acres in the Beaverbrook Plains and the third 10 acres in the Remote or Westpine Meadows. In 1644 he still held this land, and in addition a lot of 10½ acres of upland. In 1637 Cutting was the master of another Ipswich ship, the New Supply, which sailed from New England to London, a passenger being James Brocke who entered a complaint against him in England. Mary Cutting was quite able to manage her husband's affairs while he was at sea. From an unnamed place (probably Newbury) she wrote an undated (1639?) letter to the governor, addressing him as Right Worshipfull John Winthrop: "I have made bold to desire you to establish your promise in helping mee in an unexpected case which is this." She goes on to say that when living in England her husband bound a man to them for a term of eight years, brought him over this year and left him here to accompany her other seamen. While Capt. Cutting was in the Bay Capt. Thorneback, the servant's near kinsman, arrived from Virginia and talked with him about releasing the man, which Capt. Cutting would do if compensated. The servant, without her knowledge, had gone off with his goods in her shallop to the Bay (apparently after Capt. Cutting's departure) and she asks the governor to cause Capt. Thorneback either to pay for his time, £20 being little enough for three and a half years, or help in returning him. She adds that she had acquainted the Deputy Governor with the facts more at large. Probably having moved to Newbury by 1639 the Cuttings were surely there in 1641, when John and his son were about to sail to England. "John Cutten of Newberry in New England marriner and John Cutten the younger of the same marriner masters of the good ship Desire of Boston in New England doe bynd themselves to pay Lawrence Hazzard of London shipwright £30: 14: 6, to Robert Crispe of London marriner ??9: 2: 0 for his 7 months service in the said ship, to Willm Wilbert of London marriner £17: 10: 0 upon the 10th day of May next or at the arrival of the said ship in England." In 1642 Mr. John Cutting was a freeholder of Newbury and he was one of eight commissioners appointed to arrange the moving of the village from the Parker river to the Merrimac river. Before 1645, with other considerable grants, he was granted a farm of 200 acres, bounded by Falls river on the south, the common north, Mr. Greenleaf west, and Mr. Coleman east. John Cutting, master of the Advent of Boston in 1647, was most probably the John Cutting in London in April when he witnessed John Hodge's power of attorney dealing with the disposal of John Harrison's house and land in Salisbury, New England. In 1648 Cutting bought a house and land in Charlestown and was a resident there in 1651, styled gentleman, and Mary Cutting was admitted to full communion in the Charlestown church in 1652. In 1655 Tristram Coffin testified that from five to seven years ago he heard Mrs. Cutting, as attorney for her husband who had gone to sea, bargain with Josiah Cobham and Richard Currier for two lots of meadow in Salisbury. In the same court Samuel Winsley, Sen., deposed that in this business he had gone to Charlestown to see Mr. Cutting and his wife. In a long document prepared and signed by Mr. Anthony Somerby on June 21, 1651, the Newbury holdings of John Cutting were recorded. His farm granted to him by the town of Newbury, containing 200 acres of upland and meadow, he had sold to John Hull for ??100. Apparently he also had 100 acres adjoining the farm which had originally been granted to Mr. Greenleaf who sold it to Mr. Percival Lowle who in turn sold to Cutting. By purchase and grant he held upland and meadow in lots running from 6 to 50 acres and a house lot with 6 acres which he had turned over to the town in exchange for a house lot of the same size on East Street, adjoining Thomas Hale's "by the nine lots." By 1656 or earlier the family had returned to Newbury as on April 1 of that year John Cutting of Newberry, mariner, master of John's Adventure, aged 63, deposed that Robert Hubbard and Emanuel Springfield and his wife had come as passengers on his ship to New England. The last record of Capt. Cutting while alive is dated March 29, 1659, when he was haled before the court at Ipswich, accused of "taking tobacco in the bell yard!" He was fined but the fine was remitted until the court should take further action. John Cutting of Newbury made his will October 22, 1659, and it was proved March 27, 1660. To his wife Mary, executrix, he left all his lands, goods and chattels during her widowhood. If she should marry again "my said wife shall pay yearly afterwards during her natural life out of my lands fifteene pounds a year," that is to say to his daughter Mary wife of Nicholas Noyes £5 a year, to his daughter Sara Browne of Charlestown wife of James Browne £5 a year, to his grandchild Mary wife of Samuel Moody £5 a year, and also out of his stock 3Os. apiece to every one of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. After the death of his wife, to his daughter Mary Noyes that house and land now in the possession of Thomas Bloomfield, 50 or 55 acres, and after her [Mary Noyes's] death to her son Cutting Noyes. To his daughter Sara Browne "the house I now dwell in" with the 12 acres of upland it stands upon and ¾ of the 20 acres of salt marsh purchased of Mr. Steven Dummer. To grandchild Mary Moody, the house and land in possession of John Davis, 6 acres of meadow in the Birchen meadows and ¼ of the salt marsh, also all that parcel of arable land purchased of Steven Dummer, between the lands of Henry Short and John Knight, about 20 or 25 acres. The first year that Samuel and Mary Moody shall possess this land they shall pay to his daughter Sara Brown £40. If Mary Moody shall die without issue, what is given to her shall be divided between Mary Noyes and Sara Browne and their issue. Witnesses: Anthony Somerby, John Browne, Nicholas Wallington. The inventory was taken December 16, 1659, by William Gerrish and Edward Woodman. The total valuation was £737, a large estate for the time. The home place was worth £100 as was the house and land rented by John Davis, while the farm rented by Thomas Bloomfield was entered at £300. A great Bible, a small Bible and other books, £1: 5: 0; a silver spoon and cup and his clothing, £16. . . . Children: i. JOHN. John Cutten and John Cutten the younger, both of Newbury, were joint masters of the Desire of Boston in 1641, as stated in the account of the older man, and there can be little doubt that they were father and son. Only one other known record places the younger in New England. In the Essex County court of December, 1642, John Cutting, Jr., testified that process in the case of John Cutting v. Henry Sewell had been duly served. It seems highly probable that he married and died soon thereafter, and that the Mary Cutting who married (1) Samuel Moody in Newbury on Nov. 30, 1657, was his only child. Mary Moody was called granddaughter in the wills of Capt. John Cutting and of his widow Mary Miller, and one gains the impression that they had brought her up. Samuel Moody died April 4, 1675, and Mary married (2) Jan. 24, 1679, Daniel Lunt of Newbury. In 1698 Daniel Lunt conveyed his house and land to Cutting Noyes in trust for his wife Mary, and died Jan. 26, 1702/3. Noyes, as Mary's trustee, conveyed the property to her sons, Joseph and Benjamin Lunt, in 1716. Possibly she was the Mary Lunt who died in Newbury on Dec. 28, 1721. ? ii. JUDITH. Mr. Wyman in his scholarly study of the early families of Charlestown, Massachusetts, says that James Browne of that town married successively Judith and Sarah, daughters of Capt. John Cutting. That Browne married Sarah Cutting is certain but that his first wife, Judith, was the captain's daughter I strongly doubt. Of the several James Brownes in seventeenth-century Massachusetts Judge Savage says "the difficulty of discriminating between the many of this name, even by aid of wives and children, is insurmountable" and I willingly leave the attempt to do so to a Brown specialist. It is my belief that James Browne, glazier, of Charlestown, married Judith, her surname not known, and had a son John born on Jan. 4, 1637, a son James born on Feb. 20, 1642, and buried Aug. 28, 1643, and possibly other children; that Judith died and James Browne married Sarah Cutting before March 14, 1652, when Sarah Browne was admitted to the Charlestown church. According to James Browne's will, 1676, John Browne was his eldest son and had had his portion, and it is highly probable that he was that John Browne who married Mary Woodman on Feb. 20, 1660, in Newbury, where his father lived until 1664, and who named his first child, born Dec. 5, 1660, Judith, for his mother. That any seventeenth-century magistrate would have married a man to his deceased wife's sister is very doubtful indeed. In the 1720's there is a case in point. Thomas Harris married at Oyster River, New Hampshire, on July 25, 1717, Sarah Duley. They moved to Scarborough about two years later and there Sarah died. By 1721 Sarah's sister Mary Duley was living with Harris in Scarborough, possibly caring for Sarah's child although none is recorded. Mary was in court for having illegitimate children in 1721 and 1723, and in the files of York County court for the session of July, 1724, there is a letter dated Dec. 1723 saying that Thomas Harris and his deceased wife's sister Mary Duley had been living together in one house and that "several children (were) born to her during her cohabitation with him"; that she had gone away but had now returned to him. It seems obvious that the law prevented their marriage. Capt. Cutting's will of 1659 provides further evidence that Judith Browne was not his daughter. Not only does he fail to mention any deceased daughter or her children but, in providing for the final disposal of his substantial legacy to his granddaughter Mary (Cutting) Moody, he directs that, in case she should die without surviving issue, it should be divided between his daughters Mary Noyes and Sarah Browne and their issue, which would have cut off any children of a daughter Judith, had she existed. iii. MARY; m. about 1641 Nicholas Noyes. . . . iv. SARAH; m. (1) James Browne of Charlestown, later of Newbury and Salem, who d. in 1676; m. (2) in Newbury on Nov. 29, 1677, William Healey of Watertown and Cambridge ; m. (3) Dec. 3, 1685, Hugh March of Newbury. With her first husband, James Browne, glazier, Sarah lived in Charlestown until after the birth of their son Abraham in 1660. They were in Newbury in 1662 when their daughter Mary was born and remained there until the birth of their last child, Martha, in 1667. Browne had bought a house and lot in Salem in 1664 from Christopher Waller and they occupied it in 1668. James Browne of Salem made his will Jan. 29, 1674, and it was proved Nov. 29, 1676. To his wife Sarah he gave his dwelling house and outhousing and the ground adjoining in Salem for life. His eldest son John had had his portion given him formerly, but he is to recover that estate left by Henry Bright of Watertown "which is my proper right and due" in consideration of moneys lent to him or paid for him many years ago. Of what he recovered John is to have one-half and is to pay the other half to his [the testator's] wife Sarah. "Where as there are certain writings drawn between my said wife & my son James Browne, bearing date 10 march 1672: wherein on my wife's part all the housing and land lying in Newbury, given and bequeathed to my said wife by her father John Cutting deceased in his last will and testament, are made over to my said son James Browne and to his heirs forever, he on his part paying per annum to his mother so long as she lives so much as is expressed in said writing, and at her decease to pay thirty-five pounds for the use of my other children as is hereafter expressed which is my will with the mutual agreement of my wife." To son Samuel, my dwelling house, outhousing and the ground belonging thereto, after his mother's decease, he paying ??15 for the use of his [the testator's] daughters, Samuel to live with his mother until the age of twenty-one. To son Abraham, about 32 poles of land belonging to the dwelling house after his mother's decease, Abraham to be under his mother's care from the time he shall have served his apprenticeship until he comes to the age of twenty-one. To his wife Sarah, the rest of the ground beyond that given to Abraham, Abraham to pay at her decease four- fifths of the value thereof to the use of his four youngest sisters, Anna, Mary, Abigail and Martha. The £35 that James is to pay and the £15 that Samuel is to pay are to be divided among his five daughters Sarah Beasly, Anna, Mary, Abigail and Martha Browne. Residuary legatee and executrix: his wife Sarah. Overseers: Brother Nicholas Noyce and Hilliard Veren sen. Witnesses: Hilliard Veren Senr., Samuel Pickworth. Administration granted to James Browne, jr., son of Mr. James Browne, only male heir of his grandfather Mr. James Browne late of Salem, deceased, Sarah Browne the executrix having died and Samuel Browne having died intestate, Dec. 1, 1707. With her second husband, William Healey, Sarah lived in Cambridge. She was doubtless the Cambridge school-dame, goodwife Heley, who in the educational census of March 30, 1680, was listed as having "at present but nine scholars." In 1682 Abraham Browne sold Salem land with the consent of his mother Sarah Healey. William Healey died Nov. 28, 1683.
  Person ID	I15579	Frost, Gilchrist and Related Families
  Last Modified	17 Apr 2024

  
  

  Family	Mary WARDE,   b. Abt 1593, England d. 6 Mar 1633, Newbury, Essex County, MA (Age ~ 40 years)
  Marriage	Abt 1615	England
  Children	1. Mary CUTTING
  Family ID	F6990	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	17 Apr 2024